who’s going to try God knows what against you and the House so he can make a name for himself. We’ve also got really pissed-off vamps who’ll start a fight without provocation just for the fun of doing it. Do you want them running around Chicago? Besides,” I quietly added, knowing what he needed to hear, “I’m stronger now than I was before. I’m more skilled now than I was before.”
He looked up at me, worry tightening his eyes.
God, I hated to see that worry. I hated what I’d done to put it there. And so I went to him, all reasons to the contrary. I slipped between his chair and the desk, and when he leaned toward me and rested his forehead on my abdomen, I slid my fingers into the thick golden silk of his hair.
“I’ll be careful.”
Ethan grunted and wrapped his hands around my waist. I ran my fingers through his hair—the same motion over and over again—and then traced my fingertips down his back. Gradually, I felt the tension leave his shoulders.
He looked up again, his eyes now lambent pools of green.
I smiled down at him. “You look drunk.”
“I feel . . . relaxed.”
I didn’t trust that I wouldn’t cross any more lines than I’d just vaulted, so I loosed his hands and stepped away, then moved around his desk and took a seat on the other side.
I figured I’d see irritation in his eyes when I looked back at him. For the second time, he surprised me. He was smiling—a kind of honest, humbled, sweet smile.
“Maybe I’m getting better at this?” he asked.
“Better at wooing you in the manner in which you should be wooed?”
I crossed one leg over the other and met his gaze. “My job is to ensure the sanctity of this House. Ensuring the sanity of its Master seemed like a good start.”
“Is that the story you’re sticking with?”
“That’s my answer.”
“I don’t buy it.”
I smiled thinly, eyes half-hidden beneath my lashes. “You don’t have to.”
“Hmmph,” he said, but he was clearly pleased by the repartee.
This time, he was the one who took the offensive. He stood and moved around his desk and toward me. I straightened up, every nerve in my body on alert as he approached. When he reached me, he took my hands, the same move Mayor Tate had used a couple of nights ago.
“I’m self-aware enough to admit that I prefer to be in control,” he said. “It is a consequence, I think, of the responsibility of maintaining this House. But I told you how I felt about you—”
“You didn’t, actually.”
He blinked. “Excuse me?”
I gave him a smile. “You told me you were beginning to remember how it felt to love someone. You didn’t make a confession specific to me.”
His lips tightened, but he was smart enough to ask the pertinent question. “Will it make a difference if I say that?”
“No. But a girl likes to feel appreciated.”
The only warning I had was the flash in his eyes before he moved, got down on his knees.
I froze, my stomach seizing. My teasing aside, a boy on his knees meant stuff I wasn’t going to be prepared to hear.
Ethan reached forward and slid a hand around my neck, his thumb tracing the pulse point he found there. “Merit, I lo—”
“I’m not flattered by the fact that you aren’t sure whether I mean it or not.”
“Do you?”
He gave me a flat look, but then his expression changed to something much more appraising.
And that made me worry.
“What?” I asked him.
“We’re vampires.”
“I’m aware.”
“As vampires, we bargain, we negotiate, and we honor our agreements.”
I lifted my eyebrows. “And what agreement do you intend on forming?”
“I want a kiss. One kiss,” he added, before I could question him, “and I’ll keep the declarations to myself. One kiss, and then I’ll cease all flirting, as you call it, unless and until you come to me with your own declarations.”
I slid him a glance to check his expression.
Reverse psychology wasn’t beyond him, and the deal didn’t make much sense otherwise. I wouldn’t deny the attraction between us, but I felt pretty confident I could manage not to make sexual overtures to my boss.
“One kiss?” I reiterated.
“One kiss.”
“Deal,” I said. Hoping to jump the gun, I closed my eyes and offered puckered lips. Ethan chuckled, but ignored me long enough that I opened one eye.
“Don’t think you’re going to get by that easily.” The hand on my neck slid down, his thumb resting in the hollow at the base of my neck, the rest of his fingers splayed across my collarbone. His eerily green eyes stayed trained on mine, at least until his tangled lashes dropped and he moved in.
But he didn’t kiss me.
His mouth hovered just beyond mine, out of reach only so long as I refused to make that plunge forward—and he refused to execute the bargain.
“You’re cheating,” I murmured. I was torn about whether I was glad of it or not. I was afraid that if his lips touched mine, I’d lose the will to resist, and I was afraid that if I gave in, I’d lose my heart again.
Ethan shook his head. “I said one kiss, and I meant it. One kiss, my terms, to be claimed when the time is right.”
Suddenly, he shifted his mouth to my ear, his teeth grazing the lobe. I shuddered at the spark that trilled down my spine, my eyes rolling back at the ridiculous pleasure of it.
“This isn’t a kiss,” he whispered, his lips at my ear.
“Nor is it in the spirit of the bargain.”
“Let’s not focus on the formalities, Merit.”
And then his lips were back again, hovering against my jaw, teasing me with the possibility of what he might do.
With the anticipation of it.
I fought back the urge to step forward, to push my lips against his to be done with it. To push my lips against his because he’d incited me to it.
“I’ll have you in my bed again, Sentinel. And at my side. That is a promise.”
“You mean to tease me into a seduction?”
“Is it working?”
My answer was less a word than a frustrated grumble. I was self-aware enough to know that the only thing I enjoyed more than getting what I wanted was not getting what I wanted. In my experience, wanting was often more fun than having.
