Bit the Jackpot (Vegas Vampires #2)(11)
Author: Erin McCarthy

Alexis saluted him in mockery."Sir, yes, sir."

The water was running in his bathroom, distracting him. He didn’t want to leave Cara with Alexis. He didn’t want to imagine what she looked like right about now, naked in the shower, water rolling all over those fabulous curves. He still had a lingering pseudo-erection from watching her orgasm, and the thought of her naked, what he could do to her

"Yuck. You’re projecting. Close your mind, Seamus." Alexis crossed her arms over her chest and grimaced at him.

Wonderful.Seamus slammed the door to his thoughts closed and rubbed his jaw, incredibly embarrassed. Alexis was the last person in the world he wanted to know he was horny. "I don’t know what you’re talking about," he said. "I’ll be back in half an hour and call me if you have any questions or anything goes wrong."

"I won’t let her leave, I won’t let her feed, I won’t open the door to strangers, and I won’t let her play with stakes," she said, rolling her eyes. "Will you just leave? You could have been there and back six times by now."

Seamus wondered yet again what Ethan saw in Alexis. To each his own, obviously, because Alexis grated on his nerves. In fact, most women annoyed him in some capacity or another. That was why he was celibate and a workaholic instead of a married vampire being nagged between sessions of sex.

Neither was a perfect existence, but listening to Alexis, he decided he’d made the right choice. He may be sexually frustrated, but at least he had peace.

"I’m leaving." He went for the balcony, knowing it was quicker to just jump down to his car than to take the elevator.

"Great. Take your time. No need to worry. Your new girlfriend and I will have fun getting to know each other. We can do each other’s makeup and talk about faking orgasms. Complain about men, that sort of thing."

"Great. Thank you," he said, forcing himself to sound nonchalant. She was not going to get him angry. He refused. Instead of arguing with her, he opened the door and shot off the balcony, nervous energy pumping through his body.

What the hell had he done?

And how was he going to corral two Labs and a Chihuahua ? He had raised hounds in the eighteenth century, but that had been inEngland , on Ethan’s expansive estate with a multitude of servants and a stable.

What in hell was he supposed to do with animals in a Vegas casino?

Which was why he detoured to an all-night discount superstore and headed for the pet supply aisle.

The minute Seamus left thebalcony, Alexis called her husband on his cell phone, watching the bathroom door to make sure Cara didn’t come out.

"I’m in the middle of something, beautiful," Ethan said without a hello.

"So am I. Seamus has mebaby-sitting his stripper while he goes to get her dogs for her.Her dogs, Ethan.Do this sound like your campaign manager to you? He hasn’t even checked the polls once all night." It was starting to freak Alexis out. She could set her clock by Seamus’s annoying political hourly updates. "And where is Kelsey?"

Before Alexis had married Ethan, she had been stabbed by a vampire, the same one who had attacked Kelsey. As a result, Alexis felt a certain affinity for Kelsey, since Ethan and Seamus had given them both life back on the same night. Granted, Kelsey had already been a vampire, but she had been drained of all her blood, and would have died, a vampirestarvation, had Seamus not given her a significant amount of his blood. When Alexis had stumbled upon Kelsey’s body that night, the vampire had still been there, and he stabbed her. Alexis would have died if Ethan hadn’t turned her, and she was now worried that maybe there was more to their dual attacks than any of them had realized.

"I found Kelsey. She’s at home, in her apartment. She appears to be fine, though quiet, which is odd for her. She doesn’t remember getting home either."

"That’s weird." Okay, so Kelsey was a little weird.And a ditz. But even she should be able to recall the trip from the strip club alley to her apartment.

The whole thing made Alexis uncomfortable. "Ethan, will you stop by and check on my sister?"

" Brittany ? Why? Has she called you? It’s almost four in the morning. Isn’t she asleep?"

Alexis certainly hoped so. But she worried about her sister, who was the product of their mother’s affair with a vampire. Seamus was determined to uncover his identity, and had considered Aunt Jodi a possible lead. Brittany had vampire blood, but no powers, and was trusting to an extreme. Alexis had made worrying for her practically a full-time job. "She hasn’t called, but I don’t know this whole thing is making me nervous. And Brittany ‘s been depressed since she had sex with Corbin and he disappeared like five minutes later."

"I still can’t believe she slept with the Frenchman, arguably the most controversial vampire in the entire Vampire Nation."

That irritated Alexis. "Well, it’s not like she knew! He didn’t tell her he was a banished research scientist vampire, setting off un-dead debates about the ethics of immortality with his search for a ‘cure’ to vampirism. I guess that didn’t pop up first thing, though I can’t imagine why not. Please. You people walk around and act like you’re normal, and the next thing we know, we’re in bed with a vampire."

"Are you in bed with a vampire?Right now?" Ethan’s voice got hard, jealous, violent like the warrior he’d been in his youth.

Please. Alexis often marveled that even though he was nine hundred years old, Ethan could still act like he was a twenty-year-old frat boy in a bar brawl.

"Yes. So go check on my sister and hurry home so you can watch."

"Alexis " he growled.

She made a kissy sound into the phone and said, "Love you," before hanging up on him.

That would light a fire under his ass.

"I need a cage and a leash for my girlfriend," Seamus told the store clerk, startled as hell when the wordgirlfriend just popped out of his mouth. He was attracted to Cara, he felt extremely guilty for the way the night had played out, butgirlfriend was taking it too far, even if it was just easier to call her that than explain his whole life story to a stranger.

"Yeah, don’t we all," the twenty-year-old clerk said, a grin splitting his wan face.

Huh? Seamus looked at the guy blankly for a second before realizing what exactly he’d said. "I mean for her dogs."

"Right."The guy’s finger came out and he made a sound with his teeth. "Probably better to use handcuffs on the girlfriend anyway."

Seamus ignored that and pointed to a cage in front of him. "Is this big enough for a Lab, you think?"

The clerk scratched his chin, stroking his little fuzzy beard."How long of a trip?"