By the time she reached the top of the tower, Chloe was out of breath and her legs were screaming at her.
The door of a large, tower-wide circular study was open, and five vampires were watching it, like they’d been expecting her. Four among them seemed amused. The fifth was glaring at her.
Yeah? Well, get in line, Levi. She was pissed too.
Ignoring everyone else, she walked straight to him and placed the box on the desk in front of him.
‘Thanks, but no thanks. I can’t take random, outrageously expensive presents from strangers.’
It wasn’t who she was.
Chloe considered retreating now that she’d said her piece, but that might have seemed cowardly. Instead, she glared at him, waiting for his retort.
‘And you were under the impression that coming here to tell me that was necessary?’
She shrugged. ‘You invaded my place without an invitation. That’s called payback.’
‘Feel free to come by mine any time, Chloe. This is work. I don’t care for interruptions.’
‘Well, tough luck, asshole.’
One of the vampires in the room disguised a laugh with a cough.
Levi sighed and closed his leather-bound journal.
‘You’re the protégée of an acquaintance. You came to Scotland in January with a spring jacket. I don’t particularly want to explain to Charles that the student he sponsored died of pneumonia. If the coat was ‘outrageously expensive,’ blame my assistant. He likes spending my money.’
‘Guilty,’ said a man behind her.
She turned to glance at a striking dark-skinned guy who had pulled out a bag of popcorn and was shamelessly watching them.
‘You bought it?’
‘Yes, girl. I have great taste, right?’
‘Yes, it’s very…look, that’s not the point. I’m a functioning adult, not a charity case. If I need a damn coat, I’ll buy a damn coat. I have a credit card for that.’
‘You tell him!’ a woman added encouragingly.
Chloe was feeling more and more foolish at every moment. She’d made a bigger deal of this than it was, hadn’t she?
‘Well, if I offended you, I apologize. May I go back to work now?’
It was probably past time she left.
‘Yeah, sure. Thanks for the sleeping draught, by the way.’
‘Wait, how does that work?’ the assistant asked. ‘He can give you draughts, but not coats?’
‘Because draughts don’t cost an arm and a leg,’ she mumbled.
She didn’t think they did, in any case.
The assistant snorted. ‘Girl, no offense, but the draught, the coat? Same difference. It’s peanuts to him anyway. He accumulated billions before billionaires were a thing.’
Oh. Well, that certainly explained why he thought it was okay to send her coats that cost four figures.
‘Look, in my world, people don’t give expensive shit for nothing, and I don’t like having that sort of dynamic with anyone.’
‘And what, pray tell,’ said Levi, very slowly, enunciating each word, ‘do you believe I’d want from you, Chloe?’
She avoided his eyes. ‘It’s not okay on principle, all right?’
Every time she opened her mouth, she felt like remaining silent might have been a wiser idea.
‘Sweetie,’ said a tall, beautiful blonde, joining them and opening the box. ‘Ancients don’t really understand human interactions. For thousands of years, it was quite all right for Levi to buy anything he liked for anyone, male or female. Society has changed quite a bit over the last two centuries or so, but it can take the old ones a while to adapt.’
Shit, that made a lot of sense.
‘All right. Sorry I flew off the handle.’
‘Good to see you can be reasonable,” Levi said. “Take the damn coat and go. I have work to do.’
Chloe almost heeled like a good little girl. His tone accepted no argument, but that tone was bugging her nearly as much as his smug, annoying grin.
Instead, she did it again. Let her mouth do its thing without using her brain first.
‘Have you ever thought of getting that broomstick removed from your posterior?’
What. Was. Wrong. With. Her.
Blair had clearly told her who—what—Levi was. She really shouldn’t have been talking to him like this, as though he were just a random guy in the street.
Maybe she had a death wish.
The others weren’t even trying to hide their laughter.
‘Seriously, you’re just so tense and high-handed. Sounds like you need…’
The next instant, she was hit by a tornado that pushed her against the wall. Chloe questioned why her bones hadn’t shattered in the process. Levi was caging her with his arms, teeth bared. His dark eyes were glowing blue.
‘You will not question my authority, child. You will not dismiss me. You will behave.’
Each word echoed around the room, amplified, sounding like a growl.
And for some strange reason, Chloe was…amused. Like this was what she’d wanted all along. To piss him off. And she’d been looking forward to doing it all day.
She had no fucking idea why, but poking the bear was…fun.
‘So that’s what you look like without the broomstick,’ she said.
Maybe she had hit her head.
Levi took a step back and pointed to the door. ‘Go. Just go.’
‘I will. As long as you promise me you understand that I will not be bought.’
‘Chloe, I am so very close to snapping your neck like a twig.’
Do it.
What the fuck? She had never, until this day, exhibited any sort of suicidal tendency, so the thought popping out of her clouded, deranged mind shocked her. So much so that she finally did what she was told and headed out the door.
She’d just started down the flight of stairs when her coat flew out of the study, falling right on her head. The next instant, the door was closed.
Damn him. He definitely had a thing for having the last word. She walked down, feeling like she hadn’t entirely lost today’s argument.
Although it did look like she had a new coat.
