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WELL. How was a girl supposed to deal with that? The problem was that she actually thought she could like him. If she was in the market for a vampire husband, that was. Which she wasn’t. Was she?
What was she supposed to do? She couldn’t go back to her little den. Not with him knowing about it. He had changed her. Made her into a Dardaptoan. She could possibly blend in better now, but how was she supposed to deal with the whole blood thing? Her mouth watered as she recalled the salty sweet taste of him.
She didn’t want the guy getting crazy ideas just because she had no real other choice. How fair would that be to the guy?
She didn’t want some guy just picking her up off the street and taking her home just because he wanted her.
Was that so wrong? Then again...what was so wrong with staying with him a little longer?
Miranda didn’t want a mate or a husband or anything else. Not this way.
What she wanted was to go home. Back to the world she’d lived in her entire life. Where hamburgers were available under golden arches and she could buy a bag of Doritos whenever she wanted to.
Of course, the last few years at home had been a bit lacking in fun. She’d spent most of them homeless, running from the assholes who were trying to cash in on some bounty that had been put on her head, after all.
Whether she wanted to admit it or not, this vampire guy was probably her best shot at finding a new normal, wasn’t he? Who knew, maybe if they decided the whole Rajni thing wasn’t working out, he could help her find a job and a real apartment somewhere in this place?
Did Dardaptoans divorce?
She wanted to soak in the real bath for as long as she could, but her stomach was growling. Food, real food not blood, was far more pressing. She could always come back and take that bath later, right? Miranda strongly suspected all she had to do was ask, and he’d give her whatever she wanted today.
But...she’d never been the type to willingly take advantage of someone that way. She stood on her own two feet. Period.
She dressed in the clothing he’d provided. It was shockingly white and felt like silk. She hadn’t worn silk in years—if ever. He’d left her a turquoise scarf that was equally as nice.
White. The color of the bigshots around here.
Luxury suite with real plumbing, expensive clothing, access to all the food she wanted, guy who claimed she was made just for him. She had to be dreaming. Miranda washed the tears away quickly.
She’d lived like a rat for so long...
It was hard not to feel grateful, wasn’t it? But she wouldn’t be with a man out of gratitude.
She brushed her hair and tried to tie the scarf around it the way she’d seen other Dardaptoan women do it. She’d had a few encounters with the women who wore white and yellow. And she’d studied how they’d done it and tried to mimic it. Miranda hadn’t mastered it yet.
She hadn’t quite figured out how she felt about being Dardaptoan, yet. It was a life-changing event, of course. But so had been getting yanked into the demon world. Or barely escaping a hitman waiting for her outside the supermarket where she’d been working her way through nursing school.
She had learned to go with the punches. This would be no different.
She stepped out of the bathroom and there he was. His hair had been washed and combed somehow and he was dressed in identical white, with the same scarf tied around his waist. Adric wore a sword and scabbard tucked into it. She took a real good look at him. He had to be close to seven feet tall, which made her five-six feel short. His shoulders were broad and Adric was built strong. Real strong. Her fingers wanted to curl on those shoulders and just cling.
She was such a wishy-washy wimp. First vampire guy to smile at her and she turned into a mass of stupidity.
His hair was rich chestnut, and it curled over his brows. It was a little long, but it suited him. His eyes were the weird gold of the Dardaptoans. He smiled at her. “You look quite beautiful in my colors, love.”
“I can’t get the scarf tied right. I never have been able to. I just wrapped my old ones around my waist.”
“Where did you get those? It is a big deal to take one that is not yours. You are lucky you did not get fined.”
“The only people I talked to regularly wear that green colored one or a buttery yellow. I found one on the ground around here. Then I found a few others. I’d mix them up whenever I went to other areas of the city. I didn’t want anyone figuring out I didn’t have any family. That I wasn’t a vampire.”
“You have a family now. Mine. You will meet some of them shortly.”