He straightened and narrowed his gaze. "You've been dreaming. I said my goodbyes to you over three weeks ago."

"Less than two weeks ago, you came to me in the middle of the night."

He sucked in a breath. "Don't tell me you saw me in your bedroom."

She lifted her chin. "Just because I didn't see you doesn't mean you weren't there. We both know you were there, Andrei."

"You didn't see me."

"I don't need to see you to know when you're near." She captured his hand and held it against her b.r.e.a.s.t.s. "Isn't that clear by now? I know you were there, Andrei. I couldn't see you, but I can feel when you're near."

"So now you're clairvoyant?"

"I never thought I was." She shrugged. "You can try to deny it all you want, but there's clearly something special between us. Why are you even trying to deny it when it 's so obvious?"

Because he had no choice. He removed his hand from her clasp. "Why are you trying to spin a few days of l.u.s.t into something more?"

She rose and he stepped back. She clamped a hand on his arm, her eyes sparkling with angry defiance. "Why are you trying so hard to pretend that I don't mean anything to you when we both know I do?"

He jerked away from her, narrowing his gaze. "I'm going to tell you this for the last time. Leave me alone. Don't come looking for me and don't expect me to seek you out. We had a weekend fling. It was incredibly nice, but it's over. Deal with that reality, Dacoda."

"Andrei! How can you call what we share a weekend fling?"

He shook his head, ignoring the hurt in her voice. "Don't think I'll put up with you stalking me."

Her cheeks flushed and her eyes shot angry sparks at him. He knew what was coming, but made no effort to avoid the hand she swung at his cheek.

"You miserable, soulless b.a.s.t.a.r.d. Why are you trying so hard to hurt me?"

He stepped away from her. "I'll take you home."

"Don't do me any favors. I'll get home the same way I got here, but you should know that I have no intentions of allowing you to kick me to the curb."

"What the h.e.l.l is that supposed to mean?"

"It means I'm not going to allow you to try to cheapen what we feel for each other. I don't care what you say, I know you feel some of what I feel, Andrei. What we feel for each other is special and real."

He stared at her, his jaw clenching. How the h.e.l.l could he make her understand that they had no future together without really hurting her? "It's over, Dacoda."

Her filled with tears. "Why are you doing this, Andrei?"

He swallowed hard to dislodge the lump in his throat. Unable to stand the censure in her gaze, he turned away. "I've said all there is to say." He crossed the room to open the door. "I'll take you home."

She shook her head and stalked out the door.

He followed her. She turned and glared at him. "I don't need an escort, Andrei."

"I'll take you home."

"f.u.c.k off!" She turned away.

He caught her hand and turned her to face him. The pain he saw in her gaze hit him with the force of a stake in his heart. "Dacoda... "

"Why are you doing this?" The tears streamed down her cheeks. "If you just told me why, maybe it wouldn't hurt so much. Why, Andrei? Just tell me why. Please?"

"Because I have to." He released her and curled his hands into fists to keep from pulling her into his arms. "If you know half of what you claim to, then you know I have no desire to hurt you." He wiped at her wet cheeks. "But I need you to understand that whatever happened between us is over."

She pressed the back of her hand against her lips.

He extended his hand. "Give me your keys and I'll have your car brought to your apartment later."

She sighed, sniffed, shrugged and gave him her keys. "Have it your way, Andrei. You don't want me? Fine. I'll find someone who does."

He sucked in a breath and raked a hand through his hair. Oh G.o.d, help me. He took her arm and walked her through the club and out into the cool night.

He opened the pa.s.senger door of his SUV.

She shook his hand off when he touched her and got in without any a.s.sistance from him. They made the hour drive to her apartment in silence. They didn't speak until they stood at the bank of elevators in her lobby. "You'll be all right?"

She nodded, looking at a spot beyond his left shoulder.

"I'll have your car brought here and leave the keys in your mailbox."

