“You see, this is why I fired him.” Dev shuddered a bit. “He’s insubordinate and won’t take care of you the way he should. He’s fine as straight-on muscle, but you need an assistant as well. Let me hire someone who knows how to dress, sweetheart.”
“I’m her bodyguard, Quinn, not her nanny.” Lee didn’t sound like he cared about the man who paid his salary. “How the hell am I supposed to make sure she doesn’t get killed if I’m always running her errands or making sure her hair appointments are scheduled? I’ll leave that to you. You’re the one who treats her like your damn Barbie doll.”
Dev looked the wolf over seriously and then regarded me. “Are you sure this is what you want, Zoey? I can have more reasonable guards here in an hour. They’ll take care of you the way you deserve.”
Lee frowned, an extremely taciturn expression. He wasn’t going to give Dev an inch, and he certainly wasn’t about to do anything so energetic as defend himself.
“Lee is fine, Dev.” I had to fight for my wolf because he definitely wouldn’t fight for his own ass. “I’m good with him. He promises not to let me get horribly murdered, and I promise not to shoot him.”
“I told you that won’t work a second time, Zoey,” Lee shot back. “I’ll take you out first.”
“If you lay one fucking hand on her I swear…” Dev started, and I pushed him back, getting between the two.
I rolled my eyes at Lee, who was not one bit impressed with my lover’s show of temper. “You could give me something to work with here.”
Lee shrugged. “Donovan already gave me the whole ‘death and dismemberment’ spiel. I get it.” He cast his brown eyes at Declan. “I’m actually surprised to see you in one piece. I figured after the way you pawed his wife that Donovan would kick your ass back to Faery. Guess he’s more patient than I thought.”
“Not at all.” Declan’s hair flowed down his chest in a midnight waterfall. “He did indeed kick my ass, as you say. He took out my entire retinue. It was quite impressive. He threatened to kill me if I ever so much as glance his lovely wife’s way again. I believe the vampire thinks I am no longer a threat. He should know that I am made of sterner stuff than that.”
“We Quinns never allow something like death to deter us when it comes to sex,” Dev admitted.
“Not at all,” his brother agreed. “There are some things worth dying over. I took everything the vampire king said to heart. I then sent for reinforcements and bought better weaponry. I shall be ready to meet the vampire at his earliest convenience, and this time I shall be victorious. I shall reap my reward.”
“He’s talking about you, lover,” Dev pointed out. I was staring at Declan. I really couldn’t help it because his hair was so beautiful. I was thinking about how lovely his hair was and how good it would look on Dev. Dev’s eyes suddenly went wide. “You’re staring at his hair.”
“It’s pretty,” I offered lamely.
“Oh, cara,” Marcus said from the doorway. He had a damn good sense of timing. “Now you’ve done it. Don’t you know how faeries prize their hair? It’s a man’s crowning glory and something a lover would appreciate about him. Your Lancelot must feel insecure with his short hair when in the presence of his brother’s beauty.”
I frowned at the vampire, who always knew how to make an entrance. “Dev’s hair is beautiful. I didn’t know I wasn’t supposed to admire Declan’s. It’s just really pretty and very soft.”
“You touched it?” Dev practically screamed the question.
Declan sighed with obvious satisfaction. “She stroked me with her little hands. It was pleasurable. Her hands are almost as soft as her lips.”
Dev bore down on me, every bit as enraged as Daniel could get. “You want to talk about cheating, lover? That was cheating. You do not touch his hair. You do not kiss him. Just because he looks like me doesn’t make him a freebie. You stay out of his bed.”
I looked up at him, my eyes wide because Dev never got jealous. “I didn’t know touching his hair was a big deal. And I didn’t kiss him. He kissed me. It was how I knew he wasn’t you.”
Dev stared down at me for a minute and then his lips quirked up. “Just how was my brother’s kiss different from mine?” He asked the question with the certainty of a man who knew he was going to like the answer.
