Twice as Hot (Tales of an Extraordinary Girl #2)(26)
Author: Gena Showalter

"None taken," he said with a grin. He hadn’t removed his hand from my wrist, though.

"No, we can’t," John said, then prompted the goon, "Reese. Sometime today." Reese, a tall man with a handsome yet innocent face and a dimpled smile, gently lifted my hand closer and closer to his mouth. His teeth were white, straight and a lot longer than the average human’s. And sharper. God, were they sharper. "Don’t worry, Belle. I’ll treat you the same way I’d treat my girlfriend.

If I had one."

There was something so hypnotic about his voice. Something wicked and wanton that belied the sweet purity of his face. He’d worked for the agency for several years, and had taken my blood many times before this. He’d always been tender with me, even the times Rome had stood over his shoulder, snapping at him to hurry.

Rome. Was he in a room similar to this? Maybe even the room across from mine? Was Lexis with him?

Tending to his wounds like a loving girlfriend? Bitch.

"Wait," I told Reese just before he started chomping. He stilled. "I’ll let him test my blood, but you need to leave," I said, pinning John with a fierce stare. "I don’t want an audience. It makes me nervous.

Besides, I want you to check on Rome." Ensuring he did have an audience.

John waved a hand in dismissal. "Rome’s fine."

"Make sure." Or rather, play chaperone. "I won’t be able to settle down until I know for sure he’s racer-ready."

"Belle – "

I arched a brow at him, hoping I looked as stubborn as Rome did when he used the expression. "This is not a negotiation. Go, before I change my mind about the bloodletting and roast Reese alive." Reese chuckled, a lock of blond hair falling onto his forehead. I liked the way his eyes sparkled with his amusement. I mean, I might love Rome, but I wasn’t dead.

"So feisty," he said, and there was a ring of affection in his tone.

"One day I’m going to start docking your pay for trying to act like the boss." John stomped from the sickroom, as I called it, and slammed the door shut behind him.

"Alone at last," Reese said, his thumb tracing over my pulse. "I’ve been hoping for a chance to talk to you."

Every muscle in my body stiffened. Oh my God, was he hitting on me? Was he my secret admirer, perhaps? "Uh, Reese. As you know, I’m kind of engage – uh – " wrong " – I’m kind of seeing someone."

"Like I could forget the way Rome used to hover. But, uh, I don’t want to date you, and please don’t be hurt by that. You’re just too scary for me. I want to date your friend Sherridan. I saw her yesterday, when she was looking for you, and thought she had a nice pair of…legs." He looked away from me, suddenly…shy? "Does she have a boyfriend?"

Somehow, I’d become the resident matchmaker. Ironic, considering the state of my own love life.

"She’s single. But…" I pressed my lips together. As it turned out, I didn’t need to finish the sentence for him to understand my meaning.

His gaze lifted, a little tortured but not offended. "You want to know if she’ll become a vampire like me if we get hot and heavy."

I gave a reluctant nod.

"That would be a big fat no. You haven’t, and I’ve bitten you countless times." Reese was John’s preferred method of blood testing. Said the vampire was more reliable than any machine, his taste buds sharper than any piece of equipment, and that he could tell anything and everything about a person’s body simply by ingesting the life-giving fluid.

In the beginning, I’d worried that exposure to my blood would make Reese turn out like me. I think perhaps John had hoped for such a thing – two powerful element-wielders for the price of one – and that was the real reason he’d had Reese perform the tests on me. But the agent had never sickened like I had when first infected. He’d never shot uncontrollable fire beams out of his eyes or accidentally frozen PSI headquarters so that the entire operation had to be moved. And as unstable as the powers were at first, he would have done something.

"Yeah," I said, "but we weren’t caught up in passion. What if she bites you back? What if – ?"

"Wouldn’t matter. I’m not a virus. No one can catch what I’ve got. Besides, I would never allow anything bad to happen to her. Or you," he added fiercely. "I hope you know that." I settled more deeply against the bed pad. Unlike Cody, Reese didn’t strike me as a player, therefore he might just be acceptable. "Before I give you my seal of approval, I have some questions for you." While I admired his zeal, the BF in me needed to know more. "Have you ever cheated on a girl?"

"No," he said, and this time he was offended.

I wished Tanner, my lie detector, were here. How was Tanner, anyway? He’d been bleeding, but on his feet, yet John had insisted on a CAT scan. "Are you looking for a long-term relationship or just a friend with benefits?" Either way, Reese was a much better choice than Cody, I decided. To my knowledge, he didn’t have a river of broken hearts running behind him.

Reese eyed me for a long, silent moment. "Are you her dad or something, and I just didn’t know it?"

"Think of me as her guardian angel. Her very powerful, fry-you-like-battered-shrimp guardian angel. So answer the question before I give you an eight-hundred-degree suntan." He rolled his eyes but said, "I’m looking for a date. To get to know her, see if we’re compatible.

Anything that happens afterward is private, suntan or not. If you’d like, we could even make it a double date. Sherridan and me, you and Cody. I, uh, hear you two are a couple now. That true?"

"No, it’s not true," I grumbled. Exactly how had such a rumor gotten around so quickly? I studied him.

You can trust me not to hurt you, those green eyes said. But could I? I no longer trusted my instincts when it came to men. Damn, but I wished I’d paid more attention to office gossip. I might have learned why Reese and his girlfriend, someone he’d been with for over a year, had broken things off last month.

A sigh slipped from me. "Feel free to ask her out," I said, "but know that if you make her cry, I really will ash you."

He shuddered, though there was an amused glint in his eyes. "First time I’ve ever been issued a threat like that and known it could actually happen." His gaze flicked to my wrist. "So…are you ready?" Reluctantly I nodded.

Slowly he raised my hand to his mouth. His warm tongue laved my pulse point, massaging the skin.

Nothing sexual about it, but I found myself wondering if he perhaps lingered a little too long. Then I tensed slightly, expecting the coming sting. It arrived a second later, his sharp teeth sinking into my vein, his mouth giving a gentle suction.