“Fine. I’ll meet you tomorrow at dusk. I can make arrangements for the stores we need to stay open late. Bring your credit card.”
He inclined his head.
For a moment Abbey hesitated, not wanting to leave, but there was no further reason to stay.
“Congratulations, Mr. Redgrave, on joining Fated Match.” She stood.
“Thank you,” he said, coming around the desk with a smooth glide. “I look forward to witnessing your vast talents.”
When he reached for her hand, Abbey gave it without thought, puzzling over his choice of words.
He didn’t shake her hand as she’d expected, however. Instead he leaned down and brushed his lips across her knuckles. His gaze never left hers, making the touch far more intimate than it should have been.
“Until tomorrow night,” he breathed against her skin.
All she could do was nod wordlessly. Nod and beat as hasty an escape as she could manage.
Chapter Three
“Three cheers for Abbey!”
Abbey accepted the congratulations with a smile. Everyone in the office had been floored when she’d returned with the news that Lucian, not Melissa, was joining Fated Match. She could have sworn she saw Vivian drooling at the prospect of having an elder as a member. Already their boss was in her office, calculating the projected increase in sales and what they would need to do to accommodate the influx. Life was looking good for the matchmaking agency.
She raised a glass of wine to her lips, thinking of the next month. Lucian’s account had been approved and online for two hours. Already her e-mail was flooded with more date requests than she could handle on her own.
“Abbey?” Vivian called, appearing in the reception room. “Can I borrow you for a minute?”
The other girls gave her understanding grins, and her friend Chloe, a witch matchmaker, reached out to take her wine.
With a wave to her colleagues, she followed Vivian down the short hall to her office. Vivian had claimed the largest space in the agency for her personal domain. Ostensibly that was to meet with top clients and help cultivate a good first impression. But Abbey knew the siren had a taste for luxury.
Vivian bypassed the casual sitting area with its comfortable armchairs and perfectly placed flower arrangements and headed for her desk instead. Abbey dropped into a hard-backed chair and waited for her boss to get to the point.
Vivian riffled through some folders in the filing cabinet behind her desk as she said, “Sorry to take you from the party but we have a lot of work to do.”
“I understand.”
“We only have a month to find Lucian’s match and that’s barely enough time. We need to weed through all the prospective women and select top candidates. Given the volume of people interested in him, I think we should take your advice and raise his rating cutoff. Say, 90 percent or above only. We need this to work.”
Abbey nodded. If the vampire had been searching for his mate as long as he claimed, they needed to utilize every advantage they had to find this woman.
“You mentioned that he needed grooming appointments. I’ve booked our usual salon and made arrangements at Armani and Gucci. Does that sound acceptable?”
“Perfect. He strikes me as a high-end label kind of guy.”
“Clarissa will meet him at the salon and help with the consultation. She can strategize a suggested wardrobe as well.”
Here we go, she thought. “Uh, Lucian actually requested…well, me.”
Vivian paused, glancing back at her. “That’s not your job. You don’t have the training.”
“You and I know that, but he doesn’t care. He only wants to deal with me.”
Vivian dropped into her leather desk chair. “That is unacceptable.”
“You can tell him that.”
Her mouth pursed in an expression Abbey knew far too well. It was a bad sign. Her boss was pissed, and not only because she’d trolled Lucian’s profile and discovered his ban against sirens.
“You cannot screw this up for us.”
Abbey narrowed her eyes. “You know how much effort I put into my work. I want Lucian on our network as much as you do.”
“Putting a human in charge of one of the oldest vampires in the country is ridiculous.”
“You can brief me every time I go to meet him. You can set everything up as you like. I’ll just play the babysitter role.”
Fingernails tapped on the desktop. An even worse sign.
“Why did he request you?”
Abbey thought of the heated look in his eyes and shrugged. No way she was telling Vivian about her moments of weakness.
“Does he want you?”
She remained mute, although there was no hiding the heat she felt fill her cheeks.
A cold smile curved Vivian’s lips. “You will do anything he requests in the next few weeks. Do I make myself clear?”