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vampire with no companion. Companions are rare and vampires have been known to fight wars over them. Helen of Troy had nothing on a truly bright companion. The fact that Marcus had the money to purchase one but chose not to said a lot about his standards.
    I’m not a companion. I’m rare, but not in a glowy, feminine way. I’m a strange combination of wolf and human. My DNA gives me good instincts, makes me faster and stronger than a human. It also makes it necessary to shave my legs twice a day. Laser hair removal was definitely in my future. Why did I think Marcus wanted anything more from me than to train me and send me on my way? The only other man who’d really wanted me had needed the marriage to placate his father’s interests. Gray claimed to love me, but his father had been interested in producing a child with someone from my gene pool.
    I belted the robe around my body as I thought through the situation. I was looking for a way out. I was being cowardly, and cowards never got what they wanted. Besides, if I thought about it rationally, I could see Marcus’s not so subtle attempts at seduction. He’d made no secret of his wish to take our relationship past friendship, and while he’d been perfectly gentleman-like, there were certain signs of his growing impatience.
    I’d asked for books and Marcus had brought me a bag of them. He’d told me he’d bought all the English language books he could find in Venice. Apparently, all Americans read in Venice is erotica. It was all over the house. I would sit down for a minute and find a book marked with a passage Marcus thought I would find particularly stimulating. When I’d very nicely demanded a thriller with a mystery that didn’t concern where to shove a butt plug, I was given a copy of a Steve Berry novel complete with chapters I was sure he hadn’t written himself. The man wrote thrillers, but there was a scene with some of the dirtiest sex I’d ever read between two people trying to chase down an ancient society bent on destroying the world.
    I had to admit, it made the book even better.
    Pulling my courage around me, I walked down the corridor and straight to Marcus’s door, where the women argued in Italian.
    Lucia looked up and a slow smile spread across her face. “Can I send them away, Kelsey? Please, tell me I can send them away.”
    “We won’t need them anymore.” The words were confident, but inside I was a whirl of nerves. I slept beside Marcus every night. At bedtime, I would start out at the edge of the mattress and by the time morning came, I would cuddle against him until his skin was my blanket and his arms wound around me. I would wake up and feel how much he wanted me, but I hadn’t been ready. Tonight, I was ready. I couldn’t stand the thought of these women fighting over what should be mine.
    Lucia sent the women away in a flurry of Italian. There was moaning and complaining and tears from one, but finally the hall was quiet and Lucia gave me a reassuring hug.
    “He’s going to be so happy, Kelsey,” she promised. “I believe he thought you would go back to the Council without him.”
    Without Marcus? My whole world seemed to be Marcus. I could barely imagine going back to Dallas, much less returning without him. “Do you really think he wants me?”
    I knew he liked me, but I’m not a great beauty like Zoey Donovan-Quinn. I’m…just me. My body’s fine, but I don’t have large breasts. I’m more athletic than centerfold worthy.
    “Stop panicking,” Lucia said affectionately. She smoothed back my hair. “He wants you so bad he can’t stand it. I knew you were ready when you let me take you to the spa today. Why do you think I had them wax you, silly?”
    I grinned. I’d known why she did that. Marcus might be Italian, but he preferred certain body parts a little more Brazilian. “I thought you were torturing me.”
    I gave Lucia one last smile and walked through the door. We had connecting rooms. Marcus had