“No fucking way. I’m not telling you shit, Acheron.” I moved closer to Vlad and threw him a pleading look.
“Haven’t you got bartenders to seduce?” Vlad said with a saucy smile.
“But I want to find out more about Byron and Wilder,” he replied with a pout.
“If you piss off now, I’ll put you on a watch with Vee,” Vlad offered.
Acheron’s brows dipped over his mercurial eyes. “Who the fuck is Vee?”
Vlad leaned closer to the charmer and dropped his voice to a whisper. “The wendigo.”
“Ooh, you sneaky sneakerson.” Acheron looked torn as his gaze flickered between Vlad and me. He tapped his finger on his chin, weighing his options. I know what I’d choose if were in his shoes.
“Fine,” he said eventually. “I’ll go, but you’d better deliver on your promise.”
And with a stern stare and a severe finger wag, Acheron disappeared again.
“Thanks,” I muttered when it was just me and Vlad.
“His heart is in the right place, he just seems to lack any real ability to read social cues,” Vlad replied with a fond chuckle.
He wasn’t the only one.
And there went my brain thinking about Byron again. That was what? Three minutes without comparing something else to something that he does.
I groaned and scrubbed my hands down my face.
“I don’t want to make things worse, but you’ve got a psychopath heading straight for you,” Vlad said with a cough before starting to walk away. “I’ll leave you two to it.”
“No, wait!” I called after him, but it was useless. The man had abandoned me to my fate.
Traitor.
“Hello, baby,” Byron drawled as he stepped into my personal space.
The muscle under my left eye twitched. “Don’t call me that.”
He grinned his Joker smile and leant closer still. His hair fell forward into his eyes and shadows played about the lines of his face. It made it look like he’d stepped out of the shadows himself. He was also in a customary all black outfit except this time he was wearing a tightly fitting blazer, paired with an equally well-fitted black shirt and trousers. The man was, in a word, delicious. But i wasn't going to tell him that.
Byron dipped even closer and took a deep breath, exhaling on a groan.
“Did you just smell me?”
He pulled back slightly, his ridiculously blue eyes meeting mine. “Yes.”
“For fuck’s sake, Byron. You can’t do that. It isn’t normal.”
His expression fell. “I broke into your house and forced myself into your bed. I thought we were past ‘normal’.”
I didn’t know why, but I found his honesty adorable and a smile pulled at my mouth. “You’re ridiculous.”
He reached a finger out and brushed it against the corner of my lips. “You should smile more.”
I was so taken aback by his comment that I reacted without even thinking about it. I lashed out, grabbing his finger and bending it backwards at a painful angle. “Touch me without my permission again, and I’ll cut it off.”
Byron was standing so close I could count every eyelash, and I watched as his pupils dilated and the bright blue darkened with desire. His gaze dropped to my mouth, and he darted forward to nip my bottom lip between his teeth.
There was a sharp sting as he broke the skin and his tongue swiped over the blood that pooled there. I pushed him away, and he laughed like a hyena.