Page 92 of Vampire so Virtuous
“You know damn well,” she said, her teeth clenched. Was he going to deny it? Did he want her to say it explicitly? That wasn’t happening.
Besides, she’d already said too much.
“I have notcharmedyou in any way.” His eyes assessed her. “Not intentionally, in any event. Not through any powers of mine.”
Crap. Really?“I don’t believe you.”
“I give you my word.”
Cally scoffed, trying so hard to keep her anger, her shield. “The word of a vampire?”
Antoine straightened in his chair, his expression hardening as he looked at her. “Vampires cannot lie.”
She blinked, taken off guard. “Really?”
He grinned and it transformed his face, making him look mischievous and younger.By a few hundred years.“Alas, no. Some of us are far too proficient at it.” He sobered as he met her gaze. “But I do assure you,ma chérie, I have not done what you accuse me of.”
She gaped at him. He’d completely had her, and all along he was… yanking her chain. For the hell of it. LikeEvewould do. An immortal vampire, capable of killing her in an instant, sitting there and making jokes to needle her.
She shook her head, trying to focus. Why couldn’t he be serious? Less charming?
Oh, God. I just told him I found him charming… and it was through nothing he’d done.
If he were to be believed.
Shit. So the lust is all on me?
Her cheeks heated, a blush creeping over her face. It had been years since she’d blushed like that. Blood, suffusing her skin. There was an irony there, somewhere.
She huffed in frustration. She’d really been hoping there’d be a reason for how she felt around him.
But maybe there was.
“Why the hell does it feel like that when you bite me?”
“Howdoesit feel?”
He sounded innocent, but she wasn’t playing his games anymore. “You know full well.”
He smiled. “Not from your perspective I don’t.” He paused, like he was choosing his words carefully. “It feels like that because the line of vampires to which I belong have a… serum, I suppose you could call it, and it activates the pleasure receptors.”
“So you’re drugging me,” she spat. “Bastard. Iknewit.”
“More… provoking a response.”
“That’s fucking semantics. You put something in my body to make me respond to you. Youarea monster, Antoine.”
He inclined his head, a small, resigned gesture. “If it wasn’t you, it would be someone else. Yes, I am a monster, even if I have tried hard not to be. I make no excuses. What would you have me do?”
“Go sunbathing and get a tan,” she growled through gritted teeth.
“Tried it. Didn’t take.” He sounded bitter.
Was he serious, or playing again?
“So what kills you then?”
“I see nothing to compel me to answer that.”
