Free Immortals After Dark 12 - Lothaire by Kresley Cole

themselves at you wherever you go.”
    “To a tedious degree.” He studied her expression. “Jealous to think of me with another?”
    “Not at all.” She no more cared whom he mated with than she would about an ant on the sidewalk.
    His grip on her neck tightened, a clear threat. “I’m not a selfless male—when I give, I expect to get. Today I gave you freedom.”
    Though it appalled her, she knew she’d have to manipulate him. “Vampire, I reek of prison, poverty, and fear. Look at my appearance, myatrocious garments. I want to feel beautiful, to be desirable. I need clothes, jewels, cosmetics. My hair must be shorn, my skin bathed.”
    She thought he might press the issue. Instead, he released her, offering his hand. “Then welcome to New York.” He drew back a curtain, revealing a balcony that overlooked a green park and a vast city. He ushered her forward into the sunlight as he drew back into the shadows. “Whatever you need, we’ll find it here.”
    Did he expect her to be impressed by this view? She was confused. Impressive would be this vast city enslaved to her will. . . .

7
    H is penthouse had been turned into a female’s sartorial dream.
    Blue velvet draped the dining room table, dotted with gemstones the size of his Bride’s fist. Racks of costly garments lined the walls in the living area. Designer shoes littered the floor. Cosmetics were laid out in the dressing room.
    And in the kitchen, a chef prepared a meal fit for a queen.
    After Lothaire had cleaned himself, he’d made a few select calls. Within the hour, his home had been filled with the city’s most exclusive stylists, beauticians, and shopkeepers, all peddling their wares and services.
    At least, the most exclusive mortal proprietors.
    Normally he would have purchased through Lore vendors, but gossip about the Enemy of Old’s new woman would be impossible to suppress unless he killed all the witnesses.
    Which he was hesitant to do; he enjoyed their luxurious wares himself. Even if he wasn’t yet a king, he would dress as one. . . .
    So humans it would be. He adjusted the sunglasses he was forced to wear in front of them.
    For the last several hours, Saroya had been closeted in her suite ofrooms with aestheticians and a “wax specialist”—whatever that was—spending the afternoon doing gods-only-knew-what in the bathroom.
    To pass the time, he was tempted to tackle a new mechanical puzzle he’d acquired—a polyhedral assembly, solvable in sixty-five moves—but his concentration suffered on most days as it was.
    And now the sound of his Bride’s voice teased him. Her scent kept his body strung tight. As ever, madness threatened.
    Lothaire knew one thing that would relax him. He traced into the closet of his suite, opening a safe within. There lay his most treasured possession: a weighty account ledger.
    He didn’t use it to track monetary expenditures and incomes. Instead, he recorded blood debts, chronicling all the immortals who had sworn to do whatever he demanded of them.
    Like a miser palming his gold, Lothaire would review his debtors, reverently brushing his fingers over the ledger pages—
    He froze, sensing something that couldn’t be right. A presence from long, long ago. He shoved the book back into the safe, slamming it shut, then traced to the shadow’s edge of the balcony.
    The setting sun was veiled by misty clouds, but he still had to shade his sensitive eyes as he gazed out over the city.
    Was he being stalked?
    How to anticipate a threat when he could scarcely untangle reality from reverie? Waiting . . . watching . . .
    Once night fell, the presence disappeared. Or had he imagined it?
    Unsettled, he returned to the living room. Saroya emerged shortly after. At the sight of her, he shrugged off his disquiet.
    The wait had been worth it.
    A floor-length gown of black silk molded over her every curve. The front was a deep V cutting down all the way to her waist. Thin leather ties crisscrossed over her chest,