Page 65 of Bought for Blood

“Did it make you happy?” I wait for her answer.

“Yes. Yes, it did.” She smiles at me. “You did that for me, didn’t you? The party. The people.”

“Yes,” I say, because why lie about it?

She steps forward, feet silent, lifts her hand and cups my cheek. I resist the urge to press my face to her palm.

“Thank you, Bastien.”

I stare down at her, at porcelain skin that masks a network of veins that transport pure magic through every inch of her.

I step away.

“Good night, Serenity.”

“Good night.” She smiles once more, then turns and walks away, shoes dangling from her fingers.

I watch her until she’s gone.

I should be satisfied. I wanted the evening to please her, and she’s pleased. Now I’m standing in my own hall, and I don’t know what to do.

Odile had the right idea.

Two playthings. A night ahead where she’ll drink her fill.

It’s not too late to go out now and find someone.

Two floors up, she’s moving around her room.

I stand in the hall and listen to her, and I don’t move.

Chapter 23

Serenity

I don’t know how long it’s been since I came up to my room, but I can’t sleep. I’m not even in bed. I managed to wash, brush my teeth, and pull on a nightdress, and that’s where I stalled.

I get as far as my own door three times before I go through it.

The first two times I sit back down on the end of the bed. The third time I don’t. The corridor is cool when I step out of my room. I keep walking.

I’m actually doing this.

The house is dark, and the fires are down to red. Two floors below me, the drawing room clock is ticking, the one I couldn’t leave alone. I’ve been pacing, awake, listening to it since the guests left.

I go along the gallery past the old paintings. Then the north corridor. Then the door at the end of it.

I tried this door on my second day here. It didn’t give an inch. Yves told me anything locked was storage.

Yves lied to me.

It’shisroom. My wolf can scent him in there.

My fingertips trace the wood. My heart is loud. He can hear it from in there. He can always hear it…from across a room, through a wall.

I knock.

The door opens before my hand is back at my side. He’s in the clothes he was wearing at dinner, dark pants, dark shirt with the cuffs turned back. No jacket, no shoes, his hair pushed off his face.