Chapter 7 Katarina
I couldn’t shake the feeling that I’d lost time during the dinner.
I remembered Dorian waving crabs in front of my face and Aiden slurping down the oysters.
I remembered watching the group and feeling jealous that they had a kind of family life I never did.
Blaise glared at me the whole time we ate and said very little.
Pasha kept offering words of support when the men teased me about something.
But other than that…I couldn’t remember anything else.
And now my arm was linked through Roman’s as he led me on a tour of the house.
He was saying something about negotiating with the city to purchase the abbey when it suddenly hit me like a brick to the head.
“Did you compel me?” I asked, sliding to a stop despite Roman trying to keep our momentum moving forward. “Did you seriously fucking compel me, Roman?”
At first, he just stared at me. I couldn’t read the stoic look on his face, but I knew better than to yell at a vampire. If living in New Orleans taught you anything, it was that—do not piss off a powerful bloodsucker.
But this was Roman and for some reason, I felt like I could make demands and hopefully not lose my life over it.
Roman pressed his lips together as he watched me. When his brows creased and he blinked several times, I knew I was right. “I need to learn what I can about you, Katarina.”
“Why didn’t just ask me? Without the compulsion,” I added when he looked like he was about to make an excuse.
He took a moment. “You are right,” he finally conceded. “Please accept my apology.”
Grim trotted up beside me and nudged my leg. He barred his teeth at Roman and let out a low, rumbling growl. I chuckled. “Grim would like an apology too.”
“What?” he asked, genuinely appalled by the request. “I just fed that dog a four-course dinner.”
“And he appreciates it,” I said, knowing it was true because of our bond. “But we look out for each other.”
“Clearly,” Roman grumbled. “Grim, I am sorry if I offended you or Katarina.”
Grim huffed and started up the grand stairway toward our room. I thought we would follow, but Roman directed me between the stairs and through a set of double doors centered beneath them. How had I not seen them earlier?
“I’d like to give you tour, if you would allow,” he said so politely.
“I suppose a tour would be nice.” Rubbing my free hand over my belly, I said, “Plus, I need to work off all that food.”
“No, you don’t,” he said quickly.
My stomach fluttered with the compliment.
I had a feeling Roman Zarka didn’t make flattery a habit.
Once we passed through the threshold, he pulled me toward the right, which would have been behind the dining room.
Unlike the dark and dreary medieval hallways I’d roamed earlier, these ones were bright and wide and full of brass antique sconces and hand-carved woodwork.
“Wow,” I breathed, eyeing the extra-long hallway with a door every thirty feet or so. “What are these rooms used for?”
“This is where the men live. Each one was redesigned as an apartment and gives them their own…den.”
“Den?” I asked with a giggle.
“A den. A cave. A…whatever it is that Aiden likes to call his place. They designed them and they are free to do with them as they want.”
“Is that really true? I mean, they all work for you, right?”
He nodded. “In a manner of speaking.”
“Okay,” I sighed. “I don’t know what that means.” Roman’s arm tensed under my grip and I swear the scent of anise and clove filled the giant hallway.
“We work as a team.”
“But you sign the checks.”
He smiled down at me, those dark eyes tugging at my soul again. “Yes, Katarina. I suppose I sign the checks.”
We’d almost reached the end of the hall. “Can I look inside?” I asked, wondering whose doors we were standing next to. They had been painted a satin black and two lights that looked like gas torches hung off the wall on each side.
“It is not for me to give permission.”
“Well, which one lives in there?”
Roman looked at the door as though hoping it could answer my question instead. “This is Blaise’s place.”
Blaise. The one man in this house who was even more mysterious than Roman. “Interesting,” I mused.
Roman turned us around so we headed back toward the main entrance. “I am having an event here tomorrow night. A ball. And I would like to ask you to be my guest.”
My heart thudded. Was he asking me on a date? “I mean, I’m kind of a prisoner here right?” I said the words, but the reality was that I didn’t feel much like a prisoner at all.
