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"I was thirsty." I showed him my can of soda.
Darren shook his head grimly and moved to the counter where the dinner tray he had started for me sat. "Which could have waited five more minutes. What would you have done had the masters been having dinner?"
"Well, I—"
"When all six of them caught your scent and closed in on you before you could even realize your folly? What then?" he bit out, never once looking at me as he arranged the plates and napkins on my tray.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean—"
"Of course, you didn't," he cut me off again, flicking his eyes up to me before they moved back down to the tray. He went about folding and refolding the cloth napkin with jerky gestures. "You never do."
"Hey, now wait a second,” I objected. “That's hardly fair."
"Isn't it though?" He paused and stared hard at me, making me squirm in place. "You prance around here in those little shorts and barely there tops and then get surprised when the masters react to you." He huffed a bitter laugh. "They all think you are different because you haven't climbed into bed with them or flat-out propositioned them, but you're worse. You're the worst kind of seducer because you don't even try, and they fall all over themselves to have you."
Darren stopped for a moment and then his jaw tightened. "Mark my words, have you they will, and then they won't want to let you go."
I gaped at him, opening and closing my mouth like a codfish as I stood there in the kitchen. My quickly warming soda was in one hand, and my beating heart had been ripped out and now sat on the island for Darren to smash.
I forced my mouth shut and narrowed my eyes on him. "I don't know what your problem is today, but I am not trying to do anything."
"My point exactly—" he tried to interject, but I was having no part of it.
"Stop it. I'm talking now." I held my hand up with a warning glare. "I understand you have a special relationship with the masters, but I'm here now too. I don't want to take them away from you or anything like that. I just wanted a job, and they gave me one."
"You could get another job," he quipped.
"Not like this one." I shook my head. "Not one where I actually feel like I belong and have a place. At least I did, until you basically called me a sneaky whore," I growled, but Darren didn't even act contrite.
"I admit I'm attracted to them." I shrugged. "Who wouldn't be? But I'm not just going to ruin our whole dynamic just to get my rocks off. So, you can take your condescending attitude and shove it up your ass where the rest of your personality lives." I huffed and spun on my heel marching toward the stairs. Then I stopped and spun back around.
"And another thing! I don't parade around in my pajamas. I didn't expect to run into any of them.” I waved my hand around the kitchen. “Obviously, no one is even home. So... yeah... there," I ended lamely with a wince.
Darren sighed and shook his head. "They aren't here because they can't stand to be in the same house as you right now. Even with you locked in your room, they are going mad with bloodlust with just the faintest whiff of you."
My brows shot up to my forehead at his words. Was my period really affecting them so much? I swallowed hard, my heart suddenly beating rapidly against my chest as I squeaked out, "All of them?"
"All of them what?"
"All of them are mad with... with... bloodlust?" It felt weird to even say it, but I had to know who to keep away from until my cycle subsided.
Darren nodded. "Yes. Now if you would go back to your room, I'll have dinner ready in a moment. Better to keep your scent in one place as much as possible."
My irritation had been replaced by unease as I made my way back upstairs to my room. I hated to think I was causing the masters problems. I mean, how could my scent be so bad that they had to leave the house? I paused in the hallway and gave my armpit a sniff. I didn’t smell anything other than my deodorant. Then again, I didn’t have supernatural senses. The only time I’d been able to smell more than usual was that one-time Wynn gave me his blood. If I’d had some of that, maybe I’d get what the big deal was, but oh well.
With a sigh, I went to my bedroom door, but before I could enter, a presence made me pause. I slowly turned and met the heavy gaze of Antoine standing in the middle of the hallway. Dressed in a grey business suit that clung to him like it was bespoke, he wore his long blonde hair down so that it brushed the shoulders of his jacket. One hand was tucked into the pocket of his slacks, and the other lifted the slate blue tie around his neck. I caught myself staring at him longer than I meant to before quickly closing my mouth as I licked my lips.
“Uh, hey. I thought you were gone with the others?”
“I had business to attend to.” His voice was tight and low, almost a growl that made my insides twist wantonly. His pale blue eyes were dark with a mixture of pain and hunger. It made me freeze in place, too afraid to run in fear that he would chase me.
“Oh,” I breathed and then slowly pointed to my door. “I was just going back to my room. Don’t mind me.”
A warning growl stopped me from turning the door handle. My eyes shot back to him wide with a mixture of fear and... desire? So weird. I never thought I was the kind of woman who liked a man growling like an animal at her, but here I was, soaking wet for Antoine.
“Master Durand...” My voice cracked. I swallowed and then tried again. “I think I should leave.”
He took a step toward me and then stopped and shook his head. His eyes lifted back up to mine. “Antoine.”
