High Stakes (Vegas Vampires #1)(21)
Author: Erin McCarthy

Well, that was a nothing kind of answer. "Why did you bring me up here?"

"Because you need to understand you cannot talk about my kind when there are mortals around. You must be discreet.That ez all."

"Okay." But there was something else, something bothering him.

"There ez nothing."

"I didn’t say anything."

"I heard your thoughts." He tapped her temple with his finger. "You have very loud thoughts and feelings. They spill out of you like sunshine. I hear everything."

And here she’d thought she’d gotten a handle on blocking out vampires. She hoped he couldn’t tell she thought he was cute-

Or that she was thinking of that woman from the night before and the look on her face

"What about her?" He looked sharply at her. "I did not hurt her."

So much for privacy."I know you didn’t hurt her. In fact, she told me that while you were, you know, doing your neck thing " Brittany stared straight at him. "She had an orgasm."

Corbin looked aghast. "You should not talk about these things."

"How else am I going to help you if I don’t talk to you?"

Now she’d hurt his masculine pride. He bristled. "I do not need your help. I need you to stay away from my business."

Brittany looked over the edge of the building, down at the street far below. "If I fell, would you catch me?"

His arm came up in front of her like he expected her to pitch herself over the side. "Of course I would!"

With a pleasant sigh, Brittany tossed her hair back. "I thought so."

She is a very strange person.

Corbin’s thoughts floated over to her, and she knew, felt, that he wasn’t soulless. Humanity beat just as bright and strong in him as it did in her.

She grinned at him."Takes one to know one. If I’m weird, you’re even weirder."

"You can hear my thoughts?"

"That was the first time," she assured him, since he looked so horrified.

"I could kill you," he said.

"But you won’t."

"I could drain you of your lifeblood and fill you with mine, making you a vampiress ."

"But you won’t."

He paused. "I’ll take you back. You shouldn’t be seen with me."

Brittany looked around the rooftop. It wasn’t like the joint was hopping up there. "Who shouldn’t see us?"

"Any of them.I am banished."

Ooohh. Brittany sat back down, pulling the snap of her jeans out of her gut. "Now this sounds good. Tell me all about it, Corbin Jean Michel Atelier. What did you do to put yourself in the vampire doghouse?"

She wanted to know so she could help him, of course. And she would not kiss away that tiny frown line between his eyes.

"You most certainly will not!" he roared. "Then for sure we will both be killed."

"You’re already dead," she pointed out.

"Real dead.No more on this earth dead. And while I’m many things, suicidal is not one of them."

"That’s a relief." She patted her lap. "Come sit down and tell Auntie Brittany all about it."

His eyebrows shot up. He didn’t look like he thought she was cute, which was kind of a disappointment. Men usually found her fairly attractive. Brittany felt her lower lip jutting out. She didn’t mean to do it. It was just a reflex. Because nine times out of ten it got her what she wanted with Alex.

But not with Corbin.

He shook his head.And stepped off the edge of the roof.

Brittany screamed in reflex. Then remembered he wouldn’t get hurt. He would just wing away or whatever he did to fly.

But then she remembered something else. "Corbin! You can’t just leave me here! I’m stuck on the roof!"

Alexis sat on Ethan’s burgundy leather sofa, listening to the running water of his shower, and tried to get a grip.

Okay, so he was a vampire. So what?

Everyone had their little quirks. God knew she wasn’t perfect, and really, was vampirism an imperfection, or more just like having brown hair versus black? There was no reason to flip her wig like some squealer bimbo and run out of there screaming.

Needing blood was like needing an asthma inhaler.Sort of.In a more gruesome, demonic, unnatural way.

But hey, she was no wimp. She’d had defendants threaten her with physical harm. She’d had defendants’ mothers fling their three-hundred-pound bodies at her after a conviction verdict was read.Vampires? She was cool with it.

Alexis Baldizzi was stuck in a pixie’s body, but she didn’t have to act like a wuss .

So she propped her bare feet on the couch and jammed a plaid throw pillow behind her back. She liked plaid. It was the antithesis of the scarlet bordello-like atmosphere she’d grown up in. While every other kid on the block had a mother in seventies’ plaid pantsuits, her mother had been wearing short shorts, bikini tops, and high heels.

Thoughts of her mother disintegrated when Ethan walked back into the room, his blond hair dripping wet, wearing jeans and a button-up shirt that wasn’t buttoned. Damn it. The last time she’d seen his chest, it had been covered with blood from a gaping chest wound, which had been a little distracting. Now he had nothing but clean, smooth skin, no evidence that a bullet had ever entered his chest.

And without the wholeno pulse, rivers of blood thing to distract her, she couldn’t help but notice he was pretty damn hot.A little pale, but hot.

"Feeling better?" she asked, crossing her legs out of a survival instinct. If she could erect a sign below the waist of her evening gown, she would, // smckeep out.do not enter, no trespassing.

VAMPIRES NOT ADMITTED.

Because he had that look again—that super sultry, let’s make like bunnies and do it look.

"Cleaner.A little tired, but fine, thanks. I’m sorry you had to find me like that. And I appreciate your quick emergency response even if it wasn’t necessary." He sat down on the couch next to her and gave her a smile.

"Yeah, well, all in a day’s work."

"I ordered a new dinner for you. It should be here in a minute or two."

"Thanks." Alexis stared at his chest. She couldn’t help it. She knew what she had seen, believed Ethan was telling her the truth about his unusual genetic makeup, but it was still hard to swallow.

"You can touch it if you want. Feel for yourself. There’s no permanent damage."

That was enough to rip her eyes off his chest. "I’m not going to touch it!"

"Scared you’ll like it?"

Yes. "No. Please. Get over yourself, Carrick."

He laughed. "You’re handling the events of the evening very well. I usually get hysterics when a mortal discovers the truth about me."