Chapter Fourteen

"YOU'RE TELLING ME THIS is just..." Fuck. He couldn't even say the word. It was just too damn preposterous, and he would have walked out of the room then and there if it hadn't been Luka Georgiades himself that had made such a suggestion. Luka's uncanny intelligence was a legend among their race, and even Etienne and the rest of the old bloods knew this. It was for that reason alone that he was willing to give the younger man the benefit of the doubt even if...

Etienne drew a sharp breath. "You're fucking serious about this?"

"Completely."

" Fuck."

Indeed, Luka mused, having recalled the time he had first realized his feelings and how it tied with his weakness. "There is, of course, the slimmest possibility that your case is different than mine—-"

"How slim?" Etienne interrupted right away. At this point, he was more than willing to grasp straws, since the other alternative was too complicated to even contemplate.

"About..." Luka paused for a few moments to make the necessary calculations. ".005."

Etienne's expression tightened. "In other words...I'm fucked."

The way the old blood had chosen to describe his situation caused Luka's lips to press together in a stern effort to contain his smile and avoid showing disrespect. Etienne's next words, however, proved to be his undoing.

"Is there a cure—-"

Luka laughed.

Etienne swore.

"For what it's worth..." Luka's tone was half-apologetic, half-amused. "There is no known cure, unless...you would rather turn into a vampire than stay fucked?"

Etienne's mood remained black even after his meeting with Luka, and it turned even blacker when a glance at his watch revealed that it was already ten in the evening. Fuck. He called her right away while nodding his thanks as a valet handed him the keys to his sports car.

Half a day wasted on pointless sangferia experiments , he thought broodingly, when all he should have done was gone straight to the source and ask for the truth. Then again, if he had an inkling of what Luka would be revealing, maybe he would have foregone consulting the race's future Advisor. Ignorance, in rare cases, was indeed bliss—-

"Hello." Spencer answered his call just after the second ring, and the tone of her voice was... odd.

"Is everything alright?" Etienne switched the call to loudspeaker as he took the wheel.

"It...depends?"

"What the fuck does that mean?"

"Do you know I have a Facebook account?"

"Obviously." He even had to bribe the brat with a fucking Christmas bonus, just to get her to accept his request to become friends on the damn site.

"Well, you should check it first. Then call - no, come see me. At your place."

Click.

Etienne stared at his phone in disbelief. What the hell? Did the brat just hang up on him?

SPENCER SCROLLED DOGGEDLY through her newsfeed on Facebook while trying not to drive herself crazy by second-guessing Etienne's next move. Just as Kiernan advised, she had done what she could to make it up to the billionaire, and as to what would happen afterwards...

An accidental tap on the screen brought her back to her profile and her most recent post, which was two weeks ago. She had shared a news article that suggested a positive correlation between a woman's temper and intellect, and the first one to comment had been none other than Etienne himself.

Could be true, but you're most likely the exception.

Spencer couldn't help burst into laughter. What. A. Troll. And as she went through her older posts, she was surprised to realize that the billionaire had commented on all of them...

How was it that she had never realized this?

She had never really seen Etienne spend that much time on social media, and if she remembered correctly, he only had less than a hundred friends on Facebook. She also knew firsthand how busy he was at work, and to top that off, he also had Caro matters to attend to as one of the more prominent members of the old bloods. So for him to always take the time to, well, diss on her post—-

A notification suddenly popped up on her screen, and Spencer literally jumped in her seat. Oh God. It was a Facebook alert, and she didn't quite know what to feel or do as she stared at her phone. Etienne had accepted the change in their relationship, and they were now Facebook official.

For better or for worse.

She started mentally counting in her mind.

One. Two.

Her phone started vibrating and buzzing like mad. Two seconds, she thought weakly as she watched Facebook notifications bombard her screen. There were likes and comments, but there was also a lot of angry faces and—-

A shadow fell over her, and when she looked up, she only had time to gasp.

Caro stealth for the win!

And then she was in his arms, his mouth covering hers in a ravenous kiss, and she could only close her eyes and kiss him back. Their lips brushed against each other, their tongues tangling, and it just went on and on until she could no longer think.

When Etienne lifted his head and set her back on her feet, he was treated with the sight of Spencer's glowing eyes and flushed cheeks.She was also slightly panting, and the erotic sound had him unable to resist the urge to bend his head so he could give her full lower lip a hard, little bite.

Spencer yelped in pain. "What was that for?"

"A punishment," he said mildly, "for being too cute."

" Ewwww ."

It was just like the brat to react like that, but he didn't mind, with the way her cheeks had also turned pink at the same time. Cupping her chin, he asked bluntly, "Why the sudden change of mind?"

"Kiernan." Spencer didn't even bother pretending not to understand what he was asking about.

"Your roommate?" Etienne was nonplussed.

"She, um, made me realize things."

"Things..." He considered asking what exactly that meant but decided not to. Etienne's guts had saved his life countless times, and right now it was telling him to voluntarily ask for more information on that score was akin to stepping on a landmine.

"It's fine, right?" Spencer asked stiffly. "Because if you've changed your mind, it's no big deal, I can—-" Etienne stopped her from speaking with another nip on her lip, and when he raised his head, she could only give him a weak smile because this time, not only did she understand the little nip signified punishment, but she also sort of knew why she was being punished. "I'm being stupidly insecure for no reason, aren't I?"

"Considering you're the only one I cared to ask to be my woman..." His tone took on a gently chiding note. "Yes, mi vavli. You are acting rather unlike your usual impudent self."

"I feel like there's an insult there somewhere—-" She stopped speaking when his phone suddenly rang, and seeing him frown, she said right away, "It's fine, go ahead." She tried to move away as he answered the call, but Etienne reached for her hand and pulled her back just as swiftly. She tried not to listen to his conversation, but even with the few words he spoke, it was hard not to figure out that the issue at hand had to do with Caro matters.

"Anything wrong?" she asked worriedly.

"Just the usual vampire trouble."

While Etienne's light tone would have fooled most people, she had worked for him long enough to see right through him. Something about that call still bothered him, and familiar as she was with how he typically approached any obstacle set in his way...

"Etienne?"

"Mm?"

"Let's go out on a date?"