Stakes & Stilettos - Michelle Rowen [74]
He nodded. “This is all my fault.”
“You’re having second thoughts about getting the annulment?” I asked, and felt a heavy weight press against my chest at the thought.
“No. However, I went about it the wrong way. Veronique has a tendency to act as if nothing affects her, but I would assume that having legal church documents delivered was very likely confusing for her.”
I thought about our conversation. “She called me a silly, inconsequential girl.”
“That sounds more like her.” He smiled. “But she was wrong. You are in no way inconsequential.”
I frowned. “What about the ‘silly’ part?”
His smile widened. “Do you truly want me to answer that?”
“Maybe not.” I bit my bottom lip. “You know, if you’d rather I give this back to you, I can. It’s not a problem.”
I was referring to the ring on my right hand, which I now held up to show him what I was talking about.
He glanced down at it. “Do you want to give it back to me?”
“No,” I said quickly.
“Then I want you to wear it until you choose not to.” His smile faded. “I now realize that I should have let Veronique know my intentions.”
“And what are your intentions?”
He took my hand in his and ran his thumb over the eternity band. Then he raised his silver-eyed gaze to mine. “To figure out a way to kiss you again. I’ve waited much too long for you to enter my life to allow this curse to come between us.”
My toes curled at the tone of his voice, words that promised so much more than just kissing or even sex. It was a tone that promised a future together. My heart raced as he slid his hand through my hair, still damp from the snow outside, and then traced his fingers over my lips.
But then I felt the darkness begin to well inside me. My fangs began to ache and my vision narrowed down to the small pulse on his throat. Reluctantly, I moved away from his touch. “Better put the brakes on. We’ve just entered the danger zone.”
He nodded and then released me completely to pace his office with his hands firmly clasped behind his back. “Now there is the matter of the Red Devil. I think it’s a good idea if we draw him out of his hiding place and demand to know who he is and what his intentions are.”
“Ever consider that he’s just trying to help?”
“Help? I doubt that.”
“Why? He did save my life once. He also tried to give me some good advice about the magic nightwalker object. He said that I’d come in contact with one recently. I’m racking my brain trying to remember any nondescript piece of jewelry I’ve seen lately—”
I blinked.
Wait a minute.
No, it couldn’t be.
Three weeks ago I’d come in contact with an odd piece of jewelry. Yes indeedy, I had. It was a plain gold chain. Pretty ugly, actually.
In a nutshell, I’d been handed this piece of crap and told to hide it from the bad guys. The bad guys at the time were my bodyguards. The necklace ended up turning my stuck-in-werewolf-form pet dog back into a human when he came in contact with it. But who knows? Maybe that had only been a well-timed coincidence.
Ah, Barkley. I missed that biscuit-eating mutt.
I knew there was something weird about that necklace. But could it be possible that was what the Red Devil had been talking about?
And if so, how the hell did he even know I had it? Nobody knew. I hadn’t even told Thierry.
“What is it?” Thierry asked.
“Maybe nothing, but there’s one way to find out.” I made a beeline to the door, but before opening it I glanced over my shoulder. “Am I allowed out, officer?”
He raised an eyebrow. “If you promise not to go running off in search of danger.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it.”
He came to my side as I opened the door. “Stay close.”
“But not too close.”
“No, not too close.” Our eyes met and held. “Much too tempting.”
Damn, I had it bad for him. Sure he was a stick-in-the-mud about some stuff, he was sometimes cranky and easily annoyed, and he came with a ton of baggage, but he was also generous, caring, protective, and so incredibly sexy. Plus he wanted to be with me despite the fact that I was a mess and a half and had an unfortunate habit of running off