There! So much better. A half-full bottle of peppermint schnapps would hide his scent nicely. He unscrewed the top and tipped it over, making sure the splash landed in the middle of the rug he’d stepped on.
The scent of alcohol and peppermint was overwhelming. Nearly gagging, Ben left the trailer, making no attempt to reset the tripwire. She was going to know someone had been in her stuff; he just didn’t want her to immediately identify him.
He passed two other camping caravans before he ran into his first person.
“René.” Ben smiled, grateful the vampire had become his unwitting accomplice. “How are you?”
Ben’s friendly demeanor immediately set René on edge.
He narrowed his eyes. “Why do you ask?”
Ben stuffed his hands in his pockets, hiding the paper with the inscription. “Being polite, old man. Chatting the chat. Working the room.”
René curled his lip. “I have no idea what you are talking about.”
Ben tried to look sad. “And that’s why you’re always going to struggle with multilevel marketing.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Never mind,” Ben said. “Do you know where Tenzin is?”
“Yes.” The smugness was back. “I just left her caravan.”
Ben patted his shoulder. “How nice for you.”
Leaving René to try to unscramble his friendliness, Ben walked to Tenzin’s trailer and knocked on the door. She yanked it open from the inside and pulled him in.
She narrowed her eyes and twitched her nose.
“Tenzin, what—?”
“Shhhh.” She rose to smell along his chin and his neck. Then she spun him around and sniffed his back. “Good.”
“What the hell was that?”
“You covered your scent with peppermint. I thought you were trying to hide something.”
“Hide what?”
She landed and walked to the table. “Nothing.”
“Clearly not nothing.” Ben followed her. “Tell me—”
“You were searching Kezia’s trailer. It was entirely possible she could have interrupted you. Then you would have had to lie about why you were there and possibly offered to have sex with her.”
Ben blinked. “That seems like a leap.”
“Not really. She wants to have sex with you—with both of us really—”
“Yeah. You said.”
“If she’d caught you searching her trailer, that would be the most obvious ploy to cover what you were actually doing.”
Dear Lord, she had an active imagination. “So you thought I was going to get caught and I was going to have sex with Kezia just to cover my tracks?”
“It’s possible.” She didn’t even look embarrassed.
“So you were sniffing me because…?”
Her voice was barely audible. “Because I do not want you having sex with Kezia.”
Oh, this was nice. “We’re not together. I can still smell René in this trailer.” He put his hands in his pockets and strolled toward her. “Do I need to sniff you?”
“Not necessary.”
“Maybe it is.” He leaned down, put his face in the crook of her neck, and inhaled deeply, trying not to groan.
Tenzin smelled like dust and sunset and cardamom tea. She smelled like sexual desire and a little bit of kerosene.
“Were you polishing swords today while I was sleeping?” he whispered.
“Yes.”
Ben opened his mouth and let his fangs slowly scrape against her skin. Her flesh prickled underneath his mouth. “Why don’t you want me to have sex with Kezia? We haven’t been together in over two years. Are you jealous?”
“I am… territorial.”
“Because you’ve taken my blood?”
“No, because you’ve taken mine.”
His mouth hovered over the silk skin where he’d bitten her two years before. He remembered the exact place. The exact taste. The instinct to sink his teeth into her neck and take her inside was overwhelming. He bathed in the scent of her skin, her blood, and her desire.
Ben let his breath wash over her, moving it down her body to touch every exposed inch. “I’m not the only vampire to ever take your blood.”
“No.”
“You had a mate once.”
Tenzin froze and her amnis retreated in a blink. She raised a hand and pushed Ben firmly away. The blank expression on her face unnerved him.
You are a shitty person. His conscience screamed at him, and he stepped away. Why had he said it? Why had he even brought it up? Because she’s not the jealous one; you are.
Yep. That was it.
Ben stood up straight. “Tenzin, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have brought him up.”
She was quiet for a long time, staring into space. She didn’t seem upset; more pensive. “Stephen and I…”
He was such a dick. “It’s fine. It’s none of my business.”
She frowned. “Yes, it is.”
Ben didn’t know what to say.
“If you had a blood-bound mate in your past, I would consider it my business to know about that person,” Tenzin said. “To know why you were no longer bound.”
“I already know he died. You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.”
Tenzin looked at Ben with a frown. “It wasn’t what you are thinking. Stephen and I cared for each other, but it was a strategic mating. A political marriage, if you want to think of it that way. I didn’t love him the way that Beatrice and Giovanni love. Not the way…”
Not the way what?
He shut up since he’d already made an ass of himself enough for one night. “I’m glad the two of you cared for each other. I’m sorry he died.”
“I’d been sleeping.” Her voice was soft. “For a long time I’d been sleeping. Stephen woke me up.” She smiled. “And he made me laugh.”
“That’s good.”
She kept her eyes on him, and Ben sat in the feeling he sometimes experienced in the silent space between waking and dreaming when he saw Tenzin’s image in his mind. Her expression moved from one second to the next between very young and indescribably ancient.
He sat with the knowledge that tempted and terrified him about forging something new and untested with her. If you know her, you will know everything.
29
Since Ben had run out of time after searching Kezia’s trailer, he followed Vano the next night. Ben chatted with Tatyana as they strolled through the camp. They talked, and he subtly steered her
