The waitress smiled and slipped back into the crowd, expertly keeping her round tray from hitting anyone in the head as she made her way back to the bar.
“I pay, Teagan. Not you.”
Of course. Macho man from another century. She rolled her eyes, but she wasn’t going to argue with him over drinks they weren’t going to drink. “I didn’t even know if you had money, Andre. There are a lot of things I don’t know about you.”
“When you live centuries, Teagan, it is easy enough to acquire wealth. We will not be hurting for money.”
“I’ve got money put away as well. Not that much, but it will help.”
“The triplets and I own oil reserves. And a couple of gold mines. We have the rights to other minerals as well. Our companies make millions.” He paused. “Actually billions. I do not pay much attention. A couple of the others handle that kind of thing for us now. If we decided to move on, we would leave our shares to other Carpathians.”
Her eyelashes fluttered. He sat there so casually telling her he was a billionaire. Who did that? She could see he didn’t care in the least about the money.
“I do not need it. Or I have not needed it until now. I have never touched a penny beyond money I use when I go to a human village, which is exceedingly rare.”
He was talking to her, giving her details of his life, yet all the while, he was listening to the conversations swirling around them. There it is, csitri. The table in the corner. They are talking about Jashari and his father. The body was found by his friends and brought down the mountain. His father wants to organize a hunting party and wipe out the wolf pack.
She gasped at the matter-of-fact way he announced the potential slaughter of wild, beautiful animals. It’s not that I want to get eaten by wolves . . . She couldn’t help the little shudder that ran through her body. That would be a really bad way to go. I don’t want anyone else eaten by them either, but really, Armend was a serial killer. Maybe if we locate the bodies of the women he killed, they’ll leave the wolves alone.
Andre smiled at her. Do you have any idea how amazing you are?
Because I don’t want the father of a killer to destroy wolves? Anyone would feel the same way.
That is not so. People hunt for sport. It makes them feel powerful to take lives.
She bit her lip. She knew he’d spent centuries taking lives. “It must be hard for you, Andre,” she whispered aloud.
He shook his head. “We do not feel, Teagan. Nothing at all. There is no compassion, mercy or remorse. I hunt evil. That is all. It is simple and it must be done.”
“You said sometimes they were people you knew. Like your uncle. I know you didn’t hunt him, the other Carpathian killed him, but you might have had to.” She couldn’t help herself, she cupped the side of his face in her palm and daringly stroked his jaw with her thumb.
He nodded slowly. “Yes, but without our lifemates, we do not feel anything at all. I could recognize that I should feel sadness, but the actual emotion escaped me.”
“Until me.”
He nodded again and sent her one of his heart-stopping smiles. “Overwhelming floodgates opened. Mostly though, I feel for you—everything there is possible to feel just for you.”
She swallowed hard. He looked at her with such a hungry, possessive look, such a look of utter love that it hurt to see it. He didn’t care about appearing vulnerable to her or to anyone else. It was there, stark on his face for the world to see—love. Adoration even. And she so didn’t deserve it.
“Andre.” She murmured his name. It came out husky. All wrong. She wasn’t coming on to him, she was trying to tell him she had his back. She would find a way to embrace her new life with him and live in his world. She just needed time. She tried to pour all that into his name and failed miserably. She was the one who always chattered about anything and everything, but this one moment, when she needed the right words, when she wanted to give him something back, she couldn’t think just how to put it. Embarrassed, she looked down at the table.
He covered her hand with his, holding her palm tight against the rough shadow on his jaw, his blue eyes burning intensely into hers.
“Dance with me, sivamet. I have the sudden desire to hold you in my arms.”
She wanted that more than anything . . . but . . . She bit her lip. “I want to dance with you, but that could be risking everything we have.”
His eyebrow shot up. “I cannot wait to hear this.”
“Seriously. You have to take this very seriously, Andre.” He was not of the modern world and he didn’t understand everything. “There have been copious amounts of articles written on this subject and none of it bodes well for us. If we dance together, you’re going to really see the problem.”
He pulled her hand from his jaw, turned it over and pressed a kiss into the center of her palm. “I have no idea what you are talking about, Teagan.”
She’d been afraid of that. “The difference in our heights. I’m short, and you’re nearly a foot taller.”
“I am a foot taller.”
She glared at him and tugged at his hand. “There’s no need to be arrogant. Nearly is a good enough description.”
“But not accurate.”
She blew out her breath in a sign of pure exasperation. “Sometimes, Andre, strict honesty is not always the best policy, especially when our future together is hanging in the balance.”
His face darkened, his eyes going intense. Bluer than she’d ever seen. Ice-cold. Scary. “Tell me of these articles.”