A Vampire for Christmas(7)

Before he’d known what he was doing, he’d kissed her. And she’d kissed him right back. The next moment, one hand was sliding under her red cashmere sweater and the other went to her tight little bottom. When she responded by curving her hips against his and wrapping her arms around his neck, it was all over.

Thank God they’d been in the library. He’d kicked the door closed, locked it and set her down roughly on the edge of the desk. Before he’d even unzipped his trousers, she’d lifted her skirt and removed her panties. He could still remember her fingers digging into his backside and the beautiful sound she’d made when he—

Hello. Anyone in there?”

He blinked to find Charlotte looking at him, an ice pack on her wrist. The waitress was looking at him, too, her order pad out, her pencil poised above it.

And he had one monster hard-on beneath the paper napkin in his lap. Shit.

What was the question?” He crossed his legs, put a hand casually over his knee.

It’s a complicated one,” Charlotte said. “It goes something like this—‘Can I take your order’?”

Smart-ass. He laughed, balled up his napkin and tossed it at her. “What are you having?”

I’m fine with just coffee.”

To the waitress he said, “I’ll have two eggs, over easy, with a side of bacon and an orange juice.” Ordering a meal would stretch the time he had with her. He waited until the waitress left to address Charlotte again. “So tell me, what you were doing walking alone on the streets at night?”

I wasn’t. Not really.”

Well, it sure looked that way when I saw you.” What the hell had she been thinking anyway? He knew precisely the kind of filth that roamed the streets at night and Charlotte had no business leaving herself vulnerable to it.

She told him about her friend leaving her stranded at the night club and about following a group of women almost to her car.

Almost?” he asked her. “Almost only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.”

Isn’t it supposed to be close?” She lifted an eyebrow as if to taunt him, her eyes sparkling with mischief over the rim of her coffee mug.

Excuse me?”

The expression is, ‘close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.’ Not almost.”

He’d forgotten how she’d loved being right and pointing out how he was wrong about things that didn’t matter. Just like his grandmother, she was a trivia hound and a member of the grammar police. Which was probably why the two had gotten along so well. His grandmother had been sorely disappointed when he’d told her about wiping Charlotte’s memory—she hadn’t spoken to him for weeks afterward. But she knew the rules just as well as he did. If humans found out about the existence of vampires, their memories had to be erased.

There’d been too many instances in the past when this hadn’t been done and rumors of vampire attacks panicked whole villages. Those had been dark days for their kind, caused by a few careless individuals. The Council was formed to establish a rule of law for his kind to live by in order to keep their existence secret.

Charlotte was looking at him expectantly. He almost argued with her about the horseshoe thing—he was pretty sure she was wrong—but he didn’t. He couldn’t let her affect him that way. The playful teasing. The easy back-and-forth. He couldn’t let her work her way into his heart again. For his sake and hers, he needed to remain detached. He’d stay long enough to make sure she was okay to drive and that would be it.

When the waitress returned with their order, his stomach growled. He’d had no idea how hungry he was. The meeting tonight at the field office had involved dinner, but he hadn’t felt like eating then.

How is your wrist feeling?” he asked, lifting the eggs onto the toast with a fork. “Is the ice helping? Think you’ll be ready to drive in a few minutes?”

A shadow passed across her features. She nodded and turned slightly away from him, rattling her coffee mug as she set it in the saucer. “Yeah, I’m fine.”

She was not fine. She was clearly still shaken up. Frazzled. Hell, knowing what those guys had been planning still had him freaked-out, too.

While Charlotte had another cup of coffee, he finished eating. He couldn’t let her drive home like this, he decided. No way, no matter how unwise it was to prolong his time with her.

I’ll give you a lift and you can come back for your car tomorrow.”

No, I couldn’t ask you to do that.”