Page 35 of His Haunted Desire

“Victor,” Raiden replies stiffly.

“You don’t sound at all happy to see me.”

“Aurora, this is Victor: a man who once tried to steal the Blackwell fortune from my father. When he failed, he fell to his knees and begged for forgiveness, so my grandmother misguidedly allowed him back into the fold.”

“That’s a rather pessimistic explanation,” Victor says. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Aurora.”

“Uh, nice to meet you,” I mumble.

Victor claps Raiden on the shoulder. I feel Raiden go stiff through his arm around my waist, his body going tight.

“You smell like you’ve been drinking, Victor,” Raiden says. “You’ve made your introduction and said hello. It’s time to leave.”

“Are you having fun lingering at the edge of the party like a ghost, Raiden?”

“Remove your hand.”

Victor drops his gloved hand to his side, but he doesn’t seem to want to leave. He looks from Raiden to me and back again, fidgeting nervously. “I would love it if you could swallow thatfucking pride of yours and act like a grownup, at least for the weekend.”

Raiden steps forward, practically vibrating. I quickly grab his sleeve and pull him away.

“Just leave it,” I plead. “He’s not worth it.”

“Yeah, listen to your dog.” Victor laughs cruelly.

There’s no stopping Raiden. He grips Victor by his shirtfront and then spins, slamming him against the wall. “Make one more comment about my woman,” he barks. “Go on, Victor, I dare you. Do it. I want you to do it. Let’s see what happens.”

Victor claws at his hands, wheezing. “Please.”

“Say one more thing about my woman,”Raiden snarls, so loudly that several people turn to watch.

“I-I’m sorry.”

“It’s not me you should apologize to.”

“Aurora…” He turns his red eyes to me. “Please accept my apologies. I’ve had too much to drink.”

“It’s okay.” I touch Raiden’s back, feeling his tense muscles through his jacket. “Raiden, let him go.”

Raiden shoves Victor one last time and takes a step back. “Get away from me.”

Once Victor has hurried away, Raiden grabs me by the waist and pulls me toward him for a kiss. Our lips clash in a collision of pure fire, pleasure whispering through my body.

“It makes all of this more convincing,” he whispers in my ear after the kiss.

My heart drops at his words.

It’s exactly what I said to him at dinner when we were sharing about our parents, about faking, about our inner pain.

“Let’s head back to the room. People have seen me defend you. Word will get around. Now they’ll assume our patience has run out and we’re going back to the room to tear chunks out of each other.”

“You phrase it so romantically,” I mutter sarcastically.

He chuckles gruffly and puts his hand on the small of my back and leads me through the Gothic mansion. When the storm makes the building tremble, I try not to let my fear show.

Back in the room, Raiden closes the door, then leans against the wall, hands in his pockets, mask still on as he watches me. I keep mine on too. It’s like a shield at this point.

Thunder rumbles, and I flinch again.