“Nice. This will bring in big bucks.”
“I hope. Push the same button, the door closes.”
“I need to go order a couple steaks, you guys joining us?” Alek asked.
“Taken care of and should be here any moment.” Alek’s mouth opened but Case raised his hand to stop him. “A meal with friends, man. You know better than that. It’s a private room where we can talk and catch up without being disturbed. No one does anything they don’t want to in my clubs.”
Alek’s lips compressed in a stern line. Suppose he couldn’t perform anymore? Would he be okay with that? Hell, there was too much to think about with this mating crap. What if he freaked when somebody watched her? He spun around at the chuckling behind him.
“I’m sorry, it’s just funny to see a cat, you in particular, go through the same thing I did. Things have a way of working out, Alek.”
“She doesn’t even want to be a cat, no way am I asking her if she likes to perform. This is going to take some time.”
A tray rattled in the hall and he looked up to see Tres pushing a trolley loaded with steaming rare steaks and all the trimmings into the room. Viv, on her heels, closed the door.
“Dinner is served. Don’t look for this treatment all the time, Case.”
“Babe, you never have to lift a finger if you don’t want to. Wait, sometimes you do.”
Alek watched closely as his friend kissed his mate on the back of her neck. Would he ever have an easygoing relationship like theirs?
Viv silently came up behind him and her arms slipped around his waist. “I’m hungry, lover.”
Viv was glad she’d taken the time to talk with Tres. She had liked her immediately and could tell she loved her mate, Case, fiercely.
“Why are you cats afraid of sexuality?”
“You carry his scent and that’s the only reason I’ll answer the question you’re trying to ask. You want to know why Alek is afraid to take a mate.”
That was the other thing she liked about the snow leopard. Tres respected her friendship with Alek, protected his privacy. The tiny cat valued her friends and would be a hell of an opponent if someone tried to hurt one.
“Vampyres are sexual creatures. We enjoy our carnal senses.”
“Cats are different,” Tres said. “In the wild most of us live solitary lives, only looking for sexual release a few times a year to procreate.” She peered into her drink as if she were reading tea leaves. “God, the Fates, screwed us up. I’m snow leopard and no cat is more elusive—except the tiger.” She glared across the table, her eyes bright. “I’m a shifter, well, I was a shifter. The Kind have vampyre blood like Case and Alek but the natural instincts of the cat stays intact. Alek deals with more than the rest of us. Vampyre-infected blood runs in his veins, he has the genes of a solitary tiger and the spirit of the most social of felines—a lion, who is used to a pride full of females.” Tres’ face lit in a smile. “I’m mated to a lion so I know. I’m his only woman and he protects me as if I’m the whole pride.” Her smile disappeared quickly. “No other male would ever encroach on his female or set up camp in his space and certainly none would ever try to be his lover. Cats just aren’t built like that.”
Viviana understood. “Because of my ancestors’ blood curse cats are now overridden with our baser desires.”
“You’re a very perceptive woman and you understand how this need and addiction to the blood of his best friend, his prince, affects him. And Alek’s definitely an alpha male.”
“What the hell have I gotten myself into?”
“Alek will never see you hurt and he’ll never let you go.” Tres reached across the table and took her hand. “Can you understand his pain at knowing if he completed the mating with you he’ll have to leave you regularly to take the blood of a man because yours will not satisfy him? What he’s most afraid of is his love and sexual desire for Nikol.”
“Thanks for telling me. How do I make him know I don’t give a shit? Not as long as he comes back to my bed each night.”
“Ah, you’ve thought of completing the mating.”
“I can’t have him any other way, and I will have him.”
“If you change will your cat, whichever it will be, let him go to a man so easily?”
“He’s both cats now.”
“Shit, it’s true then?”
“How did you know about him?”
“Case, he can’t keep me out of his head.” Tres chortled. “He doesn’t even try anymore.”
Viv had only met Tres tonight and didn’t want to get too personal but she wondered how she and Case handled the private rooms. What she really wanted to know was if she’d be able to really enjoy being with Alek, or would he balk at someone watching her. “We watched a couple last night but Alek’s a performer.”