It was G.G. who protested, “Not gonna happen, Lucian. I’m coming with her.”
“As am I,” Robert added, and then when Mary elbowed him, quickly changed it to, “I mean we. We are coming too. Angelina ispart of our family now. We will be there to support her.”
Lucian scowled at the Guiscards, but then relented. “Fine. You can be in the room, but no talking. You’re to sit where I sayand listen. This is between Angelina and Juan.”
She felt G.G. stiffen beside her at those words. Apparently Lucian noticed it as well, because his gaze turned stern on theman. “This is immortal business, Joshua. You are not immortal. I’m allowing you to be there only because you are a possiblelife mate to Angelina. I will not have you interfering. If you do, I shall remove you myself. Understood?”
G.G. grunted in the affirmative, and then Lucian took Ildaria’s arm and walked her into the living room across from the kitchen. After one quick glance over her shoulder to be sure the others were following, Ildaria turned her gaze forward and scanned the room for her nemesis.
The first man she spotted was not Juan. Standing in the center of the room, the man had long hair that was a combination ofdeep red and chestnut. It was pulled back into a ponytail. He was tall, and built like a construction worker or a medievalwarrior of old with broad shoulders and strong upper arms bulging under the black T-shirt he wore. He looked like he wouldhave been comfortable wielding a heavy broadsword.
Scotty, the head of the UK Council, she thought before continuing her search of the room for Juan Villaverde. Ildaria didn’tsee him though, and was about to turn a questioning gaze to Lucian when Scotty suddenly moved to the side, drawing her gazeto the man he had been blocking from her view. Juan Villaverde had been seated on the couch, but now stood up, his eyes hotand hungry as they roved from her bare feet to her untamed hair.
Ildaria stumbled under the weight of that look, the old confusion and uncertainty returning to her as if she were fourteenagain and seeing him for the first time. She would have stopped walking altogether if Lucian hadn’t tugged her gently forwardby the grip he had on her arm. With no other choice, she allowed herself to be pulled along, and made herself examine theman who had made her life such a hell.
Juan Villaverde was a beautiful man. With full black hair, golden-brown eyes, and a face only the angels could have chiseled, he could make any woman’s heart race. And the suit he wore couldn’t hide the fact that he also had the body of Adonis, she acknowledged, and wondered that she’d never noticed these things two hundred years ago. But she supposed she’d been too anxious and nervous around him to notice much more than that he made her feel incredibly uncomfortable. It was that hungry look he was eyeing her with even now. As a child, it had scared her silly. Now . . . well, actually it still made her uncomfortable and a bit confused. It held none of the rage that had contorted his face that last time in the alley.
“There,” Lucian said abruptly, and Ildaria glanced at him and then followed his gesture to another sofa at the end of theroom, as far from the one Juan was standing in front of as you could get. He was directing G.G. and his parents to sit there,she realized when Robert urged Mary to the sofa.
G.G. didn’t follow them right away. His gaze shifting between her and Juan, he hesitated until she gave a slight nod. She’drather he was closer, right at her side would be good, but she wouldn’t risk Lucian making him leave if they didn’t obey him.Ildaria tried to convey that in her expression. She wasn’t sure if he understood, but he did follow his parents to the couch.None of them looked relaxed, however. They were all perched on the very edge of the sofa, looking stiff and grim and as ifthey were ready to jump up and intercede if Juan did anything not to their liking.
Ildaria heard Lucian sigh next to her and then he urged her around in front of the sofa facing the one Juan now stood in front of. A coffee table was all that separated them, she saw unhappily. When she didn’t sit at once, Lucian pressed down on her shoulder, making her sit.
“Now,” Lucian said once she’d dropped onto the couch. “Tell her what you told us.”
Juan finally dragged his gaze from Ildaria. First he shifted it to Lucian, and then to the Guiscards and he scowled. “Whoare these people, and why are they here? Why are any of you here? You said I could see her alone.”
Ildaria stiffened at those words until Lucian countered with, “I said you could see her, I did not say it would be alone.”
“I want to see her alone,” Juan insisted.
“That’s not going to happen, Juan,” Lucian said sounding almost regretful, and Ildaria glanced at him quickly, wondering whoseside he was on here.
Juan cursed with frustration. “I have waited two hundred years, Luc. I deserve to—”
“You messed up two hundred years ago, Juan. You attacked her. Now she does not feel safe with you. And I will not make herface you alone and afraid.”
Ildaria scowled and sat up straight at that, annoyed with Lucian for revealing the anxiety she was presently feeling.
“I never meant for that to happen, I told you it was the—”
“Now tell her,” Lucian interrupted. “You can either do it in front of everyone, or give her up and leave.”
Give her up? Ildaria peered at Lucian, but he ignored her and simply stared at Juan, waiting for him to decide what he was going to do. Giving up on getting an answer to her silent question, Ildaria tore her
