“Seriously?” she asked, looking up at him under her eyelashes.
“I was speaking with my nephew, Ajax. He wants to reopen the Superdome and have immortal football games. I think it’s a ridiculous idea, but there’s nothing I can do to stop him.”
“Don’t you think it would be fun to have something to do other than to sit around your penthouse and brood?”
“What makes you think I sit around my penthouse brooding?”
“You just seem like the broody type, that’s all.”
“Let us cease this pointless discussion and find you a dress to wear for dinner. We are, in fact, trying to get to know each other so we can be a happily married couple for the rest of our immortal lives.”
“You seriously don’t think this is going to last forever, do you?” she asked with a laugh.
They didn’t even like each other from what she could tell. Even her memories of their past were riddled with feelings of anger, jealousy, and disillusionment. If he was five thousand years old, that meant she could live to five thousand years too.
She really doubted that she would spend the next five thousand years with this guy. She wasn’t required to spend the rest of her life with him, as far as she knew. The temple only expected her to accept a match and then have his baby. His claiming bite would fend off any other immortals. That meant she could never have another immortal mate. It didn’t mean she had to spend the rest of her immortal life with Titus.
“It will last as long as it needs to. And that’s all either of us needs to be concerned about right now. Regardless of the future, my dear, in the here and now, you and I must be matched. You must be claimed, and we must bare a child to ensure the Silverdrake line. My brother Orion already has a daughter and a son.”
“He’s not even an Alpha,” she said as she followed Titus down the street to the next boutique.
“The agreement about alphas and kings mating first was decided in the last several months. It was a way to ensure the clans and covens were doing their best to ensure the family lineage, strength, and power. However, I doubt heaven and Earth could have kept Orion from Lucia.”
“Unlike you, right?”
He turned to her and looked straight into her eyes, making a shiver run down her spine. No matter how much she disliked him now, there was something about him that made her damp and weak in the knees. She bit her lip and looked away, but he caught her chin with his index finger and forced her to look back up at him.
“Neither of us is doing this because it’s what we want. We do it because it’s what we must do. You would be wise to learn that now while you’re young. It will help you to stay out of trouble. And to have realistic expectations about your life.”
“Are you saying you don’t want to marry me?” she said with mock shock.
“I thought it was clear.”
“What about two thousand years ago? Did you not want to marry me then either?”
“What happened between us in the past has nothing to do with what is happening now. Now, I believe you can find an appropriate garment in this shop. I am sure that the saleswomen can attend to you.”
“You aren’t going to help me pick out a dress?” she whined, trying to annoy him.
She didn’t know why she enjoyed it so much, but irritating Titus Silverdrake had become her new favorite thing. From the little she remembered about their old life, and their previous association, she knew that this man had always gotten under her skin. The same was true now. Even if she didn’t quite know why.
“If you insist, I will sit with you while you try on clothing. Would that make you happy?” he said with a big patronizing smile on his face.
“That would make me so happy, darling,” she said, wrapping her arm around his as they walked into the boutique.
The women inside were just as thrilled to see them as the ones in the shoe shop. They went about finding Desdemona the perfect dress for an evening out with Lord Titus. She ended up picking a gold sequined mini dress that accentuated her soft curves and showed an alarming amount of cleavage. She picked it specifically because of the look on Titus’s face when she showed it to him. His pupils had dilated and his lips parted in a micro expression that was not lost on her, no matter how quickly he tried to cover it.
Titus then took her to a salon where she had her hair and makeup done. It was then that Titus finally slipped away and told her he would have a car take her back to the penthouse. She tried to stop him, because torturing him with so much fun. She really was at a loss as to what else to do since she’d been sold to this man. But he quickly made his excuses and slipped away before she could stop him.
The stylist did her long black hair in soft ringlet curls that hung around her shoulders enticingly. She did Desdemona’s eyes with neutral browns with black mascara, but gave her wine-kissed lips to complete the look.
Desdemona emerged onto the sidewalk to find Titus’s car waiting for her, the driver standing beside the passenger door. He opened it as soon as he saw her, and Desdemona climbed inside. The car was luxurious and comfortable. She was going to have to get used to luxury now that she was trapped here in this strange city with this man who wanted to sink his teeth into her neck and claim her as his own.
The driver took her back to Titus’s penthouse and she quickly changed into her gold sequined dress and her gold heels. When she was done dressing, she rode the elevator back downstairs and climbed back into the town car. The driver took her across town and parked in front of a fancy downtown restaurant before getting out of the car and opening the door for her. He offered her his hand so that she could step out onto the sidewalk. She wore a soft fur cloak around her shoulders in a pale off-white that looked beautiful contrasted against her dark skin and the gold sequence dress she wore.
She entered the restaurant and was immediately greeted by the maître d’ who fussed over her and led her directly to Titus’s private table. The restaurant was lit by candlelight. Each table had a pressed linen tablecloth, set with crystal wineglasses and porcelain china. Everyone was dressed as nicely as she was and when she finally approached the table, Titus stood. He was wearing a fresh suit, as black as the last but tailored more fashionably. She could see the masculine outline of his body under the formfitting fabric. He wore a red tie that accentuated the blush of his lips.
