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"I’ here without it"

"Yes, you are" She pulled her cell phone from her pocket and waved it in front of him "If you prefer to do so with a police escort, I’htened and his eye twitched He crossed his ar his jacket creak as his biceps bulged against the leather

His size contrasted with the gentleness of his touch earlier She was used to soft, intellectual men with sh he’d been nothing but careful with her, Mr Etan was definitely a brute Aandthat barbaric kind of deo, he would have been a prize, but now, in modern civilized society, he had no place There was no purpose for all thosewo all over hi like idiots She could hardly stand theaze She knew better than to be drawn to a man like him, but apparently her body did not

Apparently, there was soial part of her that had woken up and taken notice of him and his outdated muscles

She told that part of her it could just go right back to sleep as soon as he left her ho it sound like a proo, I’ll be there Call all the cops you like It won’t change a thing I’et for et sick of having son any part of her was er her further "Good night, Mr Etan"

"Callthe two of us are going to be spending a lot of tiether"

Chapter Two

Viviana stood there, flustered and flushed Her whole body was shaking by the ti shut

She hurried to check andher home She wouldn’t have put it past hih her personal, private space as if he owned it

Through the curtains, she saw the big shadow of his body move smoothly down her steps and out onto the street She parted the lace panels and watched hirace for alilide across the snow Only his big footprints gave away the fact that he walked like anyone else, one foot in front of the other

A passing truck obscured her vision, releasing her fro to look again for fear she’d be sucked back into his gliding stride

He was bluffing about staying nearby She was sure of it It was just a tactic meant to force her to comply with his wishes

As if she would bend so easily Sheflower, either She hadn’t yet et, as he’d called it, was hers and she was keeping it, regardless of any lies hefriend

Avid collectors would say anything to acquire an iteht He was just one more

Viviana locked her door and fetched a towel, broolass

Her hands were still shaking, and as she picked up a large shard of glass it sliced across her finger A few drops of blood stained the towel as she finished cleaning up the htened her shoulders It wasn’t like her to let a man--or anyone, for that matter--rattle her so deeply She needed to find her sense of calm and put him out of her mind She refused to dwell on Mr Etan for one s to worry about, like why a living, breathing -dead ancient race

Maybe it was that ring he wore She’d never seen anything like it before Maybe it was an artifact that called to her, not the man himself

That made much more sense and settled her nerves Her shoulders relaxed as she decided that must be the case The ansould be somewhere in her books All she had to do was find it

Viviana went to her third-floor study, and had just laid out the first ancient book in her collection--the one with a barren tree embossed on the leather cover--when she heard a faint scratching sound

She peeked out the , expecting to see anih the trash cans in the alley below Instead, when the noise caain, it was behind her, in the hallway Inside the house

She whirled around, her heart pounding in her throat

She told herself it was just a rat She’d call an exterminator and the problem would be solved

Instincts that were rusty from disuse screa

Her ies of horrible beasts she’d seen in her texts Claws and teeth and horns htmares

Viviana picked up a hefty brass candlestick The sloves she’d donned to handle her books She gripped it tighter and stepped to the right to peer into the hallway

She’d turned the hallway light off in her determination to be more environmentally conscious

Stupid, stupid

A feral hiss rose up froh to have come from a rat on the floor

She kicked the door open wider with the toe of her shoe, hoping to shed solow reached halfway across the space Beyond that light, she saing eyes at about waist height They were a bright, sickly green That green glow flared brighter and the hissing noise got louder

The scratching sound caain, closer, and this time she heard it for what it was: claws on her hardwood flooring