Her cousin, looking tousled with a few buttons missing from his shirt, and their shifter friend Thomas both leapt onto the stage.
“I’m afraid she’s right,” Saint agreed genially. “You can’t take Mac anywhere.”
One of the vampires smirked. “And why is that, demon?”
“Because I’ll decapitate and eat the first corpse who tries,” Thomas growled beside her.
“And in case you survive that…” Saint shuddered. “…I’ll empty all your bank accounts and sell your coffins on eBay. That’ll sting, right?”
Rose reminded herself to hug both of them when this was over.
Mac shook his head again, but he was smiling. “Thank you, my friends, but this really isn’t necessary.”
A tall, Nordic-looking vampire suddenly appeared beside them. Rose didn’t want to stare, but she couldn’t help noticing his cape, which whipped dramatically around his shoulders as he spoke. “No, it isn’t. But I suppose here will do as well as any other place we could expend time and energy carting you off to. There are enough of us present tonight to render judgment…and I was the one who initiated the recall for Mac’s punishment.”
Rose saw Mac squint at the vampire in confusion. “Do I know you, sir?”
“No.” The vampire sighed in frustration. “But I know you. Everyone does. Since the cat’s damn reality show, if you aren’t a gloomy jackass with a red beard and an air of gut-wrenching loneliness in your stride, you apparently aren’t a real vampire.”
Saint snorted. “He does describe you pretty well, Mac.”
“Thanks.”
“Anytime.”
The blond shook his head. “I’ve been the head of promotions, marketing and advertising for nearly eight hundred years, and in less than two, the three of you have destroyed all my work.”
Mac narrowed his icy eyes. “That is you’re reason for sending hunters after me? For taking me from my home?”
Saint whistled. “You vampires all have stickuptheassitis, don’t you? And you really take your promotional branding seriously. Eight hundred years, huh?” He shook his head. “Maybe your department needs a fresh set of eyes. You went from kicking ass and owning the night to diamond skin and a light cloud cover. Have you had a vacation…like ever?”
Rose was seeing red, her heart pounding too hard for her to appreciate Saint’s sense of humor. “I’m remembering why I hate vampires again.”
Mac coughed. “Most vampires, Rose. Isn’t that what you meant?”
The tall vampire turned to her and held up his hands. “It wasn’t the only reason. So much attention on an actual vampire instead of a fictionalized re-creation was bound to fray nerves. And while I do admit to a touch of professional jealousy, the consensus to render judgment was reached unanimously when it was learned that the fans had gathered enough signatures for the bidding studios to consider hiring the original actors for the film.”
Thomas whistled. “Didn’t see that coming.”
Still typing on his phone, Saint raised his hand. “I did.”
Mac sighed and shook his head. “We have no intention of playing ourselves in a movie.”
The vampire moved closer to Mac. “You will if you want us to back off.”
“Excuse me?”
Rose shared a confused look with Thomas.
“You will all be in the movie, give as many cocky interviews as possible and allow yourselves to be photographed by the paparazzi. Our people will go to work immediately. By the time the movie releases—”
Mac interrupted him with a smile. “I see.”
She didn’t. “What? You see what?”
The expression in his eyes when he looked at her was passionate. Tender. “We’ll be a disappointment. A letdown after an overblown buildup. The worst movie adaptation ever made. Something that only comes on in the middle of the night, if at all.”
Thomas rubbed the back of his neck with his hand and shook his head. “By the next year, everyone will have forgotten us. Forgotten we exist. Again.”
Saint sniffed. “Speak for yourself please, shifter. I’m unforgettable.”
She looked at Mac again. “Is that what you want?”
He nodded, and she could see something in his eyes that didn’t frighten her anymore. “The only thing I want more is you.”
She held out her hand to the blond giant. “It’s a deal.”
Chapter Seven
“Tell me how you did it again?”
Mac watched Rose smile as she slipped her earrings in at the dressing table of the Nevada hotel room. “I let us see your castle in Scotland, let Magnolia see the humiliation scene she’d been hoping for…but every human in the audience thought they were watching us perform our romantic duet.”