Desdemona smirked as she watched Titus leave the shoe shop. The women were gushing over her and offering her numerous pairs of shoes to try on as she sat down on a comfortable little chair. In the end, the pair that Titus had flung at her ended up being her favorite. Not because he had chosen them, of course, but because they were actually really cute. Since she was now some kind of princess or something, she decided to buy six different pairs of shoes.

“What are you doing?” she asked Titus as she walked up beside him on the sidewalk.

“Already keeping tabs on me like a jealous wife, are you?”

“What do I have to be jealous of? I’m the one with the magical womb.”

“I was always under the impression that women preferred their men to be faithful,” he said.

Desdemona’s mouth dropped at that. Was he suggesting that he would cheat on her? They hadn’t even kissed yet, and he was already wanting to conquer some other woman?

“Seriously?” she asked, looking up at him under her eyelashes.

“I was speaking with my nephew, Ajax. He wants to reopen the Superdome and have immortal football games. I think it’s a ridiculous idea, but there’s nothing I can do to stop him.”

“Don’t you think it would be fun to have something to do other than to sit around your penthouse and brood?”

“What makes you think I sit around my penthouse brooding?”

“You just seem like the broody type, that’s all.”

“Let us cease this pointless discussion and find you a dress to wear for dinner. We are, in fact, trying to get to know each other so we can be a happily married couple for the rest of our immortal lives.”

“You seriously don’t think this is going to last forever, do you?” she asked with a laugh.

They didn’t even like each other from what she could tell. Even her memories of their past were riddled with feelings of anger, jealousy, and disillusionment. If he was five thousand years old, that meant she could live to five thousand years too.

She really doubted that she would spend the next five thousand years with this guy. She wasn’t required to spend the rest of her life with him, as far as she knew. The temple only expected her to accept a match and then have his baby. His claiming bite would fend off any other immortals. That meant she could never have another immortal mate. It didn’t mean she had to spend the rest of her immortal life with Titus.

“It will last as long as it needs to. And that’s all either of us needs to be concerned about right now. Regardless of the future, my dear, in the here and now, you and I must be matched. You must be claimed, and we must bare a child to ensure the Silverdrake line. My brother Orion already has a daughter and a son.”

“He’s not even an Alpha,” she said as she followed Titus down the street to the next boutique.

“The agreement about alphas and kings mating first was decided in the last several months. It was a way to ensure the clans and covens were doing their best to ensure the family lineage, strength, and power. However, I doubt heaven and Earth could have kept Orion from Lucia.”

“Unlike you, right?”

He turned to her and looked straight into her eyes, making a shiver run down her spine. No matter how much she disliked him now, there was something about him that made her damp and weak in the knees. She bit her lip and looked away, but he caught her chin with his index finger and forced her to look back up at him.

“Neither of us is doing this because it’s what we want. We do it because it’s what we must do. You would be wise to learn that now while you’re young. It will help you to stay out of trouble. And to have realistic expectations about your life.”

“Are you saying you don’t want to marry me?” she said with mock shock.

“I thought it was clear.”

“What about two thousand years ago? Did you not want to marry me then either?”

“What happened between us in the past has nothing to do with what is happening now. Now, I believe you can find an appropriate garment in this shop. I am sure that the saleswomen can attend to you.”

“You aren’t going to help me pick out a dress?” she whined, trying to annoy him.

She didn’t know why she enjoyed it so much, but irritating Titus Silverdrake had become her new favorite thing. From the little she remembered about their old life, and their previous association, she knew that this man had always gotten under her skin. The same was true now. Even if she didn’t quite know why.

“If you insist, I will sit with you while you try on clothing. Would that make you happy?” he said with a big patronizing smile on his face.

“That would make me so happy, darling,” she said, wrapping her arm around his as they walked into the boutique.

The women inside were just as thrilled to see them as the ones in the shoe shop. They went about finding Desdemona the perfect dress for an evening out with Lord Titus. She ended up picking a gold sequined mini dress that accentuated her soft curves and showed an alarming amount of cleavage. She picked it specifically because of the look on Titus’s face when she showed it to him. His pupils had dilated and his lips parted in a micro expression that was not lost on her, no matter how quickly he tried to cover it.

Titus then took her to a salon where she had her hair and makeup done. It was then that Titus finally slipped away and told her he would have a car take her back to the penthouse. She tried to stop him, because torturing him with so much fun. She really was at a loss as to what else to do since she’d been sold to this man. But he quickly made his excuses and slipped away before she could stop him.

The stylist did her long black hair in soft ringlet curls that hung around her shoulders enticingly. She did Desdemona’s eyes with neutral browns with black mascara, but gave her wine-kissed lips to complete the look.

Desdemona emerged onto the sidewalk to find Titus’s car waiting for her, the driver standing beside the passenger door. He opened it as soon as he saw her, and Desdemona climbed inside. The car was luxurious and comfortable. She was going to have to get used to luxury now that she was trapped here in this strange city with this man who wanted to sink his teeth into her neck and claim her as his own.

