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I put the champagne flute down on the table and take his hand in both of my own. I raise the finger to my lips and gently suck at the wound, letting my tongue work at the cut until I feel the skin close, much the way he did with my injured leg. Much the way I did earlier with David. I keep my mind carefully closed.
When I look up at Avery, he has his eyes shut and he's swaying a little—whether to the seductive sounds of the music swelling around us or to the feel of my tongue on his skin, I can't tell. He pulls himself back when he feels my eyes on him. His smile is slow and sweet.
"You are an apt pupil,” he says. “If I'm not careful, you will learn all my secrets and you will no longer need me."
I meet his eyes with my own. “I think there are still a few secrets you are keeping from me, aren't there?"
He takes a step back, but instead of answering, he focuses on the dress and me. “Beautiful. I knew it was perfect for you the moment I saw it. You are a vision, A
He's all dressed up himself, in a well-cut black tuxedo. He's not wearing a tie, though, and the neck of his white silk shirt is open.
The better to get right down to business.
He laughs at what I'm thinking. Why not? We are long past the vagaries of precoital game playing, wouldn't you agree?
I guess the honeymoon is over.
"Far from it.” Avery speaks the words aloud as he dips a hand into a pocket of his jacket and pulls out a small, velvet box. “The honeymoon will never be over for us."
He holds out the box to me, a smile playing at the corners of his lips. His eyes are serious, though, as he watches me accept the box and open it.
There's a ring inside, platinum, set with a diamond solitaire that would take any living woman's breath away. I know because it elicits a gasp from me, not an easy thing when you're undead.
He's caught me completely by surprise. I expected seduction. I expected a display of the good life vampire style. What I didn't expect was a proposal.
If that's what this is.
I look up at him, letting the confusion filter through.
He laughs. “I've rendered you speechless. A first, I think."
I hand the box back to him. “It's a beautiful ring. I can't accept it."
But he refuses to take it, pushing it back towards me. “You misunderstand. I'm not proposing. Not yet, anyway. I know it's too soon for you. But I want you to have the ring as a thank you."
A thank you? For what?
He turns away to pour himself a glass of champagne and to retrieve my glass from the edge of the table. As he hands mine back to me, he lifts his glass in a toast, his eyes bright. “To A
He takes a sip and waits for me to do the same. I study him over the rim of the glass. He really believes he's in love with me. More importantly, he believes I love him, too. He believes he's won.
Suddenly it snaps into sharp focus.
Everything that has happened to me. The fire, Williams, the Revengers. Avery is behind it all.
But why?
Chapter Thirty-Nine
My heart is beating too quickly, drumming too loudly in my chest. Avery can pick up on a thing like that. I have to calm myself, literally slow the mad rush of my blood through my veins. He mustn't know what I suspect.
How do I get the story from him? My first impulse, to rip into him, doesn't seem so practical now. He has been a vampire for three hundred years, while I, less than a week. What worked with Williams might not work with him. My strength comes from our union, Avery's and mine. Am I ready to test who is the stronger?
I watch Avery.
He's busying himself with the roses, arranging them just so in the vase. He wants everything to be perfect tonight. He's pleased with himself, confident that he has won me, satisfied that his life is exactly as he wishes it to be. He is not trying to hide any of this from me, nor is he prying into my thoughts. He is too full of self-congratulations to bother.
I move toward him, placing my glass at the table's edge. I thrust the ring box into his hand.
He takes it and raises his eyes. You have questions for me, A
He is being simple, direct. Let's see if he will be honest. I'll start with something he might not find threatening.
Tell me about Dena.
Avery raises an eyebrow. My housekeeper?
I met her today. She has marks on her neck. You have fed from her.
He nods. Of course I have. She offered herself. Many mortals do, you know. They think it's exciting.
You didn't hide the marks.
She didn't want me to. It's a symbol. Remember when I told you about how it could be with Max? Well, the pleasure is addicting to some and one host may not be enough.
So you had sex with her, too?
He shrugs. Before you came into my life. I haven't touched her that way since.
But you've taken her blood since, haven't you?
The blood was a condition of employment, the sex a perk.
That you could withdraw at any time. Did she know that? Maybe that's why she was so frightened of me. She thought I might force myself on her, feed from her, the way you did.
Avery shakes his head, an impatient little frown tugging at the corners of his mouth. Force myself on her? I don't see it that way.
She came to me of her own free will. I helped her and in turn, she helped me. She can leave my employ at any time. I don't know why she acted frightened around you. Perhaps you should ask her the next time you see her.
His cavalier dismissal of his housekeeper's distress triggers a spark of anger in me. I will ask her, Avery.
The frown deepens. He speaks aloud, his voice heavy with disapproval. “Why do you persist in involving yourself with mortals?
Why do you care what they want or don't want? I have tried to show you again and again that you are above all that now."
I believe that is true, Avery.
He peers at me, sudden distrust sparking in the depths of his eyes. “What are you hiding from me, A
"Will you be honest with me?"
"Haven't I always been honest?"
"No. You haven't."
He lets nothing project, no denial, no question. He simply nods his head and says, “Go on then."
I move to the other side of the table. If this is to be the showdown, I want something solid between us. “Let's start with the night of your party. You alerted the Revengers that I was coming."
"Is that a question?"
"No. The question is why? To see if I could get away? Was it some kind of performance test?"
He smiles. “If it was, you passed, didn't you? You got away."
"And came straight back to you. Was that the idea? Was that the reason you had my house burned down, too? To assure I would be dependent on you?"
He doesn't respond, his mind as blank and impenetrable as his expression.
"You didn't have to do that, you know. The bond between us had already been forged. My home was special to me. My grandparents raised my mother there. Now I have nothing left of that life. It was a stupid, pointless, hurtful thing to do."
Avery stirs a little, eyes flashing in the candlelight, but still, he says nothing, lets no emotion filter into his thoughts.
It's disconcerting, but I've come this far. I may as well press on.
"Then there's Donaldson and Beso de la Muerte . A very good distraction. It's taken me awhile to figure that one out, but I think I have it now. You killed him, didn't you? And you wounded me in order to slow me down so you could get home before I did. I think you pla