chapter Eleven
Ethan jerked straight out of sleep. He sat up, scanning the dark room, and assessed what he had sensed. He had been born the son of a warrior, he himself had fought in battle, and his undead instincts had averted him from many a danger. No longer needing a weapon, since he could kill any mortal or young vampire with his bare hands if necessary, he still had the habit of reaching behind his head for his dagger.
Naked, arm stretched up, and feeling like he'd been doused in freezing lake water, he heard violent knocking on his door. "Ethan! Get up, damn it."
Relaxing his tense body, he sighed and rubbed his eyes. No threat there?just Alexis, having no respect for the sanctity of his sleep and privacy. Maybe if he was quiet, she'd go away. Sleep was a luxury he'd discovered later in his life, when he had time, money, and better security. It was a gift he'd taken to really well, and he liked his eight hours uninterrupted.
From the way his head felt, he'd only gotten about four.
Sitting still, he held his breath when the silence continued. Maybe she'd gone back to her room. He hoped. That was the downside to involvement with a mortal. They were awake during the day, something he was decidedly out of habit doing.
Probing with his mind, he tried to find his way into her thoughts since she couldn't see him and might not be guarding against him. There was nothing. No feelings, no snatches of thought, no real sense even of her temperament, mood, or posture.
It was frustrating to feel so merely mortal around her.To not have the benefit of one of his greatest vampire gifts.
Then again, maybe she had left and that was why there was only silence.
"Ethan! Come on, I want to talk to you."
So much for hope.With a groan, he got out of bed and stretched. He felt sluggish and tired, perhaps residual effects of losing so much blood the night before.Or getting ripped out of sleep by a persistent, loud, short woman.
Not bothering to put clothes on, he went to the door. If she was going to force him out of bed, she was going to get him as he was.In the flesh.
It gave him a sick sort of anticipation to know he was going to shock her. Nine hundred years didn't necessarily bring profound maturity when dealing with women.
Ethan pulled the door open, knowing he was probably smirking.
Alexis paused with her hand in the air. She was wearing jeans and a tank top, which did nice things to her breasts.Tight, snuggly things that gave him the sudden urgent need to suck and bite her nipples until she moaned.
"Oh, there you are. Were you sleeping?" Alexis blinked innocently, like she hadn't just been making direct contact with her fist on his door.
"Yes, I was. Is there something I can help you with, my dear?" He leaned on the doorframe, crossing his arms and ankles.
She glanced down. Where he had expected blushes and squea-mishness , he got a bold, direct stare. Her head tilted a little, her eyes widened.Maybe with a little surprise, yes, but mostly with interest.
Which had him reacting to her interest.
Her tongue slipped out and licked her lower lip, while she tucked her loose, wavy hair behind her ear. He may not have been able to read her thoughts, but he could see the desire on her face.Or at least, the very real sexual curiosity.
"Morning woody?" she asked, eyes still trained on his erection.
"I imagine so."
"Hmm."She made a little sound in the back of her throat. "Well, I can admit it. I'm impressed."
Cabinet members had complimented his political speeches, men had praised his bravery on the battlefield, and ancient vampires had told him he was their leader, and yet nothing had sounded quite as ego-satisfying as Alexis acknowledging he had a nice package.
"Get in the room, Alexis." He took her arm to tug her forward.
She gave him one of those karate maneuvers and sent his hand sailing up in the air. "No pulling."
"I wasn't pulling," he said in exasperation. "I was encouraging you to move forward."
An extensive eye roll was her response.
"What time is it?" he complained, giving his door a satisfying slam shut when she finally moved forward enough for clearance.
"It's like three in the afternoon." She went over to his minifridge and opened the door. With a muffled scream, she slammed it back shut. " Geez, there are bags of blood in there. I was hoping for a diet soft drink."
Ethan scratched his chest and sat down on the sofa, spreading his legs apart for full effect. "To what do I owe the pleasure of your company? I didn't expect you back until this evening."
But he really liked that she'd shown up early. So much so, he had to wonder why.
