“Christine!” When he found the house empty, he turned back around on her. “Where is she?” he asked slowly.

She must have seen the lethal intent in his eyes because she took a step back, eyes widening a fraction. “She’s taking care of Vanessa.”

Dmetri spun out of the cabin before she could mutter another word to him. He made his way to the spare cabin Vanessa was staying in since Brayden rescued her. When he reached it, he didn’t bother knocking but flung open the door.

Christine and Vanessa turned to him with wide stares.

“I was looking for you,” he growled.

The shock left her eyes and turned to laughter. “I’m honored, Dmetri.” Yeah, yeah, she should be. He closed the door and took a seat across the room in the only other available chair. Vanessa rested on a futon and looked as though she’d been in a war zone.

Christine applied some kind of salve over the girl’s eyes and lip where busted skin showed.

“All right, all done.” She put her supplies back in her brown satchel. “Who do you want to come and hang out with you? Rome, Darien, Vane, Vera?”

“No, no one right now. I’m just going to go to sleep for awhile.” They said their goodbyes and left the cabin.

“You look lovely.”

She turned to him and laughed. “I do not. My hair’s a mess, I have sticky ointment on my fingers, and my jeans are dirty.”

Dmetri looked at all the problems she just noted and realized he hadn’t noticed any of them.

“Still lovely.”

She blushed and rolled her eyes but he could see her eyes glittering at his words.

“I would like you to come with me.”

“Where?”

“Many places. My home, France, Russia, Venice. I could take you anywhere you wanted.” She gasped in surprise. He hadn’t even meant to say it though it was all true. “Just say you’re mine.”

She shook her head as if she had a bee stuck in her hair. He almost laughed...almost.

“All right then, I’ve made arrangements for us to have lunch together.” Her smile made his skin warmer, the day brighter. “Another date?”

“Of course, I like dating you.”

They walked in companionable silence to his guest cabin.

“Come in and have a seat.”

She sat down at the small dinner table and fiddled with the white tablecloth. “What are we having to eat?”

“You, my sweet, are having chicken Florentine and I’m having a glass of B.” She chuckled. “Sounds great.”

He made his way to the fridge, pulled out a casserole container, and started plating it.

“Did you make this yourself?”

“No, since I can’t stand to taste the food I’m sure what I’d make would taste horrible. I talked to Alison Kategan and had her make it for me. I hear she is quite the cook.” He set the plate in front of her and poured himself a glass of red liquid, thicker than wine.

It was an odd sight to see and she found herself surprised even though he’d just told her he’d be having some.

She didn’t hesitate to dig into the food. She finished chewing a big bite and said, “You’re right. This is amazing.”

He inclined his head to her before taking the seat across from her. Once again, his much larger body seemed to take up the entire space, yet he wasn’t a bodybuilder type that physically took up space. He just had a presence about him that spoke of power.

“Any news on Claude?” she asked.

He shook his head. “Not yet, but he’ll slip up again. I’ll get him before anyone else gets hurt.”

“How’s your leg?”

He shifted until he was leaning back in his seat with one arm thrown across the back, his long legs stretched out in front of him. The dark look he gave her sent her stomach fluttering.

“Why don’t you pull my pants down and take a look?”

She choked on the bite of food she’d taken and swallowed hard over the lump of meat in her throat. As soon as it was down, she started laughing.

He sighed in defeat. “Forever laughing at me.”

She controlled her twitching lips, barely. “I can’t help it. You’re so funny!” He looked up as if searching for guidance. “I am not amusing, Christine.”

“Disagree.”

He jumped out of his seat in the closest thing to rage since the attack. The change was so sudden, she could only sit there, stunned.

“I am not funny!” Instead of his usual contained, seductive voice, he shouted. Christine pushed herself as far back in her seat as she could as she gaped up at him.

He started to speak, then closed his mouth and jabbed his hand through his hair several times. “I...” He shook his head, sending his long blonde hair slapping around him. “You...” After a moment, he seemed to get control over himself. He took several deep breaths then leveled a hard look on her. It was the only way to describe it, the look pierced her, rooted her in place as if she were frozen in ice.

“What are you trying to say, Dmetri?”

He flattened his palms on the table and towered over her. “I’ve had enough of this. I always get what I want, Christine. Always. When I want a woman, I have her. When I want a house, I buy it.”

Christine had a sinking feeling in her stomach, and at the same time her breathing quickened with an emotion that scared her too much to think about. As the protest formed on the tip of her tongue, he made a slashing move with his hand that silenced her.

“No, now you get to hear me talk. I want you, and I get to keep what I want. I’m going to bring Claude Phelans to justice, and then I’m taking you with me. Do you understand me?” Her mouth opened but no sound came out.

His frustration boiling, he rolled his neck and asked again. “I said do you understand me?”

Christine never had a problem with words yet in that moment, they failed her. He stood, waiting for her answer, the tic over his right eye growing more and more agitated.

“But you’re a vampire.”

He stared at her for a long moment. “Yes, we’ve established that,” he said slowly.

“But I need to mate with an Alpha. You’ll never be one.” He closed his eyes as if trying for patience. “No, I won’t. I’m better, stronger, wealthier, and I want you. That’s all you need to know.”

Tired of him towering over her, she stood too and glared back at him. “I have a duty to honor my mother and father’s wishes. I’m not going to ignore that for my own selfish reasons.

No matter—” she caught herself before she made the slip.

“No matter what, Christine? No matter what you want?” His point hit too close to home. Christine took a step back then another, when he followed she turned and ran for the door. He caught her before she’d taken three steps.

“No fair, you’re faster,” she said as he turned her to face him.

“We’re finishing this discussion now, Christine.”

But I don’t want to, is what she wanted to say. The topic was too sensitive, too close to home.

“Listen, I’m not changing my mind no matter what. I may not like what my mother wants me to do, but I’m going to do it. She deserves that much.”

“God dammit, Christine. I’m not asking you to mate with me—”

“No, you just want to keep fucking me.” Her crude words surprised them both, and the vehemence with which she said it took them both by surprise.

“This isn’t about your damn...body, Christine. You’re a puzzling woman whom I want to be around.”

Anger surged inside her, white-hot and quick. She embraced it because she understood it.

The anger was easier to accept.

“So let me guess, after you get the ‘puzzle’ figured out you can drop me off to the side like you did with Vera. Oh, wait, no, that was because she told you she loved you.” He stiffened like a board, his face turning into a dark mask. For some reason his response only riled her anger even more.