chapter Eighteen
"You're late." Donatelli glanced at his watch. "By about ten hours. Give me one good reason why I shouldn't just kill you."
Ringopulled his gun on Donatelli ."Because I'll kill you first." He was going on no sleep, and he was getting himself out of this if he had to waste the man in front of him.
Donatellimerely glanced at his gun, looking unperturbed as he sat on his ivory sofa, stroking an ugly little brown dog. It was such a fucking cliche , Ringo almost laughed.
"This is how we're going to play this. I shot Carrick,then sent him over his balcony. I did my job, but I won't take any money. I'm just going to walk away and you and I are both going to forget we ever met."
"Do you really think I'll agree to that?"
"You don't have a choice."
Donatellisnapped his fingers, which nearly got him shot. Ringo stopped from pulling the trigger at the last possible second. Then he regretted his self-control when Donatelli spoke.
"Maybe your girlfriend will give me some choices back."
Sweat trickled down Ringo's back, sticking to his silk shirt. "What are you talking about?"
But he already knew, because he could hear Kelsey crying from behind him. A quick glance over his shoulder showed her being held by two brawny guys, her shoulders shaking as she sobbed. Her eyes pleaded with him.
Shit. "Do you think you could listen to me?" he yelled at her. "I fucking told you to stay at the hotel."
"I'm sorry I thought that I could help."
"Women are such a hassle, aren't they?" Donatelli clucked with sympathy, the bastard. "You should just hire a mistress like I do. Much lowermaintenance, and they know to stay out of your business."
"Thank you, I'll consider that in the future." Ringo stepped closer to Donatelli , marking the heart as his target, watching the other two men with his peripheral vision. "Let her go."
They did, shoving her forward toward him. Kelsey stumbled in her heels and fell to the ground five feet behind Ringo . The ping, ping sound and a scream had him spinning around and firing his own weapon at the bodyguard?who was already pumping Kelsey full of bullets.
Ringodropped both men with quick shots, but not before a whole round had gone into Kelsey's back and side. Blood spatter was on her dress, her arm, an arcing mist of red dusting the carpet.
Jerking at her arm, he turned her on her side and saw her eyes were open, but empty, her breathing stopped.Her body limp and very much dead.
Donatellihadn't moved on the couch, just sat with his leg crossed over a knee, stroking, stroking the rat-like dog,who let out a yip as Ringo knelt beside Kelsey.
Checking for a pulse, he felt everything inside him that he'd pushed down, trampled over, hidden, and ignored burst forward. Sorrow, rage, disgust, grief all ripped out of him. He brushed a hand over Kelsey's cool cheek, closed her eyelids.
"You didn't have to kill her," he told Donatelli in a hard, low voice. "She had nothing to do with anything."
And she was dead because of him.
"Oh, on the contrary, she has everything to do with this. Boys, take care of Miss Kelsey, please. She's bleeding on the carpet."
Ringoturned, wondering who the hell Donatelli was talking to. What he saw made fear and disbelief crawl up his spine like an aggressive spider. The two guards he'd shot were sitting up, brushing themselves off.
"Holy shit "
He'd put three bullets through the hearts of each of them. There was no way they could be alive. Cold panic iced his limbs and he positioned himself in front of Kelsey. They weren't going to disrespect her corpse, throw her in some Dumpster. "You're not doing a damn thing with her."
"You don't really have a say in it."
Ringofelt around for his gun. He'd set it down when he'd checked for Kelsey's pulse.
They were on him in a second and Ringo kicked, punched, clawed, but they pinned his arms behind him. The big one with dark hair, who smelled like mothballs, covered Ringo , blocking out the light. He brought his knee up, making contact, but it didn't stop the man's descent, his body crushing out Ringo's breath, his face leering and grinning as he bent over, closer and closer.
Fangs, long and violent, flashed in the man's mouth, and Ringo felt pure and total terror as the creature, person, whatever the hell he was, cut off his air, light, sound. A sharp pain sliced into his neck.
Ringoheard himself moan, felt the shock, the pain, the cold as a violent tugging consumed him. He hurt everywhere, frozen in place, his body shuddering and panicking, his cells collapsing in, his teeth sinking down into his tongue. From across the room, he heard Donatelli's voice floating over to him.
"I knew you couldn't kill Carrick, you know. Not because you wouldn't try, but because you cannot kill the undead unless you cut their heads off, and I strongly suspected you would think that too messy. All I really wanted was to rattle Carrick, throw him off his game as we head into the homestretch of our campaigns. It was a psychological tactic, but I didn't expect you to get involved with Carrick's secretary."