"You're not going to get dressed, are you?" Alexis stood with her hand on her hip.
"No, I am not. Once you leave, I am going back to bed."
"So you don't have a coffin?"
"Not since the seventeenthcentury, and I don't miss it in the slightest. Wood does not make a comfortable bed."
"I read online that vampires can't stay awake during the day. They fall into a coma-like sleep. Does that happen to you?"
Now he was tempted to roll his eyes. "Do I look like I'm in a coma to you?"
"No, you look raring to go."
"Then there is your answer. Perhaps we should go over some vampire basics."
"Okay. But first I have to know if you heard anything about the guy who shot you."
"No. Not yet. But I expect we'll have some answers tonight."
"Does that happen a lot? People trying to kill you?"
"Hardly ever," he assured her."Maybe once a century or so."
She frowned, a delicious little pout that had him considering sucking her lip into his mouth.
"Ethan, who knows about you?Vampires, I mean. That there are vampires in Vegas."
"No one."SinCitymade a perfect cover for their kind. In a city of fluorescent lights and twenty-four-hour-a-day gambling, shopping, eating, and banking, no one thought a thing about him entering his casino every night instead of during the day.
Alexis didn't seem to like his answer. She tugged on the hem of her tank top, flipping it up, then down, up, then down. "Do all of you live here?"
"No. We're all over the world, scattered to make us less noticeable, but also because we are of different backgrounds, speak different languages. Most want to stay near where they were born and lived their mortal lives."
She was pacing back and forth, clearly agitated. Ethan knew she needed answers, but he also knew too much information too soon might overwhelm her, turn her from him. That he most definitely did not want.
"Alexis, would you like to see the casino? I could give you a tour and we can talk."
"I don't gamble. I don't drink. I hate burlesque shows. And I'm not real crazy about smoking or the sound of slot machines."
"Then why do you live in Vegas?"
That stopped her pacing. She looked startled. "I don't know." drTugging on her shirt again, she said, "Because I was raised here, I
guess. I've never lived anywhere else.And because of Brittany ." He wondered if it was time to bring up the sticky issue of
Brittany being a half-vampire.Alexis seemed to have forgotten that he'd mentioned that little tidbit when she had thought they were still playing a game. Deciding to let it go for the time being, he asked, "Are your mother and father still here?"
She snorted. "No. My father left when my mother told him his newborn baby girl, Brittany, was not his child. Never to be seen or heard of again,I might add. And Iwas legitimately his kid."
Ethan stood up, suddenly sorry he was naked. He had the urge to pull her into his arms. She was so tough, so determined, so hurt deep down inside. He wasn't a man who carried past hurts around with him, but he understood loneliness.
"My mother died of a drug overdose. She was a stripper." The look she shot at him was defiant, proud.
He stopped where he was. Alexis wasn't a woman who would appreciate his pity. That would send her running from him. "I hear there's good money dancing," he said, forcing nonchalance into his voice. "Good way to raise a couple kids when you're a single parent."
It was the right thing to say, even if it rubbed against his every instinct of protectiveness.
Alexis let out a sharp burst of laughter. "Shut up and put some pants on, Carrick."
But he caught the smile that crossed her face before she turned, and Ethan had the sudden frightening feeling that something had just happened to him that would have far-reaching consequences.
Time to pull out the poetry.
He had met his match.
As Alexis watched Ethan's fine-looking butt head into the room, she gave a construction worker whistle, fingers between her lips, just to rattle him. And it was a damn sexy behind.Tight and muscular.
Ethan paused. "You know," he said over his shoulder, "for a woman who claimed she didn't find me attractive, you're a voracious ogler ."
Sometimes he sounded a bit too British."A voracious ogler ? Is that like a vicious ka- nid? Can that be my title?" She gave a stately stroll across the room. "Hello, I'm a voracious ogler ." With a queen's wave, she nodded her head. "Yes, yes, thank you so much. I know. Yes, good to see you, yes, quite so. Weare pleased with the results of the election. Here's to four more years of prosperity and progress."
