Bit the Jackpot (Vegas Vampires #2)(46)
Author: Erin McCarthy

"Kelsey doesn’t come in until the afternoon. I’ll take whatever it is for her."

"You want what I’m supposed to give her?" Ringo feigned amusement.

"Yeah, I can keep it for her. What’s the big freaking deal?" The guard was starting to get pissed. He shifted restlessly.

"Do I have to spell it out for you? It’s not justflowers, it’s a Strip-o-Gram. I’m supposed to entertain her. Let her touch whatever she wants to touch, got it?"

"A what?"The guard looked shocked. "Man, thatjust ain’t right.Guys stripping for girls shit."

"Hey, this is Vegas. Guess her friends got together and wanted to surprise her for her birthday."

"It’s Kelsey’s birthday? No kidding. Yeah, that sounds like some-thing Mrs. Carrick would do, give Kelsey a Strip-o-Gram. Jesus. You want to take it to Kelsey’s room? She’s on the next floor.Twenty-four-oh-two. It’s probably better if you do that weird crap away from the offices anyway."

"Great idea.Thanks, man." Ringo clapped him on the arm.

"Hey, don’t touch me," the guard said, lip curling.

"Sorry." Ringo backed up, reached the elevator, and turned. Step one accomplished.

When he got to Kelsey’s room, he took a chance and knocked, hoping his luck would hold out. He leaned against the doorframe and smiled winningly at the peephole. Thirty seconds later the door opened.

"Kyle."

"Kelsey." He held out the bouquet of flowers he’d been hauling around. "These are for you."

She was wearing a very small bikini and nothing else. Her feet were bare, one foot crossed over the other. "Thank you." She took the flowers, sniffed them. " Lillies. Pretty, but you really shouldn’t buya girl lilies , Kyle. They’re funeral flowers. I might get the wrong idea."

There was something so wonderfully simplistic about Kelsey, yet amazingly complex. Ringo kind of liked the unexpected randomness of how she spoke, what she said. She annoyed the crap out of him, but she was growing on him. Like mold.

"How was I supposed to know they were funeral flowers? I’m just a dumb guy. I just saw them and thought they were beautiful, like you." He stepped in and put his hand on her cheek, caressed her cool flesh. "I’d never hurt you, you know that."

"I know." She closed the door behind him. "But you can’t hurt Cara either.Or Seamus or Mr. Carrick."

"I’m just here for Williams, the Italian’s security guard. I’m not here to hurt anyone." He could say that with total honesty. "I just need to get Williams out and you can help me."

"I don’t want to go near him. He’s the one that shot me, isn’t he?"

"Yes. But you don’t have to be near him. You just have to get me into his room. If I can get him out, then nobody has to get hurt, babe. We can keep this simple, just between you and me."

She worked her lip over with pearly white teeth. "You have to get away from him. He’ll ruin you."

The thing was,he was already ruined. But he knew what Kelsey meant. Hell, he had been thinking, feeling, for days that he had to get away from Donatelli , get back to being his own man. But he wasn’t sure how to do that. Wasn’t sure it was even possible. Yet, the idea nagged anditched him.

"I know that, Kels . But he’s one seriously powerful vampire. What am I supposed to do?" He didn’t like her implication that he was just staying with Donatelli for the hell of it. Putting a hand on her bare waist, he pulled her to him. "I don’t like it any more than you do."

"Kyle " she said in a plaintive voice, snuggling up against his chest, lacing her fingers through his.

"Why do you call me Kyle?" he asked, amusement soothing his annoyance. "You know that’s not my name."

Her lips brushed his jaw. "But I call you Kyle because you like it."

She was right. For being such a ditz, she was so perceptive sometimes it was scary. When her mouth covered his, Ringo kissed her back with frustration, desire, and an odd sort of tenderness that came out of nowhere, nosing the other feelings aside and winning the race.

It startled the crap out of him. Any emotion surprised him, but this one he didn’t know where it came from or where to put it. It sat there, on his chest, like a goddamn boulder.

Kelsey was wrapping her leg around his, digging into his back with her clawlike nails. Her bikini bottoms bumped against his dick and it would be easy to peel the nylon back and plunge into her. She wouldn’t stop him.Would probably welcome it.

But Ringo settled for kissing her, for tasting her mouth, lips, tongue, for holding her in his arms like normal people did, with normal lives, and normal pleasures.

When they came up for air, Kelsey whispered in his ear, "I care about you, Ringo . So did Kyle."

Kyle.His kid brother. His mistake had been in caring for Ringo . It had only gotten him killed. Kelsey was making the same mistake.

"You’re f**king crazy, you know that?" he told her, lowering his hold so he was touching her ass, gripping hard to emphasize his point. "You shouldn’t care about me."

"But I do." Her voice was a soft, sensual whisper, confident and pretty, flowing over him like sweet, rich blood, reminding him of everything he wasn’t and everything he couldn’t have.

"Then be a good girl for once and do what I tell you." Ringo figured he had one chance, and he was going to take it. "Listen to me carefully, because I have a plan."

Cara didn’t like where this was going. "Seamus, maybe this isn’t a good idea."

But he barely even glanced at her as he laced up thick combat boots. "We have to take care of this, Cara. This guy is a serious threat to us as individuals but also to the Nation. He’s out of control, and I want to know once and for all if Donatelli is giving him his orders."

Hair still damp from her shower, Cara twisted it into a rope, let it go, and shook it so it would unwind. She was nervous.Really on edge. It did not seem like a good idea to let the man she loved charge off into battle the morning after taking her virginity. It was all too medieval.

"But what are you going to do with him?" She’d seen that dagger Seamus had stuck in his belt. That was one ugly-looking knife. And how did Seamus even know how to use it? She didn’t think he was a wimp or anything, but come on. He was a campaign manager, not a crocodile hunter. Could he really handle himself with a lunatic vampire?

"You don’t think I can handle myself? "Seamus asked in shock, glancing over at her, bent over,one foot on the coffee table as he tied. "You think I’m some kind of pansy who can’t protectmyself or my woman?"