Page 37 of Crimson Oath
“I’m not hungry,” Tatyana said. “I fed last night.”
“You should still keep something in your stomach to be comfortable,” he said. “You’re a creature of the body, despite your power. I ordered caviar and some local smoked salmon.”
“I don’t like smoked salmon.” She loved smoked salmon and remembered preparing it with her grandfather after he went fishing in the summer months.
Oleg snapped his fingers, and in seconds, the server was at his side. He said something else in Georgian that was so quick Tatyana didn’t catch it, but the man nodded and ducked away with a small bow.
“Since you don’t like smoked salmon” —Oleg stared at her— “I ordered some fried chicken strips from the children’s menu. Perhaps those will suit your current mood.”
God damn him. She wanted to laugh, but she couldn’t.
“Arosh is going to be angry with you,” Tatyana said. “Samson is his favorite son.”
“Is that why you are so cozy with him?” Oleg sipped the glass of white wine the server had poured for them. “Currying favor with the Fire King through his favorite child?”
“Samson is a friend,” Tatyana said. “He has protected me.”
“From what?” Oleg stared at her with cool grey eyes.
From you.
From too much attention.
From the whims of his father.
“Arosh won’t be happy with you,” she repeated.
Oleg set his glass down and folded his hands gracefully on the table. “Maybe, but he can say nothing. We’re not in his territory, and his son attacked me with no provocation.”
Tatyana couldn’t help but stare at Oleg’s hands. They were hands that had brought her pleasure so intense that she’d wept. They were hands that had wiped tears from her face and washed blood from her body.
“Tatyana.”
She blinked and looked up, striking the tender memories of thisvampire from her mind.
“I’m here,” she said quietly. “As you mentioned, we’re in Alina’s territory. I have permission to be here. I’m assuming you do as well. What do you want?”
“I want you to come back with me,” he said softly. “I don’t care about the gold, if that is worrying you. And I was going to give you the jewelry anyway.”
“You were going to give me your dead mate’s jewelry?”
“Myjewelry,” Oleg emphasized. “Jewels I had collected that I wanted you to wear. The jewelry is not important.”
“Does anyone else know I stole from you?” She was guessing not. “Does Mika even know?”
“So you admit you stole from me?”
Dammit. She’d slipped up. “I admit nothing. Zara was my sire. The gold I took was hers. You yourself told me that a sire would send her children into the world with a settlement of gold. I took a very small percentage of what I was owed.” She dropped her voice to barely a whisper. “Especially considering she murdered me and turned me into a vampire without my consent.”
Oleg smiled at her. “I have missed you.”
“I cannot say the same about you.”
He cocked his head. “So you intend to remain in the Fire King’s harem?”
“Don’t make it sound like something it’s not. He’s not keeping a harem of women to use for his sexual whims. It’s a refuge.”
“I can tell you haven’t had sex with him. I’d smell him on you.”
