"I'm a friend of Acheron's."
His anger snapped at that. "You're lying." He stood up suddenly, then hissed as he realized he was completely naked.
Tabitha bit her lip to keep from moaning at the sight of all that luscious skin bared. She had to give the Dark-Hunters credit, they were all incredibly well built.
Valerius grabbed the sheet from her bed and covered himself. "Where are my clothes?" he asked in the most disdainful voice she'd ever heard.
No wonder Nick and the others had a hard time with him. Arrogance and supreme superiority bled from every molecule of that masculine body. It was obvious Valerius was a man used to giving orders, which made sense since she knew he had once been a Roman general.
Unfortunately, Tabitha wasn't used to following anyone's orders, especially not a man's.
"Keep your shirt on," she said with a laugh at her bad joke. "Your clothes are at the laundry. They'll deliver them as soon as they're ready."
"And in the meantime?"
"Looks like you're naked."
His jaw worked as if he couldn't believe what he was hearing. "I beg your pardon?"
"Beg all you want, you're still going to be naked." Tabitha paused at the wicked image in her mind. "Come to think of it, a gorgeous, begging, naked man... that's the stuff of fantasies. Begging won't get you your clothes, but it could get you something else." She wiggled her eyebrows at him.
His fist tightened on the sheet he held around his waist. She could sense that he was both offended and yet oddly amused by her.
She cocked her head at him. "You know, you are Roman. You could just make a toga out of the bedsheet."
Valerius stood there feeling a strange urge to sputter. Had he been lowborn, he might actually have done that.
This had to be the strangest woman ever born.
"How do you know I'm Roman?"
"I told you, I know Ash and all the rest of you night dwellers." She gave him a playful look. "C'mon, make a toga for me. I tried to make one in college and ended up with it falling off in the middle of the party. Thank God my roommate was still sober enough to scoop it up and wrap it around me before the frat boys pounced."
Behind him, he heard a cuckoo clock chime. Valerius turned to see the time, then scowled as he realized the "bird" had a red mohawk.
It also had an eyepatch.
"Ain't it a hoot?" Tabitha asked. "I picked it up in Switzerland when I spent a year there studying."
"Fascinating," he said coldly. "Now if you'll leave me, I shall-"
"Whoa, wait a sec, bud. I ain't your servant and you don't take that tone with me. Capisce?"
"Saeva scaeva," Valerius muttered under his breath.
"Saeve puer," she shot back.
Valerius actually gaped at her. "Did you just insult me in Latin?"
"You insulted me first. Not that I'm particularly insulted by being called a rampant she-devil. It's kind of flattering, but still, I'm not the kind of person to take an insult in silence."
In spite of himself, he was impressed. It had been a long time indeed since he'd met a female who knew his native tongue. Of course, he didn't like being called an oafish boy, but there was something to be said for a woman who possessed such intelligence.
And it had been an eternity since he was around someone who didn't openly disdain him. She wasn't biting in her retorts. Rather she was sparring with him like a champion debater who took none of this to heart.
How unusual...
How frighteningly refreshing.