I couldn’t help myself from admiring the shape of her. From her perfectly perky tits all the way down her slender calves to her red stilettos. It was a shame that all she had was venom running through her veins. I remember how sweet she first tasted.
“Answer the question. What are you doing in my house? Again?”
“So paranoid, Ozi. Relax, one of my investors invited me. I didn’t know it was your house. I swear.” She batted her fake eyelashes at me demurely, but I knew better. There was nothing demure about her.
Cassius feigned a cough. “Bullshit.”
She glared at him; her eyes glowing. “Oh, sweet Cassius. Still bitter that I chose to fuck Ozi instead of you?” She giggled as his face turned beet red.
My patience was waning. “Enough. I don’t care who invited you, you’re not welcome here. You need to leave now. And stay away from my staff.”
She scooted herself fully onto my desk and crossed her legs as she licked her red painted lips. “You mean, stay away from Raven, right? She must be special if you are being so protective over her. I was simply letting her know that there was more than one restaurant in New York to work at. That if she ever felt…uncomfortable, she had…options.”
Before I could stop myself, I flew across the room and wrapped my hands around her neck. “How dare you. Dolce Sale and everyone in it, including Raven, belongs to me. I implicitly told you to stay away from what is mine.”
Camille laughed and held my gaze. “She doesn’t belong to you until you claim her. And you know what that entails. Until then, rules are rules. She’s fair game. Maybe I’ll claim her for myself.” She winked and I lost it.
Cassius had to pry my hands off her neck. “Ozi, let her go.”
I backed off and straightened my tie. “Get out.”
She slithered off the desk like a snake. “I’ll see myself out. Remember what I said.” The sound of her heels clicking across the floor, the way she pranced off satisfied with herself, it was enough to send me over the edge.
Cassius shoved a whiskey in my hand. “She’s just trying to get a rise out of you and it’s clearly working. The angrier you get, the more she will fuck with Raven. You need to take it down a notch.”
I shot the whiskey down and poured another. “She’s right though. I have no claim to her.”
“Have you thought about—”
“What? Making Raven a vampire?” I didn’t need a mirror to know that my face was twisted in horror at the thought.
Cassius sighed. “Yes. If you want to be with her. If you…love her. Then that’s the only way you can keep her safe.”
He was right. Camille was right. Even Enzo was right about me staying away from her. But it was too late. I’d already painted a target on Raven’s back the minute I took an interest in her. Camille wasn’t stupid. She’d no doubt seen me fuck hundreds of girls that I simply discarded the next morning. She knew this one was different. And she was going to use it against me. This was payback. She was going to try to force me to turn Raven. Because if I didn’t, Camille would find a way to turn her herself.
“I never wanted it to come to that. I’m going to ruin that girl’s life. But what choice do I have now?”
Cassius nodded. “She might surprise you. Tell her the truth, Ozi. Tell her how you feel. She’s not like Camille. Maybe she will embrace it.”
I nearly choked on my drink. “Right. Because humans respond so well to supernatural phenomena. She’ll probably try to drive a stake through my heart like they do in the movies.”
“We both know that’s not going to work. But you need to do something before Camille sinks her fangs into her.”
“I know,” I whispered.
Other than Enzo, I hadn’t shown another human what I was in hundreds of years. The thought of it terrified me. The reaction. The fear mixed with horror that Camille gave me on the night that I turned her. The hatred in her eyes. It was more than I could bear. The heartbreak and pain sent me into a hundred year funk. I killed a lot in that century. And now it seemed history was repeating itself. Only this time, I hoped it wouldn’t end in a bloodbath.
Something was up with Ozi and that blonde. I didn’t know him that well