Irresistible Nemesis (16 page)

“Wow!” The one word Andreas could muster. She understood his inability to articulate what had just transpired between them.

Dripping with sweat, Andreas finally pulled out of her. Then flailed onto to his back to the pillow beside her. Drained of every lost drop of energy, she watched him for several minutes until he closed his eyes and drifted into slumber.

“Sweet dreams, my love.” Eva tangled her fingers in his wavy, brown locks as he slept. Careful not to wake him, she slipped out of bed. She used her stealth secret agent skills to get dressed without making a single sound. Before she headed for the door, she reached down and caressed his cheek, savoring the contradiction of soft skin and stubble. “Please forgive me. I’m terrible at goodbyes.”

****

Andreas sat behind the driver’s seat. His mind raced as his Porsche zoomed across Belt Highway on his way back from Coney Island. Seeing the young woman, her bruises and cracked ribs still not healed, had him in a rather somber mood. Anna, the shy, red-head with the pixie features, seemed so fragile. He could tell that she’d once been a vibrant girl with big dreams. Now, all he saw was the empty shell. Ivan Olshanskey had completely broken her spirit.

But what really nagged at him was the way she continued to defend the bastard who nearly killed her. No question about it. She’d been blinded by love. Didn’t she realize that only a coward would have the audacity to put his hands on an innocent woman? If he lived to be a thousand years old, he’d never understand how anyone could hurt someone they claimed to love. The whole situation left a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach.

“Andreas, did you hear what I said?” Natasha repeated, suddenly jostling him back to the present. He looked back at her perplexed. He must have missed something rather important.

“Your father called
The Crypt
three times last night looking for you. You seem to be avoiding him.” Natasha shot him a reluctant, sideways glance. “I know you and I have had a rough go of things the past few weeks. But you can trust me. What’s going on?” Andreas peered at her out of the corner of his eye as his hands dug into the leather grooves of the steering wheel. Lying to Natasha was futile. Besides, she could smell Eva’s scent all over him. He had no choice but to fess up to it.

“I didn’t want to get you involved in this, Natasha.” Andreas let out a frustrated sigh. When did life suddenly get so complicated?

Women used to be a welcome distraction. But as of late, all they brought him was grief. “You’ve already been through the ringer with Olshanskey. I’m trying to figure out a way to resolve this issue with my father so that no one has to get hurt. Not Eva, not you, or anyone else for that matter.”

Natasha laid her hand on his shoulder in what seemed like a friendly gesture of comfort. It was the first time in quite a while that she hadn’t tried to manipulate their friendship into something sexual in nature.

“Ignoring Aristotle isn’t going to make this go away. The huntress’s been marked for death. And if you value your own life, I’d advise you to stay away from her.” Natasha wagged her finger at him and warned him to back off. Funny how she referred to Eva as
the
huntress
. It had been weeks since Andreas had thought of her as his enemy.

“I can’t. Believe me, I’ve tried.” Andreas stepped hard on the Porsche’s accelerator. It was safer to take his frustrations out on the car rather than on his head of security. He saw Natasha’s jaw dropped. Instinctively, he kept his focus on the road. Anything to avoid a confrontation. His voice full of melancholy, he continued,

“Besides, Eva will be leaving town soon so there’s no sense in worrying about her. She’s not a threat to us.” Andreas could care less what his father had planned for him.

Eva’s life was at stake, and without question, he would do what he had to, to ensure that she left town in one piece. If that meant standing up to Aristotle, then so be it.

He saw Natasha’s wounded expression and sensed the hurt in her voice. Hadn’t he done enough? For Christ’s sake, he’d humiliated her in public. But clearly she still hadn’t let go of her feelings for him.

“You’re in love with her, aren’t you?”

The question took Andreas by surprise. Love wasn’t something he’d ever even thought about. He was too busy running his family’s multi-million dollar empire and keeping over-zealous vampires from stepping out of line. He didn’t have time for superfluous emotions. Regardless, Andreas had to admit that he was inextricably drawn to Eva. Like a volcano ready to erupt, their attraction to one another was explosive.

