Chapter
4
Kaitlyn woke feeling bleary-eyed. A
glance at the clock showed she had slept later than usual, and it
was all Zack Ravenscroft’s fault. Last night, every time she had
closed her eyes, his countenance sprang to mind while her vivid
imagination painted ever-more erotic scenes of the two of them
making mad passionate love in her bed. On the floor. On the kitchen
table. In the shower. How was a girl supposed to get any sleep with
all those full-color scenarios running rampant in her
head?
She would see him again tonight. The
thought brought a quick smile to her face and unleashed butterflies
of anticipation in the pit of her stomach. She couldn’t remember
ever being this excited about a date. She could hardly
wait!
After showering, she pulled on a pair
of sweatpants and a T-shirt and went into the kitchen. It was too
late for lunch, too early for dinner. She couldn’t help grinning
when she poured herself a small glass of AB negative. What would
Zack think if he knew she was a vampire? Would he be horrified?
Shocked? Disbelieving? Intrigued? Or totally turned off. Not that
it mattered, because he could never, ever, know the truth. It was
forbidden to tell mortals about their kind; still, it was fun to
imagine what his reaction would be to the word vampire.
Of course, her people weren’t the
monsters of myth and legend. They didn’t go around ripping out
people’s throats or draining their victims dry. Back home, there
were mortals who willingly offered their blood in exchange for food
and shelter and a peaceful way of life in an Old World stone castle
known as the Carpa-thian Fortress. She was certain that most
ordinary people would find it appalling that men and women lived
there by choice, but that was the way it was now that her father
was the Master of the Coven. Before her father came to power,
people had been confined in the Fortress against their will. Not
mistreated, of course, but kept as a ready food supply. Once, her
uncle Andrei had told her, in strictest confidence, that the
captives had been called sheep.
Kaitlyn was glad that way of life was
gone. She rarely hunted humans. Her need for blood wasn’t
allconsuming, in part, she supposed, because her mother was
mortal.
Kaitlyn smiled inwardly as she sat at
the table. Years ago, when her father met her mother, it had been
forbidden for vampires and mortals to intermarry, and rare for
their union to produce children. Rare, but not impossible, Kaitlyn
mused, sipping her drink. She was proof of that.
Even though it was extremely uncommon
for Romanian vampires to mingle in society with humans, her uncle
Stefan had fallen in love with a mortal woman, too, and gotten her
with child. Sadly, the woman and her baby had died in childbirth.
Her father said Stefan had never gotten over the loss. Years later,
her uncle had left the Fortress and gone to America.
Frowning, Kaitlyn sipped her drink.
Maybe she could hire someone to search for him, she thought, then
shook her head. She had no idea if her uncle was still in the
United States, or what name he might be using now. Still, trying to
locate him was something to think about.
Rising, she rinsed her glass in the
sink and put it in the dishwasher. It was Monday. Laundry day. In
the bedroom, she opened a suitcase stuffed with dirty sweatpants,
T-shirts, and shorts. She had been in such a hurry to get here,
she’d just stuffed her favorite workout clothes into a suitcase to
wash later. Gathering up her dirty clothes, she headed for the
service porch. She dropped everything in the washer, added
detergent and fabric softener, and hit START.
She stood there a moment, marveling at
all the modern conveniences in America. Back home, in Wolfram
Castle, washers and dryers, refrigerators and indoor plumbing were
relatively new arrivals. Before her father married her mother, the
castle had been positively medieval, with no creature comforts to
speak of.
Kaitlyn couldn’t help smiling when she
thought of her parents. She had never seen a couple so much in
love. Even now, after more than twenty years of marriage, her
mother and father behaved like newlyweds, at least when they
thought no one was looking. But Kaitlyn had caught them in the
midst of some pretty heavy-duty hugging and kissing on more than
one occasion.
“I just hope that you and your future
husband will feel this way when you have been married as long as
your mother and I,” her father had remarked when she caught them
embracing in the kitchen one night. Kaitlyn couldn’t have agreed
more.
Thinking about hugs and kisses brought
Zack Ravenscroft to mind. “Mrs. Kaitlyn Ravenscroft,” she murmured,
giggling like a schoolgirl. “Mr. and Mrs. Zack Ravenscroft. Mrs.
