“Maia! Oh, thank heavens you’re back!” She threw herself into Maia’s arms, and nearly bowled her over onto the bed, for not only was she enthusiastic, but Angelica was also a bit taller and heavier than her elder sister. “Are you hurt? What happened?”
“I’m not hurt at all,” Maia replied, “except for the fact that you are squeezing the life out of me.”
Her sister released her and stepped back. “Is that better?” she asked. And then her face froze with shock. “Is that what I think it is? On your neck?”
Maia touched the bite marks, which were what had caught her sister’s eye. “If you think they are vampire bites,” she said in a much lower volume than Angelica, “you would be correct.”
“One of Moldavi’s vampires?” Angelica asked, sitting next to her on the bed. “Were you terrified? Did they kidnap you? All I heard from Corvindale’s message was that you’d been found safely.”
“Yes, I’m safe, and uninjured. Have you heard anything from Chas?” she asked in an effort to avoid Angelica’s question about the bites.
“Chas has not been in contact, but we’ve sent a message. He’ll be here soon. Alexander is below.”
“I know that, but I sent word that I would see him this afternoon. I need…to freshen up.”
“He’s refused to leave. He says he’ll wait here until you’re ready to come down.”
Maia closed her eyes. Noble. So noble. “It will be some time before I come down. Perhaps you can tell him for me, that I am well, but I must freshen up.”
“I shall do my best, but he’s as stubborn as you.” Angelica looked at her sharply. “What happened to you, Maia? Where did you get the bites?”
“I don’t wish to discuss it,” she replied firmly. “But I do wish for a bath.”
Despite Angelica’s protests and questions, Maia managed to send her from the room with direction to talk to Alexander. Then she indulged in her second bath of the day, along with her second bout of confused tears.
Whatever was she going to do about Alexander? How could she marry him after what had happened with Corvindale? How could she marry him when she was in love with another man?
In love with another man.
Those words jumped up out of her mental whirlwind of thoughts, freezing in her mind. Maia paused, water and tears mingling and dripping from her face.
In love with another man who happened to be a vampire.
How could she be in love with him? The thought was absurd. He was rude and arrogant and he raised his voice to her and he argued about everything. He condescended. He insulted.
He kissed her. Oh, how he kissed her.
He argued with her, but for all that, he didn’t ignore her. For all his annoyed comments, he nevertheless seemed to listen to her. He was honorable. Intelligent.
He could never picnic with her, under the sun. He could never ride or accompany her anywhere during the day.
But the way he looked at her…with something in his eyes. Something…needy. Something lost. Something lurked there.
She let her hands fall into the warm, vanilla-and-lily-scented water, causing it to splash over the rim.
What a fanciful notion. That she was in love with a vampire. With the earl. With a man who could hardly stand her presence.
And if she were in love with him—truly in love, although how could she be, truly?—what difference did it make? He certainly couldn’t love her. And…
She was to wed Alexander. A good man. Who possibly loved her, and who at least held her in high regard. Even if his kisses were boring and his conversation not nearly as interesting, if not as explosive, as Corvindale’s.
The wedding was to have been…dear heaven…tomorrow!
In the blur of Corvindale’s disappearance and Maia’s own abduction and return…she’d lost track of time. She was supposed to have wed Alexander tomorrow. No wonder he wouldn’t leave.
Maia bit her lip again, noticing that it was tender from all of the worried gnawing she’d done on it…and perhaps from the rough kisses of earlier today. She closed her eyes, a flush of memory warming her. Pleasure stabbed her belly.
What was she going to do? She’d already postponed the wedding when Corvindale disappeared, but now that he was back and so was she…they must decide on another date.
What am I going to do?
Cold truth settled over her. She had to marry Alexander.
She was ruined now, thanks to the earl. She could even be carrying his child.
That thought turned her alternately hot and then cold again. It was followed by rage that Corvindale meant to pay her off by settling a dowry on her for her wedding, after he’d ruined her. To pay for the child, if there was one.
A child that would be passed off as Alexander’s.
Nothing need change.
How dare he say such a thing? Perhaps for him nothing had changed, but for her? Everything. Everything had changed.
She’d done something outside of foolish, but…she’d do it again. There’d been no way she could have stopped, pulled back. She wanted him, needed him in that way.
What they’d shared had been… She shivered, heat unfurling in her again. It had been like her dreams. But better.
Real.
Maia’s thoughts sharpened, settled, stopped. Her heart paused, her breathing stilled. Her dreams. Of making love to a vampire.
It had been him. Corvindale.
In her dreams, all along, it had been Corvindale.
She’d been dreaming about him, ever since she moved into his house. And that last dream, the one that had frightened her, that had been filled with darkness and pain and red…that had been while he’d been captured by Lerina.
Was she somehow connected to him? Through their dreams? Had she dreamed what he experienced? Or what he…dreamed?
She shook her head, shivering. The Sight works in mysterious ways.
Maia wished suddenly that Granny Grapes was still here, so she could ask her about dreams and connections. She closed her eyes and pursed her lips. There were other problems at hand.
Like what she’d done today, with Corvindale, was foolish. She could ruin herself, ruin her family. Hurt Alexander.
But…despite the way he’d handled it, the abhorrent, cold, earlish way…she would have done it again. She would do it again. It had been right despite the fact that everything about it seemed wrong.
The water had turned cold, and her hands and feet wrinkled like a silk gown left on the ground. And still Maia didn’t know what to do.