“I thought you were a debutant,” I say with surprise. I assumed she was born a vampire and attending her first ball.
“I’m not.” She shakes her head. “I wasn’t born a vampire. I was turned.”
“Then how could it be that we never met?”
“I wasn’t really...social.” She looks away, avoiding my gaze and biting her lower lip. She wants to say more but doesn’t dare.
“What is your name?”
She looks at me again, hesitating.
“Your real name, my beauty,” I say before she can come up with some lie. “I want to know everything about you before you become mine.”
She widens her eyes in surprise, and they become even more significant. Those two dark-green eyes peer at me as if trying to find my thoughts.
“So sure about yourself, huh?” She chuckles, smirking at me. “Why don’t you tell me everything about yourself, and thenI’ll decidewhether I want to becomeyoursor not?”
I smile. That’s a naughty woman I’ve got. She’s going to argue with me until she gets what she wants; she’s perfectly aware that I’ll do anything to make her mine.
And she’s right.
“Leonardo Carrisi,” I say, extending a hand to her.
She looks at my hand for a couple of seconds, shock in her gaze, and then says without offering me her hand in return, “Are you the Leonardo that’s looking for a wife right now?”
Shit. How the hell did she find out about that? Who told her? That’s probably what the woman and her daughter were gossiping about.
I feel anger; I need to calm down.
“It’s not exactly like that,” I start, trying to touch her, but my girl pulls away.
“Oh, yeah? And how is it then?” She raises her voice in irritation, “If I weren’t here right now, you’d choose some other woman to fuck, right? I’m sure you would since you don’t believe in soul mates. And then you’d get married to...whom? The most beautiful one? The richest? The one that’s best on paper?”
“Don’t say that.” I move closer, but she pulls away again, shaking her head.
“Don’t touch me.” She cuts me off, quieter this time, but still angry. “I can’t stand lying. Please, tell me the truth.”
I inhale. What truth? That I’m a full-time bachelor who has never been committed? That I’m a vampire womanizer who fucks a different girl every day? That I swore just yesterday that I’d never get married? Is this truth I should tell her? Will she look at me the way she did half an hour ago after I confess?
“I was a jerk who never believed in love, using women for fun and pleasure,” I say honestly, trying to look straight into her eyes, even though it’s hard. I feel ashamed—for the first time in my life, actually—and I want to look away. “I never believed in soul mates, I never believed in commitment and marriage, and I never had a real, sincere relationship. I never had any relationship, honestly.”
Her irritation turns into surprise as she listens to me without interrupting, without even blinking, trying to decide if she can trust me.
“Until today,” I add after a pause and exhale loudly. I’ve never had a more complicated conversation, not even with my brother. “Until I met you.”
“So why this whole charade?” she asks, and her tensed body slightly relaxes. “Why did you need to tell everyone that you want to get married?”
“My brother, the new head of the society, wants to find a woman,” I say, without mentioning that he also wants to kill her. “He doesn’t know what she looks like; the only thing he knows is that she’s single, and that’s why he wants to ask every single woman to a brunch tomorrow.”
“He wants to find her so badly that he decided to lie?”
“Yes.” I nod. Maybe someday I’ll tell her the whole truth. “ He can’t say that he is looking for a wife because he doesn’t want to look like a liar when everyone finds out that he wasn’t serious.”
“So he wants you to look like a liar?” she asks right away, and I smirk.
I guess she’s right. The anger comes back to me, but I try not to show it. I remember that I was the one who agreed to this. Because I know that Darius’ reputation is crucial to him; he would never risk it. On the other hand, he’s perfectly aware that I don’t give a fuck about my reputation. Hence, he easily manipulates me when needed. And now, everything has turned out badly for me.
“I never cared how I look to others,” I say, trying to calm down, even though my fists are clenching. “But now I do.”