Sera wasn’t going to overcome the challenge of winning Antoine’s heart just by meeting the man.
First, she had to break through a barrier that was beginning to look impenetrable.
He was an aristocrat, and an old one at that. Although he looked barely a day over thirty-five, he was in fact over a thousand years old. His brother, Snow, was almost twice his age.
Sera was an elite.
To an aristocrat, she was some sort of filth they scraped off their shoes and nothing made that clearer than the theatres. The aristocrats sat in their boxes, looking down on the elite gathered in the stalls, separated and distant from those they saw as commoners and mongrels.
That disdain for her kind was the reason why Antoine looked so glacial whenever he had to greet the more important members of the elite, and why he had failed to hear her when she had tried to speak with him. He wanted nothing to do with the elite vampires outside the small circle that were part of the theatre. He would certainly want nothing to do with her. Not only was she an elite, but she was a turned human. She was the bottom rung of the social ladder and he was the top. The elite that he deemed worthy of a moment of his time, that he greeted with gritted teeth in order to maintain good relations with her kind, were all born as vampires into families that had turned humans within their ranks. None of them were turned humans themselves.
Even Elizabeth was born of a vampire father and turned mother.
If Sera wanted to shatter Antoine’s armour, she would have to convince him to see beyond the fact that she was a turned human.
Elizabeth had taught her a few things, weapons that she hadn’t held in her arsenal before, but she wasn’t sure if she was brave enough to risk using them on Antoine.
Could she do what Elizabeth had said it would take to shatter his defences?
Could she really seduce such a powerful man?
Sera curled her fingers into tight fists and stared at him. He paused in the middle of saying something to the aristocrat vampires in the box with him, slowly turned towards her and then lowered his eyes. They locked on her. He had felt her watching him. Her heart beat harder, thumping against her chest as her blood heated, but she held his gaze across the theatre stalls, refusing to back down.
The next time she saw him, she would be alone with him.
And she would seduce him.
CHAPTER 2
Sera paced in front of the black stage in the empty theatre. She had arrived a full thirty minutes early for her appointment. An appointment she hadn’t realised she’d had. Callum hadn’t specified a time for her interview. He had just said to come by whenever as the theatre was closed. So she had.
The woman who had shown her into the theatre had been very kind. One of the staff based on her short black dress that revealed far too much leg and bosom. Sera reminded herself that she couldn’t really judge the woman by the clothes she wore. After all, it was her uniform and Sera herself was trying out for a position as some sort of on-stage whore. What on Earth must the woman have thought of her? Perhaps Sera should have asked to interview for a position as one of the staff. Cleaning seemed infinitely more appealing, and possible for her, than being a performer in the shows. Antoine still would have met with her so they could sign her employment contracts. Was it too late to change her mind?
She continued her pacing, her eyes roaming over the deep red velvet curtain that closed off most of the stage, leaving only a strip of painted black boards around three metres deep exposed, and twirled her long blonde hair around her fingers. It was so quiet in the theatre that even her breathing sounded loud in her ears. How much longer did she have to wait?
And why were they interviewing her in the theatre itself?
Elizabeth had said they would take her to one of the meeting rooms or the offices to interview her. That was what she had gone through to get her position at the theatre decades ago. Sera shook her hands at her sides and blew out a sigh, trying to expel her nerves. Maybe the offices weren’t vacant tonight or they wanted to give her a tour before the interview began. That seemed plausible.
One of the sets of double doors at the back opened and a bright beam of light cut down the length of the dimly lit theatre to her. She shielded her sensitive eyes with her hand and squinted so she could make out if someone was there.
Her heart stopped.
The doors closed.
Antoine strode down the aisle, long legs carrying him easily at a brisk pace, as handsome as ever in his silver-grey tailored shirt that emphasised his build and clung just right to his muscles, hinting at how delicious his body would look if he were naked and stirring her imagination into a frenzy. His black tie, crisp black trousers and polished leather shoes perfected his image of a businessman but made him look decadent and alluring at the same time.