She had thought about how this meeting would go many times during the course of the past fifty hours, considering all the scenarios, but she had never once imagined it would actually happen and she would see him again.
She had definitely never imagined he would kidnap her from her apartment.
Where the hell was she?
Her gaze darted between him and the room, trying to take it all in without giving him a chance to attack her unawares.
If he tried anything funny, she was aiming lower and with her foot. He was anatomically similar to a human male and that meant she could deal him a blow he would definitely feel, all without causing herself a single ounce of pain.
The room around her was dark and grim, the walls and floor made of stone that verged on black, and the ceiling made up of a rich sort of timber. The arched windows at intervals along the wall to her right and the tall arched door a few metres behind her on the same wall let in a large amount of light though. The world outside was bright. Far brighter than it should have been. He had taken her in the dead of night. Were they on the other side of the world now?
The man picked himself up off the floor and she scooted back a step, brandishing her fists in front of her. He cocked an eyebrow at her and rubbed his mouth with the back of his hand, his purple eyes darkening. She knew that look. She had pissed him off. Not what she had aimed to do, but it was satisfying nonetheless.
“You have a hell of a lot of nerve, Mister. You take liberties with my vital fluids and then you kidnap me?” She stood her ground when he rose to his full height, reminding her just how tall he was, the honed muscles of his bare torso stretching with his action.
Olivia refused to let her eyes drift down and take in that delicious body. He had hurt her. He was some kind of demon and he had bitten her, and she’d had enough damn men in her life like that. She wasn’t looking for a repeat performance with the tall, dark and deadly slice of sexy standing before her. No way.
She really wasn’t.
“Do you intend to hurt me?” She was sure that he wasn’t likely to be honest and tell her if he was, but she had to ask.
He shook his head. “No. To hurt you would be to hurt myself.”
That sounded rather noble and romantic. She glanced around the room again. It was huge, and the furniture was solid wood, possibly ebony, and very ornate. Was she in a castle? This was how she had imagined castles looked. Why did he live in a castle?
“Female, tell me everything about how we met.” That commanding tone again. He was a man used to getting his way, issuing orders and having people obey, and he seemed to live in a castle on the other side of the world to her offices in London.
Her mind supplied that perhaps he was a knight or a prince. He had a regal bearing and was handsome enough to be someone of noble blood. He acted like a stuck up bastard too.
He took a step towards her and Olivia moved back one, keeping the distance between them steady. She wasn’t sure whether he had other powers besides the ability to teleport, but she wasn’t going to risk letting him close the gap. He had already bitten her once. There was nothing to say he wasn’t going to try that trick again and drain her dry this time. She bristled at the memory of him attacking her and clenched her fists.
He halted and quirked an eyebrow at her. Maybe he had good senses like many demons and had detected her anger.
“Listen. I’ll answer your questions but if you come near me, I won’t be held responsible for the damage done to your private parts.”
He backed off a step. It seemed that even demons had preservation instincts when it came to their balls.
“Better.” She moved a step too, enlarging the gap, giving herself more space and ending up closer to the doors. The rich blue sheer curtains billowed on a warm breeze that smelled like blossom. Southern hemisphere? It was early autumn in the northern. “The patrol team found you close to the facility.”
“How close?” He frowned, his eyes darkening.
“That was the weird thing. You were practically dropped on our doorstep... like a gift.”
He cursed in his foreign tongue, his expression turning pensive, which was not good for Olivia because he was even more handsome when the black slashes of his eyebrows drew together, his sensual lips pursed, and his purple eyes flashed with keen intelligence.
“I knew it,” he muttered, his bass voice still at odds with his lean athletic figure. He paced, his boots making no sound on the floor.
How could he move silently like that? The dark floor was solid stone and his boots looked heavy, the soles made of layers of leather and possibly wood. He should be shaking the foundations with each determined stride, but he wasn’t.
She had a thousand questions she wanted to ask him, most of them about whether she was getting out of this alive, but couldn’t find the courage to voice them when he looked so dark and troubled.