"No," I said, the single word echoing from my vehemence.
His embrace was my drug of choice, and as any addict knew, one sampling was too many - and a thousand never enough.
Then I pushed him away. Something dangerous smoldered in his gaze but he did nothing to stop me. Several torches flared to life, allowing me to find my way to the exit without tripping or groping about. Once I reached it, I turned back to him.
"I meant what I said. We still need to talk."
"Be in my private lounge at ten tonight. Otherwise, I'll consider the matter closed."
His private lounge, the same place I used to cross every morning because it bridged his bedroom with my old room. I'd sooner face a firing squad than go there, but if I refused, Maximus could stay locked in this dungeon for centuries.
The smile Vlad flashed me before he disappeared into the darkness said he already knew what I'd choose.
Chapter 21
I entered the lounge at exactly ten p.m. Vlad was on the sofa, two wineglasses and a bottle on the obsidian table in front of him. The TV was off and the light from the fireplace cast a soft glow over the rust-colored couch.
Memories assailed me as mercilessly as I'd feared. Vlad and I had spent many evenings unwinding with a bottle of wine on that couch. We'd done other things there, too. Unbidden, warmth crept through me that had nothing to do with the blazing fire.
I tried to squelch it with bluntness. "You didn't misunderstand why I wanted to see you, did you?"
He laughed, and that half growl, half-amused purr played havoc with my senses even as my hackles rose.
"You think I'm trying to seduce you? How presumptuous, considering I've never allowed an ex-lover back into my bed."
I glanced at the wineglasses, the romantic lighting, and finally back at him. If Vlad wasn't trying to seduce me, then he was taunting me with what I couldn't have. I'd dressed in a simple navy sheath that rose no higher than my knees. His black pants molded to his lower body, while his white shirt contrasted like snow against his tailored ebony jacket. That shirt was open, revealing all of his throat and the first few inches of his chest. Platinum cuff links winked when they caught the firelight, and his long, dark hair was combed back, all the better to highlight his lean, sensual features and arresting copper eyes.
The only thing missing was him slowly pouring hot fudge onto that bare expanse of chest. Then any court in the world would consider this sexual entrapment.
His smile widened. Crap, I'd forgotten to sing to keep him out of my thoughts.
"Fine. We're both here for platonic reasons and we'll leave it at that," I said, hating how husky my voice had become.
"Fine."
All of a sudden he was inches away, bringing me eye level to his open collar and the skin I'd just imagined drizzling with chocolate. I swallowed. Think of the dungeon and his broken promise, not how intoxicating he tastes even when he's not covered in dessert!
The dungeon image helped. "You need to let Maximus go," I stated, my voice stronger now.
"No. Wine?"
I blinked, anger covering my desire. "You promised you wouldn't torture him, but being imprisoned in a dungeon for centuries counts as torture."
Vlad held out a glass and then drank from it himself when I refused with a sharp shake of my head.
"No it doesn't," he said, still in that damnably unruffled tone. "Since I've firsthand experience with both, I assure you that torture and imprisonment are very different."
"You're splitting hairs. You knew exactly what I meant when I asked for your promise."
A shrug. "I've honored my word as it was given. If you wanted more, you should have specified."
"I was drugged!"
"And I was coerced," he replied, his gaze narrowing. "Many would consider that reason enough to invalidate a promise. I don't, and Maximus knew that betraying me would cost him. Because of you, it hasn't cost him as much as it should."
"This is just what you did with Marty," I seethed. "Giving me a promise that's useless after you're done playing word games with it, then you get offended when I call you a liar!"
Vlad set his glass down so hard I was amazed the stem didn't snap. Then he went to the door. When he opened it, I thought he was going to order me out. Instead, he left.
"Where are you going?" I called.
"To kill Maximus" was the reply that drifted back. "If I'm a liar, I may as well get full value out of it."
"Wait!"
He'd already made it to the end of the hall by the time I ran out to him, but at my frantic call, he turned around.
"You can't have it both ways, Leila. Either I'm a liar or I'm not, and if I'm not, then you have no cause to cry foul over what I've done to Maximus."
Frustration made me go right for the jugular. "He's the only reason I survived after that gas line bomb. Doesn't that mean anything to you?"
He came toward me with the unhurried gait of a true predator, making the hallway feel like it shrank around me. The closer he got, the more I instinctively moved away. It wasn't until I saw the mahogany paneled walls that I realized he'd maneuvered me back into the parlor.
"Yes, it does. That's why I forgave him for telling me he was checking on his people when in reality, he was stalking you. I won't, however, forgive his repeated lies after the explosion. Those weren't to save you. They were to keep you from me because he wanted you for himself."
"He really thought you might've been behind it," I muttered.
Vlad rolled his eyes. "You believed that, but Maximus knew I wouldn't murder an innocent woman out of spite."
"He thought your injured pride might've made you more homicidal than usual."
"No, he wanted to f**k you."
His even tone vanished, replaced with one that sounded like razors over shattered glass.
"If he believed any of what he told you, it was only to assuage his guilt for betraying me." His eyes changed from copper to emerald in a blink. "He's wanted you since the first. When I discovered you were alive, I wondered if he'd succeeded and the two of you rigged that explosion in order to disappear together."
"You thought I killed a bunch of people to fake my own death so I could run off with Maximus?" If my voice got any higher, all of the nearby glass would shatter.
"You believed I ordered your death out of injured pride because you left me." His gaze raked me. "Don't pretend to be the injured party when you also leapt to the wrong conclusion."
At that, my temper snapped. "Of the two of us, who's more likely to have killed those people?"