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reply. But he felt his chest tighten. He felt his skin heat up in a responsive, knee-jerk flush. He kept his eyes down and continued to pretend to ignore her. His palms were beginning to sweat.
    He’d left the concert in a transport flash, having decided once and for all that with Angel’s mode of operating, she would only use it as a temporary cover before transporting away herself. Again . He’d realized that this would go on forever if he didn’t change the game once and for all. So that was what he’d decided to do. He formulated a plan, and now he was putting that plan into action.
    Apparently, Lilith knew what that plan was, and she wasn’t happy about it.
    She moved forward, placed her slim hands on the desk, and leaned in.
    “I bet it has ,” she said, her tone changing, becoming an acidic purr that got right under his flushing skin and stayed there. “I bet it occurred to you, Samael, and you can’t stand it. In fact, I’m betting you’re afraid that her reason for avoiding you is that she actually hates you.” She paused, leaning in a bit more. “Angel is a genuinely good person. She has empathy. She cares. She tries to do good things and make this world a better place. Why, in a million years, would she want to be saddled with a seasoned son of a bitch like Samuel Lambent, the multi-billionaire media tycoon who’s proven himself to be a genuine apathetic bastard?”
    Her words rolled over him like a tidal wave of red, smooth and powerful and smothering. They seared across him like the truth. Nothing burned hotter than the truth.
    Any other man in the world would probably have lost it at that point. Sam had lived here long enough to know that human men weren’t overly good at word battle. They were apes, really, cave men at their cores, prone to bursts of violent vengeance when a woman’s intellect got the better of them. It was their only remaining defense. When you can’t fight with your mind, you use your fists. As long as the loser was capable of bruising his opponent on the outside as deeply as he was bruised on the inside, he wouldn’t consider it losing.
    Of course, Lilith was more than capable of taking care of herself. She’d been down here just as long as Sam had, after all. Longer, in fact. She was a woman who’d come through millennia of inquisitions, plagues, and the general male population in one piece. It said something about her defense mechanisms.
    So it was probably fortunate for them both that Sam was not at all like most men. Rather than lose his temper, he simply straightened, smiled a small, sure smile, and said, “You’re right, Lilith. Angel is good. Which is why I’m fairly certain this is going to work.”
    Lilith straightened herself and gave Sam a withering look. It hurt him more than he wanted to admit. “I can’t believe you’re going this far, Sam.” She shook her head, and then frowned, asking in all seriousness, “Is there nothing you won’t do to get your hands on – ”
    “No.” Sam took a seat in the massive leather chair behind his desk and steepled his fingers to peer over them at her with stark determination. “Now, I hope you don’t mind seeing yourself out.”
    With icicles in her eyes, Lilith did just that, turning slowly away to walk back to the office door. But there, as she so often did, she stopped and turned back to regard him. There was something else in her gaze now, something that deepened the unsettled feeling she’d given him so far.
    It was disappointment, stark and pure. “All this time… and you’ve learned nothing,” she said softly, regretfully, then shook her head just once and left, closing his door behind her.
     

Chapter Twelve
    When you can’t breathe, nothing else matters.
    It was a saying of some sort, but her brain was quickly becoming so addled, she couldn’t remember from where. The American Lung Association? The Asthma Association?
    Something like that…
    It was true, wherever it came from. But there was