“Nice lady,” she said.
Piers chuckled. “No, she’s not. She’s neither nice or a lady.” He turned to Christian. “I think you may be right. It’s time for her to go.”
“She’s a dangerous woman to leave around,” Christian said.
“Oh, I don’t plan on leaving her anywhere,” Piers replied with a grim smile.
“Well, don’t do anything before she gets my information.”
Were they calmly discussing killing Ella? Maybe she hadn’t understood the conversation. Then she remembered the evil lurking behind the woman’s face, and shivered.
Christian’s arm curled around her shoulder. “Let’s get out of here.”
She nodded. She wanted to go home. She wanted her pajamas and a cup of hot cocoa and Smokey purring on her lap. She wanted to pretend everything was normal, but the normal world she wanted seemed farther from her than she could ever have believed possible.
Piers said, “Keep me informed. I want to know what happens.”
Christian nodded and led her from the room. She tried to keep her eyes focused ahead, but something made her glance to the side. Ella stared at the two of them. She smiled as she caught Tara’s gaze, but her eyes were filled with such malice that Tara’s steps faltered, and she stumbled against Christian.
Her eyes were on Ella, and Christian followed her gaze.
“Ignore her,” he murmured. “She can’t do anything to you.”
Tara wanted to believe him, but she felt the other woman’s eyes bore into her as the elevator door closed behind them.
Chapter Nine
Christian opened the passenger door for her. “I’ll take you back to your apartment.”
“That’s okay. You can drop me off at the train station.”
He shook his head. “I want you to pick up some things. You’ll be staying at my place tonight, and tomorrow we go to Yorkshire.”
Neither proposition sounded appealing right now. “I’ve had my fill of vampires for the night, thank you, and I’m not ready for the whole basement thing.”
“You can sleep in the penthouse.”
“You have a penthouse?” She tried not to sound impressed.
“Yeah,” he answered dryly. “It’s at the top of the building.”
However desirable she found Christian, she just wanted to go home. She wanted her pajamas, her cat, and that mug of cocoa. She craved the safety of the familiar. “I want to stay at home.”
“It’s not an option. I told Piers you wouldn’t be a problem, which means I have to make sure you’re not.”
Her mouth tightened. “I’m not going to tell anybody. Your secret is safe and all that crap.”
“Don’t make this difficult.”
“Or else what? Are you going to order me? Hey, didn’t you forget something? It doesn’t work. You can’t actually tell me what to do. Well you can, but luckily for me, I don’t have to do it.”
“You think mind compulsion is the only way to control you?” He took a step toward her. Refusing to back down took an awful lot of effort, and Tara could feel her legs trembling with the struggle to hold them in place.
“I’m sure that there’re all sorts of vampire scary stuff you could do, but you did promise you wouldn’t hurt me.”
He sighed. “I won’t hurt you, and I won’t let anyone else hurt you, but you are coming back with me tonight.”
In the dim light of the underground car park, he appeared huge and solid, his expression implacable. If he wanted to, she was sure he could pick her up and put her in the car.
“Okay,” she said, “but I will want cocoa.”
“Graham makes excellent cocoa.”
Neither of them spoke as he drove out of the underground garage and onto the street. The roads were quiet. It was almost midnight, and she needed to ask Chloe to feed Smokey and give him a cuddle each evening. Hopefully, she’d still be up.
Christian seemed to know the way to her apartment, and half an hour later, they pulled up in front of the building.
“Do you want to wait out here?” she asked and tried not to sound too hopeful.
“No.”
Tara rolled her eyes. “You know I’m not going to escape out the back window and run away.” Ignoring the comment, he got out of the car, walked around, and opened her door. She sighed and climbed out. “Just get one thing straight. I do not belong to you, okay?”
“I agree, you do not belong to me,” he replied. She started to walk away and almost didn’t hear the softly spoken, “yet.”
A ripple of some unknown emotion ran through her. Anticipation or trepidation, she really wasn’t sure, so she decided to ignore it. She was getting good at that.
She let them both in through the front door. A light was on in Chloe’s flat, and Tara decided to go there first. Christian stopped her with a hand on her arm.
“Where are we going?” he asked. “Your flat’s on the second floor.”