I smiled up at him because I had him now. How could the man be insecure after what I’d done to him in the shower not an hour before? I wrapped my arms around his neck and pushed myself up on my toes to get as close as I could. “Well, Declan’s kiss was fine, but it didn’t make me melt and it didn’t make me want to lock myself around him and do anything he asked of me.”
He ran his hand along my neck, palming the nape, pulling me close until his mouth hovered above mine. I could feel the heat from his body. It always made me warm. “See that your fingers stay out of my brother’s hair. I’ll begin growing mine immediately.”
I nodded and then Dev was back at his brother’s side as though nothing had happened.
“I did not try very hard,” Declan admitted. “The next time, I shall attempt to make her melt as well. She is lovely, brother. I do envy you. Her body reminds me of that woman we shared in Paris when we snuck away to the human brothel.”
Dev smiled wistfully. “She had beautiful breasts as well. They bounced, but not as nicely as Zoey’s do. Come, brother. We’ll have lunch and I’ll regale you with stories of my amorous adventures with my mistress.”
They walked out with Zack trailing behind, and I shook my head at Marcus. “I know we’re supposed to talk this morning, but I think I should go and monitor that little discussion. Afterward, we need to talk about what happens when you leave me alone in a damn vampire club.”
“I am sorry about that, cara. I didn’t think.” Marcus held up a newspaper advertisement. “But I can make up for my mistake. I think you’ll find what I have for you to be even more compelling than Devinshea’s conversation with his brother.”
The ad was half a page and invited all of the Metroplex to come to the Kimbell Art Museum starting on July fifteenth for the opening of a new exhibition. “Treasures of Ancient Rome” promised to be spectacular.
So Halfer thought the Strong Arm of Remus was going to be on display and he planned to steal it. There was only thing to do—steal it first myself.
I sighed and looked back at Lee. “We’ll have to get that lunch to go. We’re going to Fort Worth.”
Lee watched as Dev and the others left the room. When he was sure we were alone, he turned on Marcus. He moved forward in two quick steps and his hands were on Marcus’s lapels. He picked up the vampire, lifting him high into the air and slammed him onto one of the tables with a violent force. I was surprised the table held up under the pressure. He pressed Marcus against the wood with one hand and the other became a wickedly sharp claw right above Marcus’s heart.
“Lee, what the hell is going on?” The suddenness of his violence shocked me. He’d moved almost faster than I could see, and Marcus had no chance at avoiding him.
“Yes, I would rather like to know myself,” Marcus added blandly, though his fangs were out and his body tense. “Are you a hunter or an assassin?”
Lee’s eyes were dark as he stared at the vampire. “Like I said to my brother, I’m responsible for her now. I want to know if you’re the vamp who left the marks on her wrist. Healing skin smells different even when the process is shortened because the victim is on vamp blood. Those marks might not be visible, but I know they’re there. She can’t hide them from me.”
“She’s married to a vampire,” Marcus pointed out logically. “He does feed from her.”
“Not from her wrist he doesn’t,” Lee snarled. “Donovan likes it from the neck or the groin on his wife. It’s the neck or the wrist from the faery. I know my employer’s habits. Zoey’s a good girl despite the whole bigamy thing. She doesn’t cheat on her boys. So if it wasn’t Donovan then some vamp forced himself on her. If that was you, then we’re going to see what you look like with your heart on the other side of your chest.”
“It wasn’t Marcus, Lee.” I wished his senses weren’t so damn good. There was no way Zack would have caught that. I’d told Dev everything, but we’d decided to leave that part out when discussing the night with Daniel. I was afraid no amount of good sense would have stopped Daniel from marching back into the club and confronting Marini if he knew. The sight of that little box in Marini’s hand made me keep my mouth closed. “Daniel was called to the club last night. While he was in a meeting, one of the vampires cornered me and had a little snack. It was no big deal. It’s nothing I can’t handle.”
“Name, Zoey,” Lee said through clenched teeth as he took his hands off Marcus.
Marcus sat up and straightened his clothes. “I believe you will find it was Louis Marini. I wondered why he was thirty minutes late. He said he was with his companion. I should have been more suspicious since he’d obviously showered and changed clothes. He didn’t want Daniel to smell Zoey on him.”