DeLeina, Maya - Veil of Seduction [Ambrose Heights Vampires 2] (Siren Publishing Classic) (25 page)

* * * *

This was it.

Michelle took one look at Steffan and let out a gasp.

“Michelle? I’m Steffan Matthews. Anya has told me a lot about you. I am very happy to meet you,” Steffan said as he held out his hand to greet Michelle. He held Michelle’s gaze intently.

“Nice to meet you, Steffan. I’ve heard a lot about you as well.” Michelle seemed to waver in her stance, but fought to retain composure.

“I’m happy to hear that,” Steffan responded as he assessed her eyes.

Michelle’s eyes were telling. She was recalling traces of him. And, if she was recalling him, surely she would also recall the fact that he was a vampire, leaving his mate claim with Anya in jeopardy. With this realization, anxiety coiled through his body.

He knew what he would have to do to rectify the situation.

Steffan turned to Anya. “I heard that we’re supposed to be in for a great sunset. I hope you don’t mind. I brought a blanket, packed us some wine, cheese, strawberries…” Steffan stopped and absorbed his surroundings. He was suddenly aware that all of the focus was on him.

“Sorry, I was just so excited. I couldn’t wait to see you,” Steffan said.

“Aww,” female voices sounded in unison.

Steffan looked up felt a tinge of embarrassment wash over him. He’d just rattled all of that off right in front of Michelle and the female customers who were gawking at his presence.

“You did all of that for me?” asked Anya, oblivious to the spellbound hold Steffan had on all of the women who surrounded her.

Michelle moved behind Anya and placed her hands on her shoulders as she spoke to Steffan. “Let me tell you, our Anya here stayed up last night and made dark chocolate mousse dessert for the two of you. She even asked me to borrow my patch quilt for your little rendezvous this evening.”

“You made something, and here I just bought the stuff!” Steffan said to Anya.

“I bake with chocolate when I’m happy,” Anya stated, blushing. “Let me get the dessert from the fridge, and we can head out.” Anya headed to the backroom of the store.

“Take your time, Anya. Steffan and I will pack your cello and your bags in the car,” Michelle yelled though her eyes remained fixed on Steffan.

Steffan grabbed Anya’s cello and held the door open for Michelle as she carried Anya’s remaining belongings. As he opened the back of the Hummer, Steffan said softly, “Thank you, Michelle.”

“No, Steffan. Thank you. I never got the chance to tell you how grateful I was for that night. You disappeared so quickly. I swore I would never forget you. I swore I would never forget your face.”

No longer was there any doubt. Michelle remembered Steffan. He decided to test exactly how much more she’d retained. This would help him determine what to do with her.

“I had to step in. I couldn’t let Dominic do that to you. I knew he would never forgive himself. That’s the only reason why I followed him to your place. I knew he was planning to enthrall you to say yes. My family, we were responsible for him and his actions. I’m just sorry the two of you couldn’t be together.”

“I loved him, Steffan. I truly did. I just couldn’t go through with it. I have Chloe. She’s my responsibility and my priority.”

“I know.” Steffan nodded.

“Dominic spoke of you often. He told me you were alone because you were still searching for your mate. I had no idea it would be Anya. Does she know yet?”

“No. I’ll have to ease her into it.”

Michelle shook her head. “God. Once I saw you walk through that door, it just all made perfect sense. She’s had these dreams about you for weeks now. And I think…she’s falling in love with you. I never saw her like this before. Steffan, she has no one left here, no family. You must know that she’s been through a lot. She has had so much heartache in her life.”

“I know about her past,” Steffan said somberly. “I’m glad she had you to help her through everything.”

“Please take care of her. She deserves happiness.”

“And you understand what our mate connections will mean for her? That is, if she chooses this.”

“Yes, I do.”

“And you don’t object?”

“No, I don’t. I never had objections when Dominic and I discussed it. It just wasn’t something I could do. For me, I don’t believe in death. I believe everything lives again, in a cycle. Reincarnation of the soul, you could say. Saying no to Dominic was the hardest thing I ever had to do. But I told him if we were truly meant to be together, he could find me, find my soul in my next life.”

“Tell me, what does Anya believe in?”

“Anya only knows death. You know, she used to believe in a heaven and a hell. She wanted desperately to have comfort in knowing that her family had a heaven to go to. But how could she believe in that when she questioned her very faith in a maker—a maker that had this destiny for her and her loved ones? She’s lost so much in her life that she doesn’t have much belief in anything. She doesn’t even question things anymore.”

Silence fell between them.

“H–How is Dominic?” Michelle asked.

“I’m sorry. Dominic left my family after that night at your home. We haven’t seen him since.”

Michelle’s eyes became glassy, and her bottom lip quivered.

Steffan placed his hands on Michelle’s shoulders, leaned in close, and looked her squarely in the eye. “Michelle, I want to hear it from your lips, so I know there’s no misunderstanding here. What am I?”

“Vampire.”

“You’ve known this…all this time?”

