High Stakes (Vegas Vampires #1)(48)
Author: Erin McCarthy

Lost? No—the blood that he’d taken. He had bitten her eight times.Eight.Taking blood each time, though not a lot. And it had been fantastic, the best sexual joining he’d had in centuries.Perhaps ever. Even now his manhood hardened in memory.

Corbin clenched his fists."Ugh, stupid, stupid, idiot."

"What?"

‘Nothing."He went back to her room, found her lying ex- actlythe way he’d left her. "Drink this. You will feel better." He set the tumbler of juice on her nightstand next to the phone.

"I feel fine."

The pillow didn’t move and she was nothing but a white bedding lump, a. few strands of her black hair visible on either side, her knuckles taut as she clutched.

"I guess I should be going." Corbin stood there feeling ridiculous. He should kiss herau revoir, say something nice about their lovemaking. But he felt like a young boy who takes a girl in a barn and then is unsure what conies next.

"Bye." Her fingers wiggled out from under the sheet and waved.

It had been many, many years since he had felt this kind of embarrassment and uncertainty. He did not like it.

So he left, understanding there is no bigger fool than an old fool.

Chapter Sixteen

"You’re still worried about her, aren’t you?"

Alexis picked at the eggs on her plate with her fork. "Yes." She abandoned the food and rubbed her eyes. They were eating— well, she was eating—room service in Ethan’s suite before she left for work.

"She said she was fine." Ethan took a sip of his drink, which looked remarkably like a strawberry daiquiri, minus the cherry.

"I know." Alexis leaned back and unbuttoned the jacket of the suit she was wearing. "But I have something to tell you, Ethan."

She felt like hell, running on zero sleep, and worrying about Brit- tany. While showering and slapping some makeup on, she had re- alizedthat not only did she feel like hell, she looked like it, too. But she trusted Ethan, which kind of blew her mind, but she did, and she needed his advice.

He was looking at her, a touch of wariness in his eyes, his glass hovering in front of his mouth. "Yes?"

"The other night I got an e-mail inviting me to join a vampire slayers message list. I don’t know who they are, or how they got my name. But what if they know about Brittany ? Do you think we should tell her? Is she safe out there in Summerlin by herself? Maybe she shouldcome stay here." Just the thought of telling her baby sister, hey, your dad was a vampire, made her sick, but she’d do whatever she had to do to keep Brittany safe.

"Vampire slayers?"Ethan looked amused. "It’s a minor annoyance to be so popular these days. We have to deal with these enthusiasts. I can’t imagine that Brittany is in any danger from them. But certainly, she is more than welcome here."

"Cool. Thanks, Ethan. I’ll make her stay here for a while."

"Make her?" His eyebrow rose.

What? Like she was going to feel guilty? "Hey, it’s for her safety! And maybe you should tell me everything there is to know about this undead thing, so I have all the facts before I decide whether to tell Brittany or not."

"What would you like to know?" He sat back in his chair, the perfect English gentleman. Who was very intense, rough around the edges, and drank blood.

"How did you become a vampire?" Alexis went back to her eggs, turning her plate a little on the white linen tablecloth of Ethan’s round dining table.

"I was ambushed on the way home during the First Crusade. I was made a Turkish prisoner, starved, and beaten before they slit my throat. The guard turned me to vampire and helped me escape by tossing my body out with the dead."

Lovely."Why did he save you? He must have seen hundreds of prisoners die."

Ethan smirked. "Not he.She. Let’s just say during my captivity she was impressed with my show of strength."

Alexis rolled her eyes. "So you’re saying she had the hots for you? So what happened to her?"

His smile fell. "She was a young vampire. I never saw her again. I expect she got the guillotine when the guards determined she was a woman."

"Oh. I’m sorry," she said, reaching across the table to touch him. She meant the words. She couldn’t imagine being suddenly thrust into vampire-hood without anyone to guide you. In movies and books they always had mentors, even if it was just a jerk like Lestat . "Damn, I can’t even believe how many people you’ve known in your life. It must be millions."

Ethan met her halfway, enclosed her hand with his. "Why do you think we’ve banded together in a governmental body? Yes, for law and order, but also because there is something inherently lonely about being a vampire. We experience so many relationships, acquaintances, people coming and going, yet we exist in perpetual solitude, locked within our unique world. Together, we can bridge that gap between mortal and vam-pire , Impure and fledgling, and thrive as a healthy, prosperous People."

Alexis stared at him, checked the earnestness on his face, and raised an eyebrow. "Did Seamus write that for you?"Because it was a total load of crap.

Yeah, for my speech tonight.What do you think?" Ethan sat back in his Irish farmhouse ladder-back chair.

"I think you’re overreaching with that last bit," she said honestly.

"That’s what I told Seamus, but he’s like a terrier with a bone about this kind of stuff. Sometimes I think he should be president, not me."

"He’s wound pretty tight, isn’t he?" A little round of golf would probably do him a world of good. "But if you want to get people’s attention, you need to stand strong, confident. You need to tell them what you’ve done right, and if most people, vampires, I mean, are happy, don’t fix what isn’t broken. And I don’t think you’re going to recruit Impures —I really do hate that name, by the way—with some ‘why don’t we all just love each other’ kind of BS."

"No?"

Alexis liked how Ethan pretty much always looked relaxed.Intense, but relaxed. He was wearing navy blue lounging pants and a white skin-tight T-shirt since he was on his way to bed for the day, and he was sexy hot.

She stuck her feet up onto his chair, between his legs. Even when her toes brushed his crotch, he didn’t flinch. Damn, she liked that.Especially since she could feel him getting hard. But she’d never admit it out loud.

"No, you’re not a touchy-feely guy. Let Seamus pass out hugs if he wants to. You need to tell these people straight up whether you’ll give them what they want or not. No dancing around the issues— just hey, Impures , you can have national health insurance—or whatever it is they want."