God, how he’d changed. At least around me. I was sure the rest of Guild City still knew him as this quiet, deadly predator. But I’d almost forgotten what he’d been like when we’d first met.
His dark eyebrows arched up, curiosity in his eyes. He said nothing, but he didn’t need to. It was a summons. A command.
I stepped forward, my heart thundering.
He had no idea who I was. Who I was to him.
It would be centuries yet before I would meet him.
I drew in a steady breath and ascended the stairs to the raised platform upon which he sat.
“Madam.” His voice was as cold as his eyes. “You dare much to approach my table without an introduction.”
I smiled. “You’ve no idea what I would dare.”
Interest flickered in his eyes. “Your accen
t. It is unusual. Foreign.”
Foreign to this time, not this place. I was pure London, circa 2020. But I couldn’t tell him that. So I merely inclined my head. Without asking, I took the seat across from him.
The slightest smile threatened to tug at his mouth, but he kept it suppressed. I wouldn’t have noticed it if I were meeting him for the first time, but I’d grown used to his quirks.
“Well?” he asked.
I gave a slight shrug, attempting to force my face into bored lines. “I have something I’d like to discuss with you. Privately.”
His eyebrows rose again. “Really?”
“Indeed.” I smiled. “It is in regard to Petra.”
That time, he did nothing to disguise his naked curiosity. “How do you know of that?”
Because you told me.
Petra was a dangerous but valuable business venture from this century that Grey had remembered, an irresistible lure to the Devil that I knew next to nothing about.
“I’ll discuss it in your chambers.” I stood, my heartbeat thundering beneath his gaze, and prayed he couldn’t hear it.
“You are nervous.” His gaze dropped to my chest, but he wasn’t leering. He was look at the heart that beat so frantically. “Your heart is going wild.”
Damn it.
“You’d be nervous, too, if you knew what I knew.” I waved my hand, gesturing for him to follow. “Come. We will discuss it.”
He stood, his chair scraping backward quietly. “How do you know that I will follow?”
I looked back at him and smiled, hoping it was mysterious. Confident. “But of course you will.”
I descended the stairs, praying.
When I reached the ground below, I felt his presence at my side. I hurried forward, trying to keep him from touching me.
I wanted him. I couldn’t help it. He was Grey, in a sense.
And yet he wasn't, and it felt disloyal.
Fortunately, he was polite, though that didn’t stop him from leaning down and whispering against my ear, “How do you know where my chambers are?”