“Yes.”

“What am I offering to Anya as my mate?”

“Immortality.”

“And you never mentioned any of this, who I am, that I exist, to anyone…Anya perhaps?”

“Nope.”

Steffan looked at Michelle with curious eyes. “Why haven’t you said anything?”

“It was never my secret to tell.”

Steffan shook his head in response.

The woman was amazing.

Michelle leaned into Steffan and whispered, “I had no idea your family lived in Ambrose Heights. Are all of the residents up there vampires?”

Steffan’s nagging uncertainty about Michelle’s enthrall was finally settled. He had performed it on her the night of the rescue, but it was a tricky one. Michelle had lapsed in and out of his control, her mind and body already saturated with Dominic’s control enthrall. Steffan had struggled with Dominic’s pull on her. He had every intention to erase everything, but somehow, he always suspected that she’d retained bits and pieces, that it wasn’t complete. He just didn’t know how much or what exactly she’d retained.

Until now.

As it stood, the mystery behind Ambrose Heights remained unbroken. Michelle’s travels in the tunnels, her experience through the first passage of the claim, her tour of the castle and her nights spent at Dominic’s home, the home that was now Anya’s, had been effectively erased. But she retained Steffan and Dominic’s existence vividly, which meant she also retained the full-blown knowledge that vampires existed in Manitou Springs. And yet, Steffan and his family had been safe and secure, their cover remaining intact and unexposed.

Michelle was no doubt a mortal who could be trusted. He exhaled, breathing a sigh of relief. His fear in having to enthrall Michelle after Anya’s turning, irrevocably severing their ties, would not have to become a reality. Michelle would remain Anya’s best friend, the two of them continuing to relish their companionship, but as a human and a vampire.

“Yes. I built Ambrose Heights for my immediate family.”

“My god. Anise was a vampire as well?”

“No. She never got to live at Ambrose Heights. We actually sold the house to her fian—”

“This, I must say, is pure heaven. I hope you like it.” Anya stepped in between Michelle and Steffan, slipping the dessert tray into the car and interrupting Steffan’s opportunity to reveal Ryan’s connection to Ambrose Heights to Michelle.

“I guess we’re ready,” Steffan said as he closed the back door of the Hummer. “Michelle, it was an absolute pleasure to meet you. I’m sure we will see each other again.” Steffan reached for Michelle and planted a delicate kiss on the back of her hand.

“It was a pleasure meeting you, Steffan. Have fun, you two!”

Steffan lead Anya to the passenger door and held her hand as she stepped into the Hummer. He raised himself on the side board and fastened the seat belt around Anya’s waist. Their gazes met, the straightforward task igniting excitement in both of them.

Steffan responded with a delicious wink.

He made his way to the driver side and slipped into the seat. Starting the engine, Steffan smiled as he looked over at Anya. He couldn’t believe she was there with him, smiling back at him.

“Ready?” Steffan asked.

“I’ve been ready since you left me last night.”

Chapter Twelve

Anya reached over and placed her hand on Steffan’s thigh as he carefully maneuvered the Hummer down the narrow street.

“You’ll have to direct me from here. I don’t know where this place is.”

“You live in the Springs and have never been to the Garden of the Gods? Where are you from anyway?”

“Originally? South Wales. And I’ve been busy with work. Not much time to get sightseeing in. Besides, you’re the first woman to ever ask me to go out to a place like this with her.” Steffan smiled at Anya as he lifted her hand to his lips and set soft kisses from her wrist down the length of her forearm.

“Steffan, somehow I can’t imagine a woman not wanting to be by your side, let alone you being without attention from women in general,” Anya said in a very nonchalant, witty fashion.

Deep down, her heart was far from being blasé on the subject.

Steffan found a residential road and pulled off the highway. He slowed the Hummer to a stop. Anya looked at Steffan curiously as he adjusted his position in the driver’s seat to face her and slipped his hands into hers.

“Anya, remember I told you that I don’t want to play games? You’re very important to me. Our connection is my focus. That’s why I won’t hold back the truth from you either,” Steffan said.

“Okay. You’re scaring me a bit, though, I have to admit,” Anya replied with slight apprehension of what he was about to reveal.

I knew he was too good to be true.

“I’m sorry.” Steffan paused to select his words prudently. “What I want you to know is I’ve have been with many, many,
many
women. I don’t want you to get this romantic notion about me. The truth is that a woman’s attention got the best of me. In the end, I’m still a man who had desires. The women were only interested in one thing from me, and I only had one thing in mind with them. But with you, Anya, it’s more than physical. I want to give you everything I have in me. You have my heart. You have my love.”

Anya gasped as his last words echoed in her head. “Love? H–how do you know this is love? We just met. You know nothing about me!” Anya blurted out.

“Everyone has their own way of defining what they’re feeling. For me, it’s not a measure of time that makes me determine when it’s love. I know myself. I know when I want to give unconditionally, when I care about someone else’s happiness more than my own. That’s how I know.”