Page 29 of The Vampire's Hunter

“You lied to me,” she hissed, doubling down. It didn’t matter that he was right, that she wanted Lucien dead as much as he did. She should have been informed.

Corbin’s expression hardened. “You were offered everything you asked for in exchange for attending a party, nothing more. I apologize if that was a chore for you.”

From the smug look on Corbin’s face, he knew that it wasn’t.

Heat flooded her cheeks. Shame, too.

What do you expect when you literally begged him to touch you?she chastised herself.

How could she have been such a fool?

“There was never any journal, was there? That was all part of the lie too.”

Corbin didn’t answer, he simply watched her, his expression as unmoving as a statue.

“And now, I suppose you expect me to say thank you for nearly getting me killed?”

Corbin scoffed. “Nearly is a matter of semantics and dramatics, darling. You couldnearlydie at any moment. It’s part of being human, yet here you stand, living and breathing among the undead, don’t you?”

“And I suppose I should be thanking you for that too?” She sneered.

Corbin returned the look. “You weresupposedto be safely upstairs. Had you been injured you would have been collateral damage. It wasn’t personal.”

“And that’s supposed to make it better?” she shouted at him, jaw clenching. “I don’t know what to do with you.” She waved her hands as if she were prepared to storm off, though she didn’t know where to. Not with Lucien still at large.

“It’s simple, Dani. As I’ve told you dozens of times before.” Corbin stepped forward, pegging her with a hardened stare. “Leave, and don’t come back to this world,” his gaze raked over her, hot and wanting, the next words he spoke new, “or else I’ll ruin you too.”

She dropped her hands to her sides, exasperated. “What does that even mean?”

“Already I see the ways this world, the waysIhave changed you.” Corbin’s glare was like diamonds then, so intense and sharp it could cut. “It means that if you had even an ounce of fucking self-preservation you wouldn’t parade yourself before me the way you do.”

“So now it’s my fault?” Dani’s jaw dropped. “Not you too. Now you sound just like my brother, trying to make my decisions for me.”

“At least he has the goddamn bloody sense not to risk himself!”

“Fuck you!” she shouted at him, drawing so close to his face, she could practically breathe him in, though she hadn’t planned to. “Fuck you and the horse you rode in on, Corbin. The only fault here is with you.” She stabbed one slender finger into the stone wall of his chest, causing him to snarl at her. “You never once questioned why I kept coming back, did you? Why I would never take the goddamn hint and leave?”

Stalking past her, Corbin wrenched open the penthouse door, attempting to wave her through it. “I have little use for you now, human. Leave, before I change my mind.”

“You really don’t realize, do you?” She stared at him, incredulously. “All this time, all this risk I’ve placed myself in. You’ve never once realized it’s all been for you. In a desperate, ridiculous search for your attention, all in hope that one day you’d finally notice, and—”

“Ihavenoticed you, Dani,” Corbin hissed, stopping her short. “I do nothingbutnotice you.”

Dani’s breath caught, her stupid, foolish heart hammering away inside her chest.

“Every time you walk into a room, every smile you gift to another. I’ve noticed. All of it.” Corbin looked toward her then, his eyes meeting hers.

“And yet, it meant nothing to you?” she whispered. “Am I that undesirable?”

“You are many things, Dani,” Corbin shook his head, easing toward her, “but undesirable isn’t one of them.” He prowled toward her then, his stride languid, his steps true. “What would you have me do?” he whispered, his voice velvet and smooth, a seductive touch against skin. “Keep you, turn you? Is that what you want?” He held her face in his hand once more. “I haven’t even fucked you, Dani, and already you have me wrapped around your finger.” The tortured look in his eyes tore through her. “What else would you have me do?”

She fell silent then, uncertain what to say. “So, you’d rather say goodbye before ever even giving us a real chance? Leave me alone to die like I meant nothing to you?” She shook her head, pulling away a little. “Like you said, we haven’t even fucked.”

“Does that matter?” Corbin asked, his gaze piercing through her. “Do you want to?”

Dani crossed her arms over her chest, refusing to look at him.

But she could feel his gaze on her, hot and searing.

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