It was ridiculous how much I’d let my imagination get carried away. Matthias was just another vampire. I should have listened to my first gut instinct and ignored him from the start. What had I really expected? Dumb, dumb, dumb.
Resisting the urge to turn back and tell him exactly what I thought of him—which would have totally interrupted my dramatic exit—I flung open the door of the office and started down the hall.
I missed the sound at first, too consumed with my own internal ranting, and a second too late, heard Matthias’s footfalls behind me. His hand clenched my wrist and spun me back around to face him. Heat and fury seethed from his every pore. “You want to know why I’m here? Why I came back?”
“Yes!” I shouted.
He leaned in, dropping his voice to a harsh growl. “I was blackmailed. It was either come back and be the good son, or watch the woman I loved get killed.”
A sharp knife plunged into my chest, stealing my breath. “Wh-what?”
“Two years ago, I left Court life. I left the haven. I went to California for what was supposed to be a three-month business trip. At first, my mother was fine with it, happy even. But when I kept pushing my return out farther and farther, she started to get irritated. Eventually she sent two of my cousins out to see what was going on. They showed up at my hotel room and I wasn’t alone.” Matthias bit out the words, each one of them clipped and hard. “I’d met a woman during my time there. She worked at the hotel bar. But, she wasn’t a vampire and I had no intention of turning her into one.”
“Did she know about you?”
Matthias’s jaw tensed and for a moment he didn’t answer, he just stared, his now nearly black eyes boring into mine. “No. I cared about her. There was a part of me that wanted to tell her, but every time I tried to think of how to bring it up, I’d get lost and give up.”
“What happened to her?” I whispered, almost sure I didn’t want to know the rest of the story. From the hate and pain in Matthias’s eyes, it was clear the story didn’t have a good ending.
“My cousins went straight to my mother and told her what was going on. She went to your father. They paid me a visit a few days later and told me that if I wanted to turn Sylvia, I could keep her. That’s how they said it, like Sylvia was a stray cat.” He ground his teeth. “When I refused, your father told me that it was time to come back to Court and made it clear that he wasn’t above permanent measures to get the human out of my life. My mother said it was her job to keep her children from playing with fire and that sometimes the best way to do that was to snuff it out herself.”
He didn’t need to spell it out. Old Houses like ours weren’t concerned with fitting into society—human or otherwise. My father and Matthias’s mother were two peas in a terrifying little pod. They didn’t care if their children loved them—only that they obeyed them.
“I’m sorry,” I said, my voice soft.
Matthias looked away, his jaw tight. “I hate this place. I hate everything about it. The rituals, the blood, the hierarchy and the Court. Sometimes I—” He stopped and swallowed hard. His eyes shifted, the hardness fading. “The last thing I would ever want to do is enter myself into some blood tournament and parade around as free entertainment for the Court’s benefit, but I didn’t have much of a choice about that either, and at that point, I didn’t much care anymore. I figured win or lose, what difference did it make?”
“And now?” I asked, barely taking a breath.
“Then, I met you, and you were … different. You’re nothing like your father.”
A bitter smile twisted my lips. “A compliment if I ever heard one.”
He moved in closer, his own expression still firm, but no longer blazing with barely checked anger. “I never thought I would meet another vampire who was like me. Who thought like I did. Then you showed up and I’ve been questioning everything ever since.”
“I didn’t think I would either,” I replied softly.
“It’s hard for me to be around you,” he said, the words pained.
“Why?”
“Because I’m falling in love with you and I know that there’s a chance you’re going to get taken away from me before we ever get to see what might be.”
My heart lurched, unable to quite believe the words that were still echoing in my mind.
Matthias’s hand settled on my hip and I took a half step forward, until we were inches apart. “This isn’t what I planned on, but standing here with you, I don’t think there’s another one I want to take.”
There were dozens of questions and worries and possibilities, but they all went silent when Matthias lowered his mouth to mine, capturing my lips in a delicate kiss that drove out everything else.
Nothing remained but the sound of our heartbeats racing down the unknown road ahead.
Chapter 18
I woke up alone the following morning. As much as I’d wanted to stay with Matthias, it would have been risky for both of us. He’d taken me back to his condo and we’d parted with another lingering kiss at the car I’d swiped from my father. It had been less than twelve hours since we’d said goodbye and I could already feel myself getting antsy, wondering when I’d see him next. I quickly sobered, remembering that we’d agreed not to see each other again until the next fight which was still days away.
Technically, it hadn’t been my idea, but I’d gone along with it.
Somehow, the night had shone all the brighter against the darkness of Matthias’s story. I hadn’t asked more questions about the human woman he’d been seeing, and while a part of me wondered if he still carried a torch for her, he’d made it clear that I was the only one he wanted.
Flurries rushed through my stomach as I remembered the last words he’d said before I got into the car. “You’re beautiful.”
I’d shivered, a ripple extending from my center and for a moment, been left breathless. From a young age, I’d been called beautiful or pretty, but the way he said it, it was like hearing it for the first time. He had no ulterior motive fueling the words. He wanted me just the way I was, not for the money or power that came along with me.
I padded into the bathroom, flicked on the lights, and found that in addition to my polka-dot pajamas, I was also wearing a dreamy grin like I’d fallen straight off some cloud and still had a lounge-singing cherub floating above my head.
“Get a grip,” I told myself, though unable to fully hold back the smile.
I shook my head and started getting ready. On my way to bed the night before, I’d been stopped in the hallway and informed that my father had arranged my initial consultation with one of New York’s top wedding coordinators to begin discussing my preferences. Luckily for my father, I was on cloud nine and his unexpected rain storm only knocked me down a cloud or two. And, if I was honest, when inserting Matthias in the role of the groom, it wasn’t an altogether unpleasant picture.
No sooner than I’d stepped into the shower, my phone rang. My heart surged and I jumped out and raced across the bathroom to answer it. I muttered a curse and sagged back against the counter when I saw that it wasn’t Matthias calling, but instead, my mother.
“Good morning, Athena,” I answered.
“Lacey! Where are you?” she trilled, her voice high and squeaky.
“Um, in my bathroom? Why?”
“Oh! I forgot how much you love to sleep in. It’s four o’clock dear. We’re all waiting for you in the guest cottage!”
“You’re here? At the mansion?”
“Yes, dear. Prissy, that’s Pricilla Marigold, is here with Auntie Gemma and me. All we’re missing is the bride-to-be!”
I raised a brow. “Father knows you’re here?”
“Of course he does. Why do you think we’re in the guest cottage instead of the dining room?” She huffed. “I swear, he can be so petty sometimes.”
Pot. Kettle. So on and so forth.