The Vampire’s Fake Fiancée
No, he was being ridiculous. The woman was marrying him, for crying out loud. He owed her an apology. And he’d give it to her, along with a hearty kiss and a lengthy reminder about how beautiful she was and how grateful he felt for all she’d done for him.
To act otherwise would only bolster the general consensus that he was a grumpy, ill-tempered recluse.
The office door closed behind him. Tessa.
He turned, a smile at the ready. “I owe you an apology, my darling—”
Evangeline glared at him. “You’re not supposed to be here.”
“Neither are you.” His smile thinned to nothing as he looked past her. “Where’s Greaves?”
She strode forward. “Having some car trouble.”
“Why aren’t you at the church?”
Her glare morphed into a toothy grin. “I forgot something.” She sashayed toward him, hips swaying in the little black dress she was wearing beneath what he hoped was a fake fur. Solid black was an interesting choice for a wedding.
Every alarm bell in his head rang. “What did you forget?”
Her fingers coasted down his lapel. “You look very handsome, Sebby. You always did wear clothes better than the average man. I’ll give you that.”
It would be the first thing she’d given him. But her attention wasn’t something he was the slightest bit interested in. He stepped out of her reach and went to lean on the fireplace mantel. There was something comforting in being flanked by weapons while being confronted by this particular woman. “You didn’t answer the question.”
She came toward him again, her finger tapping her bottom lip. “What question was that?”
Oh, she could try a man’s patience. “What did you forget?”
She stopped directly in front of him, her heels putting her just shy of eye-level. “So many things. Like how obtuse you are when it comes to the obvious.”
He frowned at her. “What?”
She laughed. “Actually, I hadn’t forgotten that at all. I’ve been counting on it.”
“What in the hell are you talking about?”
She planted her hands on the mantel behind him and leaned in. She smelled of sandalwood and musk. “I’m talking about the real reason I’m here. The reason I got you to let me into your house, the reason I got you to let me stay here.”
“I know why you’re here. You want me back. Why that is, I have no idea. Life too hard alone, Evangeline?”
She snorted. “You are impossibly smart and yet, somehow one of the most clueless men I know.”
In a flash of light and the hiss of metal, she grabbed one of the daggers from the wall behind him and pressed its point to his heart, the speed of her movements blurred by her vampire quickness. “I don’t want you back, you boring fool. I want the secret to why you can daywalk. I’ve been trying to find it since I got here.”
That explained so much. He’d found some books disturbed in the library, but had assumed Tessa had done that. As if a librarian wouldn’t reshelve books when she was done with them. He really was a fool. Add to that the scratches on his office door lock and the copies of the newspaper stories that Tessa had found and Evangeline’s scheme was clear.
She wasn’t trying to get him back. She’d seen those pictures of him in the paper, pictures taken during the day, and realized he and probably his entire family were unharmed by the sun. Now she was trying to figure out how so she could do it too. “I’m not telling you a bloody thing.”
“I already know it’s some kind of magic. Your little librarian told me that much. So where is it? Give it to me and I’ll leave you alone.”
“I highly doubt that.”
She pressed the dagger harder until the point pierced his shirt. “I will end you, Sebastian.”
“You think threatening my life is going to make a difference? I’ve had no life to speak of thanks to the years I’ve wasted on you. And this is my reward? Threats from you? I’ve had enough.”
“Oh please. The years you’ve wasted on me? As if you could have, what, spent them wining and dining women? Enjoying the world and all it has to offer? You’re a sad creature, Sebastian. You’re a vampire and yet you act like a church mouse, tucked away here in your cathedral, existing on crumbs.”
The fact that she’d called him a mouse when he’d done the same thing to Tessa wasn’t lost on him. He laughed, a loud, boisterous sound that bellowed through the room.
She jabbed the dagger in deeper. Pain radiated through him as blood trickled down his chest. “What’s so funny?”
He stared at her, the woman he’d once adored and had determined that he would care for the rest of his life. If she slipped that dagger any farther, the latter might come true as his life would end right here. Although he’d stopped caring for her about five minutes into their meeting at the Black Rose three days ago.
Now she might actually kill him.
The time for secrets was gone. “You know your father offered to let me out of our marriage contract. On his deathbed, he told me there would be no hard feelings and that if I married you, you would make life miserable. He tried to warn me off, confessing that the creature you’d become was his fault. That he’d spoiled you into an uncontrollable brat. But I was too lovesick to accept that was true.”
“I don’t believe you.” Her eyes blazed silver.
“Would you like me to show you the original documents in which he left me a generous sum to take care of you? They’re rather fragile after all these years, but I’m sure you’ll recognize your father’s signature.”