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He angled his head in a curious way. “What is it? Do you think I would poison you?”
“No,” I managed to say. “Possibly.”
He tossed back his golden head, glossy hair falling away from a lovely lined face, and gave a full throaty laugh.
“Do not fear, my darling. I am not trying to trick you like Persephone with the pomegranate. This is simply”—he gestured wide—“our first date.” He winked and sipped from his goblet. “I would certainly never poison my crowning jewel. Besides, your soul cannot be poisoned. Not that way, anyway.” He gestured again and commanded, “Drink.”
This time, I found that I couldn’t resist the compulsion. I lifted the silver cup and took a sip, the liquid burning sweetly down my throat. How could my soul sense things in a physical manner?
“I don’t understand,” I said, staring at the wine to avoid him. “I’m not really here. How am I tasting this?”
“Oh, you are really here, Genevieve. Your soul is your essence. You can feel sensations with just your soul. However, it is less, shall we say, intense than when the body and soul are one.” His voice dipped low and sinister. “All in good time, my sweet.”
I glanced at him, wishing I hadn’t. His gaze roved over my shoulders and farther down to my breasts. I felt beyond vulnerable in nothing more than a negligee, sitting at Danté’s dining table, suffering under his burning gaze. A touch of anger flared inside me.
“Stop calling me that. I am not yours.”
Stormy eyes met mine. “You will be, Genevieve. Make no mistake about that. And when you are, I’ll be more than happy to teach you what it means to be mine.”
The threat, laced with menace, made quite an impact. My hands trembled in my lap. I tried to understand how my soul reacted in physical ways without the body, but there was no time for that.
Right now, I needed to find a way out of here. I closed my eyes, trying to center myself and reach my Vessel power. In a deep, dark tunnel, a pinpoint of light glimmered.
“I had hoped we’d have a pleasant dinner together.”
His voice jarred my eyes back open. A flash of crimson when he blinked. I flinched. He blinked again, his eyes returning to cloudy blue. The candlelight flickered, gilding his features to fine gold. The paradox of beauty hiding the beast made me shrink farther away.
“Be a good girl, Genevieve,” he warned, ice in his voice.
Claudius entered with a platter, serving slices of rare roast beef and herbed new potatoes onto our plates. This all felt so surreal.
“You eat roast beef and potatoes?” I asked, leaving my hands in my lap. The idea struck me as odd, even ridiculous.
He forked a piece of bloody meat into his mouth, wiping delicately with his napkin.
“I eat whatever I want. I can have whatever I want. And so will you, my dear. Whatever your heart desires will be yours. You need only ask.”
“Whatever my heart desires?” I asked, knowing full well my meaning hung heavy in the air. My heart’s desires leaned toward the protective steel of a dark demon hunter.
He straightened in his chair and picked up his glass of wine, swirling it in circles. “I know you’re infatuated with the hunter. It makes no difference to me. On the contrary, it may serve me quite well.”
“How is that?” I asked, feeling more emboldened than before.
Something stirred when I thought of Jude, something strong and fierce. But the glare I received in return cut my breath away. He set his napkin and goblet on the table, holding out his hand to me. A piano began to play a melancholy tune from somewhere beyond the room.
“Shall we dance?”
“No,” I said emphatically, shaking my head.
“Oh yes. I think so.”
With those words and a flash in his eyes, my body betrayed me again, rising from the seat and joining him in front of the fire.
He pulled me close, holding my right hand out in his left and pressing his other to the small of my back, moving me in a waltzing dance. The perverted façade of civility was revolting. Everywhere his body brushed against mine felt blistering cold. I went rigid in his arms.
“How are you making me do things I don’t want to do?”
“Why, Genevieve. You wound me. Here I thought I was being the perfect gentleman. Isn’t this what young ladies desire? Dinner by candlelight? Dancing with a devoted suitor?”
