Part 14 (1/2)
There was some satisfaction in her blaming Ivan, Aidan thought, but it didn't help to have her cuddling those accursed flowers.
Stefan shook his head. ”Actually, Aidan, the police are very interested in those bodies. It seems the way they burned was quite remarkable, as if the flames were burning from the inside out. There was nothing left but ashes. They couldn't ID the bodies through dental work either. I think they'll insist on speaking to both of you.”
Alexandria slumped against the counter, leaning heavily on Aidan. ”I'm not very good at lying, Aidan. Everyone always knows when I'm lying.”
She sounded so dejected, as if it was a terrible sin that she couldn't lie, that he smiled. ”Do not worry, cara. I will handle the police. All you have to do is sit in a chair and look fragile and delicate,” Aidan a.s.sured her.
She frowned at him as if she thought he was making fun of her. ”I can't look fragile. Or delicate. I'm st.u.r.dy, Aidan.”
He laughed then. He couldn't help it. The sound was deep velvet, a pure note that made Alexandria smile even as she nudged him. ”Don't laugh, you ape. I swear, Aidan, you're so completely arrogant, it's scary. Has he always been this way?” She was smiling at Marie-her first genuine smile at the other woman, a sharing of feminine minds.”Always,” Marie said solemnly, her heart lightening. She had not realized just how afraid she had been that the house hold would change, that she and Stefan would no longer be welcome. She knew Aidan would never throw them out, but if the tension between Alexandria and herself was not resolved, sooner or later she and Stefan would have to find their own place. And Aidan's home had been her home her entire life. When she married Stefan, he had moved in and accepted the life she led, had accepted and grown to love Aidan Savage, too.
”I think the living room is the perfect place to put the flowers,” Alexandria agreed. ”When Thomas comes over, he'll be able to see them.”
Aidan found himself gritting his teeth. Alexandria was already flitting from the kitchen. He caught Marie by the shoulder before she could follow, leaned down, and put his mouth to her ear.
”Couldn't you have thrown the d.a.m.n things out?” The words came out somewhere between a hiss and a growl. ”And just for the record, you traitor, Ivan is not her man. I am.”
Marie looked shocked. ”Not yet, you're not. I believe you still have to court her. And of course I would never throw roses out, Aidan. When a man goes to the trouble of giving a woman flowers, she should at least have the pleasure of seeing them.”
”I thought you didn't like this b.u.m.”
”He can't be all bad. You should have seen his concern for her. I tell you, Aidan, he's really taken with her.” Marie was deliberately, innocently enthusiastic. ”I don't think you'll have to worry about her when she's with him.” She attempted to sound rea.s.suring.
Behind them, Stefan was choking again. Aidan swore eloquently in three languages and followed Alexandria out of the room, shaking his head over the workings of the female mind.
Stefan put an arm around Marie. ”Wicked, wicked woman.”
She laughed softly. ”This is fun, Stefan. And it's good for him.”
”Be careful, woman. He is not like other men. He might kill to keep her. His nature is that of a wild predator,” Stefan warned gravely. ”We've never seen him like this.”
Marie sniffed. ”He will behave himself. He wouldn't dare do otherwise. That girl wants to run. She has sense, that one, and plenty of courage.”
”Spirit,” Stefan agreed. ”She will lead him a dance. But she doesn't realize the danger she will always be in. Or the danger Joshua will be in.”
”She needs time, Stefan,” Marie said softly. ”She will have us to help her, and Aidan will guide her.”
Aidan paced after Alexandria, pus.h.i.+ng down the swirling demon raging against that soft, faraway look that had crept into her eyes. Intellectually he understood the lure Thomas Ivan represented to Alexandria. She wanted to be human. She wanted to feel human. She wanted to work and live in the human world. She believed Ivan could give her that. Even more, she would not have to deal with the unfamiliar, frighteningly intense s.e.xual feelings Aidan evoked in her.
He reached out and caught the length of her hair in his hand, bringing her to an abrupt halt. ”Do not worry about the police, Alexandria. They will not ask you anything about the vampires. They have no idea they were vampires, and they believe you were in a hospital. If they ask, just tell them you do not remember anything.”
She was quiet a moment as she arranged the roses. He could sense her unease. ”Aidan? Can I leave here? Would you let me go?”
Involuntarily his hand tightened in her hair. He let his breath out slowly. ”What brought this on, piccola?”
”I just want to know. You said I wasn't a prisoner here. Can I come and go as I please?” Her teeth were tugging at her full lower lip.
”Are you planning on dating this joker?”
”I want to know if I can leave this house.”
