“Liam, you’re not flirting with a federal agent who’s investigating you in a double homicide, are you?”

“Catrina, an innocent man doesn’t fret over the wheels of law whenever they rumble in the distance. At least I commend the feds on sending you to speak with me, beautiful woman that you are. You also look a bit familiar, though I’m sure I would have remembered meeting you before.”

“You haven’t,” I said immediately. “Trust me, I would have remembered.”

I didn’t mean it as a compliment, but it caused him to chuckle in a way that was too insinuating for my liking.

“I’ll bet.”

You smug son of a bitch. Let’s see how long you’ll keep that smirk.

“Back to business, Liam. Are we talking here, or somewhere private?”

He made a noise of defeat. “If you insist on traveling this path, we may as well be comfortable in the library. Come with me.”

I followed him past more lavish, empty rooms to the library. It was magnificent, with hundreds of new and old books. There were even scrolls preserved in a glass display case, but it was the large piece of artwork on the wall that caught my attention.

“This looks…primitive.”

At first glance it appeared to be wood or ivory, but on closer inspection, it looked like bones. Human ones.

“Aborigine, nearly three hundred years old. Given to me by some mates of mine in Australia.”

Liam came nearer, his turquoise eyes starting to glint with emerald. I knew the pinpoints of green in his gaze for what they were. Lust and feeding looked the same on a vampire. Both made the eyes glow emerald and the fangs pop out. Liam was either hungry or horny, but I wasn’t going to satisfy any of his cravings.