Sucker Bet (Vegas Vampires #4)(42)
Author: Erin McCarthy

Nate gave her a funny look. "You don’t have plans to meet Slash, do you? You know how I feel about that."

That had never occurred to her. She had just been envisioning metaphorically tossing her inhibitions down the craps table along with the dice. "No. If I did, I would tell you." Probably. "Though I still think it’s a good idea. Otherwise, we might have to wait weeks while you try to figure out who he is. I’ve been searching for any sort of link to his real identity, and it just isn’t there. He’s totally covered his tracks."

"I appreciate you wanting to help, but let me and the department handle this, Gwenna."

That attitude struck her as patronizing, even as she realized that Nate had no way of knowing she was a vampire, and not in the danger a regular mortal woman would be. But she just didn’t understand his unwillingness to accept help. "But what if someone else is killed in the meantime?"

He didn’t have an answer for that obviously. Nate made a sound of exasperation. "What do you want me to do? Send you out there to get killed? I don’t think so." He reached out and touched her cheek, softly sliding his finger across her skin. "Is it crazy to say that I care about you? That I want to keep seeing you."

Gwenna closed her eyes for a brief second to gather her emotions. She wasn’t prepared for Nate’s lips to brush over hers while she did.

"I really like you," he said in a low voice that did all manner of shivery things to her insides.

She opened her eyes in time to see his expression, dark and sensual and entrancing, as he bent over her, kissing both corners of her mouth.

"I want to be with you."

Now was the time to tell him they had no future, that it was fun while it lasted, but the reality was such that they could never be together. It was the absolute perfect opportunity to settle the issue, to put the brakes on any sort of relationship. Easy enough. She just had to say it.

"I want to be with you, too." That wasn’t saying it. Damn it. Why the hell had the truth come out of her mouth? Here she was lying right, left, and sideways, and when she actually needed to lie, she blurted out the bloody truth?

And now Nate’s tongue was in her mouth, so there was no way to correct or retract her statement. She was too busy snogging.

He broke away, breathing hard, hand buried in her hair. "The casino to gamble or straight up to your place so I can f**k you?"

Oh, my. Gwenna wished a gearshift wasn’t between them and that they weren’t still sitting in Brittany and Corbin’s suburban driveway. Why wait, really? But there was something to be said for anticipation. "How about we get drunk, lose a pile of money, then go up to my place so you can f**k me?"

Gwenna was so proud of herself. She’d said the f word again, and this time in a sexual context. It felt sassy and raunchy, and she was rather fond of it.

Nate clearly was, too. His eyes went dark and he groaned, glancing down at her chest, his finger wandering between her thighs. "Jesus, you’re killing me."

Gwenna was spreading her legs a little so he could slip under her skirt, when a knock on the window sent her jumping three feet in the air.

"Christ." Nate pulled back and made a sour face at whoever was behind her shoulder. "What the hell does he want?"

Oh, no. Gwenna turned and saw Roberto a mere twelve inches away from her on the other side of the window. Not good.

He looked like he could eat glass and like it.

And somehow she couldn’t force herself to speak.

But Roberto wasn’t at a loss for words. "Can you move your slutty little make-out session elsewhere? My car is in front of you in the driveway and you’re blocking me."

"Oh. Sorry." Her cheeks were burning. She had no reason to be embarrassed or ashamed, but she felt very exposed.

Nate didn’t bother to say anything. He just put the truck into reverse and pulled back, leaving Roberto standing in the driveway glaring at them.

"What does your ex-husband do for a living?"

"Real estate development is what he officially calls it. You would call it the Mafia, I imagine."

Nate stomped on the brake harder than was necessary at a stop sign. "Your ex is mob ?"

"Of course he is." Gwenna was irritated that yet again, in the middle of a moment she was quite enjoying, Roberto had inserted himself. And now they were still talking about him. "Didn’t I tell you that?"

"No, I don’t think you mentioned that little fact."

"Does it matter?"

"Maybe. I don’t know. And you married him? How old were you?"

"I was eighteen when I met him. He was very charming." Lots of sweet words and grandiose promises. And to be fair, he’d kept most of those promises. He just could never separate right from wrong with any sort of finality. Roberto had very wide moral boundaries.

"He looks like a snake oil salesman."

"Yes, well, I was an idiot. What can I say?"

"I didn’t say you were an idiot. You were young, he was charming. We all make mistakes."

"Can we not talk about him anymore, please? I am so utterly sick of everything I do being affected by Roberto. He has no business being here in this truck between us right now." She wasn’t sure why she was so thoroughly hot under the collar, but she was. Why couldn’t she even have an affair unencumbered? Everyone else did. Every mortal and vampire on the entire goddamn planet was entitled to a little fun, a frivolous sexual fling just because it felt good. Not her. She had to have her ex-husband sitting on her lap while she tried to get naughty.

Nate glanced over at her. "You’re right. Sorry." He gave a laugh. "Do you know when I first met you I thought you were a ditzy blonde?"

Gwenna felt her eyebrow shoot straight up to her hairline. What exactly about that statement was causing him amusement? "Is that to say you no longer think I’m a ditzy blonde? Thank you, I think." She didn’t feel warm and fuzzy at the backhanded compliment.

"But now I think you’re one of the most amazing, intelligent, compassionate, beautiful women I’ve ever met."

Much better.

"And I feel like you walked into my life at the right time, for a reason."

He was facing the road, so she couldn’t see his eyes, but his voice was firm, confident. "And I’m not such a pu**y that your obnoxious ex-husband with mob connections is going to scare me away."

"No?"

"No. So we’re going to see where this thing between us goes."

Well, since he had decided… It would be rude to tell him no. But there was that niggling little part of her that kept insisting there had to be a way to tell Nate the truth. That maybe he was open-minded enough to accept her vampirism. Because she really and truly wanted to see where a relationship between them could go as well.