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“Fine,” I replied quietly.
He leaned even closer, his fingers sliding up my arm to rest on my shoulder, his voice husky with emotion. “Genevieve Drake, you are the most beautiful woman I have ever laid eyes on.”
His lips brushed the shell of my ear. Intentionally or accidentally, it didn’t matter. The effect was the same. Coupled with the sensation of his hands and lips brushing my bare skin, his words made my knees buckle.
I knew I wasn’t the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. He’d been alive for centuries. Still, the fact that he seemed to believe it was enough to make me blush. The smug sparkle in his eyes told the truth. He knew exactly what he did to me. Dangerous man.
“Genevieve,” he addressed me louder, “may I introduce George Draconis.”
I nodded.
“You are Flamma,” I stated matter-of-factly. “A Dominus Daemonum.”
“Yes and no, my dear lady.”
“George is our commander,” clarified Jude. “Our leader.”
“Oh!” I was a suddenly surprised that Kat had been so rude to her own boss. Surely there was something I didn’t know. “So you’re the master of the Master of Demons.”
“At your service.” He bowed as regally as possible over the dining table. “Clever girl, Jude.”
“More than you know,” he added as the waiter arrived.
Our waiter opened a bottle of pinot noir and poured us each a glass. Definitely not the wine connoisseur, I could still recognize this wasn’t the cheap stuff.
“We took the liberty of ordering for you ladies,” offered George.
“Of course you did,” Kat snapped.
“I hope you don’t mind, dear Katherine.”
She took a very unladylike gulp of wine. I quirked my eyebrows at Jude, wondering what I was missing, but he simply smiled boyishly over the rim of his wineglass.
“So, is Draconis a Greek name? Is that where you’re from?” I asked.
“Ah, not quite. I chose the name myself, as I was born without a surname.”
Old like Jude, this one.
“And when might that have been?”
“Two hundred seventy anno domini.”
I almost choked. Yes, Jude was born not that much longer after him, but the truth struck me like a slap in the face every time. These two men were both centuries older than me, making Kat a blooming daisy in spring with her two hundred years of time on earth. Hell, with that metaphor, I’d be a seed on the wind or pollen in the air, not even in soil yet.
Our waiter served our salads, so I sipped my water, recovering while the young server offered fresh cracked pepper. We waited in silence till he was gone.
“So, why Draconis?” I asked. “Do you have a thing for dragons?”
George’s eyes twinkled with amusement. Kat squirmed next to me, and Jude watched from the sidelines as if this were an entertaining tennis match.
“Well, I don’t have a thing for them, so to speak, but I do want to bury each one of them in the darkest abyss imaginable.”
“Oh. Of course,” I said, sipping my wine as I realized dragon was meant simply as a symbol for demons.
“You’re actually already quite acquainted with George,” said Jude with one of his enigmatic smiles that made my insides puddle into goo.
“Uh, no, I don’t think I am.”