"Forty."
"Forty what?"She dropped the accent."Years. The term of the presidency is forty years." That was a little reminder of what she was dealing with here. It still seemed so incredibly make-believe. Except she'd seen Ethan bleed out, and twenty hours later he was healthy and standing, without a single scratch on his naked, hard body. It was real.
"Well, aren't you guys thinking ahead? That makes total sense." She resumed her regal persona. "Here's to forty more years of prosperity and progress in the Vampire Nation."
The words were barely out of her mouth before she suddenly found herself hauled up against Ethan's naked body. " Wha?"
He cut her off with a kiss?a long, juicy, hello Mr. Tongue kiss?that had her swallowing her question and clinging like shrink wrap to his chest.
"You're turning me on, you know," he said, even as his lips trailed down her neck.
Alexis dropped her head back, the crotch of her jeans erupting with volcanic heat, her breath shallow and excited. Damn, he knew what he was doing. Years of experience, she imagined. "Was it the queen voice? That can be a turn-on."
"It wasn't the queen voice." His tongue moved into her ear then out again, leaving her feeling warm, wet, and invaded. "I'm just having a hard time resisting you."
"It doesn't feel like you're being very successful at resisting me." Alexis took advantage of the moment and slapped her hands onto his buns. Oh, yeah.Hot and hard.
"I don't suppose I am." He yanked the top of her tank down practically to her belly button.And sucked the swell of her breast.
" Mmm," she said eloquently as her knees went weak, her nipples sprung up, and her doo-dah rolled out the welcome mat. Oh, yeah, this was working. Hot vampire kisses.
What a difference a day made, twenty-four little hours as her brain sang, so did her body, and when Ethan reached her nipple with his mouth and plucked it through her bra, she came dangerously close to levitation.
Right as his tongue made wet swirls over her sensitive nipple, his erection managed to slide right between her thighs.Perfect fit. Denim was no barrier against the hot heat of him nudging along her clitoris, and as Alexis dug her fingers into the bare flesh of his upper arms, Ethan stroked.
Once, twice, while she sucked in massive amounts of air and gave an agonizing groan of abandon. She wasn't sure when she had suddenly morphed into go-with-the-flow girl, but he was going and she was flowing.
Until he yanked back so fast she almost landed in a heap on the floor. "Sorry," he said, running his hands through his hair.
Alexis just stared at him, her body cursing and whining and screaming for more. "Excuse me?"
"I didn't mean to do that. I apologize for moving too quickly."
Said the man who was naked.There was a red flush to his skin.Everywhere. And he looked a bit sheepish.
Men obviously never changed. "I would think that after all these years of living, you would have figured out that no woman on earth, or any other planet for that matter, wants a man who has just kissed her to apologize. If she didn't slap you, say no, or knee you in the nuts, and she kissed you right back, chances are she wanted it. And she doesn't appreciate the 'gee, sorry my hormones overtook me and made me suck face with the first available female, but now I wish it hadn't happened' response."
"I beg your pardon?"
"Go get dressed and take me on your damn tour," she snapped at him, annoyed that he looked genuinely puzzled.
"Brilliant idea."He did that vampire trick. There one minute, gone the next.
Lips still wet and swollen, she stuck her hands in her pockets. 'Brilliant idea," she mocked in a low voice, glaring at the empty room. "It'd be a brilliant idea to stick my foot in your ass."
"I heard that," he called from the bedroom down the hall.
"What?" she asked, playing theinnocent.Then whispered, "Sorry? Shit. I'll give you sorry."
Will you now?" Ethan murmured from behind her, his mouth right next to her ear. She could hear the rustle of his clothes as he leaned forward, gripping her upper arms from behind. "That sounds promising."
"Quit doing that whole faster than the speed of light thing. It irritates me." Then she gave real punch to her words by leaning right back against him, her backside bumping his front side in a fun, cheap thrill collision.
