“Sir.” He heard. And then more urgently as a hand curled around his forearm he heard again, the sound sharp and clear this time, “sir.”
A young woman’s face moved into his line of sight and came into focus. Jasper recoiled and caught her slender wrist in his hand, only a moment away from snapping it in two, fangs on the edge of being bared at her.
She gasped and tried to pull away.
“...Forgive me.” He murmured, blinking. “You startled me.” Others casted suspicious glances at him, others who had been eyeing him for the last half hour or so—the same amount of time that he had been standing there staring at the painting on the wall.
Squaring his shoulders, he stepped away and flashed a kinder smile as he motioned back to the painting. “Would you be so kind as to tell me who the artist is?”
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