She tried to see if she could recognize the rowdy people from the limo—that one had to be a famous actor, because he was wearing a trilby hat like a moron—when she saw something else: someone emerged from the shadows and slipped inside the main doors to the building. A figure in a silver raincoat, with dark hair.
No.
It couldn’t be.
It couldn’t be Schuyler Van Alen. Could it? Of course it was.
Mimi felt her heart clench. It was too much of coincidence. Jack was in the club that was located in the basement of the same building Schuyler had just entered.
It couldn’t be. Her mind raced; had she missed something? But he had been so indifferent, so cold to Schuyler. He couldn’t still be infatuated, could he?
He doth protest too much.
Mimi was never a big fan of Shakespeare, not even during his lifetime, but she remembered the important lines. This was definitely the winter of her discontent.
She knew, without having it confirmed, that no matter what kind of front Jack put up to the world, what kind of lies he told her, there was a secret place in his heart that she could not read or fathom. A secret place that was devoted to someone else. A secret place inhabited by Schuyler Van Alen.
Strangely enough, Mimi did not feel betrayed, or stricken, or devastated. She merely felt a heavy sadness. She had tried so hard to help him. She had tried to keep him loyal to her.
How could he act with no fear of reprisal? He knew the laws as well as she. He knew what was at stake. He knew what he could lose.
Oh, Jack. Don’t let me have to hurt you. Don’t let us be estranged in this way. Don’t make me have to hunt you down.
THIRTEEN
“I thought you’d forgotten.”
Schuyler smiled as she removed her raincoat and hung it on the hook. She had just entered the apartment with her key. A key she kept on a silk ribbon around her neck. She never took it off, for fear that it would be stolen. She’d entered the building in the normal fashion. Had a polite word with the guard. Headed up in the elevator, exchanging pleasantries with the neighbors. Cooed at their baby bundled inside a fleece-lined thousand-dollar stroller. Pretended she was just like them. No more vampire tricks for one evening.
“Have you been waiting long?” she asked.
“I just got here.”
He was standing against a column, his arms crossed in front of him. He was still wearing the same white shirt from that morning, a little crumpled at the end of the day, and he had loosened his tie, letting it fall to the side. But he was still golden and gorgeous. His sea green eyes danced with amusement and desire. Jack Force. The boy she had been waiting to see all evening. The boy she had been waiting for all her life.
She wanted to run to him—to skip, giggling into his arms—but she savored the way he was looking at her. She could drown in the intensity of his gaze. And she had learned a little about seduction in the last few weeks they had been together.
Had learned that it was sweeter when she made him wait.
So she took her time, removed her shoes, brushed her bare feet on the carpet, and let him watch her.
Outside of this place, they could be nothing to each other. He would not even allow himself to look at her. He could not afford it. So she wanted him to enjoy himself, to look at her as much as he liked.
“Get over here,” he growled.
And then, at last, she ran—leaped into his arms, and together they crashed against the wall in a tight embrace. He lifted her with graceful ease, covering her body with kisses.
She tightened her legs around his torso and bent over, brushing his cheek with the tendrils of her hair.
Jack.
She felt liquid in his arms. Pressed against him, his heart beating wildly in time with hers. When they kissed, she closed her eyes and saw a million colors bursting in the air, glorious and alive. He smelled earthy and lush, warm and brutish. It had been a surprise: she’d assumed he would smell like ice—like nothing—and she liked that he smelled coarse and real. He was not a dream.
She knew that what they were doing was wrong. Lawrence had warned her that vampire bonds should not be broken. Jack was sworn to another. She had promised herself to stop, but she had also promised Jack she would always be there for him. They were so happy together. They belonged to each other. Yet they never spoke about the past or the future. Only this existed, this little bubble they’d made, this little secret. And who knew how long they had?
When she was in his arms, she felt sorry for Mimi.