She looks like she creamed herself.
I didn’t say that out loud. Frankly, I didn’t blame her. As long as she kept her hands to herself.
When I opened the menu, I couldn’t help but sneak a few glances around the place. It didn’t take me long to find him. Lars sat in the far left corner in a booth slightly larger than ours. A few other men sat with him. Also vampires, I was assuming. They all wore their brown suits, their tattoos, and their piercings. One of them gazed across the restaurant with red-lit eyes.
Shivering, I ducked behind my menu and wondered—not for the first time—what the hell I’d gotten myself into.
“Why does he have red eyes?” I hissed at Az through the menu.
He pushed the paper down, and it took all my self-control not to grimace. We’d come here to be seen, but the idea of those vampires watching me made my skin itch.
“He’s hungry,” Az said in a frank tone of voice that I didn’t feel properly conveyed the severity of that statement.
“Hungry,” I repeated.
He turned back to his menu. “Sometimes, this restaurant caters to those with varying tastebuds. Have you decided what you’d like to order?”
I swallowed down the urge to jump to my feet and get out of this restaurant as quickly as possible. They served human blood here. No way I wanted to put anything they cooked into my mouth.
“Pancakes,” I said tensely. “With ice cream.”
Az cracked a grin. “I’m afraid they don’t do pancakes here. Mia…”
“Yes?”
“Relax.” He pushed up from the table and joined me on my side of the booth. As he slung an arm around my shoulders, my heartbeat kicked up into the next gear. A moment later, his hand disappeared into the inside of his jacket, and then he fished out a small black box.
It looked like a damnwedding ring box.
“Whoa,” I hissed. “Wait a minute. We didn’t agree to take things this far.”
With a chuckle, he snapped open the lid. The signet ring twinkled at me from within folds of black silk. His seal practically glowed with firelight.
“I want you to have this,” he said as he took the ring from the box and pressed it into my hand. “It will help keep you safe tonight.”
My heart thumped. “I thought there was nothing to worry about.”
“There isn’t,” he said. “But just in case something goes wrong, I’d rather you hold onto that ring than me.”
I squeezed my fingers around the treasure. “Okay. I’ll admit. Having this does make me feel better.”
“Good.” His hand gripped the back of my neck, and suddenly, his lips were on mine. Chills burned across my skin as desire coiled in my gut. I fisted my free hand around his suit jacket, breathing in the scent of his flames. Hunger tore through me, matched by the intensity of his kiss.
When he pulled back, he gave me a wink. “If that doesn’t convince him, I don’t know what will.”
27
“Asmodeus.” The stocky vampire mob boss strode up to our table and held out a hand toward my fake demon boyfriend. As they shook hands, I turned my eyes onto my plate. I’d ordered the halibut, and the meal had been pretty tasty until now.
After our little kiss, I’d been lulled into a false sense of security. We’d had drinks. Our food had arrived. Everything was going well. We were going to get through our dinner without a confrontation. But the vampires had decided to take notice.
“It’s been awhile since I’ve seen you around here,” Lars said. “Thought you might have forgotten about those of us who don’t live and breathe all things Hell’s Kitchen.”
“My friend here has said the same thing,” Az said easily, lounging against the booth’s maroon seat. “She says we don’t get out of Hell’s Kitchen often enough.”
Lars flicked his greedy eyes my way and gave me a knowing smile. “More thanfriend, don’t you think?”
“You caught me.” Az flashed Lars a smile full of teeth. “Mia is my paramour. She moved in with me a couple of weeks ago.”
