“I want…” He sighed. “You will think me ridiculous.”

“You don’t know that. And why do you care what I think anyway?”

He lifted his head. “Because I’m going to be your boss.”

“That hasn’t happened yet. And if you don’t tell me, I won’t know how to help you.”

His mouth bent with frustration. “I guess I want her back. As much as I wish that weren’t true, it would be the simplest solution to everything.”

Tessa narrowed her eyes. “You really want your ex back? Just being honest here, but I don’t understand how that would be the simplest solution to anything unless you’re trying to drive yourself crazy.”

He smiled briefly. “It’s complicated.”

“She is your ex, isn’t she?”

“Not technically, no. There was never any formal divorce. She just…left.”

“How many years ago?”

He frowned. “Nearly three hundred.”

She failed to hide her surprise. Talk about carrying a torch. “There has to be a statute of limitations on that sort of thing.”

“I’m sure there is. But the marriage isn’t really the issue. I am Evangeline’s sire, something the vampire council takes very seriously. When you cause another to become immortal, things change. A sire must protect those they turn to the best of their ability. And so, I am responsible for her. And I will be until the day one of us ceases to exist. Unless she signs dissolution papers. Which I doubt she will ever do.”

“Do you still feel married?”

“I feel…” He paused. “More like a parent with a prodigal child. Hmm. That’s the first time I’ve put that thought into words, but it’s true. It also sums up why it would be easier to have her back. So I can protect her. That is, more easily than I do now.”

She understood the desire to protect and assist those who needed it. That was another trait of being valkyrie. Although for a valkyrie, it was more about those who were worthy of protection, not a sense of responsibility. That was probably a big part of why she’d agreed to help him. It was in her makeup. Finding the right book for a person was the same thing, just on a much smaller scale. “And if she doesn’t want you back? Not saying that’s going to be the case, just curious what you’ll do then.”

He leaned forward, resting his forearms on the table. “I don’t know. I’ve spent my years waiting for her to return. I always knew she would. I never wanted to think about if she didn’t. But she has, and she claims to want us to be together again. All I need from dinner is for her to realize she’s going to have to make me want that too.”

Tessa nodded. “You want her to work for it. To make up for all the time you’ve spent waiting.” She smiled. “You want to make her pay a little too, don’t you?”

A glimmer of something lit his eyes. “Does that make me an awful person?”

“I think it makes you shockingly normal.”

He smiled and laughed a little, giving her a glimpse of his fangs. “I can’t say I’ve been called that very often in my life. Thank you for doing this. I confess I judged you harshly at first but I see now that you are an intelligent woman and very capable of carrying out this charade. You’ll make an excellent addition to Harmswood.”

“Thank you. I certainly hope I get the job.”

“Unless this thing goes horribly wrong, I rather think you’ve earned the job just by being a part of this. You’re certainly qualified. And I think we’ll work very well together.”

“Well, that’s good to know. And appreciated. I hope this all works out for you the way you’d like.” She drained the last of her chocolate. The sugar rush was almost instantaneous, but so were the images of her and Sebastian working well together. Images she was sure he hadn’t intended to create. Images that had nothing to do with work.

She cleared her throat, desperate for a new topic. “With that in mind, we’d better dig a little deeper.”

Sebastian nodded, slightly distracted by the flush of color in Tessa’s cheeks. “We should dig deeper, I agree, but are you feeling all right?”

“Yes, why?”

“You look flushed.”

She laughed nervously. “Probably just the sugar rush. It tends to do that to me.”

“I see. Well, looks good on you.” A new thought hit him. “Say, would you like to get a drink?”

“I just had one.”

“I mean an actual drink. An adult beverage.” The desire for a glass of whiskey had hit him hard and with a kind of rare pull he almost never gave into. Perhaps he was changing as a person after all, because this new impulsive side of him was certainly not something he’d experienced before.

“Oh. All right, I suppose I could have one.”

“Not much of a drinker?”

She bobbed her head back and forth. “I prefer to remain in control of my faculties.”

Which confirmed his earlier thought about her. “I can understand that, but one won’t hurt, will it?”

She made a face that was a cross between a smile and a grimace. “I haven’t had dinner yet.”

“And yet, you just had cake.” He smirked. “Isn’t having dessert before your meal breaking some sort of rule?”

“Yes, but, well, I was hungry and there wasn’t much else to choose from but sweets.”