“And then I just forgot about it, figured it wasn’t really important.”

“Carl, you’re waffling.” Amaury was eager to get back to analyzing the encrypted files.

“Sorry, Amaury. It’s just, I don’t even know whether it’s important.”

Amaury gave him an unmistakable look. Either talk or get out of the room.

“Miss Ilona. I saw her at his computer one day when he was out. I’m not sure whether she was able to log in or not, but when she saw me she pretended she was looking for a pen and some paper. Later that same night, Mr. Woodford threw her out. When I saw Miss Delilah sit at the computer last night, I remembered it again.”

“I didn’t realize you came back to the house last night.”

“You were all so engrossed in your work, you didn’t hear me. I didn’t want to disturb.”

Amaury nodded. It was true; they’d been so absorbed that they’d forgotten the time and missed sunrise.

“Don’t mention anything about Ilona to Samson. It’ll only upset him. I think we should keep it to ourselves. I’ll make some inquiries and see what I can find out.”

Carl got up. “Thank you, Amaury. I’m sure it’s nothing. It was just odd. Especially given that he never lets others touch his computers, except for you, and now Miss Delilah.”

Amaury smiled. “I think we all should get prepared for a lot more he’s going to let Delilah do.”

“You think she’ll become mistress here?”

“Mistress? I guess that’s as good a description as any. She sure has him in the palm of her hand. Not that she has any idea.” Amaury shook his head and smiled. How a woman could be so oblivious to the effect she had on a man, was beyond him.

“It will not be easy to hide who we are if she stays.”

He gave Carl a surprised stare then slapped his hand on his forehead. “Oh, that’s right. You don’t know yet.”

“Don’t know what?”

“She found out a couple of hours ago.”

Now it was Carl who had a stunned look on his face. “And she’s still with him?”

A loud thud told them that somebody had slammed the door shut. Seconds later the door was opened again and slammed a second time.

“We’re not done talking!” they heard Samson’s furious voice.

“Oh yes, we are. I’m not marrying a vampire!” Delilah shouted back.

Carl and Amaury exchanged smiles. “A hundred bucks says she won’t marry him,” Carl suggested.

Amaury shook his head. “You have to learn a lot more about women. Not only will she marry him, she’ll blood-bond with him.”

He stretched out his hand to seal the bet, and Carl took it. “And you have to learn more about Mr. Woodford. There’s nothing more that he likes than his peace and quiet at home. By the sounds of this, she’s not going to give him that.”

Amaury laughed out loud. Carl might have been spending more time with Samson in the last eighteen years than he had, but Amaury was the one who truly knew his friend best. And peace and quiet was not what Samson liked best at home. Not by a long shot.

There was one thing his friend craved more than anything else in his life, something he had never had since he was a vampire, despite the friendships he’d formed: family. But Carl couldn’t know that. His friend had never verbalized his deepest wish, but Amaury had always felt it.

Another door slammed, and he knew Delilah had entered Samson’s bedroom.

For the second time in as many days Delilah swung her suitcase onto the bed and threw in the few items she’d taken out earlier. She tried to avoid looking at the tangled sheets on the bed, evidence of their night of passion.

How could this have happened? She was in the house of a vampire. She’d had sex with him, mind-blowing sex, and he’d dragged her to the shrink where he’d announced that he wanted to marry her. And not only that. Blood-bond with her, whatever that meant. She hadn’t waited for an explanation.

Not that a girl didn’t like to get a proposal once in a while, but by a vampire? At the shrink’s office? It couldn’t get any stranger. Had Samson really thought she’d be jumping at the idea?

She couldn’t reconcile the man she’d made love to with the vampire who’d licked her blood off her hand. They were two different people. One she knew she was falling in love with, the other she didn’t even know.

The pain in her chest knowing she had to leave him felt unbearable. But she had to do it, and do it now. This man had lied to her at every turn. She would never be certain of what the truth was.