He reached out to touch her as he stood and the feeling of his hand on her arm made her tingle all over. The maître d’ pulled out her chair and helped her sit. Titus sat across from her, his silver-blue eyes sparkling in the candlelight between them. She could see desire spark in his eyes and in the blush of his cheeks. Desdemona was not a mind reader like the Arch-Priestess Lucia, but she believed she had a strong sense for people. She could sense that Titus desired her. If she was being honest with herself, she desired him too.
“You look lovely, my dear,” he said assessing her with his calculating eyes.
“You look lovely too,” she said, trying to mock him.
Her energy for brattiness and mockery was ebbing. The longer she spent with him, the more attracted she became. He had suggested he would claim her tonight. Something she still did not intend to allow him to do. She bit her lip at the thought of it. Maybe someday, allowing him to have his way with her wouldn’t be the most terrible thing that had ever happened. She grabbed her menu and started to study it.
“What’s good here?” she asked.
“I prefer the surf and turf myself,” he said, reaching out to grab his crystal wineglass with his manicured hand.
All her life, Desdemona had been a small-town girl. She’d never been out on a date with a man like Titus. In fact, she’d never met a man like Titus. They didn’t tend to frequent small mountain towns in Northern California.
She’d spent most of her life around people wearing flannel shirts who drove pickup trucks and grew hay for a living. She didn’t even know how to speak to a man like Titus. If she wasn’t teasing or mocking him, she had no idea what to say. Being a pest wa
s easy. Relating to him as a real person, as a man; that was a different thing entirely.
“That’s what I’ll have then,” she said, closing her menu.
She’d never been to a restaurant like this and had never read a menu with offerings like this one. Last time she’d eaten out, she’d had chicken fried steak and a baked potato in foil.
It blew her mind that such luxurious food was available to some, when there were so many humans starving and struggling to survive. She looked up at him, remembering who she was and what she believed in.
“How do you manage to have such fine things when there are so many who go without?”
“You did learn about the histories of the immortals while you were at the temple, didn’t you?”
“Yes. But I am not one hundred percent convinced any of that’s true. And it doesn’t answer my question either. My question was how do you have this luxury when so many humans are starving?”
“I’ve done everything I can for the humans in my region. That is where my responsibility ends. As you can see, my city has been transformed. It is a shining example of what can be done for the human populations.”
“Regardless of what you’ve done for the city. It’s nothing. It’s a drop in the bucket. Surely, a five-thousand-year-old immortal knows that. What, does your ivory tower protect you from the reality of the pathetic humans living around you?”
“Are you ready to order?” the waiter said, walking up to their table.
“We’ll both have the surf and turf,” Titus said, ordering for them both.
“Anything to drink for the lady?”
“We’ll both have a bottle of your best champagne. We are celebrating our engagement today,” Titus said, giving her a pointed look.
“Champagne,” she said, clapping her hands together like a little girl. “Oh goody. We have so much to celebrate.”
The waiter took their menus and walked away, looking confused.
“I’m an ancient and powerful immortal, Desdemona. Don’t you think the Alpha of the Silverdrake clan and the man who restored an entire human region deserves some luxuries?”
“You deserve more than others because you’re so old?”
“I’ve been alive a long time, working for what I have. The world over the last five thousand years has been a dangerous place.”
“That must have sucked,” she said as the waiter returned with a bottle of champagne. He popped the cork and poured the bubbling golden liquid into two flutes. Desdemona had only ever had a few sips of alcohol in her entire life. She lifted her champagne flute and emptied it in one go. By the time she set it back on the table, she was already regretting her decision.
“That’s putting it mildly,” he said flatly. Then he narrowed his eyes at her. “You cannot hold your liquor, can you?”
“I’m fine. I drink all the time.”
“You never drink. I can smell it on you. I can smell a lot about you, Desdemona,” he said with a growl.
Desdemona bristled at his words, knowing exactly what he was talking about. He knew she was a virgin and he was going to use that fact against her. How? She didn’t know. But from what little she knew about Titus, she wouldn’t put it past him.
10
After dinner and the most delicious dessert that Desdemona had ever eaten, Titus escorted her from the restaurant, his big hand cupping the small of her back. His town car waited outside on the sidewalk. They climbed in to the luxurious leather backseat and the driver closed the door against the wintry chill. The date had taken her through a range of emotions she hadn’t expected. Titus’s overpowering good looks and uncanny understanding of who she really was left her feeling shaken and exposed.
As they crossed town in the backseat of the town car, Titus silently checked his glass pad, then put it back in his suit pocket and frowned.
“What is it?” Desdemona asked.
“My nephew Ajax is organizing an immortal football league and already has enough players for a game tomorrow. He wants to make it a holiday celebration for humans and immortals alike.”