Ringotried to open his eyes, tried to focus, but the room was spinning and exploding behind his eyelids. He must have been injected with a drug, something that was paralyzing him, threaten- ingto send him unconscious.
"A little more, Smith."
Ringogave a silent scream in his head as his insides felt scored and raked, trussed and sliced.
"That's it. Good. Now go take care of the girl, give her your excess. I'll finish here."
Ringofell back on a soft heap as hands let go of him. Then he hit the carpet with a hard thud that jarred his skull when Kelsey's body was pulled from beneath him. He wanted to move, wanted to protest, but he was a fly caught in the spider's web, and Donatelli was playing with him.
Warmth smothered his mouth, a sharp, tinny kind of liquid that moistened his dried, cracking lips, and lifted his tongue off the roof of his mouth.
"I appreciate your qualities. And I find it rather quaint that you thought to protect the girl?I didn't expect that of you."
Ringosucked eagerly on the source of liquid dribbling into his mouth. It tasted exotic, necessary, easing the pain and cramping in his body with each swallow. He managed to open his eyes, but was too close to the man that knelt over him?he could only see shirt fabric, flesh hovering in front of his face.
He drank with a thirst he'd never experienced before, greedy and gulping, taking it in, refilling his dehydrated body, arms and feet going warm again.
"That's it.Just a little more." Donatelli stroked his forehead.
The sensation repulsed Ringo , made him suddenly realize that he was sucking on the Italian's arm and his blood. His mind screamed for him to pull away, to get up, to run, but his mouth, his body begged for more, and he whimpered when Donatelli pulled away.
"You shouldn't overdo it."
Ringostared up at him, confused, full, hot, yet frozen, and fol lowed the pattern of the crow's-feet trailing out from Donatelli's eyes.Hard eyes.Obsidian black, and full of deep, ugly secrets.
"You see it, don't you? Yes, I am a vampire. Now you are one, too, and in my service."
Ringohad thought he'd seen hell inGrenada in the Marines. But when he stared into Donatelli's empty soul, he saw it all over again tenfold.
Alexis ran a brush through her hair and frowned at her reflection. She didn't look stately. She looked like a twelve-year-old playing dress-up in her mother's evening dress. And why was it that she couldn't fill the cups up in the bodice, but the butt was straining?
"You look awesome," Brittany said.
"I look like an episode ofWhat Not to Wear .Pear-shaped woman in clingy A-line dress. Gasp."
Her sister was lolling on the bed, her shoes and jacket off. The scarf was back firmly in place, but every time Alexis looked at it, she got the heebie-jeebies. It was one thing for her to be having sex with a vampire, and getting bitten in kinky places, but her little sister? Eew with a capitalE . File that under // smctoo much information.
But she was glad to have everything out in the open between the two of them. She didn't like anything that smacked of a secret being kept from her sister. Brittany seemed to be handling the whole vamp daddy thing pretty well.
"Alex, you look fantastic. If you would just stop wishing that you were five foot ten, you would recognize that you've always had a cute figure. Not every man wants a tall, skinny waif."
"What the hellplanet are you living on?" Alexis tucked her hair behind her ears.Then untucked it. "Every man wants that."
"That's not true. A lot of men like big breasts."
"Strike two." Alexis pointed to her unimpressive chest. "And I havenever heard a single man say he doesn't care about her breasts as long as she has a big ass."
She threw down the brush. "And why do I have to wear a cocktail dress anyway? It's a debate, not a party. I should be wearing a suit." '
"Ethan said to wear a cocktail dress. And come on, this is Vegas. Any excuseto pull out the sequins works here."
"Two nights ago I was Barbara Bush, now I'm Hillary Clinton. This is starting to get scary who's next, Betty Ford?"
Brittany laughed, which was easy for her to do since she was a tall, skinny waif.
"So now that Ethan's off doing his preparations?and I really hope they're not putting makeup on him or something?you can tell me the real story between you and Corbin." Alexis put chandelier earrings in. Maybe dangling earrings would elongate her stature when people looked at her.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, you got all weird and skittish when we brought him up, yet you defended him like a mother tiger with her cub."
Brittany propped her head up with her hand. "Well, you know me. I get behind a cause and I can't let it go. But I have to admit, I'm not sure how I feel about Corbin. Having sex wasvery unplanned, and afterwards it was just totally awkward. I haven't seen him since, and I'm not sure that I will. He's really reclusive."
