"I don't buy it."
I smiled thinly, eyes half-hidden beneath my lashes. "You don't have to."
"Hmmph," he said, but he was clearly pleased by the repartee.
This time, he was the one who took the offensive. He stood and moved around his desk and toward me. I straightened up, every nerve in my body on alert as he approached. When he reached me, he took my hands, the same move Mayor Tate had used a couple of nights ago.
"I'm self-aware enough to admit that I prefer to be in control," he said. "It is a consequence, I think, of the responsibility of maintaining this House. But I told you how I felt about you - "
"You didn't, actually."
He blinked. "Excuse me?"
I gave him a smile. "You told me you were beginning to remember how it felt to love someone. You didn't make a confession specific to me."
His lips tightened, but he was smart enough to ask the pertinent question. "Will it make a difference if I say that?"
"No. But a girl likes to feel appreciated."
The only warning I had was the flash in his eyes before he moved, got down on his knees.
I froze, my stomach seizing. My teasing aside, a boy on his knees meant stuff I wasn't going to be prepared to hear.
Ethan reached forward and slid a hand around my neck, his thumb tracing the pulse point he found there. "Merit, I lo - "
"Don't." I knew I'd goaded him to it, but that didn't mean I was ready for the words. I could hear the pleading in my voice, but I managed to stop him before he got out the L word. "Don't say it. Putting it out there is only going to make it harder for both of us to actually do our jobs."
"I'm not flattered by the fact that you aren't sure whether I mean it or not."
"Do you?"
He gave me a flat look, but then his expression changed to something much more appraising.
And that made me worry.
"What?" I asked him.
"We're vampires."
"I'm aware."
"As vampires, we bargain, we negotiate, and we honor our agreements."
I lifted my eyebrows. "And what agreement do you intend on forming?"
"I want a kiss. One kiss," he added, before I could question him, "and I'll keep the declarations to myself. One kiss, and then I'll cease all flirting, as you call it, unless and until you come to me with your own declarations."
I slid him a glance to check his expression.
Reverse psychology wasn't beyond him, and the deal didn't make much sense otherwise. I wouldn't deny the attraction between us, but I felt pretty confident I could manage not to make sexual overtures to my boss.
"One kiss?" I reiterated.
"One kiss."
"Deal," I said. Hoping to jump the gun, I closed my eyes and offered puckered lips. Ethan chuckled, but ignored me long enough that I opened one eye.
"Don't think you're going to get by that easily." The hand on my neck slid down, his thumb resting in the hollow at the base of my neck, the rest of his fingers splayed across my collarbone. His eerily green eyes stayed trained on mine, at least until his tangled lashes dropped and he moved in.
But he didn't kiss me.
His mouth hovered just beyond mine, out of reach only so long as I refused to make that plunge forward - and he refused to execute the bargain.
"You're cheating," I murmured. I was torn about whether I was glad of it or not. I was afraid that if his lips touched mine, I'd lose the will to resist, and I was afraid that if I gave in, I'd lose my heart again.
Ethan shook his head. "I said one kiss, and I meant it. One kiss, my terms, to be claimed when the time is right."
Suddenly, he shifted his mouth to my ear, his teeth grazing the lobe. I shuddered at the spark that trilled down my spine, my eyes rolling back at the ridiculous pleasure of it.
"This isn't a kiss," he whispered, his lips at my ear.
"Nor is it in the spirit of the bargain."
"Let's not focus on the formalities, Merit."
And then his lips were back again, hovering against my jaw, teasing me with the possibility of what he might do.
With the anticipation of it.
I fought back the urge to step forward, to push my lips against his to be done with it. To push my lips against his because he'd incited me to it.
"I'll have you in my bed again, Sentinel. And at my side. That is a promise."
"You mean to tease me into a seduction?"
"Is it working?"
My answer was less a word than a frustrated grumble. I was self-aware enough to know that the only thing I enjoyed more than getting what I wanted was not getting what I wanted. In my experience, wanting was often more fun than having.
On the other hand, this was a game that could easily be played by two.
I lifted a hand and pushed a lock of hair behind his ear, then traced the line of his eyebrow and jaw with a fingertip, my gaze drinking in each part of his face, from perfect cheekbones to long lips.
This time, he froze.
Flushed with feminine power, I traced the line of his neck, then curled a fist into the top of his shirt and tugged him forward.
His eyes widened; I bit back a smile.
This time, I tortured him, skimming my lips along the line of his jaw, and then to his ear. I bit him delicately, just enough to hear his heavy sigh. I wasn't sure if I meant it, if I was torturing him because I thought he deserved to be teased just like he'd teased me, or if I wanted the joy of doing it on my own.
My heart pounded, the rhythm sped by fear and trepidation and simple desire.
"Do you like being teased?" I whispered.
"I enjoy previews," he said, the words confident, but his voice rough with arousal.
I took the gravelly edge to his voice as my cue.
I wanted to tease him, not push us both past the point of no return. I put my hand flat against Ethan's chest and pushed him backward. He rose unsteadily to his feet, looking down with me with frustration in his eyes.
A taste of his own medicine, I thought. To be so close to something you wanted . . . and yet so far away.
I stood up and walked around my chair and toward the door, then blew out a breath and straightened my ponytail.
"That's it?"
My heart was beating like a timpani drum, the blood rushing through my veins faster than it should have. "One kiss, you told me. You had your chance to take it."
Ethan wet his lips, straightened his collar, and moved back to his desk. He sat down in his chair, then looked up at me, something soft in his eyes.
"One kiss," he promised. "And after that, the next time we touch, it will be because you ask me."