“I suppose that is true,” he said with a smirk. “Still, you would honor me if you would stand by my side.”
Could this really be happening? I wasn’t sure if this was a trick or a test or something else. But the idea of attending a fancy ball at the House of Shadows made my insides flutter with excitement. “Sure,” I finally said.
We were walking up the grand staircase and Roman didn’t speak again until we reached the top. “I will be out on business most of the day tomorrow. But I will have a gown sent to your room.” He looked with longing toward the right, down the opposite wing from my room.
“What’s down there?” I asked.
“That is where I stay.”
I wondered if Pasha lived there as well, but when Roman started to pull away from me, I knew my time for asking questions was over. “Have a pleasant sleep, Katarina.”
I looked up into his mesmerizing eyes, enjoying the scent of him wash over me, when I suddenly felt his lips press against mine.
Startled at first, I quickly melted into his arms as he deepened the kiss and pushed his tongue inside.
His movements were quick and purposeful, and holy hell, he knew how to weaken a lady’s composure with just his lips.
Reaching my arms around his waist, I pulled myself into his warmth, loving the way I fit tightly against him.
His fingers grabbed the sides of my face, holding my chin up so he could have full access.
The energy between us surged, speeding my heart, and increasing my need to feel his hands on other parts of my body.
Heat stirred between my legs, my core instantly begging for more from the deadly vampire.
But just as I was about to ask, Roman pulled away from me and sucked in a deep, shuddering breath.
He squeezed his eyes shut and lifted his face toward the ceiling.
I couldn’t move, couldn’t speak. What had just happened?
When he stopped kissing me it was like…like a piece of me had been ripped away.
Like the sun had died and I would now live in perpetual darkness.
“Whoa,” I whispered, my lips still pulsing from the blood that had rushed there. As I slowed my breathing, I took my own step away from him. “What was that?”
Roman didn’t answer me. In fact, he wouldn’t even make eye contact with me. With his hand on his lips, he quickly turned and walked toward his room. “I will see you tomorrow night, Katarina.”
“Good night,” I breathed to his rapidly retreating form.
In just two days, I’d gone from working for the coven to being captured by the House of Shadows, to being kissed senseless by Roman Zarka himself. Roman, who was in some kind of relationship with Pasha, but who’d just kissed me like his life depended on it.
I didn’t know what to make of all this.
My life had never been dull, but I had a feeling that this new life of mine was just beginning to heat up.
Grim’s nails clicked on the floor from the far end of the hallway. He was waiting for me. Or guarding me. Or a little of both. I tried to block our connection so he didn’t have to relive that kiss, but from the way he huffed as I approached, I knew I wasn’t doing a good job of it.
“Sorry, buddy.” I ran my hand through the scruff on his neck. “I’m trying, I promise.”
I opened the double doors that led into our luxurious suite and quickly closed them behind us.
Kicking off my heels, I fell into the giant bed with the softest comforter ever and let out a deep breath, trying to still my thoughts.
Maybe it was because of the nap in the bathtub, I felt energized and ready to take on the world.
Yet as I sat up and tried to figure out what my next step would be, the lock on the doors clicked and a sinking feeling weighed me down.
Grim barked twice but didn’t move any closer. I, on the other hand, jumped to my feet and jogged to the doors. Shaking the ornate wooden monstrosities, I confirmed our suspicions. Yep. Locked.
“Son of a bitch,” I grumbled.
Grim sent me a flash of a jail cell and I nodded.
“Yes, we are prisoners.”
Prisoners in a mansion with a house full of gorgeous men, but prisoners no less. “Well, Grim. I guess we need to play this one out and see where it goes.”
He sighed, jumped up on the bed, and nestled down into a ball.
That was his way of agreeing with the current assessment.
I searched the room until I found a remote and plopped in the bed next to Grim.
As I tried to find something to take my mind off that kiss, I did my best not to think about the ball tomorrow night, or what it might mean for me to be Roman’s date.