Alexis stepped into her shoes. "I'm not even going to pretend to give you advice. I know nothing about men. Never could I have predicted that Ethan Carrick would decide he has to have me, of all women."
"At first I think he was attracted to the fact that you didn't throw yourself at him."
"No. I kneed him in the nuts the first night we met." Alexis recalled the moment fondly. "But Brittany , you know you have the biggest heart in Vegas. I don't want to see you hurt, but if you want to be with Corbin, you know I'm here for you."
The thought of her sister hanging with a scientist who might be responsible for either eradicating vampires or multiplying their numbers tenfold didn't thrill Alexis, but she had learned you couldn't control everything.
Brittany 's eyebrows rose. "Wow. You must be falling in love with Ethan if you're feeling this mellow. Normally you despise nine out of every ten men I date, and give me a laundry list of their flaws, followed by a background check."
"And a couple of times I turned up a prior conviction, didn't I?" Alexis wasn't about to let Brittany forget that.
Suddenly her sister's arms were around her from behind, cutting off her air." Ack! What are you doing? You'll mess up my hair," Alexis grumbled but she gripped Brittany 's wrists to hold her there.
Tears swam in Brittany 's eyes in the mirror. "I love you, Alex. You're everything to me I know it wasn't easy for you to take care of me when I was kid, but thank you for doing it."
She would not cry, she would not cry. Blubbering once a day was her limit, and she'd already dehydrated herself that morning with Ethan. A tear snuck out of each eye anyway. " Brittany
baby. You know I would never trade a thing about our time together. It was a privilege to help raise you, and damn, I can't even tell you how proud you've made me. I'd do anything to make you happy." .
Ever since Brittany had surpassed her in height at age fourteen, she'd been slumping down and trying to insert herself into Alexis's hugs, and she was doing it now. It was Alexis's biggest regret about her height?she wished she could still be the bigger one when her sister needed comforting.
"Alex, do you know what would make me happy?Really happy? If you let yourself just enjoy a relationship. Let yourself take a chance on a man, marriage. I want you to let yourself fall in love with Ethan."
Alexis stepped forward, out of Brittany 's arms. Fear clawed at her, irrational and unreasonable, just from Brittany 's words. "I'm already in love with Ethan. But I don't know if I can trust him, or me, enough to make it work. I think about marriage and I just panic. I don't know if I can let myself be that vulnerable."
"If you don't take a chance, you'll be missing out on something amazing. After a thousand years of living, a man has decided you of all women are his soul mate. That's pretty damn romantic. I would jump at that."
Brittany sounded sosad, Alexis turned around and took her hand, wanting to cheer her up. "Maybe Corbin "
"That was just sex." Her sister shrugged. "No big deal. I'm sure I'll find someone. After all, according to Ethan, I'll live to be a hundred." Brittany smiled, shaking off the ennui she'd been showing.
"Brit " Alexis wasn't sure what she was going to say, so she hesitated.
I in going to go, okay?1 didn't sleep at all last night and I ve got a really full schedule tomorrow. Call me in the A.M. and let me know how the debate went." Her sister blew her a kiss. "You look great. Hugs, Alex."
"Thanks, Brit. I'll call you."
When Brittany left, Alexis sat on the bed, puzzled and deflated. Brittany 's words had made her melancholy, bothered her, and she wasn't sure why.
The door to her suite opened. "It's just me, don't kick me," Ethan called.
Alexis didn't even move. She felt like the entire balance of her future was resting on the next few days. There was the safe, the usual, the lock-down of her emotions.Which meant flat, loveless status quo. Or there was the risky, the hopeful, the taking a chance.Which could mean disaster or could mean some really damn good years with Ethan.
He appeared in her doorway, wearing a gray suit and a blue tie. "Hey, everything okay? You look a little pale."
Before she could change her mind, Alexis stared at him and blurted, "I'll live with you."
Ethan froze. "What?"
Now that she'd said it, Alexis felt a thousand pounds lighter. "Yes, I'll move in with you."
"Alexis." He came toward her, bent down, kissed her hard on the lips. "Are you sure?" Then he shook his head, laughed. "God, what am I saying? I shouldn't give you an out. Not when you've made me so incredibly happy."
She was feeling pretty freaking happy herself. Grabbing on to Ethan's tie, she pulled him down for another kiss. "Ten years is better than one, right? I mean, I either get my heart broken then or now, so at least if we have some time together, I get some good sex out of the wuole deal."
