Chapter 56

His gaze, combined with his gorgeous voice, was hypnotic. All I could do was nod.

"It was my second Season - I hadn't accepted a proposal during my first - none of the men who were interested appealed to me, but that year I'd fallen in love with a dashing young viscount. I let him lure me into a garden during a ball, expecting kisses and maybe even a proposal. Instead, he raped me, and left me on the ground, bleeding to death."

"He wasn't an immortal, was he?" There was steel beneath the velvet in his tone this time.

"No, and he's quite dead - has been for nearly two hundred years. I had a friend, you see. Not a lover, just a friend. He was a quiet sort, an American, and he was desperately in love with me, though I didn't realize that at the time. He wasn't rich enough or handsome enough to capture my attention in a romantic way, but he was a reliable, steady confidante. I also didn't know that he was a vampire. He found me in the garden, dying, and he offered me his blood to save my l