Ethan ran his lips over her temple. "Sorry for saying sorry."
"Fine.It's all good. And maybe I'm sorry for waking you up."
"No, you're not."
Alexis had a George Washington moment. She could not tell a lie. "You're right. I'm not sorry in the least."
Because if she hadn't woken him up, she wouldn't have discovered that vampires don't need Viagra. She had to admit that had been worrying her a bit after all those messages she had read in the vampire slayers e-mail loop.
Not that she was going to sleep with him.
But it was good to know he was fully functional, in case she did decide to sleep with him, undersexed single woman that she was.
Time to call a spade a spade.There was a reason she hadn't alerted the vampire slayer group to her presence, or to the fact that there were hundreds of vamps in Vegas at the moment. There was also a reason she'd changed her mind and decided not to tell Ethan about the group, though her rationale behind that was much murkier. It kind of felt like she was protectinghim, or somebody anyway, and she and Ethan were clipping along nicely. She selfishly did not want to interrupt that.
The reason she didn't date was because the men she met were shallow, patronizing, and intellectually narrow.
Ethan Carrick was the first man in almost a decade to arouse interest in her.To arouse anything in her.
His hands dropped to her waist as he nipped her earlobe. Yep, he was really good at the arousing thing. And she did want to sleep with him.
Ringostrode through the lobby of the Venetian. He didn't like being summoned by anyone. Donatelli was no different.
He had been hired. He'd completed the job. There was no reason for further contact aside from a cash payment, but he knew that wasn't the purpose of this meeting. He had been commanded to get himself down to Donatelli's hotel room for a reassessment of the contract's terms, according to the businessman's whipping boy. Ringo was prepared to tell Donatelli to go fuck himself. He worked alone for the very reason that he didn't want to answer to anyone. He had left that behind when he was discharged from the service and he had no intention of being forced into bootlicking. Fortunately, the hotel had zero security, because he was packing his piece.
The hit hadn't gone the way he had planned it, but he was smart enough to take advantage of an opportunity. What he didn't understand was what had happened in the few minutes prior to that. One minute he'd been getting it oh with Kelsey the giggler, the next he'd been standing there with his dick hanging out and a big-ass crick in his neck.Alone.
He didn't black out forno reason.Which meant she'd slipped something into his drink. Yet she hadn't stolen his wallet, so he had no idea what she'd been after. And he wanted to know.
But first he had to resolve this little paperwork problem.
The door to Donatelli's room swung open before he could knock. "Mr. Donatelli is waiting on the veranda."
Ringoignored the doorman and walked right past him to the sliding glass doors. The rush of heat hit him as he opened the door and stepped onto the patio. Donatelli was lounging in a wrought iron chaise in the shade, a glass of red wine in his hand, black Italian sunglasses covering his eyes.
"Columbia."
" Donatelli."
The man didn't look at him, but stared out across the Strip, and lifted his cigarette to his mouth. "There will be no payment. You didn't do what I asked you to."
Though Ringo was not an emotional man, the patronizing nonchalance of the Italian irritated him. But he just shrugged and leaned over the balcony, the sun hitting him in the face once he cleared the overhang of the balcony above. "I did what you asked. I killed him."
"I asked for specific requirements and they were not met. You neither killed him nor removed his head."
"I hit him. He was dead." But suddenly Ringo wasn't sure that he had. If Kelsey had drugged him, maybe the shooting of Carrick hadn't been successful. He'd thought it had gone off. That he'd plugged his mark straight in the heart twice, but maybe his per- ceptionswere off.
If he had demanded payment from Donatelli without complet ing the hit, then his reputation was going to be damaged.Which wouldn't be good for business.
"Let us not argue over this. Go to The Ava and see if you killed him or didn't kill him. I'll give you until tomorrow morning to do the job,then I'm hiring someone else."
Ringoground his teeth together, but managed to say, "Fine." And this time, he'd stay the hell away from leggy brunettes and keep his mind on work.
Women were career suicide, and Ringo didn't want to wind up dead.