He grinned against her lips. "I'm so glad you're being logical about this."
Alexis flicked her tongue against Ethan's lower lip. God, he tasted so good. She couldn't even imagine walking away from him, a man who understood her, appreciated her strengths while respecting her weaknesses.A man who didn't patronize, or insult her intelligence. She breathed in his scent, light aftershave and crisp mint toothpaste. He had an obsession about brushing his teeth, and a constant toothpaste taste clung to him.
"That's me, all logic. Then there's also the fact that I'm completely and totally in love with you."
Ethan kneeled down on the carpet in front of her, pressing her legs apart so he could get closer to her. "That's a fact I'm glad you decided to share with me."
He wanted to inhale Alexis, press everything against her and show her how much this meant to him, that he understood the sacrifice she was making, how much trust she was putting in him to make the next decade or so worth the pain of separation.
"Alexis, I have waited over nine hundred years to find a woman I could love, and now that I have, I will do everything in my power to ensure you won't regret this." Ethan was supposed to be downstairs in ten minutes, but he didn't give a damn. Nothing had given him the sense of fulfillment that being with Alexis did.
Never had he felt himself to be lonely, but the thought of life without Alexis was agonizing. He was going to enjoy every moment he had with her.
Shifting her dress up, tracing his thumbs over her thighs, running his lips over her neck, he murmured, "Maybe I should resign the presidency.Let someone else run, so you and I can spend more time together."
"Are you insane?" Her breathing hitched when he nipped her breast through the clingy red dress. "We're not going to spend the next fifteen years just gazing adoringly at each other."
He noticed ten years had now stretched to fifteen. "No?" Her nipple rose for him behind her stretchy, seamless bra. He flicked his tongue across it.
"No. We both have careers, responsibilities. And when we split, we have to have something to go back to or we'll both just wander around in a stupor. No, we have to live normal lives, as normal as it can be for a prosecutor and a vampire president."
"Whatever you say."He didn't care what they did. He didn't want to argue, didn't want to do anything but make love to Alexis, find a wedding chapel, and put a hugely expensive ring on her finger.Because surely marriage was the next logical step.
He sucked on her breast, enjoying her moan, the feel of her fingers flexing in pleasure on his shoulders. Ethan moved her dress higher and higher on her thighs, stroked his fingers over the front of her flesh-colored stretchy panties. " Mmm, I like the way these feel. They give with you."
His thumb pressed into her, and the panties sank slightly into the dampness there, pulled back sticky and wet. Fangs down, lust raging alongside his love, Ethan could feel her heart racing, quickly pumping the thick sweetness of her blood. He scraped his fangs over her breast as she moaned, teasing himself, knowing he wouldn't bite.
She spread her legs farther apart for him, for his finger, a blatant invitation that he couldn't resist. He slid her panties down to her ankles, trailed his nose up the side of her calf, her knee, before sucking her skin into his mouth.
"If you're going to suck anything, you should aim for a little higher," she said, sinking back onto her elbows.
"Higher?" Ethan sucked her inner thigh. "Here?"
"That's not bad, but a little higher."
Nuzzling between her legs, Ethan parted her soft inner folds with his thumbs and scrutinized her. She was so damn beautiful, glistening with moisture, and giving little shivers of anticipation. "Here?" He sucked the button of her swollen clitoris, holding her down when she bucked against him.
"Yes, that's exactly where I was talking about," she moaned, collapsing back on the bed.
Her hot sweetness tightened as he pulled at it, the musky scent of her arousal surrounding him, filling his nostrils and blending with the scent of her mortality, her blood. His fangs ached with the need to taste her, his body cramped with sexual want, his erection thick and hard as it strained against his pants.
"Yes," she whimpered, clawing at the bedspread. Then she sat up, giving him a wicked, desperate look. "Bite me, Ethan. I know you want to, I can tell. Do it."
He pulled back, in agony. Once he started, he wasn't sure he could stop. He wanted to bite her everywhere, starting with those soft plump folds displayed so enticingly in front of him. "Alexis "
She grabbed his head, shoved him down. "Please, now, I'm going to come, Ethan. Take me."
His vision sharpened as he groaned. That was an invitation he couldn't resist, didn't want to even try. Sliding his tongue up and down each side of her, he pushed a finger inside her right as he sank his teeth into her tender flesh.
