I internally curse myself and make a concentrated effort to make my tone gentler when I go on. "Just...call me if he approaches you again."
"I..." She begins before she trails off, swallows, and shakes her head. "Yeah, sure. Okay."
She still looks completely confused, and for good reason. That's not a normal person's reaction when someone tells them they've met their sibling. I feel like I owe her some sort of explanation, so I tell her honestly, "Dorian may be charming, but he's bad news. It's just best if you don't have anything to do with him. Call me if he ever comes near you again."
"But—" she begins, but I shut her down with a barely suppressed growl. What does she meanbut? Does she want to see him again? My jaw tightens at the thought. I know women find my brother handsome. Has he already charmed my pretty little angel?
My heart wrenches when I have to concede how good the two of them would look together with their blond hair.
My fists clench involuntarily as jealousy surges through me. It's so potent that I feel my fangs descending.
Over my dead body. No one else will have Elena—especially not Dorian. Especially not when I know what he's capable of.
"Just trust me on this. Please, Elena?" My voice comes out hoarse and strained with my effort to not destroy my office.
She bites her lip. "Okay," she finally relents. I feel my chest loosen slightly at her obeisance.
I gaze at her through the one-way mirror. She still doesn't know that this window lets me see her.
She bites her lip as she's considering what she's going to say next. I wait impatiently. I can tell something's on her mind, and I'm curious what it is.
"He said you bear no resemblance," she finally says before she goes on, "and he seemed surprised that I didn't know that."
I close my eyes and let out a long exhale.Fucking Dorian.Always prying. I'm sure his mind is going a thousand miles a minute wondering why I'm keeping myself hidden from her.
"It's true," I finally tell her when I realize she's still waiting for me to say something. "We look nothing alike."
There's a pregnant pause before Elena speaks again. "Will I ever get to see you?" Her voice is so soft, I'd have to strain to hear it if I didn't have my already heightened senses. I watch as she clenches her eyes shut and immediately bites that bottom lip hard, like she's reprimanding herself for asking.
I'm silent for a long moment as I consider, my chest squeezing me so hard that I would think I'm having a heart attack if I wasn't immortal and dead already. If she only knew how very much I long to meet her like a normal man...
And the thought that she wants to see me...
Does she want to see me because she might feel something for me? Or is it just to satiate her curiosity?
"I don't know," I tell her finally, my voice coming out hoarsely before I softly click the phone back into its cradle.
Her face flushes prettily before she puts her own phone back in his cradle.
She glances over at my office, chewing on that bottom lip furiously. If it wasn't for the fact that I know she can't see through the window, I'd believe she's looking right into my eyes.
I stare into her crystal blue orbs, imagining how it would feel to have them looking up at me andseeingme.
Accepting me.
I frown when I think of Dorian looking into her pretty blue eyes, and another wave of jealousy, hot and vicious, rolls through me.
I'm going to have to keep a closer eye on my little angel than ever because I know Dorian. Not only is he going to want Elena simply because she's mine, but she's beautiful too, and Dorian has never been one to deprive himself of beautiful things.
* * *
Elena
I can hardly focus on my work for the rest of the day. Stephan's words about his brother keep reverberating throughout my head.
What was Stephan trying to tell me? Is Dorian dangerous or something? True, I felt a shiver run down my spine when in his presence last night, but would he hurt me?
The way Stephan insisted I call him if Dorian comes near me again makes me think that, yes, he would.