It wasn’t. She fought to keep her face steady.

‘Hello, Dominic. Punctual, as always.’

‘Ciao, Marissa. For you, would I be anything less?’ He stood outlined by the darkening sky and the landscape lighting, his hair just as black, his eyes just as mossy green. Her gut clenched from the scent of him. She fought against the tide of past memories sucking at her emotions, just as she did every time he came to visit. She would not give in, even if he was as beautiful as she’d remembered. Maybe more. And hopefully as willing to help her.

‘It’s Maris now, you know that.’ How many times must she correct him?

‘You will always be Marissa to me.’ His slight smile opened another chink in her armor. She missed him and hated herself for it. ‘May I come in?’

She leaned back and the iBot retreated a few paces accordingly. He knew better. But that didn’t stop him from asking. ‘You know the rules haven’t changed. Meet me on the patio.’

He clutched his dead heart, always the dramatic. ‘Tesora, you wound me.’

‘You’ll live.’ She shut the door and spun toward the rear of the house. The distance allowed her to breathe again. Velimai hung near the patio sliders, a disapproving look on her face.

Maris nodded. ‘I know how you feel. So noted.’ Dominic would never harm her. Not any more than he already had.

Velimai’s storm-colored eyes narrowed, and she signed that Maris wasn’t the only one living in the house.

‘He’s never so much as raised a finger in your direction. Now shoo.’

When Maris opened the sliders and rolled through, he was there, stretched out on one of the chaises and looking like a Roman god. She angled her iBot toward him.

He tucked his arms behind his head, careless with the suit that must have cost a mortal’s fortune. ‘You’ve cut your hair.’ He shrugged. ‘Still bella. Like the day you broke my heart.’

‘Your heart was broken long before me.’ She smiled indulgently, as she might with a child. ‘Dominic, I haven’t called you here for the usual reason.’ Although undoubtedly, it would lead to that. ‘I need a favor, and I know you owe me nothing, so … ’ This was far more difficult than she’d thought it would be, especially with him so close and so unchanged.

‘Well, that explains why you called me so soon after our last visit.’ One black, winged brow lifted. ‘Although I didn’t think your pretty mouth could form the words for help.’

‘I’m serious.’ What had she thought? That he’d age in the short time since she’d last seen him? That time would temper his addictive beauty into something easier to deny? That her body would forget everything that had happened between them?

‘So am I.’ He sat up. ‘You must need the help desperately.’

She powered the iBot down to a seated position, folded her hands in her lap and took a deep breath. Her lungs filled with his seductive aroma. She exhaled. ‘It’s not for me, it’s for my niece. Who is also … who is still comarré. And, I fear, in terrible danger.’ She shook her head, thinking of the note of warning she’d received from Rennata. Trouble comes your way. This was not what she’d wanted for Chrysabelle. Not at all.

‘What do you need from me?’ He leaned forward. ‘Protection?’

‘No.’ She rested her hand on his, knowing how persuasive her touch could be to a vampire. Especially this one. ‘I have to find her.’

‘Do you think I need to be reminded of your allure?’ He pulled his hand away. ‘Why not send your wysper?’

‘And leave myself defenseless?’

Dominic laughed. ‘We both know you’re not defenseless. Does your sacre still hang above your bed?’

‘Yes.’ His remembering where she kept her weapon should not be reason enough for her cheeks to heat, but it was. The memory of when they’d shared a home nearly broke her. She bent her head to remove an imaginary piece of lint from her linen pants.

‘Please, Dominic,’ she whispered, bracing herself for the lie she hoped would sway him. ‘She is like a daughter to me. The child we … could never have.’

He went rigid at those words, then stood and strode to the edge of the pavers. A shard of light from the young moon filtered through the palms, tipping his hair silver. Beyond him, the patio curved around the infinity edge pool and down to the deep water slip holding her favorite way to escape, the Heliotrope. He stared at the yacht. Was he remembering the last time they’d been aboard her? The last time they’d made love? ‘Twenty years since you walked away from me, but I remember as though it were yesterday.’ When he turned, his eyes matched the moon glow. ‘Come back to me, cara mia. Not the way things are now, but the way they were.’

Of course he remembered. She focused on his tie. Looking there was easier than looking into his handsome face. Did she look older to him? She must. ‘Dominic, please. We’ve been down that road. I can’t. That life,’ she sighed, ‘it holds too many bad memories for me.’

He came and kneeled at her feet. ‘I can erase those memories, Marissa. Give you new ones. What we had—’

‘What we had was wonderful, but brought too much pain. Dominic, I’ve changed. You’ve changed.’ Although not physically. She cupped his cheek as the old feelings swirled through her. For her, he had willingly become anathema, accepting the banishment the nobility inflicted on those who fell out of favor for one reason or another. For Maris, Dominic had made it so much easier to walk away from everything she’d ever known all those years ago. He’d been her safety net. She had loved Dominic, once.