She pressed a hand against her brow. "I–I'm very busy."
"It will only take a few seconds for you to teleport me. But then, you would have to let me wrap my arms around you and hold you tight. If that scares you too much—"
"I'm not scared!" She clenched her teeth when he smiled slowly. Damn him. He'd manipulated her into this. "You're still getting even with me, aren't you?"
"Actually, I'm making progress with those negative feelings. I no longer have visions of making you suffer."
"Oh, that's big of you."
His mouth twitched. "How kind of you to notice."
Her gaze flitted south, then quickly away. Good Lord, he was big. How could he be so turned on? He'd only touched her cheek. Her skin tingled, and she suddenly wanted him to touch her everywhere.
He took hold of her shoulders. "Instead of making you suffer, I'm thinking about all the ways I could give you pleasure."
Oh God, don't melt on him. She locked her shaky knees and planted her hands against his chest, more to steady herself than shove him away. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close.
She gasped when his hard shaft pressed against her belly. "Not so close. I have to concentrate to teleport. You don't want to arrive home minus an appendage, and I don't mean your foot."
With a smirk, he eased back. "It is a foot right now."
She groaned. "Caveman." She closed her eyes to focus on Roman's townhouse. Her body started to waver, but when Phil's body remained intact, she stopped. "There's something wrong. You're not coming with me."
"Not enough foreplay, sweetheart."
She swatted his arm. "I meant your body is refusing to teleport."
"Ah." He released her and dug the silver chain out of his pants' pocket. "This must be the problem." He dropped the chain onto her desk. "Now, where were we?"
Her heart executed a little flip when he dragged her back into his arms. She rested her hands against his chest and felt the powerful thudding of his heart. She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to focus, trying to block out all the tingling sensations that zipped along her body.
His arms were so strong. His breath stirred the hair on top of her head. And his scent—clean but earthy, and redolent with male power—filled her head and made her wish for the impossible.
But it was impossible. No matter how tempting he was, she couldn't let herself have genuine feelings for him. She'd had all the pain a person could bear in a lifetime. She would simply teleport him home, then come right back. Alone.
She felt her consciousness tumble into a black hole. She wavered, taking Phil with her, and everything went black.
Phil had never been fond of hitching a ride from a Vamp. It placed him in an inferior role of accepting help, which grated on his instinctive need to be dominant. He put up with the situation since the war against the Malcontents was more important than anyone's ego. When it came to teleporting with Vanda, however, he'd simply wanted an excuse to hold her tight.
They landed in the foyer of Roman's townhouse, and Vanda immediately broke free of his embrace.
She grimaced, covering her ears. "What's that awful noise?"
"We must have set off the alarm." Phil strode to the control panel by the front door and punched in the code to stop the high-pitched wailing. Only vampires and dogs were supposed to be able to hear it, so apparently he was more like a dog than he cared to admit. "The guys usually teleport to the back porch, so they can turn off the alarm before coming in."
"Oh, I didn't know about that." Vanda glanced around. "Place still looks the same."
"It is, though it's fairly empty." Phil pressed more buttons to reactivate the alarm. "We had to tighten security. Couldn't have Malcontents teleporting in to attack us."
Vanda nodded. "Will it be okay for me to teleport out?"
"Just a sec." He pulled a cell phone from his pocket and called Romatech. They would have received an alert about the alarm going off at the townhouse. "Hey, Connor. False alarm. Everything's fine." He hung up.
Vanda shifted her weight, looking impatient. "Can I go now?"
He dropped his cell phone back into his pocket as he walked toward her. "There's no need to hurry off."
Her eyes narrowed. "Not happening, Phil."
"What's not happening?"
She crossed her arms. "Whatever you have in mind."
He stopped in front of her. "There's a lot on my mind. Could you be more specific?"