The hot taste of her flowed over his teeth as she screamed out in pleasure, arching off the bed in a violent climax.Ethan's eyes sank closed as he took in her pleasure, felt it rush past him in a tidal wave of satiated ecstasy. His finger moved in her swollen flesh with slow, steady presses as she shuddered on and on, little whimpers assaulting his ears.
Forcing himself to retreat, Ethan swallowed hard, feeling the heat of Alexis's lifeblood scattering out to all his limbs, filling him with her essence, her strength, her love for him.
It was a good thing he was kneeling, because he wasn't sure he could stand on his shaky legs. She'd rocked him to the core.
A pounding filtered through his consciousness, and it wasn't the pumping of either of their hearts.
It was Seamus, knocking on the door. "Ethan! Jesus, where the hell are you? If you are in there, get your ass downstairsnow . Donatelli will make mincemeat out of you if you're late."
Alexis gave a soft laugh, limp on the bed, dress shoved up past her thighs."Oh, my God. He has the worst timing."
Ethan thunked his head onto the edge of the bed?once, twice, three times. "This is one of those moments where a man has to choose selfishness or responsibility. I have to have you or I'm going to die."
Alexis drew her legs together and fixed her skirt. "I don't want to take you from your duties."
She was starting to grin, the little tease. "Yeah, easy for you to say, you were on the receiving end here."
"No, the biting was all for you. I got nothing from it." She couldn't quite pull off the innocent look.
"Seamus can wait a minute. That's all I need." He started to unzip his fly and push to his feet.
The door pounded again."Carrick! I know you're in there. I can hear you."
"Shit." Ethan stared at Alexis in agony. He wanted nothing more than to fill her with his hard flesh, pumping faster and faster into her, but he really didn't want Seamus standing outside the door listening.
Alexis sat up, looking more sympathetic than teasing now. "Don't worry. I'll make it up to you later. You don't want to rush it It's more fun if we have all the time in the world."
"I'm going to die," he told her, most sincerely.
She grinned. "No, you're not. You're a vampire. Now stop being dramatic and go beat the crap out of the other guy in this debate. Then we'll sneak away for a little victory celebration."
Sighing, Ethan rezipped his pants. "I don't think you understand how much pain I'm in." He wasn't sure he could even walk.
"Since I don't want Seamus breaking that door down and walking in on us, we're just going to have to wait. Besides, that way I'll have time to suck you first."
Ethan groaned, his vision blurring, body tightening every where. "Alexis, you're torturing me."
"No, that comes later." She stood up, pushed her dress down, and headed toward the door.
He noticed she was still wearing her high heels and the thought had him groaning all over again. He could have done her with her shoes still on, damn that was hot.
"Hi, Seamus.Sorry to keep you waiting."
Bloody hell.Running his hands through his hair, he took a few tentative steps in the direction of the living area. His cock didn't break off and fall to the floor, but it ached abominably.
He needed to think about something else, divert his blood flow elsewhere.
"You're a sick man," Seamus told him when he walked in the room.
"No, just horny."
Alexis laughed.
Seamus flushed an ugly beet red. "Look, maybe you don't take this election seriously anymore, but I do. I've worked my ass off on this campaign and I'd appreciate a little cooperation."
That was enough to cause contrition and deflation. "Seamus, I apologize. I know how hard you've been working. I'm heading down now. But first you can offer us congratulations?Alexis and I are engaged to be married."
Seamus'seyes narrowed."Really? Well."
He faced Alexis, who had turned a little pink. Ethan was amused. Getting caught in the act didn't embarrass her, but being engaged obviously did.
"Congratulations." Seamus's words were clipped and hard.
Too late, Ethan remembered Seamus supported an engagement to Brittany, not Alexis. He hoped this wouldn't cause a permanent breach in their friendship.
"We're not engaged," Alexis said.
Ethan took in her pale face, her stiff shoulders.Uh-oh. "But you said you said yes."
"To living with you.Not to marriage. You never asked me to marry you."
Well, if she wanted to get technical. "But I'm going to."
"And if and when you do, maybe I'll say yes."
That almost sounded positive."Really? You might say yes?" Ethan grinned at Alexis. She wanted to marry him.
His answer was an eye roll. "It's probable. Good odds, I'd say,if you don't tick me off in the meantime."
But then she smiled, softening her words, and Ethan felt like every cliche ever written. He was in love. He was a Celine Dion song waiting to be written.
Seamus made a sound of impatience. "Can we head down now?"
