Page 84 of Wedlock (Vampire Bachelor Games #3)

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 I want to date her tonight, and I’m looking at her out of admiration, not annoyance.

Still, it seems she has exactly the same expression she wore that evening.

She glances up, perhaps sensing my scrutiny, and frowns.

“Is something lacking?” I murmur.

She shakes her head and looks back down at the list of food items.

“What is it?” I prompt.

Sighing, she looks up.

“Morocco, Falcon? The same restaurant?”

I smile.

“Since our date that night was interrupted by an attack, I thought we might complete it. I remember you wanted to walk the medina and peruse the stalls, to be in amongst the throng of humanity. Tonight we can do that.”

I don’t remind her that our date here was also the night she’d first tried to run from me.

Or the first night I bit her and tasted her forbidden blood, my head warring with my heart over whether to kill her or keep her.

Perhaps if I’d trusted my heart then, we’d be dining in very different circumstances right now.

“You want to walk in the medina?” She cocks her head to the side, looking at me disbelievingly. “I seem to recall you saying all humans were exactly alike and intimating we were nothing but food.”

“You know I don’t think that way any longer,” I mutter. “Honestly, no, I don’t want to walk around down there. But you do. So we shall.”

She stares at me and takes a long sip of her white wine.

“What exactly is your view on humanity now, Lord Dragonspur?”

I shrug. This isn’t a conversation I feel comfortable with. I’d warred with myself daily over this very question and still have no definitive answer.

“I need to drink blood,” I shrug as I pick up my whisky and drain it, indicating with a nod to the hovering waiter that I want another, “but I appreciate humans more for other qualities now.”

“What other qualities?”

I sigh.

“The Games changed my perception of women. I can’t tell you how, I don’t exactly know. I’ve had some time to think about it, and I’ve discussed it with Wolf. I think you changed me, Angie.”

“Having spent some time with Wolf, I don’t imagine he could have shed any particular light on much at all,” she quips, “he seems to joke about everything.”

“Yes,” I smirk, “he goes through the world finding humour in most things,” I shake my head, “but he’s a good friend, a loyal friend.”

‘Not like my other comrade. The one you fucked.’

I clench my teeth and try to put aside my intrusive thoughts.

“I heard that Wolf brought forward some human witnesses in your court case that turned the tide in your favour,” she murmurs. “Some unlikely witnesses.”

I narrow my eyes at her.

“Is this examination of the past truly necessary? You know it only ends in pain.”

“I’m just trying to understand you. To get to know you, Falcon,” she puts down her drink and looks at her empty plate and back up at me through her lashes. “Examination of your past is surely a good way to predict your future actions.”

“I fucking hope not,” I snort.

“Why did you save those women?” She breathes, leaning forward to stare at me. “They were bitten by Spider. You planned to destroy them all from what I understand. What stayed your hand?”

“Who told you this?”

“Jag.”

I lean back in my chair and frown.

‘Where’s that fucking drink?’

“If you really must know,” I shrug, “some of them were children. And don’t go looking at me like that. I’m no saint. I killed everyone over the age of sixteen. Anyone younger, a handful, no more, I spared.”

“Why?”

“Because I’m not my goddamned father, Angie. Although I know I’ve given you no reason to believe any different over the past few years. I’d never deliberately harm a child.”

She nods as though I’ve confirmed something she already knew.

‘What’s she thinking?’

“Falcon,” she frowns at me, “what’s the real reason we’re here?”

I take a deep breath and look into her beautiful eyes.

It’s true I wanted to give her the experience she’d craved all those years ago.

Perhaps walk later to where I’d picked up the cat and kittens, remind her I wasn’t such a monster.

But more than that, I’m trying to please her.

And I’m trying to impress upon her my sadness over how our relationship has transpired, and fix what I’d broken.

I can’t say any of this, though. The words just won’t come. I hope my actions will speak for me.

I clear my throat and shrug.

“I wanted you to know that every date I went on during The Games should have been with you — and so it will be.”

“Every date?” She looks at me, disbelieving. “You mean you plan to take me to every country and re-live every date you had with all those girls?”

“Every one,” I nod solemnly. “I don’t want to relive it, after all, I ate most of them,” I smirk. “I want to live it for the first time, with you.”

“Every date?” She asks again.

“Yes.”

“This wasn’t your first date,” she snorts, looking back down at the menu. “That was with Giselle, in Spain.”

I rise and hold out my hand.

“What?” She frowns.

“Let’s go?”

“Where?”

“Spain.”

“No,” she laughs, “Don’t be an idiot. I don’t need you to recreate every date, I’m just saying...”

“You’re just saying you know each and every date I went on in every country with every girl,” I smirk.

“Don’t let it go to your head,” she snorts. “I had very little else to occupy my thoughts at the time.”

“And yet you still remember,” I murmur. “Perhaps I’m not the only green-eyed monster in the room.”

“This is a rooftop restaurant,” she rolls her eyes, “not a room. And you, Vampire, have tickets on yourself.”

I laugh as the waiter approaches with my drink and Angie orders a vast number of dishes and dessert.