She nodded again and stepped onto the elevator. When he moved to step inside with her, she shoved at his chest. "I told you to f.u.c.k off."

He stepped back and the door slammed close in his face. Swearing softly, he turned and stormed out of the building. Climbing into his SUV, he sat with his hands clenched on the steering wheel, staring up at her apartment window. He lost track of how long he sat there before he became aware of a car coming to a stop in the parking spot beside him.

The driver's door opened and the big, dumb blond Evan got out. He carried roses, a bottle of expensive wine and gourmet chocolates.

Andrei's lips tightened. The b.a.s.t.a.r.d wasn't wasting any time trying to steal his woman. He growled and jumped out of his SUV and found himself facing Tat.

"Andrei?"

d.a.m.n Dacoda. She had him so confused and angry his defenses were down. Tat should not have been able to sneak up on him like that. "Don't interfere, Tat," he warned. "You got me into this s.h.i.t by insisting I meet her."

"I thought she would be good for you."

"You thought wrong."

She placed her hands on his chest. "I'm sorry about that, Drei."

"You're sorry? And that's supposed to make everything okay?"

She sighed. "For whatever reason, you've decided you don't want her. I think that's a mistake, but it's your mistake to make."

"Yes it is, so stay out of this." He stepped around her.

She stepped in his path. "If you don't want her, fine, but I'll be d.a.m.ned if you're going to ruin her chances with Evan."

His nostrils flared. "What chances? Have you forgotten you paid him to sleep with her, just as you conned me into going out with her?"

She narrowed her gaze. "But I didn't pay him to come here. He's here now because he wants to be with her. And there's something else you should know. After he returned to Philly, he insisted I take back every penny I'd given him. He begged me not to tell her how they'd come to meet."

"What?"

"Oh, Andrei, do you really find it so strange that he might actually find her attractive and want to date her just because she's a sweet, pa.s.sionate woman?"

He bared his incisors. "She's an easy lay who behaves like an alley cat in heat every chance she gets."

"Andrei!"

"Get out of my way, Tat."

"So you can do what? Beat his a.s.s and scare him off? And then what? She'll be alone and unhappy? Is that what you want?"

"No, but I don't want her with someone who had to be paid to sleep with her either."

"He's here now because he wants to be. If you don't want her, get in your SUV and leave. If you want her, go tell her and let her decide which of you she wants to be with."

He looked up at Dacoda's window. He saw her silhouette merging with Evan's and felt as if a knife was being shoved through his chest. He tore his gaze away to glare at Tat. He clenched his hands into fists, afraid he'd backhand her if he didn't. "This is all your d.a.m.ned fault. You wouldn't leave me alone until I did your bidding and met her. And even then you went behind my back and set her up with that big, dumb b.a.s.t.a.r.d. The moment my back was turned, she spread her cheating legs as wide as they would go and had him eat her p.u.s.s.y like it was the G.o.dd.a.m.ned last supper. If I hadn't arrived when I did, he would have f.u.c.ked her until his d.i.c.k went limp, as he's probably going to do tonight."

A shadow crossed Tat's face.

"What are you hiding from me, Tat?"

She shook her head. "Please, Drei. If you don't want her, go home."

Home? He was supposed to go home now? He dragged in painful gulps of air. "He's going to f.u.c.k her and you're telling me to go home so he can do it uninterrupted?"

"You can't have it both ways. If you don't want her, leave her alone. You can't say you don't want her and then get enraged if she makes love to someone who does want her."

"What the h.e.l.l are you talking about? I should have ripped out his throat when I found him sprawled between her legs. I let him live and now you want me to stand by while he f.u.c.ks her? Are you nuts?"

"If you don't want her, you can't stand in the way of her finding love with another man."

"She doesn't love him."

She shrugged. "Not yet, but maybe I could see that she does."

He stared at her. "What?"

"I'm determined to see her happy."

"Even if it makes me miserable?"

