“He still cut me out.”

Elena chuckled. “Ari. Men like Damien pretty much have ‘Does not play well with others’ stamped across their foreheads. The only thing that surprises me is that he took you to Chicago with him. I would have guessed he’d just drop you here and vanish.”

Another good point. It would have been easy to do. But what struck her about how Damien had been last night wasn’t that he’d wanted to get away from her, but that he’d seemed to want to be near her. Granted, he hadn’t patted or soothed. But he’d stayed close, watching her carefully on the entire trip here. And he’d looked worried. At loose ends, but worried.

And then there was the whole bit about how he’d been prepared to fight Oren for her when he really had no good reason not to let her have at it while he saved his own skin…

“Damn it,” Ariane grumbled. “I can’t be mad at him.”

Elena sighed. “Had a feeling. Well, look, Ari, I’m probably not the best person to be doling out romantic advice, but here’s what I’ve got. Shades can be fun, and dangerous, and wild, and that one is definitely sexy. Just… be careful with your expectations.”

Ariane blew out a breath. Expectations? She’d given up on those a long time ago. Whatever her eventual fate was, it wouldn’t have anything to do with her desperately trying to shape it.

“Don’t worry, Elena. Right now, I’m just happy to have more life choices than which part of the compound to spend the night in. I didn’t even really want to like Damien, but here we are.”

Another throaty laugh. “Yeah. You have a point. Well, just remember, we Cait Sith make great lovers but lousy projects. Not so good at changing. Must be the cat in us.”

Ariane grinned. “I wouldn’t want to change you. I don’t even want to change him.” Her eyes narrowed as she imagined him out in the city, tracking down information without her. “I’d just like him to make a few small accommodations, is all.”

“Now that you might get. Slowly, painfully, but possibly. Crap, Strickland’s calling. I knew I was going to get called in on my night off. I’ll get your stuff together and out. Call soon.”

“I will,” Ariane said, and hung up the phone. She set it on the bombe chest, her mind a million miles away. Talking about Damien had helped her sort a few things out, but there was plenty she was still in the dark about. For a woman who’d never had a real romantic relationship, an emotionally unavailable assassin probably wasn’t a great place to start. But she’d always been good at working with the cards she’d been dealt.

She wanted Damien. She was almost positive he wanted her, at least on a physical level. So… she’d figure something out.

There was a soft knock at her door, and she knew exactly who it was. He hadn’t been out all night after all. Ariane tried to tamp down the satisfaction she felt at that as she crossed to the door. He’d come back for her. A small thing… but then, she had a feeling that even going slightly out of his way was different for Damien. It only reinforced her sense that there was something between them, some odd connection.

Maybe it was fate, the thing her dynasty was so often preoccupied with. Or maybe it was something far more ordinary.

Ariane opened the door, wishing she were experienced enough to know for certain.

He leaned against the door frame, looking every inch the dashing rogue. The way his eyes drank in every inch of her had Ariane’s cheeks heating immediately. This was why she needed to step carefully. It was easy to deal with him in her head—but Damien in the flesh was a different animal altogether.

He glanced down at the dagger still in her hand. “You have exactly three minutes to shout at me,” he said. “After that, I thought we’d see a movie or something. This house is stifling.”

She stared at him, momentarily at a loss for words. Finally, she managed to process a statement that, even if she had been furious with him, would have gone a long way toward defusing her anger. Obviously he was an expert at this. He was impossible. And she wondered how many women he’d had screaming and throwing sharp objects at him.

It seemed there had been a few.

“Why would I want to shout at you?” Ariane asked.

He blinked, looking slightly taken aback. “Well… I assumed you’d be angry at me for leaving you here.” He narrowed his eyes slightly. “Unless you just mean you’re not interested in shouting. I’ll put up with the silent treatment for about three minutes, too, I suppose, but that’s all I can stand.”

Ariane shrugged, hoping the motion looked as casual as when he did it. “I got up a little later than usual. And you weren’t gone all night, so I’m not sure what you think the problem is. I’m fine.”

Damien looked at her closely, and his confusion was well worth letting go of any lingering annoyance with him.

“Fine being code for you want to stab me, right?”

