Alexander-Fyn-Sanguinarian

down his face, staining his white shirt and ruining his new and very expensive suit. He snatched her arm, pulling her toward him. “How dare you!”
    Rory Dancer appeared at his side. “Raven,” he warned. “Stop at once and calm yourself. Let the young lady go. Release her arm before you hurt her.”
    Raven released her, and Evangeline stepped back. “He’s a madman,” she stated calmly. “Completely mad. He thinks an apology will make up for what he did. Well, let me tell you something, my lord,” she wagged a finger at him. “Nothing will make up for what you did, absolutely nothing.”
    “Haven’t you told the young lady yet?” Rory asked.
    “She won’t give me the chance.” Raven brushed at his ruined clothes angrily. “Look what she’s done to my clothes. I had this silk specially woven with the ankh design. It cost a fortune.”
    The landlord and landlady, their daughter and one or two other villagers milling about out of curiosity, huddled by the bar, obviously enthralled by yet another scene. Raven threw them a furious look, watching while they melted back into the shadows. He was thoroughly humiliated. He looked at Evangeline, her cheeks pink Sanguinarian 163
    from passion, her eyes flashing angrily at him. She looked so lovely he cursed himself for noticing.
    “I’m sure the suit can be cleaned, Raven. If the maids don’t know how, then Justine will for certain.” He placed a gentle hand on Raven’s arm. “Now sit down and calm yourself.”
    “I’m wet,” he said angrily.
    “Serves you right, you’re nothing but a bully,” Evangeline taunted him.
    “Sit down, children, and behave yourselves,” Rory said with such authority that they both obeyed.
    Mrs. Bracket had still not missed a bite. “That lad of yours needs a good talking-to, the scoundrel.” She nodded at Raven while she addressed Rory then sank her teeth into her second ham sandwich.
    Rory smiled at her. “I fear you are correct, Madam. Sit down, Raven, and explain yourself to the young lady and her companion.”
    “Yes, do,” Evangeline said smugly, though Raven suspected her heart was fluttering wildly.
    Gritting his teeth, uncomfortably wet through his shirt and resenting every word, he said, “Miss Rutledge, I lay on top of you last night, I admit that.”
    Evangeline leaned in very close to him, her cheeks growing scarlet. “You removed your clothes and mine,” she whispered, then drew back, looking down at her hands.
    “I admit that, too.”
    “Then you ravaged me,” she whispered.
    “No. Then you fainted,” Raven said calmly.
    “Any decent lady would have done the same,” she interrupted at once. “And I have tried to remain decent even in the midst of werewolves and vampires.”
    “Where are the werewolves?” His voice rose again making Rory place a restraining hand on his shoulder. “I’ve never met a werewolf in my life!”
    “Raven, behave,” Rory warned.

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    “Yes, yes.” Raven collected himself. Sighing theatrically he finished, “You fainted and I left you alone. I did not outrage you.” He sat back satisfied and fully expecting her to accept his word with no more to be said.
    “Liar,” she said with infuriating simplicity.
    Raven clutched at the arms of his chair, his feet scrambling at the floor while he fought off the urge to leap up and clutch her to him.
    Calm yourself he could hear Rory’s unspoken words in his head and knew his mentor was speaking to him telepathically. All right , he thought in reply.
    “I am not lying, Evangeline,” he said quietly. “I truly did not force myself upon you in that way. I could have, but I did not.”
    “Did you want to?” she whispered.
    He looked at her lovely face, her lowered eyes and pink cheeks, her lips trembling. He wanted to say no, that he could never do such a thing, but it would be a lie. “Yes,” he answered. “However, the fact that I did not speaks for the kind of man I am.”
    “I am still...”
    “A virgin, yes,” he said in his normal tone, making those huddled by the bar lean in closer to hear more.
    “Thank God for small mercies,” she sighed. “You had the decency to stop, but you led me to believe that you had done the act until this moment when it is no longer convenient for you. You wanted me to believe it so that I would marry you without argument, didn’t you?”
    “Yes, yes, yes,” he admitted angrily. “I’m a scoundrel as well as a vampire.”
    “You admit you are a