Page 107 of Wedlock

“You also can’t kidnap me. When we go on a date I expect to be returned the same night. And this is just a date. Don’t have any expectations.”

“Expectations?”

“You know what I mean. No sex or, or…” she frowns as though trying to think through a list of things she means to forbid.

“I will be the consummate gentleman, Angelina,” I bow to her. “I consider this our first date and wouldn’t dream of taking liberties. But,” I straighten up and quirk an eyebrow at her, “just so we’re clear, a good spanking is out of the question?”

“Don’t push your luck.”

I’m still laughing as I reach my chopper.

83

“And this is your solution?” She throws her hands up in exasperation as she watches me apply my makeup.

“You said it yourself,” I shrug, “I need to approach this another way. If I’m right and he sees me as a challenge the same way Revna sees him, then I’ll stop being a challenge. He’ll get bored and he’ll eventually realise I’m not the one for him.”

“You intend to douse a fire by throwing petrol on it,” Yin sighs, “I don’t see this working.”

“I can’t think of any other option, and you haven’t come up with one either,” I give her a stern look in the mirror, “and need I remind you that I wouldn’t have had to resort to such drastic measures if he hadn’t seen the kids.”

She pales and looks away. I know she feels guilty as hell and responsible for what happened last week, as she should. She’d opened the door to the playroom despite the nanny shouting for her not to do so, and they’d flown out — literally, flown out.

“As long as he bought the story that Suzume is your niece,” she says quietly, “we dodged a fearful bullet.”

“He did,” I growl, “but I intend to cement that belief tonight.”

“Are you going to sleep with him?”

I turn from the mirror and shake my head.

“Do I look like I’m setting out to seduce a vampire lord?”

I spin to show her my clothes. Jeans and a long-sleeved shirt, Converse sneakers. The only concession I’d made to the fact we’d likely be out in public is putting my hair up in a bun and applying makeup.

“Can you be sure you won’t succumb to his charms, Angie?” Yin asks quietly. “Given you still love him.”

I bite my tongue.

For a long, long time, this subject has been off limits. I don’t know why she’s suddenly putting it back on the table.

‘Perhaps because she can read my mind.’

“Yin,” I sigh, “I’m going to let him date me and get it out of his system. I’m going to be my normal, boring old human self and wipe out any thoughts he might have that I’m anything else. I’m not going to put up with any of his shit, and I’m not going to play particularly nice. He’ll soon realise I’m just the ordinary girl everyone said I was, put into The Games by his incurably sneaky mother, and not suitable to be his partner. But he has to come to the knowledge himself. As Revna said when she sucked my blood, ‘this cannot be.’ He and I, cannot be. No amount ofstruggling or refusing to see him will help him understand this. Dating him is the only way.”

“Unmei no akai ito,” she whispers.

I take her hands in mine and squeeze them, meeting her eyes.

“No, Yin. There’s no ‘red thread of fate’ tying us together, no invisible string connecting us. There was just a game show — ariggedgame show.”

“I hope you’re right,” she murmurs, pulling her hands from mine and leaving the room.

84

I lean back in my chair and watch her peruse the menu.

To anyone watching, this might seem like exactly the same routine we went through the first time we came here. She scowling at the menu, me leaning back, watching her. Only, this time the circumstances are vastly different for me, because Iwantto date her tonight, and I’m looking at her out of admiration, not annoyance.