Andreas found it difficult to pinpoint exactly what he found so irresistible about her. No doubt, Eva was beautiful. He respected her intelligence and stood in awe of her super-human ability to kick ass.

They had great chemistry, too, and if last night’s performance was any indication, Eva had only wet the surface of his sexual appetite.

Andreas had fucked an insane number of women in his lifetime, both human and vampire. Yet none left their mark on him the way Eva did.

What was so different about her?

“Don’t be ridiculous! Of course, I’m not in love with her,” Andreas retorted, his tone sounding almost defensive. “Maybe it’s a simple case of wanting what I can’t have. I’m a vampire. She’s a huntress.” It was the only explanation that made any sense. His obsession with Eva had to be about the unattainable.

“Well, that’s good to know. You had me worried for a minute there.” Natasha exhaled, releasing the breath she’d been holding. “But I’m still a bit perplexed. Even if she leaves town, why would you let her live. Is the sex that good?”

Andreas shot her a perturbed glance. His sex life was none of her concern.

“I plead the fifth.” Andreas shook her head at her in disbelief.

“But I’ve entrusted you with some pretty incriminating information. If my father gets wind of this, he’ll be none too happy. So please, keep this conversation between the two of us.”

As his car turned into the entrance to
The Crypt
’s underground parking structure, Andreas couldn’t quite shake the feeling that something terrible was about to happen. His stomach lurched, still in knots from the visit with Olshanskey’s girlfriend. However, he suspected his uneasiness had more to do with Eva. To keep her safe from his father, she needed to remain invisible for two more days. But the urge to go to her overwhelmed him. How in the hell could he resist the temptation for the next forty-eight hours?

I’m in way over my head.

Chapter Nineteen
Last-Ditch Effort

At two o’clock on the dot, Eva turned the corner in the hallway leading to Oliver’s office. She’d had her final reports ready for him to review early that morning. But with the excuse that she’d been asked to volunteer to teach a covert training course to a few BPA trainees, she’d pushed back the meeting until as late as possible. She needed as much time as possible to prepare for what she had to do and wasn’t looking forward to lying to her best friend.

Lucky for Eva, the course she had just conducted dealt with biofeedback – a technique used by agents to understand and control the body’s natural response to stimuli. In her instruction, she showed the agents how to regulate their heart rate in an effort to beat lie detector tests. It was also used in situations where agents needed to read signals from the body to extract sensitive information from unwilling hostages. Eva prayed the refresher would help her stay under the radar of Oliver’s high-tuned psychic ability.

“Come in.” Oliver smiled at her as she approached. Once she stepped inside, he motioned for her sit next to him on the antique sofa set in the corner of his office. As usual, he offered her tea and scones.

Eva declined his hospitality, afraid the refreshments might affect her tight-coiled concentration. She needed him to believe what she was about to tell him, without attempting to undercover her plans by reading her mind. She proceeded to review her final reports with him, careful to discuss each case extensively and to provide him with specifics about the individual agents that would be assigned to them.

Eva was known for her meticulous attention to detail. She wanted her departure from BPA’s New York branch to be as seamless as possible.

After Oliver poured over each document with a fine tooth comb, he looked up at her with regret.

“I’m going to miss you, Eva.” Oliver’s bottom lip curled into a pout. “What am I going to do with myself after you’re gone?” The sincerity in his voice brought her close to tears. He’d been her rock for the past five years and had helped her to deal with grief from the lose of her parents and the angst and isolation she experienced as a teenage outcast.

“I’m sure you’ll be fine without me.” Eva lied as she squeezed his hand and struggled to keep a straight face. “There are plenty of books in the library and agents that need baby-sitting to keep you busy for quite a while. And if not, you can always call or take a trip down to New Orleans to visit me.”

Oliver sighed and shot her a half-smile. “You’re right, of course. Now is there anything else you need before you get on the plane tomorrow morning?” Eva paused before she answered, trying to control her breathing and still her heart’s sudden desire to beat out of her chest.

Eva put up a wall in her mind and locked away her thoughts so Oliver wouldn’t be able to read her true intention. “I’d really like to attend Mass this evening with Father Mancini before I finish packing.

