Page 66 of Vampire Soldier

I can’t look at him anymore. Not with the shame now turning my stomach. It’s like I’m on some messed-up emotional roller coaster or a boat like that one in Willy Wonka. Except when I lower my gaze to the floor, his hand grasps my chin. His touch is so careful, so gentle, that tears burn in my eyes as he makes me look back up at him.

Seriously, what has this man done to me? I’m never like this.

“You want to know why I was there that night?”

His voice is like a rough whisper, like the day after screaming all night at a concert. I don’t know if I really want to know the answer. Whatever it is, it’s going to change everything. Somewhere, I find the courage to nod—more of a twitch of the head, but he accepts it. His hand falls to his side, but he doesn’t move back and neither do I.

He takes one breath, then another. “Because I haven’t stopped thinking about you. Since the first night you kissed me. Since the first time you showed up in my life like a hurricane I never saw coming.”

The look in his gaze shifts slightly, but not the intensity.

“After that night between us . . . I was already coming apart. Already looking for excuses to see you. I wasn’t thinking like a leader, like a business owner. I was a man in denial about losing his fucking mind. I was hunting alone near your street just to be closer. I told myself it was just a coincidence. That I was doing my duties to Ambrose. But the truth is?—”

He exhales, voice raw.

“The truth is, I’ve been obsessed with you. And that night . . . when I heard your scream? I moved before I even knew what I was doing. I didn’t think. I just ran.”

The confession hangs between us like a blade suspended by a thread. Heavy. Fragile. Honest.

Malachi swallows hard, and it’s like it costs him something to hold my gaze. But he doesn’t look away.

“I never meant to scare you,” he says quietly. “But I won’t lie to you either. You’ve been under my skin since the first moment. And the more I tried to walk away . . . the harder it got. So, last night I decided I was done walking away.”

Something shifts in his expression—something almost like relief. Because now it’s out there. Now it’s real.

And there’s no taking it back.

ChapterTwenty-Six

BLAKE

Malachi’s private office at The Place isn’t just intimidating—it’s fortified. Built to project authority the way other men wear suits. And right now? The damn thing hums with it.

I’ve been in this room before—sat across from that ridiculous desk pretending not to shake in my seat, pretending the weight of his gaze didn’t make my spine feel like it was grinding into dust. But this is the first time I’ve walked into it as… whatever I am now. Not just a name on payroll. Not just a body in dancer’s shoes and leggings brought in to “maintain the production schedule.” This time, I’m the woman who’s been kissed senseless, worshipped against a desk, bitten—fed from. Like someone cherished. Like someone claimed. And who has no fucking clue what happens next.

Maybe that’s why it takes me a moment to realize there are already people in here.

Perry, I already know, but the other man and woman are strangers to me. The three of them look at us when we enter, and I’m pinned in place. I only move again when Malachi nudges me forward with a hand to my lower back after he’s closed the door.

Perry is sitting in the chair I’ve come to think of as “his,” the leather club chair closest to Malachi’s desk. He’s dressed in his usual slacks and polo, with his leather folio closed and propped on the leg he’s got crossed over his knee.

An unfamiliar man with raven-black hair pulled back in a half bun stands near the large window overlooking the restaurant, with his arms folded like someone carved him out of granite and ran out of fucks to give. When he looks over his shoulder, light glints off his golden eyes. Another vampire. He’s in one of the Nightshade signature black suits, the cut so clean it could slice someone if he moved too fast. His golden eyes track me the second I enter, not cold, but not exactly warm either. Just… observant. Like he’s cataloging my whole mood in a second and deciding exactly how dangerous I am to this situation. He makes the whispers of the Barrows come to mind, the ones that talk about the Lion of the Barrows—the vampire king’s right hand and top enforcer.

He has to be Kasar.

A woman is the most casual-looking of them, with bright brown eyes that mark her human. She’s got the look of effortless beauty down, with her black wavy hair tumbling artfully around her shoulders, thick black eyelashes with only a touch of eyeliner, and lip gloss on her cupid-bow lips. She’s wearing a wine-red tunic dress that probably costs more than my entire monthly food budget. She’s lounging in Malachi’s chair, pushed back from the desk, sneakered feet propped up on it like she owns the place. The mischievous grin she gives him is overly familiar—and an irrational spike of jealousy cuts through me.

Malachi hadn’t said he was with anyone; I had just assumed he wasn’t. But why would he have had sex with me if he was? Why would he have said that I was his and take me and Charlie into his penthouse?

She’s got the curves I’ve always envied and oozes confidence. She fits here. In Topside. With him. I feel even more out of place in my thrifted work clothes—tight, pale lavender athleisure pants, a white racerback cotton tee, and my favorite long black cardigan. At least I’m wearing my nicest black flats, though they don’t make me feel any less shabby.

“You’ve been avoiding me,” the woman teases with a pout. Even her voice is sexy—raspy, low, like it’s made for private booths and whispered secrets.

Malachi stalks around me and knocks her feet off his desk. “Heathen,” he says in a mock scold. “I haven’t been avoiding you, El. I saw you last night.”

I refuse to be jealous. There’s no reason to be. Malachi and I haven’t discussed if we’re exclusive, and I can’t expect him to not have had a history just because I was a virgin before him.

“That doesn’t count,” El replies, sticking her tongue out at him before turning her bright smile on me. “You must be Blake. Perry here’s been raving about how good you are for the Stage Producer position. And I was here last night. It was amazing!”

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