169. Intrigued

Bridgeport, present day...

For the next few days Thornton avoided O+ Records. He didn’t want to run into Katie. He didn’t want to think about her or her song either, but she was proving to be a demon, tormenting his sleep and waking moments.

He couldn’t listen to the After Dark album without seeing her face, or imagining her voice.

She’d enmeshed herself in his life without even trying, the words to her song were thoroughly engraved in his heart too, and no matter how hard he tried he just couldn’t forget them. Or her.

“Are you going to mope for the rest of your very long life or ask her out?” Celina finally had the guts to confront him about his mood.

Her question confused him, and he found himself frowning up at her, “What?”

“The girl you’re pining for,” his PA replied as she snapped her file shut; he’d just finished dictating some notes to her.

“I’m not pining for anyone,” he growled harshly. He hated being so transparent, hated it even more that Celina knew him so well.

“If you say so,” Celina shrugged.

“I’m too old to be pining for anyone.” Thornton mumbled. He wasn’t sure though who he was trying to convince, himself or Celina.

“Bullshit. You can never be too old for love. Look at me. I never thought it would happen, but Charles makes me so happy,” she danced around the office singing one of Pavarotti’s tunes.

“He’s taking me to the Opera tonight,” she announced as she leaned over his desk and blew him a kiss.

“I still don’t know what you see in him,” Thornton frowned. He liked Cameron, he was a nice guy. He tolerated Zahara, she was his oldest ally, but Charles was as slippery as a fish, so unlike Cameron and their father.

“Each to his own,” Celina retorted. At the door she turned back. “Just ask her to dinner. It can’t hurt.” With that she left him alone.

Much to his chagrin, he found himself taking Celina’s suggestion. He knew he’d never be able to get Katie out of his head if he didn’t explore his fascination with her.

At O+ Records, Krisis was surprised he wasn’t there to see him, and he reluctantly told him where he could find their song writer.

He found Katie in the conference room. She was alone.

Music sheets and notepads lined every inch of the long table. Five or so cups, all empty, were thrown around the surface too. Judging by the dark stains inside, Thornton guessed she was a caffeine junkie.

One pencil was stuck behind her ear, another defied the law of gravity somehow by holding up her rich dark hair high on her head, and the third was caught between her long, elegant fingers as she scribbled something, words he was convinced were being written with the sole purpose of haunting him.

“Have dinner with me,” he got straight to the heart of his visit as soon as he clicked the door in place.

Her “No!” was firm. And it was said with no hesitation whatsoever. A first for him. And he was intrigued.

“Why not?” He demanded.

“I don’t want to have dinner with you Mr. Thornton,” Katie shrugged her shoulders before she returned her attention to the song she was working on.

“That’s not a reason,” he pointed out, forcing her to hold his gaze. He didn’t even know why he was still talking to her. Normally he wouldn’t waste his time on a human. They were unworthy, undeserving of his attention. But Katie, rather her song, fascinated him. He felt compelled to know her.

“Okay, I don’t have dinner with strangers. How’s that for a reason?” She shot back. Coming from any other person her statement would have sounded childish and inane and he wouldn’t have bothered with her after that, but from her it sounded perfectly logical.

“I’m William Thornton. Second in Command of the Vampire Council. I oversee the Vampire community in Bridgeport. Up until recently I didn’t have a relationship with my kids, Krisis and Krimsyn. But now I do and I’m grateful-” His voice faltered.

“We are not strangers anymore,” he added flatly when it became apparent Katie wasn’t entertaining him.”

“Yes we are! You just told me who you are. But you don’t know anything about me, so that makes us strangers,” she reasoned with a smile.

“That’s where you’re wrong. I know everything about you Katie Nicole Callaghan.”

“Like?”

Thornton rattled off a few facts about her, things most people didn’t know, like her parents and best friend, the high school she went to, her accomplishments, the awards she’d won as a songwriter, Sean, her first and only last boyfriend.

“You did a background check on me?” She sounded angry and worried at the same time.

“I always do a background check on the people my children choose to associate with,” Thornton explained.

“And you remembered all this how?”

“I’m a vampire. An ancient one at that so my memory, like other things, is very good,” he smiled arrogantly. He didn’t know it, but at that moment from where Katie sat, he looked a lot like Krisis.

“My answer is still no.” Katie brushed off his advances again as got up from her seat and hurried towards the door.

He could read her like a book. She wasn’t playing hard to get, she just wasn’t interested and it bothered him.

“Why?” He asked. 

“I just don’t want to have dinner with you. And quit whining. No one likes a whiny man,” she told him coolly over her shoulder as she let the room. And all Thornton could do was to stare after her with his jaw on the floor.

Nobody, no woman, except for Leigh, had ever dared to talk to him in that manner. And he wasn’t sure if he liked it. But intrigued he was. Now more than ever.

On the short drive to his office, he found himself thinking about Katie and Krimsyn’s impending lunch. He wondered if the songwriter was invited. He hoped she was. And he also hoped she didn’t have a plus one…