But his promise to behave himself?
She didn’t believe that for one second.
Chapter Fourteen
The following night Gregori paced across his office at Romatech, stress ball in hand. He’d told Angus and Roman that everything was progressing well. Luckily Phineas had backed him up, claiming the date with the president’s daughters had been a great success.
Bullshit. He gave the ball another squeeze. He’d come damned close to completely blowing his mission. Thousands of Vamps depended on him to forge an alliance with the U.S. government and prevent the Vampire Apocalypse. And what did he do? Molest the president’s daughter in front of an audience. In front of a Secret Service man!
“Stupid, stupid,” he muttered to himself. At least Gordon had erased the video so Corky Courrant couldn’t get her evil hands on it and post it on YouTube.
But he couldn’t erase his actions. The whole alliance could have fallen apart if Abigail hadn’t stepped in. She’d saved his ass. Not because of any affection she felt for him. She’d saved him out of desperation to save her mother.
Just as he had suspected, the secret trip to China was connected to her mother. No doubt her Ph.D. in biochemistry was also connected to her mother. Everything Abigail did was due to her determination to save her mother.
Such love. Such dedication. She was incredible. Brilliant, beautiful, and capable of so much love.
But not for him. Her description of his lovemaking kept repeating in his mind.
An accident.
The stress ball exploded in his hand.
“Shit.” He threw it away and grabbed another one.
An accident. Had she felt nothing at all? Had she stood there, bored and mentally compiling a grocery list, while he spiraled completely out of control?
He’d never felt an attraction like this before. Romance was supposed to be fun. He loved the thrill of the chase, the giving and taking of pleasure. Simple, easy fun. But there was nothing simple or easy about Abigail.
She was impossible, but it didn’t deter him. She was forbidden, but that only made her more tempting. A desperate desire had dug its claws into his heart and was threatening to consume him entirely. Shit. What was she doing to him? He’d actually forgotten he was in the studio.
He could have sworn she’d felt something. Her heart had definitely raced. But then, her heart rate always sped up whenever he came near. It could mean that she was afraid. Or worse. Repulsed.
Vamp women didn’t care if he was a Vamp. But it could be a deal breaker for a lovely mortal like Abigail. She’d fallen on the couch in the Oval Office, trying to escape his handshake. She’d fainted when she saw him on the ceiling. And she’d scooted halfway around the booth at the nightclub to get away from him.
Could it be that she didn’t even like him? So many Vamp women had chased him over the years, maybe he’d lost the ability to know when he was being rejected.
What a joke. The womanizer falls for the one woman who doesn’t want him.
He threw the ball against the wall, and it burst in a cloud of white powder. He was crazy to fall for Abigail. The president wasn’t going to allow his daughter to get romantically involved with a vampire.
Josh clearly didn’t approve of him. When Gregori had teleported home an hour ago to put on a fresh suit, he’d discovered that his condo had been searched. Probably Josh and Charles, looking for something negative to report to the president so the alliance could be broken. Or maybe they had hoped to find him asleep and vulnerable to attack.
Thank God he’d slept at Romatech. He wasn’t sure how far Josh and Charles would go to keep Abigail safe from the evil clutches of a vampire.
And he still wasn’t sure how she felt. That alone was enough to drive him completely bonkers.
The desk phone rang, and he picked it up. “Yes?”
“She’s here,” Emma told him. “The limo with Abigail Tucker just went through the front gate.”
He picked up another stress ball. “I’ll meet her at the front entrance. Can you tell Roman she’s here?”
“I’m afraid not,” Emma replied. “He had to leave for a moment.”
“What?” Gregori squeezed the stress ball. “He agreed to meet her. He knows how important this is.”
“Don’t worry,” Emma reassured him. “Roman will be back soon. There’s a bit of a family drama going on right now. He and Angus had to teleport to the school to bring Shanna and Caitlyn back.”
“Why? What’s wrong?” Gregori felt a twinge of worry for the women. Shanna had only recently been transformed and was still adjusting. Caitlyn had undergone the painful transformation into a were-panther and was now expecting twins. “Are they all right?”