pulled out a chair for me to have seat. Someone’s mama taught him well. “It’s a nice office.” “But your closet is bigger.” “I didn’t say that.” “But you were thinking it.” I hoped I wasn’t going to be that transparent during the rest of this exchange. “Was Mike the guy that ran that story about the half-vampire baby?” “No. The guy who ran that knows better than to approach anyone as pale as you are. Mike is an overzealous rookie looking to make a name for himself. Although I don’t think Craps In His Pants is the name he was looking to make.” I laughed. “Would they really call him that?” “I will.” “You would fit in very well with my coven with comments like that.” “I wasn’t looking to be recruited.” “That’s not what I meant.” Here we were back in the muck. I sighed. “I didn’t come here for round two.” “What did you come here for?” “To try to explain what you saw last night. I’m 109 years old and with a few notable gaps in time when we were on diverging paths, I’ve known Anton for most of them. For the first few years of my life he was my only…friend I guess you would call him. He looked out for me when I was unable to look out for myself. We parted ways the first time and it changed things between us. He looks at me and sees something that should be his to command since I used to belong to his caste. He doesn’t like sharing his toys so he wanted to play with you a bit and I was afraid he might physically hurt you to prove a point. I don’t think the person that abandoned me has any say in what I do and I like needling people so I used the opening fate presented me with, which unfortunately made you feel bad. But he did have a point about you needing to learn what the ‘rules’ are; Mike’s not the only one who is out of his depth these days.” Chris tapped the edge of his desk and stared at the wall. “I understand what you’re saying Natasha, but there was more going on than a case of male territorial display gone wrong and immature goading. You are attracted to him.” “Ok. Yes, I am, but I’m not going to act on it because I know I can’t trust him and I’m old enough not to be ruled by my hormones which also happen to find you very appealing by the way.” I smiled at him gamely. “You also have to consider that Anton and I are both predators sharing the same territory, so we are going to butt heads over whose is bigger if you get my drift and since he can’t quite believe that I won’t fall on my back for him those head butting sessions tend to wind up laced with sexual energy because he’s hoping if he makes me mad enough one night I’ll rip his clothes off. One of these days we are going to wind up killing each other.” “Or doing each other where you stand.” “And they say I’m not one to sugar coat things.” “Sorry, but if this is going anywhere we need to be honest.” This is where I should tell him that hormones or not at some point I was going to have to fall on my back for Anton because of a deal I made nearly three decades back, but you see this is where I was a shit. “That’s about everything.” For a little while Chris stood in silence; I think he was digesting everything I had said and that he had seen since knowing me. Then he grinned wickedly at me and said, “Do you know what my hormones are saying?” “Do I dare ask?” “That sex with any woman with a temper like yours is bound to be smokin’ so I might as well see where this goes because if I let you walk to try to prevent the broken heart I see written all over this for me, then I have no chance at that sex. Unless you want to go at on my desk so we get it out of our systems and then go our separate ways? Because I would be down with that.” “I bet you would,” I said sarcastically, but with humor to my voice. “But before we do the desk thing how about we go on a date that we finish first?” “I guess…” I