Page 16 of Vampires of Eden

I squirm in my seat because this turning of the tables makes me uncomfortable.

“That was different,” I say.

“How so, exactly?”

Shifting against the sofa, I twist the wine tumbler in my fingertips—crawling my digits across the surface in a spidery motion. I thought it was different because I was in love with Oliver. I loved him with everything that I had and in the best way that I knew how. But he was still repelled by me. Despite everything, he wanted nothing to do with our arrangement.

Is this how he felt around me? Was I just as vulgar, entitled and arrogant as Lord Cherrington? God. I don’t even know anymore. It hurts to think about it.

Lord Cherrington takes hold of my chin with his fingertips. His grip is strong as he turns my head so that mywide eyes meet his intense ones. “Will you give me your full attention, young master? Could you willingly submit to me?”

“My apologies, your grace, but touching his highness is not permitted at this time.” With his shoulders back and his head high, Raphael makes this proclamation without even looking at us. He stands beside the door leading to the outer café with his posture perfectly erect, like the most honorable of soldiers.

Smeed, Lord Cherrington’s manservant, stands on the opposite side of the door. He looks like a soldier, too—but the kind that would secretly make a traitorous and self-serving deal with the enemy. His limbs are long and his hair is jet black. He almost… reminds me of a spider. But that feels like an insult to spiders because spiders are really cool and smart.

Lord Cherrington drops his hand and scoffs. Grateful for the distraction, I take the opportunity to casually scoot away from him.

“Is this truly necessary?” he barks at Raphael, incredulous. “At my age? A chaperone forchastity?”

His gaze still forward, Raphael’s voice is precise enough to cut through a block of ice. “It is the natural law of Eden, your grace.” With Raphael throwing Lord Cherrington’s words back at him, I have an urge to laugh. I take the smallest sip of my wine instead to cover my smile.

The older vampire points, rudely. “This one—this insolentsecond-generation vampire will not be permitted to reside within my estate should I claim you. My house only accepts first-generation vampires as servants. I’ll see to it that you are disgraced and dumped into a dosshouse without recourse, do you hear me?”

The hell? Who says the word ‘dosshouse’? “Raphael has been my manservant since I was a child. Where I go, he goes. Full stop.”

“We’ll see about that, won’t we?” Lord Cherrington lifts an eyebrow, smirking. Without warning, he leans toward me. His movement is so fast that I’m left totally open. There’s absolutely nothing I can do when he grabs the opposite side of my head with his free hand, then dips his face into my neck.

My entire body turns to ice as he licks me in a long, wet stroke, then let’s me go. It all happens within the blink of an eye and I’m left quaking in shock as I lean away from him with my eyes practically bulging out of their sockets. “What the fuck?” I shriek, because I have no space for decorum right now. Fucking hell.

He sits back against the sofa, grinning and lifting his wine to me in a celebratory motion. “Despite what your smug and inferior manservant says, I’ll have my princely sample if I please. You taste as lovely as I’ve always imagined, Alexander. I’m looking forward to sinking my fangs into you.” He sips from his glass, winking.

I sneer, livid and disgusted. “You must be out of your goddamned?—”

“Your grace,” Raphael’s voice cuts across the silence of the room once more. “We should leave soon to ensure that you arrive at your next engagement on time.”

“What ‘next’ engagement?” Lord Cherrington says, obviously displeased. “Lady Kendrick assured me that we’d have ample time this evening to talk.”

“Something came up at the last minute,” I spit, scowling as I stand from the couch and set my glass on the low table in front of us. My hands are shaking, so I’m grateful when Raphael appears behind me with my coat open. Slipping my arms into the garment, I straighten my spine.

There are no additional appointments tonight, but when Raphael offers me a lifeline, I take it.

“It feels to me as if my lovely golden prince is running away?” he says, shamelessly looking me up and down. I repress another shudder. “We’ll have to arrange something again very soon—withmymanservant as watchdog, only. Leave yours at home.”

Speechless, I shake my head. This might be the first time in my life that I’ve ever looked at another vampire and wanted to physically rip their throat out. Could I even do that? It would bemessy as hell and would probably start another war, but I’d feel better.

Lord Cherrington grins. “Have a good evening, my dear prince.”

With all the self-control I can muster, I turn and walk away. My stride is long and purposeful. Raphael whisks the door to the outer café open and I don’t hesitate as I stalk past Smeed, who throws me an indiscernible look with his dark eyes but remains silent.

The deep, moody colors and lights of the room merge into a blur as I move toward the front doors. Someone calls out to me in greeting—probably the owner since I come here fairly often—but I don’t stop or look around because my flight response is in full control of my body.

I have to get out. Now.

When I pass through the double doors and head toward the car, the frosty evening air and snow steal my breath. Raphael is behind me, keeping with my stride. He has the keys and the doorsclickto unlock. The car automatically starts as I draw closer, then pull open the passenger-side door.

I plop down into the leather seat, physically and mentally frozen as I stare out the window at the glowing façade of the café. A moment later, Raphael is in the driver seat and shuts his door, shrouding us in an oppressive, muffled silence.

That conceited old bastardlickedme. With a jolt, I hunch my shoulder as the memory and sensation flashes through my mind like a waking nightmare.