She touched his cheek. "You know I'd never do anything to hurt you."

"I know this whole d.a.m.ned mess is all your doing. Why couldn't you leave me the h.e.l.l alone when I asked you to? You kept pushing and pushing until you got your d.a.m.ned way. And you're still not satisfied. What do you want from me now? You want to rip my heart out and bleed it dry?"

"Andrei."

"Don't you Andrei me. I'm sick to death of your G.o.dd.a.m.ned interference in my life." He slapped her hand away. "Get the f.u.c.k out of my face."

"Andrei." She clamped her hand over his arm.

He shook it off and swung around. Surrendering to the rage eating at him, he lashed out at her with a clenched fist.

She snapped her head to the side in order to avoid being hit. She stepped back, staring at him with wide eyes. "Andrei!"

He dragged deep breaths of air into his lungs. For a moment, he was stunned that he 'd just attempted to a.s.sault the one person he had shared nearly all his hopes and joys with for over three hundred years. His remorse pa.s.sed quickly. Too bad his fist hadn't connected.

Turning his back on her, he got into his SUV and glared at her. "If you follow me, I won't be responsible for what happens to you or that insipid b.a.s.t.a.r.d you call a bloodl.u.s.t."

Her eyes narrowed. "Is that a threat?"

"What the h.e.l.l do you think it is?"

"It's one thing to threaten me, Andrei. It's another entirely to threaten him."

"If you follow me, he's going to die a baby vamp."

"You don't mean that."

"Follow me and see!" He bared his incisors and drove off so abruptly, she had to dance out of the way to avoid being hit. If the interfering b.i.t.c.h followed him, he'd slap her happy a.s.s all over the state.

He spent several hours driving the back roads of the Pennsylvania suburbs, his emotions and feelings in a rage. Every time he thought about Dacoda possibly spending the night with her big dumb blond, his rage increased. How dare the faithless b.i.t.c.h think he'd allow her to make a fool of him?

Some time during the long night, his rage overwhelmed him. He turned his SUV around and headed back toward the city. Just after six a.m. he stopped his vehicle in the parking lot of Dacoda's apartment building. Evan's vehicle was still parked there.

Growling softly, he stalked into the building. Standing outside her apartment door, he resisted the urge to kick in her door. No use putting them on notice that he was there and it was time to pay the G.o.dd.a.m.n piper.

He made his way silently down the hallway leading to the bedroom. He stood in the open doorway. His anger tightened like a knot in his gut. Dacoda, naked and shameless, lay on her back with her arms and legs wrapped around the equally nude Evan. Andrei could see Evan's pale a.s.s muscles clenching as he f.u.c.ked his c.o.c.k in and out of Dacoda' s p.u.s.s.y. Dacoda's p.u.s.s.y? What the f.u.c.k? That was his p.u.s.s.y.

He flashed across the room, grabbed Evan and forcibly pulled him away from Dacoda. Holding the startled man by the back of the neck, he swung him across the room. He heard Dacoda cry out as Evan's head struck the wall before he slid, unconscious, onto the floor.

He strolled across the room, reached down and s.n.a.t.c.hed his rival up from the floor by his neck. He pulled back his clenched fist.

"Andrei! Oh my G.o.d, no! Please!"

He turned to see Dacoda jump off the bed. As she rushed across the room, he saw c.u.m trickle down one of her thighs. He looked down at his rival's bare c.o.c.k. The b.a.s.t.a.r.d had f.u.c.ked her without a condom and had already come inside her.

She clutched his arm. "Andrei! No. Please." "Get the f.u.c.k away from me, b.i.t.c.h." She sucked in a quick breath and tightened her hand on his arm. "This is between you and me, Andrei. You put him down. Right now!"

He bared his incisors and glared down into her eyes. "I'm going to kill him."

"No! I won't let you do that."

"And just who the f.u.c.k is going to stop me from killing you?"