Chapter 5: Sunglasses

I slept alone in Darian Verrin's guest room, behind a lock that opened from my side.

He had kept every promise, and that was almost harder than if he had not.

By noon the next day I was standing at the tall window with a cup of tea, watching the harbor glitter, when his housekeeper knocked.

"Miss Merrow, there is a gentleman at the gate. He says he won't leave."

I knew who it was before I looked.

Darian slept through the daylight hours behind sealed doors on the lower floor.

I didn't wake him.

I put on my own coat and walked down the long drive to the iron gate alone.

Alaric stood on the other side of the bars in a rumpled dark suit.

He wore sunglasses and a wide-brimmed hat, and he had pulled the brim down low.

Behind him, his car idled at the curb, with Genevieve in the passenger seat looking out through the windshield.

Three tourists with phones had stopped on the cliff road to watch.

"Ro." His voice was hoarse. "There you are."

"Say what you came to say."

"You scared me. You ran off with that man and didn't answer your phone all night."

"Because I didn't want to."

He took a breath and reached behind him into the car.

Out came a long flat velvet box, tied with a ribbon.

"Happy birthday," he said, and held it through the bars. "I was going to give it to you yesterday. I got you something good, Ro. A real one."

Keep reading free with an account. Start The Abandoned Vampire Bride Walked Away from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.