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independently of her mind, to obey him.
    Once they were out of the elevator and standing in the marble foyer, the mental paralysis lost its hold, and rage seized her.
    Before she could utter a word, he held up a hand. “I am sorry. I promise I will not use such a cheap trick again.”
    “Trick?” She turned to the elevator, pressed the button furiously. “That wasn’t a trick! That was a violation! People don’t just do that, they don’t just get to—”
    “You are right,” he said, loud enough to break through her angry tirade. Then, softer, “ People do not do that.”
    The cold shock was like ice water pumping through her veins. She turned to face him. She’d never seen eyes so sad, an expression so despondent.
    Yes, she had.
    She turned to her reflection in the polished black marble wall. The image was distorted, twisting her face into a pale skull with sunken eyes. She saw it again, in the floor.
    And in the black marble world at her feet, her reflection was alone.
    She walked to him, looking at the walls, the floor, the gleaming brushed-metal of the elevator doors. No hint that he stood there except his actual, physical presence. She came close enough to touch him, and did, pressing her palm to the side of his cold face. “You don’t have a reflection.”
    “It makes it easier to stalk prey.” He gave her a grim smile. “I have lost too much humanity to have retained something so unnecessary as my reflection.”
    Though his statement thoroughly creeped her out, she couldn’t move her hand from him. Maybe there really was some kind of connection between them, like he said. She couldn’t stop staring into his eyes, despite the limitless well of pain she saw there. “You really are…what you say you are.”
    He leaned into her touch, took a breath that sounded like a sob. When he spoke, though, his words were controlled, almost polite. “Yes. A vampire.”
    His hand captured hers and pulled it to his lips. For a weird, frightening moment she thought he would bite her. Instead, he kissed her palm on the fleshy pad below her thumb. Before she could react, his other arm snaked around her waist, pulled her tight to him, and he covered her mouth with his. He was hungry, desperate, his hands sliding to her shoulders, then down, capturing her arms to her sides, releasing her the next moment.
    It had been years since Cassie had been kissed like this, like a woman and not an employee. The carefully drawn lines she’d put down for herself in black and white faded to gray and disappeared altogether. It was dangerous, angering, even, that he could do such a thing.
    But this was not another of his hypnotic tricks. Maddening though it was, she could not resist. She opened her mouth under his, found herself just as wild and desperate as him. She wound her arms around his neck and rose on the tips of her toes, not close enough and too close at the same time. His hands smoothed her shirt tight against her back, then bunched the fabric in his fingers, slid under to suddenly hot skin beneath, tracing down her spine, fingertips dipping into the waistband of her jeans.
    Someone cleared their throat, and Viktor’s hands immediately moved to smooth his jacket as he stepped back from her. Anthony stood in the foyer, a respectful distance from them. “I’m sorry for my interruption, Mr. Novotny. Is there anything else you’ll need tonight?”
    “No, thank you, Anthony. Good night.”
    He nodded toward Cassie. “Will the lady be needing a ride home?”
    “Good night, Anthony.” Viktor’s voice was firmer, and he waited until the man entered the elevator and the doors had closed behind him before he spoke again.
    “I apologize for my behavior.” He unbuttoned and re-buttoned his jacket as he spoke, though it hadn’t been rumpled. “It was not… I did not mean to make you uncomfortable.”
    “You don’t have to apologize,” she said quickly. “I don’t usually do…that. Either.”
    They stood in silence,