Page 66 of Cloak of the Vampire
His eyes flickered to me. “Finish your coffee first.”
It’d become an instinct to do the exact opposite of what he commanded, if only out of sheer spite. I put the mug down on the table, turned to face him fully, and folded my hands. “No.”
He looked up to the ceiling, as if he was silently asking God for patience. It was snark inducing.
“Need the help of a higher being to deal with me?”
His eyes returned to my face. “You give yourself a lot of credit,” he informed me dryly.
I cocked my head. “Am I wrong, then?”
He let out a breath and put his mug down as well before turning to me, face suddenly serious. “You ran away.”
Oh. Right. That happened.
With everything that followed my escape—say, being kidnapped and threatened—I’d forgotten what I even set out to do. I’d been so tired and, yes, still somewhat tipsy that when I saw Ragnor had come to save me, instead of feeling defeated, I felt absolutely relieved.
“I tried,” I told him honestly, holding his gaze. “It was the perfect opportunity.”
His lips stretched into a sardonic smile. “Not perfect enough.”
“So is this why I’m here?” I asked, readying myself. “For you to make sure I won’t run away again?”
“Partially,” Ragnor said, leaning closer. “It’s also because I need to know what happened with those three ...men.”
The hesitation in his voice wasn’t lost on me. He wanted to say something else. “What were they?” I asked, ignoring his half request, half demand.
“Tell me what happened,” he ordered, ignoring my question.
I leaned forward, my face a few inches away from his. “See, Ragnor,” I said, ignoring the flare of annoyance in his eyes at my using his name instead of his title, “this is exactly why you piss me off. If you wanted good little soldiers, you should’ve become a dog trainer rather than a vampire Lord.”
He grabbed my jaw, and I was suddenly on my back, with him looming over me, my body trapped between his thighs, both my hands held in one of his. “Did they hurt you?” he asked, his eyes less dark than before. “Did they take your blood?”
I glowered at him. “Let me go, then I’ll talk.”
He tightened his hold on my jaw. “I asked you a question.”
Angry that he thought he could intimidate me into yielding to his demands, I felt like messing with him. “Actually, you asked me two.”
He bared his teeth, fangs unsheathed, eyes suddenly neon blue. “Answer me.”
This Ragnor I was familiar with. This Ragnor, while frightening, was far less dangerous than the teasing, coffee-making one. “I dare you,Ragnor,” I said, smirking in pure satisfaction when his face contorted with fury. “Bite me. Suck my blood. Dry hump me against this couch. Then run away like the coward you are and pretend it never happened.”
His eyes were blazing. “Last chance, Henderson,” he growled, his hold on my jaw bruising me, which sent tingles down my spine. “What did those men do to you?”
I grinned widely now, my loins clenching. Seeing him so pissed off as he held me like this, his entire focus on me, these beautiful eyes trying to strip my soul bare ... I was so turned on that I could feel the wetness pooling in my panties.
More,my body begged.I need more.
“You might be stronger than Atalon and Renaldi,” I murmured, squeezing my thighs together when his gaze sharpened. “But you’re much more of a coward than they are. At least they were upfront about what they wanted from me. What they wanted todoto me.”
He stilled, and his eyes were suddenly back to midnight blue, his fangs retracted. The abrupt transformation from a nightmarish, predatory mode to a civil, conversational one was shocking enough to make my heart jolt.
He let go of my jaw and released my hands but didn’t get off me entirely. Then in a voice no longer a growl, just matter-of-factly, as though he was talking about the weather, he asked, “Do you want Atalon or Renaldi?”
I searched his face, but he put on a mask. His eyes were a chilly kind of clue, carefully unreadable.What was happening?One moment, I managed to make him so brilliantly angry, and now ... What the hell was going through his head now?
“Are you seriously asking me that?” I responded with a question, staring at him in disbelief.
