“Yes.” She didn’t question her impulse. Instead, she leaned forward, threw her arms around his neck and hugged him. “Thank you so much for everything.”
He held rigidly immobile, his lean, strong body like stone.
What she’d done sank in. She started to pull back. “I’m sorry. I just—”
The stone man in her arms thawed, and his arms came around her, holding her in place against his chest. He said in her ear, “What is this?”
“I don’t know,” she muttered. “I just know nobody has ever stood up for me the way you’re doing right now.”
His arms tightened, and he cupped the back of her head. “That is their loss, because you deserve it.”
She shook her head, whispering, “I don’t know that I believe that, but I’m grateful anyway. You’re doing all of this, while we haven’t even had that talk about whether or not I’ll still be your attendant.”
He drew back to look at her. This close to him, she could see the absolute clarity in the subtle color of his gray-green eyes. “We need to be clear about one thing, Tess. I do not want you back as one of my attendants.”
After feeling a series of emotional doors open, disappointment struck cruelly hard. Even though she tried not to, she felt herself flinch and attempted to mask it by nodding. “I understand,” she said tightly. “I withheld too much dangerous infor—”
Taking hold of her chin in long, cool fingers, he tilted her head and kissed her.
A clean bolt of shock struck her. It felt like mainlining tequila. His lips were firm and astonishingly sensual. As she froze and her mind stuttered, he slanted his mouth to cover hers more completely. He nudged her lips open and delved inside in brief, intimate exploration.
When he pulled back, she forgot to close her mouth. She stared at him.
“I would never kiss one of my attendants,” he told her. “You know that.”
“You never . . . You wouldn’t . . .” She said, “I, um.”
Cupping her face with one hand, he wiped her moistened lips with his thumb. “I have just one question for you right now.”
“Sure,” she murmured faintly. Her mind was still frozen on the moment when his lips had touched hers. “Shoot.”
He kissed her forehead and her cheek. “You’re not still afraid of me, are you?”
“What?” she said. “Pfft, no.”
His gaze gleamed with the most astonishing array of emotion, relief and pleasure foremost among them. With another jolt of surprise, she realized, he really cared what she thought of him.
“Good,” he whispered. “Thank you.”
Her gaze dropped to the refined, sensual lines of his lips. She had been in far too much shock to have really felt his mouth on hers. Hungry to understand what it all meant, to experience it again, she kissed him.
She felt his reaction in the quick shift of his body, and the intake of his breath. But he didn’t need to breathe, she realized. That was all superfluous, all for her. Their mouths fit together as well as if they were made for each other.
If that don’t beat all, she thought with a hazy astonishment. I’m having the sexiest kiss of my life.
With a Vampyre.
But not just any Vampyre.
I’m having the sexiest kiss of my life with the finest man I know.
* * *
Tess’s lips were warm under Xavier’s, so warm, and as soft as silk spun by moonlight. He followed the proud angle of her cheekbone with his fingertips as he gently caressed her tongue with his, and a snatch of ancient text came to him.
Behold, thou art fair, my love. Behold, thou art fair.
He had to breathe. He had to. It was an instinct older than death. He took in a deep, physically unnecessary breath just to smell the fragrance of her hair, and thought, I am in deep trouble.
A ripple of Power drew his attention. It came from the other room, where Julian had disappeared. A moment later, he heard Julian and Soren talking. Their voices grew closer, and he had just enough time to ease Tess back into her seat before the door opened and the other two men walked in.
As he always did, Xavier had to brace himself for the onslaught of Soren’s presence. Born at the beginning of the world, Soren was one of the ancient ones, a first-generation Djinn, and his Power was so intense, he burned against the mind’s eye. The physical form Soren chose to wear was a tall, strongly built male, with a craggy face, white hair and white eyes that shone like stars.
Beside Xavier, Tess straightened her spine. Her gaze was filled with fascination and wariness.
Soren ignored Tess and nodded to Xavier. His voice was deep and commanding. “Del Torro, I’ve heard what Julian has to say and I’ll be blunt—the Djinn will not go to war against Malphas over this issue. If he murdered the senator’s son, there’s no evidence of it, and if humans have gambled enough to accrue debts they cannot pay, they’ve broken a bargain and aren’t entitled to any protections or rights under Djinn law.” He shrugged. “If someone else can bring him to justice in a court of human law for something he’s done, so be it.”