Until now.
Careful not to alert her to his presence, Michael eased open the front door and stepped out into the warm night air. He caught her scent on the breeze, sweeter than any of the flowers that graced his vast garden. Solar lights illuminated a path through the hedges and flower beds to the large fountain in the center of the three-thousand-square-foot space. Each inch of it was carefully manicured and planted with night-blooming species. Moonflowers and jasmine, night queen and Casablanca lilies. Michael would never see the roses in the light of day or the vibrant orange of the birds-of-paradise against a blue sky, but he didn’t care. He saw as well at night as anyone else did in full light. And the flowers were just as fragrant under a cloak of darkness as they were under the punishing rays of the sun. Perhaps more so. But none of the beauty his garden possessed could hold a candle to the woman sitting at the edge of the fountain, caressing the water with her fingertips.
“I can feel you.” Claire didn’t turn to face him, simply kept her attention focused on the pool of water that rippled under her touch. He walked slowly toward her as though afraid that she’d take flight at the slightest movement. “It’s like you’re under my skin. Embedded in a part of my brain that I never knew existed. You’re my sixth sense, Mikhail.” She gave a rueful laugh. “Whatever that means. I know I don’t have any right to be so mad. It’s not like I’ve been an open book. I don’t talk about my life because I’m embarrassed. I’m a hustler. A liar. My mom was a drug addict and a thief and I don’t even know who my father is. I barely graduated high school and I have nothing to show for my life. What about you, Mikhail? What do you have to be ashamed of that you won’t share anything about your life with me? You’re frustrated by the distance between us, but it’s you that’s causing it. Why make me stay if you’re not interested in anything but my blood? We could fix that issue with a plastic bag and some IV tubing. What am I to you? You know, besides meals on wheels.”#p#分页标题#e#
* * *
It shouldn’t have mattered what he thought or felt about her. He was little more than a stranger. A self-appointed babysitter. Her jailer. And yet the way he shut her out, refused to talk about himself at all, cut her to the quick. Like you’ve been so forthcoming about your life, Claire? This entire situation was bat-shit insane. Vampires? Dhampirs? Secret societies and supernatural assassins? Good god. Maybe she’d died on the sidewalk a week ago and all of this was some strange purgatory. Her punishment for being a liar and a thief. Insanity, the penance she’d have to pay before she was allowed to go to heaven. Because there wasn’t a damned thing about what was going on right now that could be classified as sane.
A ripple chased over her skin with each step Mikhail took toward her. Her acute awareness of his presence unnerved her. Excited her. Awakened something deep inside of her that had remained dormant until now.
“What are you to me?” His voice coiled around her in a velvet caress, as dark and warm as the night sky. “Claire. You are everything.”
Tears sprang to her eyes and she willed the traitorous flow to cease. No one had ever needed her. Cared enough about her to worry whether she was alive or dead. She barely knew him, yet Mikhail’s words meant more to her than he could know. The honesty of those words vibrated through every molecule that constructed her. How was it possible to feel such a strong connection to someone she’d only known for a week?
Cool water slipped through her fingers. It wasn’t good for her to stay here, living like a princess in a castle. Sooner or later the fantasy would have to come to an end. She’d return to her crappy run-down apartment with no food in the fridge and pulling bills out of a hat as she tried to decide whether the power or water bill would get paid that month. No more servants, no more fancy sports cars. No more GQ handsome man to keep watch over her. Because just like all good things, this would eventually have to come to an end.
He sat behind her on the ledge of the fountain, so close that a tingle vibrated over her skin from the almost contact. So far from the city, the only sound was that of crickets chirping as Mikhail took a deep breath and held it in his lungs. “You smell like the forest in summer,” he said on a breath. “Flowers in full bloom. Your blood is the headiest scent of all, though. It goes straight to my head, like an aged brandy. I could become drunk from nothing more than a sip.”
Pretty words. And just like the brandy he spoke of, those words heated her body to the boiling point. But that wasn’t what she wanted to hear. Not really. “Tell me something real, Mikhail. Something about you.” She didn’t dare look at him, didn’t trust herself when he was close enough to touch. “Give me something, any reason at all to trust you.”