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She took the card It held an address and phone nu else

"There’s no naave her the raised eyebrow again "Because I just handed you the card," he said slowly, as if speaking to a nitwit "Be there two hours after sunset to"

"What if I don’t knohen sunset is?" she asked, just to be obnoxious She knew exactly when sunset was She’d been checking it daily for the last several et inside vampire society

"Then check your father’s newspaper," he said i that he knew farto think of an appropriate coave so was too far away for her to identify She started to turn back and nearly crashed into Aden He reached out to steady her, curving the fingers of one big hand over her hip

Taking advantage, he leaned in and put his lips right next to her ear "Do wear soht, Ms Reid I’asped at his teh the crowded rooo, his height and size roup of men and women who stood apart from the rest She stared until Travis sidled up next to her once again

"Was I right?" he asked

"Right about what?" she asked absently

"About Aden He’s going to be the one, don’t you think?"

She opened herlike that But then she frowned "I don’t know," she said honestly "But I think you uys over there?" he asked, nodding toward the sroup which now included Aden "The one in the back, looks like a rich Wall Street exec? That’s Raphael, probably the most powerful vampire on the planet The two closest to him are Lucas and Duncan, but all of them up there are vampire lords, Sidonie The real deal"

"And the wo in particular the tall, black-haired one who looked like a -sleeved Stella McCartney that covered everything, but stillAden with a big smile, and Sid experienced an unwelcome jolt of pure envy She scowled at her own reaction What did she care if Aden hustled some other woman? Hadn’t she just persuaded herself that she wasn’t interested in him or any other vampire?

"The short and curvy dark-haired one is actually Sophia She’s Lord of the Canadian Territories and the only female on the Council The rest of the woht now is Cynthia Leighton, Raphael’s mate Don’t know the others’ names, but they’re all mated to the lords So don’t worry, they’re way off limits to Aden"

Sid shot him a surprised look "I don’t care about that," she said, turning back to watch as Aden spoke to the Leighton woman "This is simply business for me"

"Uh huh Well, how about you and I do a little business of our own then?"

She glanced over and did a double take when she saw his fangs on full display

"That’s not , Trav I told you"

"Hey, don’t knock it until--"

"Look, I appreciate you bringingto happen"

"Okay," he said agreeably So agreeably that she suspected he’d been acting under Aden’s orders all along, that he’d never really expected her to put out The thought ," Trav was saying "But I’ht See you around, babe"

She gave hi it easy, even as she suspected she’d been manipulated She took a final look across the ballroolanced down at the business card in her hand She’d have to be careful with this one Aden wasn’t Travis, and she had a feeling he wouldn’t beeasy for her