"Valerius," he corrected with an arctic glare. He looked with derision at Fury's hand and made no move to take it.
Fury lifted his arm and sniffed at his armpit. "What? I bathed." Shaking his head, Fury tucked both his hands into his pockets. "Otto's right. Someone needs to take that stick out of your ass and beat you with it."
Bride covered her mouth to keep herself from laughing at something Valerius obviously didn't find funny He might like to laugh, but not at himself.
"Excuse me?" Valerius growled, taking a step forward.
"Wine for the lady?"
Bride turned to see an older man dressed in a black coat and tie, entering with a crystal goblet of red wine for her.
Valerius seemed to get himself under control. "Thank you, Gilbert," he said, reverting back to his pompous superiority.
The servant inclined his head. "Would your lordship care for another glass for your new guest?"
Bride could tell that Valerius would rather toss Fury out on his rump, but good manners dictated otherwise. "Yes. But bring it in a bowl."
The servant left to complete his new errand.
"Actually," Fury said, "Bride, I can't really hang here with him looking at me like he's afraid I'm going to piss on his rugs or something. You want to join me for a burger?"
Yes, she did, but there was something about Valerius that said he was wounded by Fury's words. It didn't make sense. Yet there was definitely a degree of hurt hidden in those midnight eyes.
"I think I'll stay."
"Okay, your boredom." Fury flashed out of the room.
"You don't have to stay, Bride," Valerius said quietly. "I'll call for the car and security if you wish to leave."
"No, it's okay, really."
She could have sworn that the air in the room went up at least thirty degrees. Better still, Valerius seemed to relax somewhat over the course of the next two hours. He actually became a bit human.
Bride discovered an extremely funny side to Valerius's views of the modern-day world. She got a full tour of the house and gardens as well as fascinating insights into how Roman royalty lived.
"So this was you?" she asked as they stood outside in his atrium. She was in front of a marble statue of a Roman general in full military regalia. There was no denying the similarity in the facial features between the statue and the man beside her.
"No," he said, his tone chilly for the first time in hours. "He was my grandfather and he was the greatest general of his day." There was pride in his voice, but it was edged by something that sounded strangely close to shame.
"He beat back the Greeks and reclaimed Rome for our people. Indeed, he was the one who destroyed the Macedonian threat and who single-handedly annihilated the greatest Greek general who had ever lived Kyrian of Thrace." Real hatred gleamed in his eyes, but she wasn't sure who it was meant for. His grandfather or Kyrian.
"You mean Kyrian Hunter?" she asked. "The guy with the minivan who lives a few blocks over?"
Valerius's eyes sparked at that. "He's driving a mini-van?" There was no mistaking the humor in his tone.
"Well, yeah. I saw it parked out in front of his house and I know from Tabitha that Amanda drives a Camry."
He didn't say anything else for a few minutes and Bride had no clue as to his mood.
So she gazed up at his grandfather, who commanded attention even centuries later. "You look a lot like him."
"I know and I was expected to follow in his grand footsteps."
"Did you?"
This time there was no mistaking the shame in his eyes before he averted his gaze from her. "When my grandfather died, there were parades for a full week of people who mourned his passage." He lifted his brandy up to his grandfather in a silent salute.
Still, she saw through his facade. "You didn't care for him?"