The driver took her back to Titus’s penthouse and she quickly changed into her gold sequined dress and her gold heels. When she was done dressing, she rode the elevator back downstairs and climbed back into the town car. The driver took her across town and parked in front of a fancy downtown restaurant before getting out of the car and opening the door for her. He offered her his hand so that she could step out onto the sidewalk. She wore a soft fur cloak around her shoulders in a pale off-white that looked beautiful contrasted against her dark skin and the gold sequence dress she wore.

She entered the restaurant and was immediately greeted by the maître d’ who fussed over her and led her directly to Titus’s private table. The restaurant was lit by candlelight. Each table had a pressed linen tablecloth, set with crystal wineglasses and porcelain china. Everyone was dressed as nicely as she was and when she finally approached the table, Titus stood. He was wearing a fresh suit, as black as the last but tailored more fashionably. She could see the masculine outline of his body under the formfitting fabric. He wore a red tie that accentuated the blush of his lips.

He reached out to touch her as he stood and the feeling of his hand on her arm made her tingle all over. The maître d’ pulled out her chair and helped her sit. Titus sat across from her, his silver-blue eyes sparkling in the candlelight between them. She could see desire spark in his eyes and in the blush of his cheeks. Desdemona was not a mind reader like the Arch-Priestess Lucia, but she believed she had a strong sense for people. She could sense that Titus desired her. If she was being honest with herself, she desired him too.

“You look lovely, my dear,” he said assessing her with his calculating eyes.

“You look lovely too,” she said, trying to mock him.

Her energy for brattiness and mockery was ebbing. The longer she spent with him, the more attracted she became. He had suggested he would claim her tonight. Something she still did not intend to allow him to do. She bit her lip at the thought of it. Maybe someday, allowing him to have his way with her wouldn’t be the most terrible thing that had ever happened. She grabbed her menu and started to study it.

“What’s good here?” she asked.

“I prefer the surf and turf myself,” he said, reaching out to grab his crystal wineglass with his manicured hand.

All her life, Desdemona had been a small-town girl. She’d never been out on a date with a man like Titus. In fact, she’d never met a man like Titus. They didn’t tend to frequent small mountain towns in Northern California.

She’d spent most of her life around people wearing flannel shirts who drove pickup trucks and grew hay for a living. She didn’t even know how to speak to a man like Titus. If she wasn’t teasing or mocking him, she had no idea what to say. Being a pest was easy. Relating to him as a real person, as a man; that was a different thing entirely.

“That’s what I’ll have then,” she said, closing her menu.

She’d never been to a restaurant like this and had never read a menu with offerings like this one. Last time she’d eaten out, she’d had chicken fried steak and a baked potato in foil.

It blew her mind that such luxurious food was available to some, when there were so many humans starving and struggling to survive. She looked up at him, remembering who she was and what she believed in.

“How do you manage to have such fine things when there are so many who go without?”

“You did learn about the histories of the immortals while you were at the temple, didn’t you?”

“Yes. But I am not one hundred percent convinced any of that’s true. And it doesn’t answer my question either. My question was how do you have this luxury when so many humans are starving?”

“I’ve done everything I can for the humans in my region. That is where my responsibility ends. As you can see, my city has been transformed. It is a shining example of what can be done for the human populations.”

“Regardless of what you’ve done for the city. It’s nothing. It’s a drop in the bucket. Surely, a five-thousand-year-old immortal knows that. What, does your ivory tower protect you from the reality of the pathetic humans living around you?”

“Are you ready to order?” the waiter said, walking up to their table.

“We’ll both have the surf and turf,” Titus said, ordering for them both.

“Anything to drink for the lady?”

“We’ll both have a bottle of your best champagne. We are celebrating our engagement today,” Titus said, giving her a pointed look.

“Champagne,” she said, clapping her hands together like a little girl. “Oh goody. We have so much to celebrate.”

The waiter took their menus and walked away, looking confused.

“I’m an ancient and powerful immortal, Desdemona. Don’t you think the Alpha of the Silverdrake clan and the man who restored an entire human region deserves some luxuries?”

“You deserve more than others because you’re so old?”

“I’ve been alive a long time, working for what I have. The world over the last five thousand years has been a dangerous place.”

“That must have sucked,” she said as the waiter returned with a bottle of champagne. He popped the cork and poured the bubbling golden liquid into two flutes. Desdemona had only ever had a few sips of alcohol in her entire life. She lifted her champagne flute and emptied it in one go. By the time she set it back on the table, she was already regretting her decision.

“That’s putting it mildly,” he said flatly. Then he narrowed his eyes at her. “You cannot hold your liquor, can you?”

“I’m fine. I drink all the time.”

“You never drink. I can smell it on you. I can smell a lot about you, Desdemona,” he said with a growl.

Desdemona bristled at his words, knowing exactly what he was talking about. He knew she was a virgin and he was going to use that fact against her. How? She didn’t know. But from what little she knew about Titus, she wouldn’t put it past him.