Zack Ravenscroft.”
Arms outstretched, she twirled around
and around, wishing she could speed up time or twitch her nose and
make him appear. The thought made her laugh. She had several
inherent powers; she could run faster than the eye could follow,
she could veil her presence from mortals, she could read their
minds—well, most of them, she amended—but making people appear at
will wasn’t one of her talents. Sadly, since she wasn’t a
fullblooded vampire, she lacked her father’s ability to dissolve
into mist, or to transport herself wherever she wished to be. He
had told her to be patient, that those abilities might come to her
when she was older, but he hadn’t sounded very convinced when he
said it. Still, if she had to choose between being able to
transport herself across great distances or being able to eat
anything she wanted and being able to endure the sun’s light, she
thought she would take the latter two. After all, how often did she
need to zap herself to another location when she had a Porsche in
the driveway and her father’s credit card if she needed to hop a
plane?
With a shake of her head, Kaitlyn left
the laundry room. As her mother had always said, the best way to
make time fly was to keep busy.
Kaitlyn glanced at the clock. It was
almost four. Plenty of time to fold the laundry, make the bed,
vacuum the rugs, and make herself beautiful before her date
arrived.
Zack rose with the setting of the sun.
For the first time since he had built the casino, his first waking
thought wasn’t about going to work, but about a woman. Kaitlyn. She
had been foremost in his thoughts since the minute she’d walked
into the club. Not that he was complaining. He was more than happy
to have a beautiful young woman running around in his head. In
fact, he’d be happy as hell to have her take up permanent residence
there.
He grinned, thinking the lovely Kaitlyn
must have bewitched him. Sure, he was crazy about women. Always had
been, but he had always loved them and left them, never looking
back, rarely remembering their names once he told them good-bye.
But Kaitlyn, she was different. And even though all they had shared
so far was one mind-blowing kiss, he sensed he would never forget
her.
With a shake of his head, he left his
lair and went up the private stairway to his apartment where he
took a quick shower and changed into a clean shirt and a pair of
pants. If he didn’t hurry, he would be late.
He was doing a quick walk-through of
the casino floor, on his way out, when he had the sudden sense that
he was being watched. Pausing near the dice table, Zack pretended
to be interested in the game while he let his preternatural powers
expand. Sounds grew louder, colors brighter, smells sharper and
more intense.
He glanced casually around the casino,
his gaze resting quickly on each patron. It was still early. The
crowd was light. He had no sense of another vampire on the
premises, no scent of werewolf, and yet he would have sworn there
was another supernatural creature in the building, although there
was no trace of it now. Had he imagined it?
He finished his walk-through, stopped
to talk with a few of the pit bosses, conferred briefly with the
head of security, and left the casino, bound for
Kaitlyn’s.
She opened the door before he knocked,
a smile of welcome on her face. Dressed in a pair of white slacks
and a lavender sweater, her cheeks flushed with color, she was even
prettier than he remembered.
“So,” she said, “what do you want to do
tonight?”
“Take a walk?” he suggested. “Go for a
drive? See a movie?”
“It’s a nice night for a walk,” Kaitlyn
said.
“Then that’s what we’ll
do.”
Kaitlyn felt the same peculiar
sensation she had on other occasions when he took her hand in his.
Not a chill, exactly, more like a warm shiver of awareness that she
felt all the way down to her toes.
She pondered her strange reaction to
him as they walked down the narrow, tree-lined path toward the
lake. Maybe what she felt for Zack wasn’t all that extraordinary.
He was an extremely handsome man, after all, and there was no
denying that she was physically attracted to him. But then, what
woman wouldn’t be?
The night seemed to close in around the
two of them as they neared the lake, which gleamed like a dark
mirror in the light of the full moon.
Zack paused at the edge of the water
where someone had thoughtfully placed a wooden bench just big
enough for two. He waited until Kaitlyn sat down and then sat
beside her, one arm resting on the back of the bench. A warm
breeze, carrying the fecund scent of earth and foliage, rustled the
leaves of the trees. A fish popped up in the middle of the lake,
sending ever-widening ripples across the face of the
water.
