George finally seemed to tear himself from their argument and leave her in her apartment. He left threatening, if she disappeared again, he’d lock her in her apartment until she was needed. George didn’t look like he was jesting about any of it, and that was disturbing to Ana, unlike anything else he could say. Her nanny and tutors always threatened to go to her mother or the emperor when they had an issue with her behaviour. Not George though, he expected to deal with her and fix her behaviour himself. Now Ana didn’t know what she would do about this. She still wasn’t sure she even needed him to guard her. After all, she was nothing like her sisters. She could handle herself and knew more than enough to protect herself. There was a lot more than just knowing that you used the pointy end of a sword on your opponent. She’d spent years now studying everything she could about defending herself and others. She did this because she n
George spent hours in the large room with all the bags, boxes, crates, and other weird things. Thankfully, he hadn’t found anything in the way of poison, bombs, or other nasty ways to kill that weren’t marked properly. Adriana had several storage containers which held far too many weapons. She shouldn’t have brought so many. As things were, he would need a room to secure them. He would not let them be stored in the same place she lived. That begged for someone to use one to kill her. He didn’t have a problem with her training, but she should have simplified what she brought with her. George didn’t relish the idea of this next confrontation. Adriana would definitely argue over this. Once things were cleared by him, George made sure the items went into their territory properly. So at the end, there were only a few boxes and crates of weapons that all belonged to Adriana. George wasn’t going to stand for this. He needed to lock th
Ana hated when people did what Maximus did. He assumed she was a fool and wouldn’t see past his words. Maximus assumed Ana was too foolish not to look closely at people or have a single opinion of her own. He interrupted her, making this space more useful to her. That had Ana now sitting in a chair, drumming her fingers on the arm of the chair, while she watched Maximus pontificate about how horribly mistreated, he was by that guard. How George threatened him and said he wasn’t worthy of feeling safe in his new home. Or comforted by having his personal items around him. Maximus made George sound like an honorary guard in some corner of the realm that didn’t count for anything. Not the head of her security detail. In Maximus’ narrative, he was the much maligned important official. He saw no purpose for Adriana needing to be protected. Or how he could benefit from her protection. Within a minute of him opening his mouth, Ana could
George carefully avoided celebrating this victory too quickly. But he now sat only a foot away from Ana and now, with her and her baggage in the apartment, it was beginning to smell like her. He found himself enjoying that scent and the scent of his infused scotch a little too much. She was becoming far too much of a distraction. George couldn’t even tell anyone what they spoke about after a while. She spoke, and he listened. The only way this could be better is if they were lying naked in bed together after a hot and heavy round of fucking. That ponytail of hers begged to be used as a leash, as he drilled her from behind. His pants would never fit right again if he kept letting images like that pop into his head. He wanted her, but there was no way they could. The best he could do was keep her alive the best way he knew how, and keep her company like this. No matter how painful it became for him. He’d have to learn to live with blue balls
George was eating dinner as he soaked in the tub. When his phone rang, George reluctantly left the warm water to answer it. As soon as he heard the odd tone in Ana’s voice, he knew there was something important going on. He was confused by Ana’s mention of her lady’s maid running from the apartment. George hurriedly finished his dinner as he dried off and dressed again. He must be wicked because there was no rest for the wicked, and he wasn’t getting any rest. It took him about fifteen minutes to get through everything and back to Ana’s apartment. When he entered, and found her sitting on her bed amid several boxes of her belongings. “In there at the back of the dressing room on the floor. You can’t miss it.” She was drinking as she sat there looking at the open dressing room door with the saddest look on her face. “Alright, why don’t you wait out in the living room while I look around?” George asked her. He did not know what the
The evening turned into early morning. Ana was sure that the sun rose some time ago. Down here in these quarters, there were no windows or anything like that. But her body felt the dragging of the heat. Human’s thought the problem was with the sunlight for vampires. But that wasn’t the case. Sure they couldn’t stand short or long periods in the sun. Their skin was too fragile, but they also lost the ability to take extreme heat or cold. A hot summer day would slow anyone down, but a vampire felt weighed down by the heat. Rest was the best thing. The issue today, of course, was the number of people stomping in and out of Ana’s apartment, bedroom, and dressing room. Nothing was private for her right now. Mary hadn’t been found yet, and we worried she might have tried to leave to return home. Though they’d found no evidence of that, and that concerned Ana to no end. It was well past the noonday meal when Ana could get some rest. She felt like it was almost a waste
Of course, Ana didn’t get a decent sleep before the first ever sitting of the North American Ruling Council. So, for her it was annoying to say the least for her to suffer the cautions inquiries from far too many people. She watched with interest as George went into full work mode. He was silent and listened, only moving when he had to. Ana even overheard several people wondering if he was even breathing. Of course, he was breathing. That was a foolish thought. Vampires didn’t breathe as much, but they breathed. If they didn’t inhale, they wouldn’t be able to speak. It’s a natural bodily function as well. It was just the lack of sleep that put her temper in such a state. Answering questions about the poor dead cat and any thoughts she had about it was pulling her attention off of her job here. She needed to get back to business. Ana knew she could be a professional, but then things went from bad to worse and Ana found herself becoming petty.
He’d been able to catnap a bit. There’s a word he’d have to avoid saying. The entourage for the feline shifter ambassador was all over the place. George could anticipate and hear their thoughts on that word. He was sure he’d have to curb others as well over time because of how horrible it was to others within the room or conversation. It was a price he’d have to pay for receiving such a high honour to have the ambassador as his charge. Now he needed to monitor several people. George had guards out now looking for Mary, Adriana’s lady’s maid. He hoped she was hiding somewhere, but as time went on, he was becoming suspicious that something horrible fell on Mary. She’d left the ambassador’s apartment and disappeared after that. What he needed to figure out was where she went and who truly last saw her. Now he needed to set aside that investigation to watch the people around him and Adriana. He wouldn’t let anything untoward happen to her. He couldn’t