He wrapped an arm around her slender waist and pulled her against his hard frame. ”Do you think you could survive without me?” His mouth was close enough to her neck that she could feel the warmth of his breath. Despite her every intention not to respond, her body caught fire.
Her sapphire eyes searched his face. He gave nothing away; she had no idea what he was thinking, and she wasn't going to merge her mind with his to find out. He was drawing her deeper and deeper into his world, a world of the night. A world of s.e.xuality and violence. Alexandria wanted her old life back. She wanted familiar things around her, things she had some control over.
His perfect mouth touched her throat. A brush of flame. His golden gaze met her eyes. ”Do not ask questions you do not really want the answer to. I will not lie to you, even to make it easier.”
She closed her eyes as warmth flooded her body. He made her feel cherished. Made her feel beautiful. Made her feel unfulfilled and empty without him. Her fingers tightened around the stem of one of the roses. She jerked her hand away with a little cry, cradling one finger.
”Let me see,” he said softly. His voice was tender, his touch gentle as he pulled her hand to him for his inspection. A pinp.r.i.c.k of blood welled up from her index finger. ”Sir Galahad left a thorn,” he murmured as he bent his head and took her finger into the healing heat of his mouth.
She couldn't move, couldn't speak. Her body blazed with need. She stood as still as she could, watching him the way a cornered mouse does a cat. He had already taken over her life. It was there in her mind, in her body, her terrible need of him. She wanted to cry. Even if she managed to escape, to somehow get Joshua out and run away from him, she would carry him with her everywhere she went.
Abruptly she jerked her hand away from him before the flames leapt any higher. ”His name is Thomas Ivan, not Sir Galahad, and I doubt very much if he personally took the thorns from the roses.”
Aidan nodded solemnly. ”You are right, piccola. He would not think of such a thing himself, nor would he perform the task. He would think it beneath him and a waste of his time.” He reached around her and removed the thorn, then examined each stem carefully to a.s.sure himself she would not get hurt again.
”Why do you have to make him sound so petty?” she demanded, exasperated. She was determined to be attracted to Ivan. Women all over the world had multiple lovers. If other women could be attracted to more than one man in a lifetime, so could she. It didn't have to be just Aidan Savage.
He was worldly, sensuous, impossibly attractive with those haunting eyes and that perfect mouth.
Any woman might fall for him, but all it was physical attraction. She could get over it like a bad case of the flu. A virulent case of the flu.
Aidan turned away from her to stare out the window. He didn't know whether to laugh or be angry at her wild thoughts. She was so determined to find someone, anyone, other than him.
”Aidan?” Stefan walked in. ”I informed the police that you and Alexandria had returned and that she would be up to speaking with them this morning. I made certain they understood she would be unable to go to the station or even to stay up long. They're sending a couple of detectives over now.”
”Detectives?” Aidan raised an eyebrow. ”For so trivial a matter?”Stefan cleared his throat and s.h.i.+fted his weight uneasily. ”I believe Mr. Ivan has some political pull.
He went above the department's head and even, according to the detective I spoke with yesterday, went so far as to check to see that all of us were in the country legally. I believe he wished to have us deported.”
Alexandria gasped, her chin lifting. ”He did what?”
”I'm sorry, Alexandria, I should not have repeated that within your hearing. Mr. Ivan was terribly upset at not being able to get in touch with you,” Stefan said.
Aidan could have strangled the man for attempting to get Ivan off the hook. Alexandria had been annoyed. Without her even being aware of it, she was already thinking of the members of his household as part of her family.
”That is no excuse for Thomas to throw his weight around and try to get you and Marie deported.
He didn't even care about completely disrupting your lives. And what about Joshua? He would have had to go into a foster home.” Her anger at Thomas Ivan was rising. She detested people who thought they could have their way because they had money. Though she would never admit it to Aidan, never concede that tiny bit of power, she was less and less inclined to work with the man or be involved with him in any meaningful way. Surely she would find other creative outlets.
”Actually,” Stefan confessed, avoiding Aidan's sharp gaze, ”I believe it was Aidan he was more interested in deporting. He had an investigator run a background check on him, hoping, I think, to come up with some hint of criminal activities. Unsavory is the descriptive I believe he used.”
Alexandria bit back a sudden laugh. ”Perhaps Thomas has more intuition than we gave him credit for. Unsavory is an apt word, don't you think, Stefan? I wouldn't mind having Aidan deported myself.”
”I think it would be prudent to retire to the kitchen and eat my breakfast, Alexandria,” Stefan said diplomatically.
”Your only choice,” Aidan growled.
Stefan grinned at him unrepentantly and paused in the doorway. ”You might want to give Mr. Ivan a call, Alexandria. The detectives said it might stop him from hara.s.sing them every ten minutes.”