Chapter 30
Chapter thirty
Cora
“No.”
Saiden’s jaw dropped, and if Cora hadn’t been so pissed, she might have laughed. The fish out of water look really took all the menace out of his dark features. You couldn’t really be afraid of someone when all you wanted to do was lift their chin to see if it would squeak like a rusty hinge.
He had to be crazy if he thought she was going anywhere with him.
It had hurt her more than she wanted to admit when he bailed earlier.
She had a lot of reactions to her illness over the years, but not once had someone gone stone faced and left the room so fast you would think they were being chased by hellhounds.
But that was exactly what Saiden did, tossing a hasty, “Sorry, I need to go check in with security real quick,” over his shoulder.
He’d just left her there, sitting on the bed and wondering why she felt like she should be apologizing to him for something.
Now he showed up looking like a smooth-talking playboy asking to take her out? She scoffed. Sure, she’d go out with him. When vampires took up sun tanning.
“What do you mean, ‘no?’” he demanded, blocking her from leaving the room.
She’d waited like an idiot for hours to see if he would return.
If maybe he really did need to just check in with someone, and then he would come right back.
She’d stared at the clock, watching the minutes tick by, occasionally scrolling through the social media apps that she despised.
When she finally realized it was na?ve o’clock, she’d climbed from the bed and slipped on her ballet flats.
She would find one of the nice female vamps and demand to speak with Marquin.
Her film wasn’t going to direct itself, and somehow she’d wasted almost an entire day letting them sidetrack her with fun and friendship.
Vampires weren’t friends, though. She was nothing more to them than their food source, and you don’t cozy up to your Big Mac.
Crossing her arms, she stared Saiden down.
She was under no misconceptions that she could move him if he didn’t want to be moved, but she’d also been told she could freeze a guy’s dick off with her resting bitch face.
Granted the guy who told her that was mostly pissed she had refused his drunken advances, but all the same, she knew she could pull off ‘Don’t fuck with me’ with very little effort.
Unfortunately, she was facing off against the king of ‘Fucking try me,’ and all Saiden did was cross his own arms in a mimicking posture and ask, “Why not?”
Cora would not pay attention to how that small movement pulled the shirt taut against his chest and arms, placing his muscular physique on full display. Nope, she wouldn’t look. Not even one tiny glance.
Locking eyes with him, she said, “Do I need a reason? I just don’t want to go anywhere with you.
You do realize that you basically brought me here against my will, right?
All I want is to talk with Marquin then get back to my normally scheduled life.
Sorry, but I don’t have time to indulge the whims of a bored vampire. ”
A muscle ticked in his jaw as they played a dangerous game of who would bend first. It wasn’t going to be her; she was certain of that much.
Stubborn was her middle name. Okay, technically it was Eunice after her grandmother, but she should probably legally change it to stubborn since that was way more appropriate.
It felt like they spent an hour in their unspoken battle of wills, but in reality probably no more than a minute or two passed before Saiden’s shoulders dropped in defeat.
Mentally, she thrust her fist in the air and celebrated her victory. Something about beating a vampire in a game of intimidation just felt really damn satisfying. It almost put her in a good enough mood to agree to go out with him.
“Listen,” he began in that gentle tone that could easily be her undoing if she let it.
“I feel bad that I brought you here without realizing Marquin would be unavailable. I’m just trying to make it up to you.
I thought we could get out of the compound for a bit, have some dinner, and maybe catch a show. I know a great place.”
When she didn’t budge, he added, “You can stay angry at me all night if you want, but you need to eat. And hanging out here with a bunch of lame vampires won’t be any fun. Come out with me. Please.”
It was the ‘please’ that did it. How that single word seemed to have a burr to it, as if it was something he wasn’t accustomed to saying. She searched his eyes, noting some new emotion in their dark brown depths. Something… desperate. Her response mattered to him a great deal.
You’d think she had the memory of a goldfish the way she kept forgetting all the awful things he’d done just because he gave her a soulful look.
“Fine,” she conceded, dropping her arms. “But I don’t have anything as nice as what you’re wearing, so any place you take me better be okay with my attire.”
He leisurely scanned her body, and the way his eyes went molten with heat made her feel like she was dressed in a silken ball gown instead of gray leggings, purple ballet flats, and a baggy black t-shirt that touted, ‘I’m the Director so I call the shots.’
“I think you look beautiful, Cora.”
Her cheeks flushed, and she tucked her arm behind her back, not wanting him to see the little muscle twitches that picked the worst time to show up.
Based on his earlier reaction, it would probably be best to just not bring up anything about her illness with him.
Some people could be so touchy about the subject of dying.
You’d think as a vampire who routinely murdered others he’d be way more relaxed about it.
“Shall we?” Saiden held out an arm.
Reluctantly, she curled her hand around his elbow. “I guess we shall, Sadie Cakes.”
It was almost worth agreeing to go out with him just to see the grimace on his face.
“Are you going to tell me where we’re going?” Cora asked, settling into the convertible Aston Martin DB11.
