Ripper(28)

I pushed the button on the front of the camera to get a close-up of him. His face was slightly hawk-like. His dark eyes were fringed by some really spectacular lashes any girl would have been proud of, but there was no question about his masculinity. He screamed male and I responded to it. His sensual mouth was turned down and he was controlled, emotionless. He smoothed back the black silk of his hair and made sure his jacket was perfect, but I knew it was just a habit. I almost felt as if an odd connection formed between us in that moment. I could practically sense what he was feeling. He wasn’t meeting anyone. This whole thing was routine for him, and he was bored with it all. He needed something. He needed someone to shake him up a bit.

Lonely. He was lonely.

The vampire handed his keys to the valet politely and I saw him sigh as he walked up the steps. It was like he was forcing himself to do something that had become dull for him. His ennui was evident in the slump of his shoulders once the valet was gone and he thought he was alone.

Something in him called to me. I knew him. Not in any real sense, but I understood the man standing there, wondering if it was even worth it. I probably looked that way a hundred times a day. The inanities of life were an anathema to me and yet they were, at times, the only things that kept me going. I wondered what it would be like to touch him. Would he view sex as something boring, as well? Would it be a mere physical function that needed to be attended to, or was what he needed a lover? Did he long for a woman in his bed he could share more than an orgasm with?

I prayed Liv hadn’t caught my bald interest in the vampire. I didn’t want to have to explain why I was imagining all manner of dirty play with the handsome nightwalker.

I didn’t take my eye off him, enjoying the view of his nice backside as he made it to the top of the steps. I was about to get a picture of that hot ass when he turned. It took everything I had to stay as still as possible because he was looking my way, his eyes taking in the building I was in. He smiled suddenly and I caught my breath. That smile was honest and revealed white, even teeth. He stared directly at me and put his right hand over his heart. The vampire bowed, a courtly gesture, as though he was a knight and I a lady he wished to greet. He cocked a single eyebrow.

He was inviting me to join him.

I let the camera drop from my face. I was both scared shitless and completely fascinated at the idea of running down the ramp, taking his hand, and walking into that club with him. I could ask my questions about Joanne. I could find out who she’d been seeing and how long she’d been on the game.

I could find out how good a vampire’s bite felt.

“Kelsey, I think that vampire can see you,” Liv said quietly. “Maybe we should go.”

I stood up, not taking my eyes off him. I let him see me. He wouldn’t hurt me. Somehow I knew it. His lips curled up in the sexiest smile. He would be my escort, my guide. “You go. I’m going in that club. I think I just got a date.”

“Nice,” a low voice growled behind me and I was something I almost never am—startled. “If I’d known I needed fangs to get you to go out with me I would have shown you mine.”

I actually squealed a little bit as Grayson Sloane closed in on me. Where the hell had he come from? He bore down on me and I saw Liv take a step back. Sloane put a big arm around my shoulder and faced the street. He shot the vampire the finger.

“Try again, Vorenus,” he shouted.

Even without the telephoto lens, I could see the vampire’s face fall briefly and then that mask he’d been wearing slipped back into place. Whatever odd connection we’d had shut down entirely, and I felt its loss. He turned without a backward glance and walked into the club.

I slapped at Sloane’s big chest. “That was rude. That might have been my only chance to get in that club.”

Sloane’s blue eyes were hard as flint. “You aren’t going anywhere. Consider yourself in protective custody, sweetheart.”

“What?” I practically screeched the question.

Sloane held up an eight by ten black and white photo. It was a picture of me walking across the SMU campus earlier today. It was lovingly captioned in red ink with the words “Keep that bitch out of our game, Sloane.”

I sighed. It wasn’t ink, I guessed. It was more than likely blood.

“So you mentioned something about dinner?” I asked because if I was about to get my ass hauled into protective custody, I was at least going to get dinner out of it.





Chapter Five





I stared across the elegant table at my captor. I thought of Grayson Sloane that way since I’d been told in no uncertain terms that I was off my case and I wouldn’t be going home. Liv had been told to take a hike. Sloane used kinder words than that, but it was basically the same thing. After he informed me of my sad state, I’d been hauled to an expensive steakhouse on Lemmon Avenue. I felt underdressed, but it was the kind of place where if you walked in they expected you had money. Texans with money didn’t take kindly to being told how to dress. The hostess at the front acted like Sloane had planned the evening out. Despite the full waiting area and bar, she greeted him by name, immediately showing us to a private dining room.