My Lord Vampire (Immortal Rogues #1)(13)

The rough velvet voice struck a chill in her heart before she was giving a determined shake of her head.

These vague innuendos were becoming wearisome.

She had enough true worries to plague her mind without jumping at shadows.

“I suppose you are referring to the mysterious danger you have elected yourself to protect me from?”

He stepped closer, not at all amused by her flippant tone.

“I speak of the foolishness of toying with matters beyond your comprehension.”

There was something so patronizing in his manner that Simone instinctively stiffened.

“Your arrogance continues to astonish me. I do not need to be warned as if I were a child.”

“But you are a child in many ways despite your attempts at sophistication.”

That was it.

Simone nearly broke her fan in half as she struggled to maintain her composure.

A child?

How dare he?

The most elusive, handsome and charming of London gentlemen battled for just a smile. She was toasted as an Incomparable.

Oh yes, he was certainly overdue for a well deserved lesson in how to treat a lady.

She lowered her lashes so that she could peer beneath them in a coy manner.

“Perhaps you should regard me a bit closer, Mr. Ravel. I can assure you that I am a fully mature woman.”

A dangerous stillness pooled about him as he deliberately glanced back down to the vast amount of skin revealed by the crimson gown.

“You wish to challenge me?” he at last purred in silky tones, reaching without warning to grasp her elbow and steer her toward a distant door. “Very well.”

“What?” Simone stumbled over her skirts as she found herself being easily forced through the crowd. “Where are you taking me?”

He glanced down at her with a sardonic smile. “You requested that I regard you a bit closer; I can hardly do so in the midst of a crowded ballroom.”

Simone’s eyes widened. Surely he did not think she was going to actually allow him to ... to view more than was already on display?

“I believe you misunderstood me, sir,” she said in breathless tones. She might be an expert in flirtatious banter, but that was as far as her skills extended.

The dark gaze seared into her wide eyes. “Are you frightened, my dear?”

“Of course not,” she hastily denied.

“You prefer to remain here and graze among the sheep?”

There was no missing the challenge in his voice and Simone bit her bottom lip. It was one thing to calmly plot to bring this gentleman to heel, it was quite another to be whisked out of the ballroom and perhaps find herself treading waters that were far more dangerous than she had expected.

Only the hint of smug superiority in the dark eyes forced her to thrust aside the shivers of warning that raced through her.

“No.”

Something indefinable smoldered to life in the midnight eyes at her simple word.

“Then come along.”

His grasp tightened and with extraordinary ease he managed to clear a path and lead her onto the darkened terrace. He did not halt as she had expected but continued toward the stairs that led to the shadowed garden. In silence they followed the narrow trail that at last ended in a circle of marble benches with a fountain in the center.

The sultry heat surrounded them, the music only faintly audible as they slowed to a halt beside the fountain. Hoping to hide her unease, Simone pulled away and trailed her fingers through the water in the marble basin.

It was the perfect opportunity to weave her spell of seduction, but she found it oddly difficult to conjure the flirtatious manner that came so easy when in the company of most gentlemen.

Of course when she was in the company of other men the air did not feel so thick she could barely breathe and her stomach did not quiver as if frantic butterflies were battling to be released, she acknowledged wryly.

Feeling the prickles of awareness as his gaze swept over the long curtain of golden curls she had left loose to tumble about her shoulders, she reluctantly lifted her head.

She could not stand here like a nitwitted schoolgirl forever.

“I believe I should tell you that I was warned to beware you by an old acquaintance of yours,” she at last murmured, unable to conjure anything remotely clever to say.

Bathed in silver moonlight the refined features appeared to harden at her words.

“Were you?”

“Yes, a Mr. Soltern.”

An odd ripple seemed to stir the air as the midnight eyes abruptly narrowed.

“I see. And what did he tell you?”

Simone absently rubbed the rash of bumps upon her arms, sensing the tension that flowed from Gideon. Not for the first time she wondered precisely what had occurred between this gentleman and Mr. Soltern to create such animosity.

“That you were less than honest, with hidden motives in seeking me out. He also implied you were a fortune hunter.”

His smile held a grim determination. “I am, indeed, a hunter, but not of fortune.”

She eyed him warily, for the moment forgetting the reason she had allowed herself to be lured to the garden.

“Then what do you hunt?”

His gaze briefly lifted to sweep through the darkness that surrounded them, almost as if he were searching for someone, or something.

“Those who would seek to destroy my home,” he at last retorted in fierce tones.