The Vampire's Mail Order Bride
A pit opened up in his stomach. “What? Who the hell are you?”
She twisted her hands together. “I’d rather not say in front of—”
“Your name. Now.” He could feel the darkness within him rising up, a heated wire coiling around his spine.
“Hugh,” Stanhill started forward.
Hugh put his hand up to hold off his rook. “I’m waiting.”
“Delaney. James.”
Stanhill took another step. “Hugh, you need to—”
“Get Piper out of here.” His gaze stayed fixed on the impostor who’d been taking advantage of his hospitality. “Delaney and I have a lot to discuss.”
Stanhill’s earlier admonition not to say anything to Annabelle about being a vampire came ringing back. He glared at his rook. “You knew about this.”
Stanhill had Piper by the arm, but the woman wasn’t putting up a fuss. She seemed to be content to go now that she’d dropped her bomb. He gave Hugh a nod, which was answer enough. “Don’t do anything rash. I’ll be right back.”
Hugh returned his attention to Delaney. If that was even her real name. “You want to explain why the real Annabelle isn’t here?”
She looked deflated but a little defiant, too. “She’s at home, just like Piper said. I called her and pretended to work for Eternamate and canceled her match, also just like Piper said.”
“Why? What’s your game? Are you after my money?” Or worse, maybe she’d been sent by another vampire to steal his formulations. There were many who’d go to great lengths for the ability to walk in the sun. Except he wasn’t there yet. Of course, with the amulet’s power, it must seem to other vampires that he had indeed cracked the code.
The blasted thing was nothing but trouble.
She shook her head. “I didn’t know a thing about you except where you lived until I got here. You could have been a pauper for all I knew. And that’s the truth.”
“Then why?”
“To save her neck,” Stanhill answered as he walked back in.
“So you did know,” Hugh snarled. “Bloody hell. To think I can’t trust you after all these years.”
“You can trust me just fine. I only found out this afternoon. I told her not to tell you until I was sure you were in a good mood.”
“Well, that worked out beautifully.” He took a moment. “What do you mean to save her neck?”
Stanhill looked at Delaney. “Tell him exactly what you told me.”
She inhaled before she began. “My boss shot a man and I saw the whole thing.” She explained how she’d been in the kitchen of the restaurant she’d worked at and how the whole affair had gone down. Fear tugged at her mouth as she spoke. “He knew I was there.”
She sat on one of the couches and wrapped her arms around her torso. “Stealing Annabelle’s file wasn’t a plan so much as a way out that presented itself. I was only thinking about staying alive. I apologize for lying to you. That was wrong and I’m sorry.”
She put her head in her hands and sighed deeply.
Her story had taken most of the fight and the anger out of him. It certainly explained why she’d come with so few things and why she didn’t seem in a rush to get married.
Stanhill went to her side to comfort her, and Hugh felt the slightest pang of jealousy. Which was just another type of chemistry.
Bloody hell.
“Stanhill, if you could give us a moment.”
The man looked up, surprise in his eyes, perhaps at the softness of Hugh’s tone. “Of course.” He patted Delaney’s shoulder. “It’ll be all right, miss.”
After he’d left and closed the doors behind him, Hugh approached. He sat on the coffee table in front of her. “In the time you’ve been here, have you been pretending about anything else besides being Annabelle?”
She looked up at him. “I’m not sure what you’re getting at.”
“Have you…been yourself? Or have you been the woman you thought I expected?”
She made a face. “Sorry, just me. I suck at lying. Usually.” She sat back, her chest rising and falling with a slow inhale. “This whole mess is…I’m sorry. I wanted to tell you sooner but Stanhill told me to wait.”
He nodded. “The thing is…if that really was you I was getting to know…” He couldn’t believe what he was about to say. “I like that person.”
Some of the angst left her eyes. “Thanks. I like you too. And since we’re being honest, you’re all right for a rich guy who doesn’t seem to have an actual job.”
“I have a job.” It just wasn’t one he could talk about.
She crossed her arms. “You mean filling in for Julian on occasion?” She shook her head. “You don’t exactly strike me as the sexy vampire type. Sexy, yes. Vampire, no.”
She thought he was sexy. He almost smiled but the thought of her reaction when and if she found out he really was a vampire stopped him. “Delaney suits you a lot better than Annabelle.”
“That works out for me then, doesn’t it?”
He wasn’t quite sure where her attitude was coming from. After all, she was the one who’d been lying. “Is there something else going on that I don’t know about?”
She stared at him for a long, hard second. “I’m just waiting for you to say whatever you have to say so I can get going. Finding a cheap motel that takes animals isn’t going to be easy.”