He’s been like a father-figure to me.” What she’d told Oliver was true. She did plan to visit the priest. But after that, she had every intention of eluding her bodyguards so she could steal away to be with Andreas for a few, short hours.

Eva could sense Oliver’s hesitation. He hadn’t let her out of his sight, except for that night he’d shown mercy and let her savor one last moment with the vampire. With her hands hidden from view, she checked the pulse at her wrist to make sure her heart rate remained steady. She had to see Andreas again tonight and convincing her boss to give her a bit of freedom was essential.

“All right. But please, make sure you take your protection detail with you.” Oliver relented. Then, she could have sworn she saw the suspicious twitch of his jaw. “And don’t even think about trying to lose them. I’ll be very annoyed if I have to come looking for you.” Damn, she’d been caught red-handed. But at least he still agreed to let her attend Mass. Oliver was the best friend a girl could ever ask for.

****

Natasha’s expression remained blank, her mood unreadable.

On the outside, she came off as cool and collected. But the inside was a whole different story. She seethed with anger as she paced across the newly-polished hardwood floor of her office. So irritated, the heels of her Jimmy Choo’s scuffed the glossy surface. She could deal with Andreas’s philandering ways. She could even put up with him screwing his nemesis on a short-term basis if it were just for kicks.

After living 150 years, she understood his desire to keep sex interesting. And what was more of a turn on than sleeping with the enemy? But disobeying a direct order from his father and refusing the coven its right to seek retribution was down-right deplorable.

“
On menya zaebal
!” Natasha screamed in Russian. She was so sick of Andreas and his self-righteous bullshit. Enraged, she walked over to the fireplace, picked up a vase full of flowers and flung it across the room. The crystal smashed against heavy steel and glass shattered before it fell to the floor. A moment later, she heard a knock on the other side of the door. Natasha threw the door open, ready to give whoever it was a piece of her mind. Lucky for her, she looked before she leapt. Otherwise, she would have unleashed her wrath on one of the few individuals with the power to literally wipe her right off the face of the earth.

Aristotle stood in the doorway and peered down at her with impeccably well-mannered poise— a clear indication of his upper-class lineage.

“What seems to be the trouble, Natasha?” Aristotle’s attention was drawn to the rose petals and shards of fine crystal strewn about the floor.

“Oh, excuse me, Mr. Kristopolous. I do apologize.” Natasha’s cheeks burned with embarrassment. She bent down to pick up the largest pieces of glass that blocked his path. “Nothing is the matter. I simply dropped a vase on my way to empty some dead flowers into the trash can.”

“That’s neither here nor there.” Aristotle shook his head, downplaying the triviality of the situation with a wave of his hand in the air. “Where is my son?” The elder vampire seemed clearly annoyed at having to deal with her. After all, she was one of the little people. She didn’t exist in this man’s world.

“I saw him a few nights ago. We took a trip out to Coney Island to check on Ivan Olshanskey’s lover. Andreas wanted to ensure the woman is well cared for. He doesn’t want any unnecessary trouble brought upon our coven.” Natasha folded her arms over her chest and cocked her hip to the side. “I’m surprised you two haven’t spoken since then. I did forward him your messages.”

“What are you keeping from me, Natasha?” prodded Mr.

Kristopolous. He seemed to read right through her not-so-forthcoming willingness to fork over information on his son. Natasha’s palms began to sweat as her nervousness got the better of her. She was torn between protecting the man she wanted more than blood itself and selling him out to the highest bidder. Aristotle held all the cards, and she was inclined to tell him everything she’d sworn to keep secret.

“All right, I’ll tell you what I know.” Natasha nodded in agreement without much of a protest. “He’s been avoiding you in an effort to protect the huntress. I think he’s fallen for her. He won’t admit it, but still….”

“I surmised that much on my own,” Aristotle acknowledged as a softness moved across his normally rigid and angular face. “When you see him, please inform him of my visit and ask him to contact me right away.”

Natasha was more confused than ever. She expected the man to blow a fuse at the thought of his son’s continued efforts to consort with the enemy. Instead, he seemed to be pleased with that development.