“Okay.” Caine stepped in between them. “Differences aside, are you looking to press charges against Lyra?”
“You’d like that, wouldn’t you?” she growled, nearly pushing past Caine. “To see me in handcuffs.”
Theron took a long, slow perusal of Lyra from toe to head, stopping at her pretty mouth. He wanted her to know ful wel what he was thinking. The flush in her face satisfied him greatly.
“My sexual peccadil oes aside, I would hate to see you in handcuffs, Lyra.” He smiled. “I won’t press charges, Monsieur Valorian. I think we’ve come to a mutual understanding and it needn’t go any further.”
“Well, now that the unpleasantness is over,” Laal commented, moving next to Theron, “I can take you back to the airport where your plane is waiting for you.”
Theron nodded to the baron, but frankly he didn’t want to move. Standing here with Lyra glaring at him like a hungry tigress was exactly where he wanted to be. At least for a while.
He hadn’t had a reaction like this in a long time. Maybe never.
Especial y not to Lyra—a woman completely not his type.
Prickly and combative, she shouldn’t have done anything to his libido. But he couldn’t remember the last time it had flared so hotly before. So intensely.
Had she been this intense the first time he’d met her? If she had, he couldn’t recal . She had piqued his interest certainly.
He had even flirted with her, considering bedding her if all went wel , but she had skittered away from him in the end. The rejection of his advances had actual y hammered his ego somewhat.
Squeezing the book tightly to his chest, Theron tipped his head to Caine. Then he cast his gaze onto Lyra. “It has been my utmost pleasure to see you again, Lyra Magice. I hope we wil meet again someday. Maybe we can get acquainted in other, more agreeable ways.”
“Argh, you’re so infuriating,” she grunted, clenching her jaw so tight, he swore he could hear her teeth grinding.
Chuckling, he moved toward the door, fol owing the baron.
“If I may suggest a way to resolve this.”
Theron stopped in the doorway and glanced toward Caine.
“I thought we already had.”
“If what Lyra has told me is true, we real y need the translation from your book, Mr. LeNoir. It would help us immensely in solving a string of murders.”
His gaze moved from Caine to Lyra. She didn’t meet his eyes. She was staring intensely at her boss as if she wanted to rip out his tongue.
“What do you suggest?”
“That you stay on in Necropolis for a few days and work with Lyra on translating the text and symbols.”
“What?” Lyra sputtered. “You’ve got to be kidding. There is no way in hel I’m going to work with that man.”
The vampire swiveled toward her, and arched one brow.
“You said it yourself—we need that information, Lyra, to catch this guy.”
“I could’ve been exaggerating.”
“Were you?” he asked.
Defeated, she shook her head and glanced at Theron. He saw the anger in her eyes but also the desperation.
Surprisingly, his heart had a little convulsion. It actual y twitched with the way she was glaring at him.
He guessed he could stick around for a few days. Maybe he could squeeze in some extracurricular activities while he was here. Activities involving the witch and several uncompromising positions. He turned toward the baron.
“Would you please book me into your best hotel, Laal? Looks like I’m staying for a few days.”