“I hope you gave him an earful,” Thomas muttered, moving to what he now realized must be the replacement cooler. It looked the same, but when he opened it he saw that it was just straight blood in this. Several bags of A positive.
“An earful?” Inez sounded surprised. “Why? Is there a great deal of difference between the other blood and this?”
“Oh yeah, there’s a difference,” Thomas muttered with disgust as he picked up a bag of the cold liquid. The moment he touched the bag, he felt the teeth in his mouth shift and begin to extend. Much like Pavlov’s dogs, his body responded to what it knew was coming. He suspected he even salivated as the dogs did at the sight of their food arriving.
Inez was peering curiously down at the bags in the cooler, but glanced up just as he opened his mouth and popped the bag to his fangs.
“Your fangs aren’t there all the time,” she said with surprise. “I saw them slide out of your upper jaw.”
Thomas didn’t comment. He couldn’t with the bag in his mouth, but he wondered that she hadn’t noticed that he didn’t always have fangs. It would be hard for immortals to hide what they were if they walked around flashing fang all the time.
“So you don’t even have to taste the blood?” Inez asked curiously.
Thomas shook his head, his nose flaring as she moved a little closer and he caught a whiff of her scent. Damn, he’d found it enticing in the hotel in London, but right now it was positively intoxicating. Stupid delivery guy, he thought impatiently, and stupid him too for not reading the bloody bag before slapping that first one to his teeth on arriving in the suite.
“That’s good,” Inez announced, drawing his attention away from his thoughts. “I don’t imagine blood tastes good.”
Thomas stared at her silently, his nostrils flared to take in as much of her scent as he could. His skin was now tingling a little. He could actually feel the body heat coming off of her. It made him want to move closer…so he took a step back. This was going to be hell, he realized with dismay. He had to get away from her.
“S.E.C…” Inez said and he noted that she’d picked up the empty bag on the table, the one from the first batch of blood. She’d examined the label, apparently noting the initials under the blood type. Large and bright red on the white label, those initials were the only difference from the other bags. But Thomas hadn’t stopped to read the label. He’d been too hungry to take the time to do so and had slapped that first bag to his teeth without hesitation. It was only Bastien’s call that had prevented his slapping the second bag to his mouth, and pure luck that he’d glanced down and noticed the initials.
“What does S.E.C. stand for?” Inez asked as he tugged the empty bag from his teeth.
“Sweet Ecstasy Concentrate,” Thomas muttered and promptly slapped another bag to his teeth before she could ask what that was. He knew she would the moment he finished with this bag, though, and had no intention of telling her. He felt like a complete idiot for not reading the label and getting himself into this fix. And what a fix! He had a full bag of Sweet Ecstasy swimming around in his body and—he realized as she stepped closer and he felt the sweat break out on his forehead—he was already starting to feel the effects. The first bag was making its way into his system. Soon he would be hard-pressed to keep his hands off Inez if he didn’t get away from her.
His eyes slid over her body in the wrinkled slacks and blouse she’d been forced to re-don that morning in her rush. She still looked delicious to him and he found it hard not to stare when he noted the way the silk of her blouse was pulled tight at her breasts, the material pulling the slightest bit open with every indrawn breath and then relaxing closed with every exhalation. It was just the tiniest bit, hardly noticeable, but he was noticing and his body was responding as if it were a full-body peep show.
Giving his head a slight shake, Thomas decided he needed some distance and quickly. He hooked his free arm through one shoulder strap of his knapsack, then managed to snag two more bags of blood in that hand before heading out of the sitting room in search of his bedroom.
The first bedroom door was open, the lights on and Inez’s purse lay on the bed. Her room. Thomas bypassed it and moved on to the next room The second bedroom was in darkness, but he didn’t bother with the lights at first. Walking inside, he set the blood on the bedside table, and let the knapsack drop onto the mattress before turning back to flip on the light. Much to his relief, Inez hadn’t followed, or if she had, she’d stopped when she realized he was going to his room.