“What’s wrong with that?”
“There’s so much work to be done, the frivolity of a sports game seems a waste of time.”
“Don’t you think it would be helpful to distract people from their troubles?”
“I suppose. Ajax won’t take no for an answer so that’s that.”
They parked in the underground lot below Silverdrake Tower. As they rode upstairs in the elevator, Titus stood behind her, his hand resting on the safety rail along the wall. She could feel the heat of his breath, and it sent a tingle down her spine. She bit her lip, not knowing what to expect. She had been playing with him ever since she’d arrived, making comments about their grand wedding and waiting for their wedding night for him to claim her. Now she had those expectations locked into the public around them.
As the elevator doors slid open, Desdemona knew that the ball was now in his court. The entrance hall to his penthouse had a huge flower arrangement in front of the mirror. Desdemona looked into Titus’s face in the mirror as they walked to the front door of his suite. His eyes burned with a cool blue intensity she couldn’t quite read.
He placed his hand on the identity scanner and his door slid open. They entered an open living room with windows that looked out onto the city on one side and the river on the other. Everything was so nicely arranged and exuded splendor and quality. It was so far away from how Desdemona had lived after the Dark Sun. Not even her rooms in the mansion at the temple could compare to how Titus lived.
She started down the hallway to her bedroom, thinking she would go to sleep. But Titus followed her and stood beside her as she opened her bedroom door.
“I’m tired,” she said nervously. “It’s been a long day.”
“Desdemona,” he said in a low voice. She saw his nostrils flare as he breathed in the air around her, taking in her scent.
“Yes?” she breathed.
He reached across her doorway, resting his hand on the doorframe, blocking her.
“Do you really think this is going to wait for six months?”
“I thought you didn’t care.”
“I’m a man who doesn’t like waiting. I prefer to get things done sooner rather than later. That includes you.”
Desdemona gasped at his words, but tried to hide her shock. She narrowed her eyes at him and pursed her lips.
“There you go again with that post-apocalyptic romantic talk.”
“I doubt you know anything about romance, my dear girl,” he said.
“And I doubt that you will be the one to teach me. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I really am tired.”
She turned the doorknob and brushed past his arm. He let her go and she looked at him nervously as she started to close the door.
“And if not me, then who?”
“That’s good question, isn’t it?”
“There is no question, my dear. You and I are to be mated. We chose each other at the temple and those decisions are binding. Tomorrow I will take you on another date. I know it’s something humans enjoy so I will give you that,” he said, accentuating the word ‘humans’.
She bristled at it, knowing it was a veiled insult. Even if she was no longer human, she would always think of herself that way.
“Tomorrow I will take you for a ride in my jet and then we’ll go see Ajax’s ridiculous football game in the Superdome. You should dress warmly.”
With that he stepped away and turned to his own bedroom door, quickly stepping inside and disappearing from her view. She was left stunned and gawking at his closed door. He really did have a lot of nerve, but she supposed he was in some ways justified. They had made an agreement, regardless of how little either of them wanted to do it.
Whatever had been between them before, he hadn’t bothered to fully explain and she hadn’t asked. She closed her door and stepped into her bedchamber feeling irritable and excited at the same time. Part of her wished that he had grabbed her
and kissed her right there in the hallway.
It was a deep ache she’d been feeling since she’d met him, perhaps thousands of years ago. She also despised this man, no matter how attracted she was to him. He had done something to her in the past. Let her down, brushed her off, rejected her in a way she couldn’t forgive. And she had died alone, sacrificed herself for an ancient battle she didn’t understand.
She shook her head and groaned, wanting to brush it all aside. That old life had nothing to do with her. Nineteen-year-old Desdemona Hawthorne, from the mountains of Northern California, had nothing to do with this immortal war.
And she resented the fact that she had been forced into it because of something she couldn’t control. Up until three months ago, she had no idea that she had this genetic lineage, linking her to some ancient goddess. She still didn’t want any part of it.
But not wanting to be part of it wasn’t going to change anything. She was part of it, critically entwined in the dramas and politics of the immortal races, even if she couldn’t remember it. The only reasonable thing would be to simply deal with her reality and accept it. She has been raised to work hard and to be a strong person, but that was also part of the reason she couldn’t accept her fate.
She believed in her own will and in her own power more than just about anything else. She had received several letters from her father at the temple, and she hoped that they would still be able to contact her now that she was with Titus.
She crossed the room and sat at the end of her bed, looking out at the dark outline of the Mississippi River. She had never been this far east before, having spent most of her life in California with a few trips into Oregon and Washington, as well as that one time they went to Arizona. She had never been in an airplane before, let alone a hovercraft jet like Titus’s.
He wanted to take her out again tomorrow, and she didn’t know what she should do. Titus was the kind of man who was used to getting what he wanted. Whether or not he wanted her specifically, he did want to claim her and fulfill his duty as Alpha of the Silverdrake clan. She hated that she was being used this way.