for the movements of the enemy clan, budgeting, rental price fluctuations, and population trends. My initial impression was closer than I intended. This really was somewhere between Wall Street and a real estate empire.
“Begin,” Kyros announced.
If I hadn’t felt the lust bordering on panic, too, I would have believed his cool and calm act.
Organised chaos ensued as the gathered Vissimo beelined for their stations—their reactions had to be pretty automatic after one hundred and forty-nine years.
Angelica turned to me. “At ten past midnight, team leaders strategize with their group for an hour. Between one and one thirty, Kyros meets with team leaders to hear their reports and recommendations for the day. Two until three, the nine leaders of the sub-clans meet here to discuss the group strategy. Three to three twenty, Kyros presents the final game strategy to King Julius for approval.”
When she paused, I asked, “Then what?”
Angelica tilted her head back, lips curving. “And then our turn really begins.”
She made it sound like what I’d just witnessed was high tea compared to an ice-hockey match.
“Angelica,” Kyros snapped.
He’d been speaking to a small crowd. Which only went to show that I was completely aware of him. Dang it.
I undid two of the buttons of my blouse, certain my clothing had somehow become smaller in the last hour. I was overheating big time.
The horde of female Vissimo behind me was gone, so I slid a foot back, sighing at the instant relief.
I took another.
And a third.
So much better.
“Yes, sir?” Aunty Angie replied.
At her innocent tone, I stopped my retreat and pinned her with a glare. The dark horse was up to something sly. Since her agenda clearly involved me, I very much wanted to know why she was pushing Kyros’s buttons by bringing me up here during the thrall. And when I figured it out, I’d derail her plan immediately to teach her not to involve me in the future.
A growl slipped between his teeth. “My office.”
I snickered despite myself. “You’re in trouble, Angie.”
His green gaze snapped to me, and I froze, barely clamping down on a squeak. A fucking squeak. My grandmother would fix me with a quelling look over the rim of her teacup if she knew.
“What were you saying, Miss Tetley?” Angie murmured.
The quiet ones always came out on top. “I’m going to put space between me and the—” I cut off, deciding the word jerk-off may not be wise to use “—him before there’s a repeat of last time.”
I shouldn’t have said it.
The moment I did, the painful simmering surged to outright flames. I could only remember the joyous second we’d reached for each other in my hotel room the other day.
My wing-woman hair slithered over my shoulders as I tilted my head to Kyros. A hooded look revealed that he’d walked farther around the curved glass, eradicating my small retreat.
“Save me,” I hissed, shooing the woman toward her nephew with the last scraps of my sanity.
She grinned but obeyed.
I was wise enough to consider the two rules Kyros gave me down on Level 61. I’d already broken one rule tonight by delivering a direct order. I couldn’t turn tail and run. He’d be on me in a second.
I backed away like we were locked in some medieval scene where he was the bored king, and I was a joker who’d just recited thirty minutes of knock-knock jokes, keeping my eyes trained on his tie.
I kept going until the glass tube—and the vampire—were out of view. One more day of this torture and I was free. Relatively free. I’d still have to stay in the tower, but that wouldn’t be so bad with the better escape opportunity from working on Level 44.
Crap, was this how Stockholm Syndrome started?
“Thank fuck for that!” I tipped my head back as my shoulders sagged with the outpouring of tension. The heat drained away, but the ache between my thighs? That was there for good.
Great.
A few of the nearest Vissimo females laughed quietly at my fervent outburst. Some shot me flat looks too. I pursed my lips as I contemplated their underlying animosity.
Was it because they fancied Kyros for themselves? They could have him.
Maybe it’s a superior race complex.
A woman to my left muttered to a vampire on her left. “My Heart Will Go On.”
Oh, right. The karaoke.
I coughed. “I apologise for the singing. I didn’t realise how good your hearing was. I’m going through some stuff…”
I fidgeted on the spot before catching a small smile from a rock-goddess brunette with the