I drank in the sight of him, body clenching in favour of a round two. “A shower, huh? I’ll leave you to that then.”
“No,” he said, glancing at the white clock beside his bed. “We have time for dinner before I start work.”
My brows climbed.
Blasted Vissimo didn’t give me any time to think. We’d gone from strangling each other, to the bed and now to a date? I’d always maintained that Kyros was a one-night-stand kind of guy. Not a long-term partner. Our bodies wanted to force us into a long-term… thing. That didn’t mean I had to agree to the second blood thing, whatever Kyros had already decided.
When he was open and honest like this, sure, I could entertain the idea of more. But he behaved this way 5 percent of the time. What was more, I doubted Kyros was capable of casual sex.
“For me, this was a one-time thing…” I trailed off.
His face darkened, but the shadows were gone in the next instant. “Dinner isn’t marriage, Miss Tetley.”
I frowned at the ugly throbbing beneath the words. Well fuck, at least we both agreed marriage was out of the question.
“I need to eat before work, and I’d like company,” Kyros continued.
I rolled up my stockings. “This wouldn’t be you downplaying that it’s a date so I don’t refuse, would it?”
“It was me trying to save my dignity after you reduced what we shared to a one-time thing, actually.”
His comment startled a laugh from me.
I groaned after, shoved aside my concerns. “I’ll come to dinner. A friendly dinner.”
“Do you fuck all your friends’ faces?”
He ducked as I threw my stockings at his head.
The shower turned on a moment later, and I picked up the remote. Turning on the television, I flicked through the channels, not registering the content of a single one.
Whoa, that orgasm was earth-shattering.
When I first met Kyros, I told him that 25 percent compatibility, physical compatibility, wasn’t enough to tempt me. He’d proved me wrong. I was willing to bet a whole heap of women would sign up to experience that.
The temptation was real. Part of me wanted to believe the brief connection we’d shared before the second exchange meant something—that it would morph to trust and respect in time. Except the urge to give in to such a massive commitment was the blood bond talking, not me. Kyros and I had always shared a certain tension, even before he first compelled me, so I could admit that part was real, but the rest wasn’t.
We were still only 25 percent compatible in my mind.
I grinned as Kyros’s shower extended. Totally wanking. I picked up my water from the bedside table and took a few gulps.
Swallowing, I lowered the bottle and glanced at the fridge.
Look in his fridge.
Laurel knew something I didn’t.
I trusted the Indebted woman far more than I trusted Kyros. And I respected her. Really, we were far more compatible as life partners if either of us were that way inclined.
I gulped back my water and padded to the sink, filling the bottle.
He’d hear if I opened the fridge, but I’d seen inside of it already. There was only blood and water.
I drank more water—loudly. Filling the bottle a third time, I carefully opened the cupboard door beneath the sink. Easing up the lid of the rubbish bin, I reached inside, fingers fumbling for the empty blood bag I’d seen him throw inside.
I straightened, flipping it over.
Basilia Le Spyre
B-Negative
Blood rushed through my ears as I re-read the label.
Kyros knew my real name.
The bathroom door slammed open, Kyros ran out, a white towel fastened around his hips. “What’s—”
His gaze landed on the bag in my shaking hands.
He knows my name.
I needed to pay attention to whatever he was feeling, but all I could do was think back through our encounters.
Every single one of them.
Right to the start when I’d stumbled out of this tower after my interview with Angelica and happened to nearly be run over by him.
Him waiting on the street to talk to me.
Coincidentally being present when I needed help with the Monocle login.
The blood compulsion.
The exchanges.
I covered my mouth, the trembling of my body strengthening. He knew my grandmother had died.
Kyros knew I’d just inherited billions.
“Right from the start,” I whispered, my voice cracking.
He didn’t move from the bathroom doorway.
“You’ve played me from day one. It was a setup.”
I hadn’t felt right after the interview with Angelica. “Did Angelica compel me to run out onto the street that day?”
His voice was soft. Flat. “She’s the best there is at eye compulsion. You knew something was different after that moment, but you didn’t seem to recall anything you’d told her under compulsion.”
Not true. I’d had nightmares of blurting everything out. I just hadn’t believed that was the real version.
None of what lay between Kyros and me was real.
From day one, he’d strung me along. I gasped, hurt spiking me in the chest so hard, I hunched forward.
We don’t need a tax number.
We pay in cash.
“You followed me,” I rushed to say. “You listened to my conversation with Tommy in the bar after the interview.”
Kyros took a step forward.
“Don’t you dare,” I shot at him, drawing myself up. “You’ve been seducing me for my money and position? Putting on a show to get a hold of my assets—my network.” It was all a joke.
I felt sick. I tossed the blood bag in the rubbish, placing my bottle on the bench.
“What are you doing?”
“Leaving this shithole. The exact thing I would have done long ago if I’d realised you already knew my real name.”
Kyros blocked me. “You’re not leaving this tower.”
“Get out of my way,” I said in a dark voice I barely recognised.
“I can’t let you—”
I screamed, “You made me drink your blood because I’m wealthy? You just—” I blanched, thinking of what we’d just done. My stomach roiled. “Oh my god, I can’t believe I let you touch me like that.”
Use me like that.
My chest seized and a burning slammed into the backs of my eyes like never before. I felt violated. Dirty.
Humiliated.
He blurred before my eyes and I pressed my nails into my shaking palms, swallowing hard. “You did this for Ingenium.”
“I got close to you in the beginning because my father ordered it.”
His father ordered him to. The words echoed in my head.
Voice hoarse, I summoned up every ounce of hatred in my system—a lot as it turned out. “You’re a fucking monster.”
Darkness swelled between us, the connection between us twisting, decaying to shadows and loathing.
“Move.” I would tear down this entire tower if he didn’t.
Kyros stepped aside.
I strode past without looking at him, stopping only to pick up the décor pinecone to hurl it against the far wall.
It shattered, burlap and sequins flying everywhere.
I marched out of his lair down to his office and let the shock, abhorrence, and bitter, bitter regret wash over me. So many weeks feeling that I had to protect my grandmother and the estate. Time with her that I’d never get back.