“What is it you wish that I cannot grant you? What do you desire that you cannot have?” When she couldn’t answer, he smiled knowingly. “You bristle at the notion of being restricted, even though your chains know no boundaries. I will not force you to be my lover. I will not demand you lick my shoes. I will not ask you for a single thing you will not give me willingly. There is nothing in this world I will not grant you, should you ask for it.”
“Except spare my city and the lives of the hunters.”
He shut his eyes and sighed heavily. “Do you not see what an opportunity we share?”
“I do. It is because I recognize what you are to me that I stand here. Attending this opera as you requested, at your side. That I come to spend a night with you…and I do it willingly. Walter did not need to drag me here.”
“Yet you continue to request I spare this city.”
“You said there was nothing I wished for that you would not give me. I was merely pointing out that you were false in your words.” She poked him in the chest once, feeling quite brave.
He smiled, taking no offence at her gesture. Indeed, quite the opposite, it seemed. “On the topic of things that we have recently said…” He pulled her close to him.
“Oh, no.”
“You say you recognize what I am to you. Please, do tell. I am so deeply curious.”
“I misspoke, same as you.”
“No lies.” His voice was a low rumble as he playfully scolded her.
“It is personal, then.” She tried to push away from him, but his hand snaked around her, holding her close. She would worry what the crowd might think, but the audience was blind to her and the vampire.
“Even better. Speak.”
When she didn’t, he paid her an arch of a dark eyebrow. She felt her face grow warm as she looked away from him. “You have me at a distinct disadvantage, vampire.”
“How so?”
“My condition has made my particularly vulnerable to your…methods of securing my attention.”
He laughed, a mirthful, genuine sound. She decided she greatly enjoyed the way it resonated in her. “So bashful in your words. ‘Securing your attention.’ What you mean to say is that your inability to be touched by others makes you easy for me to seduce.” His fingers turned her back to look at him with a press against her cheek.
Damn him and that exacting, arresting crimson gaze. “Yes. Very well. That is what I mean to say.”
“You discount my skill in such regards, then? I am insulted.”
“That is not what I meant.”
“You are also rather adeptly avoiding my question. I asked you what I have become to you. Am I only an idle romp, then? A roll in the proverbial hay? How knavish.” He was scolding her playfully again. “You have an itch that you have never been able to scratch, and I am just the means of sating your need?”
“I—No—”
“Then, what? Correct my assumptions, lest I think you are simply here with me for what I can pay you between the sheets.”
“Stop teasing me.” Her face felt as though it was on fire. She managed to look down and away from his smile.
“Never. You are lovely when you blush, even more so when you find yourself cornered. You are beautiful when you are flustered.” He leaned down, and she felt the press of his lips as he placed a kiss to her hair. “Do you enjoy my company, Miss Parker?”
No lies. She let out a long, defeated sigh. “Yes.”
“Do you enjoy speaking with me?”
“Yes.”
“Do you enjoy when I touch you?” His hand slipped to the base of her neck, and she shivered at the sensation of his fingers lacing into her hair. The points of his nails scraped against her skin, and she broke out once more in goosebumps.
“Yes,” she whispered. “You know I do.”
“Then go. You are free. Your chains are no longer mine. Walk from me now, take the closest horse and carriage, and head for the horizon. I will not follow you. Your chains are broken.”
She looked up at him, shocked. He slid his other hand to gently cup her cheek, his thumb resting in the hollow of her chin below her lower lip. She had no words. She was too stunned.
“Or…you may choose to stay. To attend the opera with me. To spend the evening in my embrace. But know