Page 58 of The Vampire's Seduction

“I have another week. Let’s talk then.”

Olivia hung up before she said something she’d regret. Since when had Yun turned into Zylotech’s champion? The man had talked often of leaving and going somewhere with better pay and benefits.

Frustrated with the call, Olivia boiled water for tea before ordering some chicken and waffles from Tristan. She hated to admit it, but she could get used to this.

While waiting, she signed off the laptop’s VPN and pulled up a browser. Since her chances of returning to Zylotech were nil, she should look for more jobs.

Maybe even somewhere in Vegas? Was she really considering living here?

Did they even have VB research jobs here? Considering Marek’s utter disgust with her job, it seemed unlikely.

Olivia poured her tea. As she blew on it, her gaze snagged on the sunflowers, their bright yellow-orange petals bringing a spot of cheer to her rough morning. She padded over to the vase and opened the attached card, her curiosity finally winning out.

It read, “I hope these brighten your day as they do mine. From Marek.”

Olivia gently set her mug down and took a tremulous breath, her heart suddenly in her throat. Where had this romantic line come from? She couldn’t imagine Marek saying, much less writing, this.

He probably had someone else write the card,part of her grumbled.He doesn’t have a romantic bone in his body.

Her trusty planner, along with a pen, waited beside the flowers, as though someone had planned it. Olivia opened it to the pros and cons list and read it again.

Buys me flowers,she added as a pro.

Which didn’t feel strong enough to offset “conceited, arrogant, manipulative.”In fact, did anything offset the kidnapping?

His kiss,the forbidden thought came.

She recalled the way his lips had mashed against hers. The raw hunger of his hands roaming down her sides. Those steel muscles bunching under her touch. The way her entire body had lit up like fireworks.

How she’d felt alive, present, for the first time in her life. How everything had come into focus as if a fog had lifted, yet nothing mattered except him. His sinful touch. His sensual scent. His sexy body.

Soulmate.

She didn’t believe in such nonsense. Did she?

The word was so archaic. So… Ridiculous. Old-fashioned.

People didn’t have mates. They had spouses, partners, lovers.

Well, not her. She had only herself, which hadn’t bothered her before. Sure, she’d dated whenever she had spare time, but no one had singed her nerves with lightning the way Marek did with a single kiss.

Her thighs rubbed together as the dream returned. If she slept with him, she had no doubt the reality would be earth-shattering, thousands of times better than her dreams.

But her reaction to Marek went beyond the physical.

Her heart turned over in her chest when he smiled. Worse, she wanted to rely on him, to trust him, like no one before.

Was she falling for his vampire allure? Was he secretly enslaving her somehow?

Olivia wasn’t prejudiced against vampires. She fully supported the vampire rights movement and disregarded those who said vampires were soulless demons. Yet, she wasn’t so naive as to think they were the same as humans. There was no denying their innate power or their magnetism, or that there were some who misused it to trap or feed on unwilling humans.

But a few bad apples didn’t mean the entire race was evil.

Olivia tapped her pen against the notebook as her brain whirled. If he was enslaving her, why did he bother caring for Betsy? Or allowing her so much freedom with Andrea?

She was over-analyzing it. Maybe she should take him at his word.

That she was his mate.