A Tale of Two Goblins - By H. P. Mallory Page 0,10
smiled at the unspoken statement—that Angela had. He took the vacant seat next to me, but I refused to look at him, pretending extreme interest in the flirtations between Bram and his female guests.
“So, what, you both are an item now?” I asked, trying to wrestle the words down even as they left my tongue.
He shrugged—I caught it with my peripheral vision. “Are you and the vampire an item?”
“No,” I said quickly, facing him again. He was wearing a black suit with a crisp white shirt underneath, unbuttoned down to his clavicle. The black of his suit was the same shade of velvet darkness as his hair. And with his strong jaw, piercing blue eyes and Roman nose, most women would have imagined him God’s gift to the female sex. Or, in Knight’s case, Hades’ gift. I, myself, couldn’t say I was grateful to Hades in the least.
“Ah, so it was a favor then?” he continued, and his smirk was enough to ignite my anger.
“New subject,” I interrupted, tired of playing word games with the Loki. “Why did you ask me if we could meet up tonight to work on the Dreamstalker case when you knew you’d be here?”
He leaned back into his chair and regarded me coolly. “I asked what your plans were; you didn’t inquire after mine.”
I narrowed my eyes. “You wanted me to say I was free so you could let me know you had a date with Angela, didn’t you? Really adult of you, Knight.”
He shrugged and raised his brows. “Why would you care if I had a date with Angela?”
Although I was pissed, I tried to appear indifferent. “I don’t.” I’m not sure I succeeded.
He leaned forward, and there was something in his eyes—irritation? “Then what does it matter?”
Not wanting to back down, I leaned closer to him, until only about four inches separated us. His spicy male scent hit me like a punch. “It matters because I don’t like games. Mean what you say and say what you mean.” I wanted to pat myself on the back for such an awesome answer. “I neither have the time nor the interest to play tag with you, Knight.”
Knight didn’t respond right away and neither of us pulled back. Instead, we just sat there, staring at one another. It had become a challenge—who would back down first? Who would pull away and allow the buffer of a few more inches of personal space?
It wouldn’t be me.
Knight smirked and leaned back into his seat, eyeing the room around him with ennui. “So the vampire is stronger and faster now?” he asked noncommittally, apparently ill at ease with the fact that I’d just called him out and let him know he was full of crap. So, he wouldn’t let me soak up the afterglow of a conversation won. Hmm, was someone a sore loser?
I nodded, focusing on Bram as he continued to laugh and flirt, reminding me of that black Bird of Paradise as it pranced around doing a mating dance. But unlike the pitiable bird that ended its display of passion with only a bored hen as its reward, Bram’s hens were anything but disinterested. They continued to rub against him like cats in heat, and the vampire was eating it up. Apparently feeling my eyes on him, Bram turned his attention to me and winced as if he wasn’t enjoying all the attention. Ha, as if. I held up my hand to say “take your time; I’m enjoying myself” even though I couldn’t say I was enjoying myself. Jealousy was still in the process of eating a big hole in my stomach and if nothing else, I wanted to go home and drown my sorrows in a vat of Ben and Jerry’s cookie dough ice cream. And that was really saying something because I didn’t even like sweets.
“Is he trustworthy?” Knight continued.
“What?” I asked, completely at a loss. “What are you talking about?”
“Maybe if you’d stop staring at the vampire, you’d know.” His voice was stilted, angry.
“I wasn’t staring at him,” I muttered, realizing I’d been doing exactly that.
“Is Bram trustworthy?” Knight repeated. “Since he’s so much stronger and faster now, is that going to cause trouble for the ANC or trouble for you?”
I frowned and shrugged at the same time. “He’s as trustworthy as the next vampire.”
“That isn’t saying much.”
“It’s saying I don’t know what the answer to your question is. Do I trust Bram? Most the time yes. Do I think he’s going to get