"Absolutely," Alexis said. "Sooner we go down, the sooner we can come back up." And she winked.
Ethan almost groaned. Damn, she was hot. Taking Alexis's arm, he followed Seamus.
"By the way," Seamus said, "we can't get an ID on the shooter. And Kelsey is missing."
"Missing?" Ethan frowned at Seamus, jerked out of his sappy and sexual thoughts.
"Well, no one has seen her since last night. She didn't show up for work today, but then Kelsey is known for late nights and partying. I just thought it was a coincidence since she was with the shooter that night."
They stepped on the elevator. "I don't like the way that sounds," Ethan said. "Kelsey was really frightened by him. I don't think she knows anything about him, but what if he thought she did? I suspect he was just an off-balance gambler, who lost a life savings or something, but would he hurt Kelsey?"
"Wouldn't she call for one of us if she were in trouble?" Sea- musasked.
"True." Kelsey wasn't the best mind reader, but she could certainly project her fear or plea for help to them if she needed to."Speaking of that." He squeezed Alexis's hand. "You need to learn how to call me with your mind if you need me."
"You can't read her thoughts?" Seamus asked in amazement.
"Not at all."
Seamus looked at Alexis with new respect. "You really are his chosen one, aren't you?"
Alexis looked at Seamus like he had serious body odor. Her nose wrinkled. "He may have chosen, but I had to agree to it, too, you know."
"I mean never mind." Seamus crossed his arms. "You can teach her to project."
"You really should, Alexis. You can train yourself to open up to me only when you want to. That way if you're ever in danger, you can call for me."
"Sure. Like a mental cell phone. That's cool, as long as you don't enter my head without asking first." Her scowl showed what she thought of that.
"I wouldn't dream of it. Besides, I couldn't without youopening yourself for me."
That made her grin."Sounds kinky."
Seamus made a disgusted sound. Ethan was starting to think Seamus needed to reinvent his social life.
"Okay, so just think of something that really brings out strong feelings in you. Something you despise." Ethan led her off the elevator.
"The grocery store."
"You hate the grocery store?" Ethan only went into one on occasion, to buy shaving cream or shampoo, but it didn't look that awful.Neat and tidy. Food was packaged and ready to cook, unlike in his youth when the castle cooks always had dirty fingernails from slaughtering animals.
"I hate it with a passion. It's like physical and mental torture. First you have to carve time out of your schedule to do it,then you walk in and are instantly surrounded by millions of choices. And every single item on every shelf requires you do something with it. Chop it or cook it or saute it or remove it from gobs of packaging and microwave it. It's either fattening, which makes you feel temptation and guilt simultaneously, or it's good for you and tastes like crap, reminding you that you are five foot two on a tall day with slow metabolism and zero time to work out. Then for the privilege of all this fun, you get to pay outrageous prices for the food that had to be trucked across the desert to the over-air-conditioned grocery store near you, and all hopes of buying a new couch to replace the hideously ugly one you have evaporate in the checkout line."
"Wow." Ethan couldn't have begun to imagine. "Okay, so channel all that energy about the grocery store into one place in your brain."
They were walking down the hall side by side, Seamus in front of them, but that was just as well. She shouldn't really be looking at Ethan when she tried to give him her thoughts. "Now let me see it."
"The grocery store?"
"Yes. Let me see your thoughts, in your head, without talking. Push them at me."
Ethan heard and saw nothing.
Alexis made a funny growling sound. "You're not answering."
"I can't hear anything." Ethan tried to pick through her wall, but he couldn't get past it.
She giggled.
"What's so funny?"
"I'm thinking all kinds of dirty thoughts. I can't help it."
They reached the doorway to the ballroom where the debate was being held. He stopped and tried to give her a stern look. "Behave yourself. Don't try and project perversions to me when I'm in the middle of this debate."
"I wouldn't do that." She gave him a dignified look. "I'm a perfect political girlfriend.A lawyer.Logical. I'm going to have a really kick-ass pet cause, too. Maybe I'll overhaul campaign finance reform orImpure rights or something. First I'll have to figure out what's what, but rest assured I'll fix something."
"I look forward to it." He tucked her hand into his arm. "Ready? Smile for the vampires, Alexis."
"I'm ready." She took a deep breath and flashed him her pearly teeth.
Seamus opened the door and they strode into the packed ballroom, applause greeting them. Ethan raised his free hand and waved, smiling, giving the victory sign, and feeling damn proud Alexis was on his arm. This was actually a lot of fun with a partner.