Page 18 of Reap the Night
Like fucking hell would I. “No.”
He arched a brow. “Excuse me?”
“I may be your babysitter, but I’m not hers.” I flashed Ariella an apologetic smile. “No offense. I have a job to do, other than trail after you while you enjoy dinner.”
He watched me impassively. “Are you saying you don’t like Ariella?”
Ariella shifted uncomfortably in her seat. “Ezekiel, maybe?—”
“Hush, sweetness,” he said to her. Then to me, “Well?”
“I don’t know her well enough to form an opinion.”
“Then I would wish you to make that effort.”
“Why?”
“Because I order it!” His voice boomed around the room, and Ariella flinched, but I held my ground, held his gaze. Held my wits and glared back at him.
It was time to reestablish some boundaries. “We’ve had this conversation before, several times if I’m not mistaken. But allow me to reiterate and refresh your memory. You are notmyking. You do not own me. You do not get to give me orders. So having reminded you of those facts, let me tack on another. You don’t get to dictate who I’m friends with, and you don’t get to order me to spend time with your lovers.”
Ariella opened her mouth to speak, but Ezekiel beat her to it.
“A request, then,” he said with enough grace in his tone to halt my mental tirade.
I stared at him. A request? “When do you everrequestanything?”
“I’m requesting right now,” he replied. “Please, would you show Ariella around New Town in the daylight hours sometime?” He flashed his most charming smile, fangs and all, and my stupid heart fluttered.
Setting aside the butterflies that had no right to be in residence right now, how could I say no when he was asking so nicely. I looked to Ariella. “I would be delighted to show you around town.”
Ariella relaxed in her seat. “Thank you.”
We ate in silence for several minutes, and I was beginning to relax, beginning to think that maybe I would make it through this dinner without any more requests from Ezekiel when he broke the silence once more.
“How are things with Kaster Black?”
I felt Ordell tense beside me, and across the table, Hemlock’s coin stopped coasting along his knuckles.
I wasn’t fazed because part of me had been expecting this question. He obviously knew I’d been seeing Kaster. Been spending the night there even. He’d sent a Raven to me after all. It would have been strange if he hadn’t questioned me about Kaster. But I didn’t want to talk about my relationship with the other vampire. Not to Ezekiel anyway. Still, I doubted he’d let it go if I didn’t give him something.
“It’s going great.”
He sipped his wine. “I'm happy for you. Now that I have my own bliss, I understand how important it is, and I could never deny another person the chance of finding theirs.” He smiled softly at Ariella. “The past few weeks have been eye-opening. I must confess I’m a changed man.”
My gaze tripped from Ordell to Hemlock because this was good. Surely it meant that we were close to breaking his curse. How quickly things could progress with the right person to push them along.
Ariella had done this.
Not me.
I was glad. Truly. And the hollowness inside me had nothing to do with Ezekiel. It had been a long day, that was all.
Now, if Ariella could control Loviator’s darkness that resided inside her and not try and kill Ezekiel, then all would be well. And maybe I could help with that. Help keep her calm and relaxed…
I set my spoon down. “I’m glad that you’re happy. Both of you, and thank you for inviting me to eat with you. And Ariella, I just had a thought about what we can do on our day out.”
Her eyes lit up. “You did?”