She was afraid to even ask how many expensive sports cars they owned.
When he’d guided her out the front door, this one sat in the same spot they’d left the McLaren.
She liked the other car despite its unreliable tires, but the new shiny silver convertible was winning her over as they took off down the road, wind whipping through her messy hair.
Now if she could just stop thinking about how one of these cars alone would finance not only her film but three more after that, then she might actually be able to enjoy herself.
“It’s a surprise,” Saiden answered coyly. He waved at a security camera and moments later they passed through the imposing front gate.
“Not a huge fan of surprises,” Cora said. The last major surprise in her life was learning that her father had hid her predisposition toward Huntington’s from her. After that, she preferred things to be a little less unexpected.
Although, she had to admit that learning about the existence of vampires wasn’t turning out so awful. Provided they let her leave soon with her veins and mind still intact.
“Well, I’m pretty sure you’ll like this one,” he replied confidently.
“Well, I’m pretty sure you can’t know that for sure,” she shot back. “And besides, don’t you still owe me a third question? I’m calling it in. I want to know where we’re going.”
He chuckled and gave her a heated look. “I thought you said you didn’t want it. Something about shoving it up my obscenely tight ass, if I recall correctly?”
One at a time, her fingers curled into her palms until two tense fists lay at her sides. Trust an ancient vampire to have a memory like Fort Knox. “I lied,” she argued through teeth clenched nearly as tightly as her hands. “I want it.”
“While I would love to give you everything you want, Cora, I think you’ll enjoy this more as a surprise.”
“Saiden,” she pressed, shoring up her voice with steel rebar. “Unless you want this outing to be another kidnapping scenario, I need you to tell me where we’re going.”
He said nothing, merely running his hands idly along the steering wheel, and Cora contemplated her options for getting out of the vehicle with her limbs intact.
Before she had to resort to drastic tuck and roll measures, he caved and pulled a folded sheet of paper from his shirt pocket.
“Here,” he said, handing it over. “That’s everything planned for tonight. And I’ll even let you keep your third question for something vampire related. If you still want it.”
Cora snatched the paper from his hand and scanned the itinerary. It took all of ten seconds for her to come to a conclusion.
“Saiden, stop the car.”
“What?” he asked, glancing over at her. “Why?”
“Saiden, stop the car.”
His brow wrinkled in confusion. “Cora, what’s—”
“Saiden, stop the motherfucking car right this second!”
He slammed on the brakes, and she braced herself as the convertible skidded to a stop on the gravely forest road.
Turning slowly to face him, she tried to figure out the best thing to say.
The best way to explain her reasoning for wanting to crumple up the piece of paper in her hand and drop it in a bottomless well where it could never hurt anyone else.
She needed to phrase her words carefully, so she didn’t sound ungrateful, but at the same time she had to make it clear just how far off the mark he was with his plan.
“Are you out of your fucking mind?” she bellowed.
Not quite the eloquence she was going for, but it got the point across.
“What?” Saiden blustered, his expression reminiscent of an actor whenever she called ‘cut’ in the middle of a scene. He really had no clue where the bad was in this insane outing of his.
She waved the paper at him. “Do you seriously believe that this is making things up to me? Because honestly? I wouldn’t wish this on my worst enemy.”
He ran a hand through his hair, transforming the gelled strands on the side from ‘too stiff for even the wind to move’ to ‘sexy, tousled bedhead.’
“I thought this was what you girls liked? Fancy meals and grand gestures.”
Cora scoffed. “Maybe other girls. Look, I know you’ve only known me a couple days but come on. Did you really think I would like any of this?”
He sighed. “No, not really. Tressa and Raven set it all up. They said it’d be perfect, so I figured it was worth a shot.”
Why the hell were his cousins planning out their evening?
“Yeah, it’s pretty much the exact opposite,” she replied.
“First off, I hate flying. So locking me inside an airborne death trap to head over to San Francisco? Bad start. Second, I despise fancy food. If it’s not fried or dipped in chocolate, then I’m uninterested.
And third, the Opera? Seriously?” Cora looked down at her outfit.
“How did you even think you would get me inside looking like this?”
“You would be surprised what money can buy.”
Cora snorted. “Well maybe that was your first problem. You can’t solve everything by throwing money at it.”
“That’s for damned sure,” he muttered under his breath.
She sat back in her chair, shifting so she could stare at him. With his head dropped and his shoulders sagging, he looked like a kicked puppy. For some reason he had been so excited about taking her out, and now she felt awful about the dejection on his face.
She sighed, really hoping that she wouldn’t regret her next words.
“Okay, here’s the deal. You said Tressa and Raven decided this, yeah? I’ll give you one more shot. If you had planned to take me out somewhere, where would you go?”
A wide grin lit up Saiden’s face, and Cora felt like she could live for days on that smile. It called to her, hypnotized her, promising her the happiest of days and most sinful of nights. It was a smile that she would follow to the ends of the earth.
A moth chasing after her flame.