She swallowed a laugh. “No. I’ll get my purse. A movie sounds good.” She stepped away from the door and felt him walk in behind her.

“Aren’t you going to interrogate me? Ask me if I found out anything useful while I was out searching for information without you?”

Ariane picked up her purse, opened it to make sure her smallest dagger was still inside. “No, Damien. I would assume that you’d tell me if you found anything important.”

He stepped in front of her when she turned and glared down at her. She watched him, fascinated. His reaction to losing control over a situation was… interesting.

“Why would you assume a ridiculous thing like that? I lie for a living, kitten. I think I mentioned that.”

“You agreed to work with me. Why wouldn’t you tell me? Withholding something important would be stupid, and you’re not stupid.”

That seemed to give him pause. “Well. That’s logical.”

“Yes. And Grigori are nothing if not logical,” she agreed with a small smile. She tried to step around him, but he moved into her path, as quick and graceful as a cat.

“You weren’t being logical when you tried to take my head off with that big bloody sword the other night,” Damien said. He was inches away from her, and his voice had gone silken the way it always seemed to when he got this close. She could smell him, the faint spice of expensive cologne mixed with something indefinable, irresistible.

“I was too,” Ariane replied, though arousal took most of the bite out of her retort. “It made perfect sense to try and kill you if you were going to murder the only lead I had.”

He chuckled, a low, warm sound. “Now you sound like a Shade.”

Ariane raised her eyebrows at him. “A compliment? Yes, I do know how to handle myself, thank you.”

“Not exactly a compliment… more a commentary on you having a bad influence.” Something softened in Damien’s gaze, and when he lifted his hand, he hesitated for the barest instant before grazing Ariane’s cheek with the backs of his knuckles. The touch was far more tender than she would have expected. Still, he looked puzzled.

“Most women would have thrown that dagger at me,” he said.

“I was locked in a closet for years, remember? I’m strange.” She meant it to tease, but the moment the words were out of her mouth, she blushed, embarrassed. From what she’d seen of the world, she was strange. Maybe she should have simply thrown the dagger at his head to make him feel better.

“You’re beautiful,” Damien replied, tucking a lock of hair behind her ear. Ariane drew in a soft breath, surprised. It wasn’t the words. It was the way he said them. Even Damien looked nonplused, but he made no move to step away.

“Gods, Ariane, don’t look at me that way.”

She tilted her head, leaning into the light stroke of his fingers. “What way? I like looking at you.”

He laughed, flustered, as he let his hand fall away. “You look like you think there’s something honorable in here. There isn’t. You’re going to end up disappointed.”

There was something in the way he said it, some echo of the past that made Ariane think Damien was well acquainted with being called a disappointment. Whether it had been deserved or not, her heart ached a little for him. From the little he’d revealed to her, it didn’t sound as though anyone had ever cared much for him. He would have been a beautiful child, she thought… and yet he’d been left alone.

No wonder he’d built up such excellent defenses.

“I won’t be disappointed,” she told him. When he only looked silently down at her, the oddest expression on his beautiful face, Ariane added, “I’m capable of enjoying you for what you are, you know.

Damien nodded. “A killer and a thief with a nonexistent moral compass.”

She studied him for a moment, at the deadly serious expression on his face. He was such an odd combination of vanity and insecurity. She doubted many people even saw the latter. Damien didn’t seem like the kind of man who generally let people get that close. It wasn’t until this moment that Ariane realized Damien was just as lost about how to forge a real relationship as she was.

It was strangely comforting, to know they were fumbling together, even if their approaches were entirely different.

“If you would rather I get mad at you,” Ariane said, “you’ll have to try a lot harder than disappearing for a few hours. Most of the time I have a very long fuse.”

“And I have a rather short one.” Damien blew out a breath. “It would be better for you if you’d just decide to hate me, you know, even if you stuck around for a convenient business relationship. This… this thing we’re doing, it’s an incredibly bad idea.”

“You keep saying things like that. If this is how you go about picking up women, no wonder you’re single,” Ariane said with a smile. She hesitated a moment, then gave in to the urge and reached up to run her fingers through his hair. It was incredibly soft, and at her touch, Damien’s eye rolled back in his head as a deep, rolling purr began in his throat.