“It’s lovely here,” Kaitlyn said. “Do
you ever come here to swim?”
“Now and then. Do you like
swimming?”
She nodded. “My father taught me when I
was a little girl.” She would never forget how much fun it had been
to go swimming with her dad. Of course, they’d had to go at night,
but she had never been afraid, not when he was there. Before she
was old enough to swim, he had let her sit on his chest while he
floated in the water. The most fun had been clinging to his back
while he swam swiftly, effortlessly, from one end of the lake to
the other and back again.
“What else do you like to do?” Zack
asked.
“Oh, lots of things. I enjoy going to
movies and plays and doing crossword puzzles. I don’t like to cook,
but I love to bake.” She smiled at him. “I make a really wicked
strawberry pie,” she said. “I’ll have to bake you
one.”
Zack nodded. “Anything
else?”
“I love to read.”
“Me, too.” He had spent many a long,
lonely night in the company of a good book. “What do you like to
read?”
“You’ll laugh.”
“Why would I laugh?”
“Because I like to read old fairy
tales.”
He didn’t laugh, but he couldn’t hold
back a grin. “You mean like Little Red
Riding Hood and Sleeping
Beauty?”
“Yes, but my favorite is
Beauty and the Beast. It’s
such a wonderful story, the way Belle learns to love the Beast in
spite of his gruff attitude and fearsome appearance.”
“I guess you’re really into those
happily-ever-after endings.”
“What’s wrong with that?”
“Nothing.” He glanced out over the
water, wondering if he would ever have a happy ending of his own.
“I guess everybody wants one.”
“So, what do you like to
read?”
“Murder mysteries. Arthur Conan Doyle.
Dashiell Hammett. Mickey Spillane.”
“Blood and guts, huh?” she asked with a
grin. “Death on every page.”
He had to laugh at that. She had no
idea.
“What’s so funny?” she asked,
frowning.
“I was just thinking how far apart our
tastes are in books.” And in food and drink and sleeping habits, he
added silently.
“So, Mr. Macho Man, what do you like to
do?”
“Oh, you know,” he said, flexing his
muscles. “The usual manly things. Watch extreme sports on TV.
Gamble. Drink too much. Drive too fast.”
She punched him in the arm. “Be
serious.”
“I know what I’d like to do right now,”
he said, his voice soft and seductive.
A thousand butterflies took wing in
Kaitlyn’s stomach. There was no mistaking the desire in his eyes.
“Oh?” Her voice emerged as little more than a squeak.
His finger traced the curve of her
cheek. “Shall I show you?”
She swallowed. “Will I like
it?”
“I think so.” He drew her closer, his
voice low and husky in her ear. “I hope so,” he said, and kissed
her.
Her eyelids fluttered down as she
turned into his embrace. Her arms went around his waist, and she
hugged him tight as she lost herself in the wonder and magic of
being near him, of having his mouth on hers. He smelled of
sandalwood cologne and musk. The combined scents made her stomach
curl with pleasure. A delightful warmth spread through her, leaving
her feeling weak and exhilarated at the same time. She moaned
softly when his tongue stroked hers.
Pulling away, she fanned herself with
one hand.
Zack looked at her, a smug, masculine
grin tugging at the corners of his mouth.
Kaitlyn blew out a breath. “I think I
need a drink.”
He nodded, reluctant to let her go when
he wanted nothing more than to swing her into his arms and carry
her to bed, to touch and taste her all night long. But maybe it was
better to take it slow.
“As it happens,” he said, tamping down
both his desire and his hunger, “I know a place that serves a great
strawberry daiquiri.”
“As tempting as that sounds, I think
I’d better go home.”
“Are you sure?”
Kaitlyn nodded. Going home was the last
thing she wanted to do, but right now, it was the safest thing. For
both of them.
She was vaguely disappointed when Zack
didn’t argue. Instead, he took her hand and drew her to her
feet.
She tried to think of something to say
while they walked up the path, but words failed her. She couldn’t
tell him the truth—couldn’t tell him she was fighting an almost
desperate yearning, not only for the taste of his blood, but a
hunger for his body, as well.
Better to let him think that she was a
prude, or that things were moving too fast, rather than let him
know the truth.