When the shaking stopped and the tears took a breather, she dragged herself out of the tub and found a robe to wrap up in. She pressed a hand to her roiling stomach.
She couldn’t believe she’d done this to herself, couldn’t believe she’d tried to play games with Alex. She should have come back to the hotel. She should have thought repulsive thoughts. Instead, she’d let Alex bring her to multiple orgasms. And she’d nearly begged him to take her blood.
What a loser she was.
She found her phone and dialed Len. When he didn’t pick up right away she wanted to cry again. Especially when she realized she’d neglected to get any info from Jack about tomorrow’s meeting with the executive board. Info that Lenny would definitely want and need to know if he was going to email her updates for their proposal in the morning.
God, what good was this whole sexysmart thing when she’d fucked up the sex and now she was fucking up the smart too? Each ring of Len’s line brought her closer to a complete breakdown.
She was fumbling to think of a relatively sane voicemail message to leave him when he finally answered. “Hey you, where ya been? I tried to call a bunch of times around dinner to see how the party went.”
“Lenny! Thank God. I thought maybe you’d found a date or something.”
“Yes, that would be something to thank God for…but no, I was just trying to get the neighbor’s cat to come inside. What’s wrong with you? You sound like shit.”
“Oh Len…” His name came out as a sob.
“Caro, for Christ’s sake, what happened?”
She tried to speak but couldn’t.
“Did Jack give you the bum heave even before the meeting tomorrow? Fuck him anyway.”
“Yeah,” she hiccupped, giggles battling tears. “No. No, he didn’t give me the bum heave, and no, I didn’t fuck him. Well, I almost did, but then things kinda got out of hand.” The tears won.
“Um, Caro? Could you stop blubbering and try to explain, darling?”
“Alex is here.” It was the only explanation she could think to give him.
“What did you say?”
“Alex is here.”
“Alexander King? He’s with you in your hotel room? What the fuck?”
“Not in my room, for cripe’s sake! Jack gave him the party contract. And I think he wants to give him more than that, if you know what I mean.” She let out a fresh wave of sobs.
“Okay, sweetheart, start at the beginning. I am like totally confused now.”
Caro started at the beginning. She skipped most of the gory details about the fiasco at Alex’s loft but she was pretty sure Len got the gist. And she didn’t tell him about the part of the evening where she’d given Alex head in the restroom. Some things she just wasn’t ever going to tell anybody. Well, she’d always told Alex everything, but he wasn’t her friend anymore. The thought made her cry harder.
Len, of course, thought she was an absolute mess. Which was quite true. She felt sorry for him having to listen to her like this.
“Caro, most of what you’ve told me is great news. Half of the Stoked account is almost as awesome as all of it. And if we prove we can successfully work with an immortal agency, it might seal even more immortal accounts. Okay, so here’s what we do…” His voice was reassuringly confident. “As soon as we hang up, I’ll call a few of my vamp friends. Get any dirt on King and Associates. I’ll put some stuff together to update our proposal—things that demonstrate how well we work with vamps, how flexible we are—and then I’ll get in my car and drive to Chicago. I should be there in time for the meeting tomorrow afternoon.”
“Lenny, it’s after midnight.”
“So? I’m a satyr. I’ll be doing my diurnal thing right before dawn. And the vamps are just getting rolling.”
Just listening to his energetic voice was making her tired. Nerves and adrenalin had been holding her up. Now, after hearing her good friend’s voice for a few minutes, they were starting to fade. She yawned. “I’ll just go over my notes before the meeting, improvise and everything will be fine. You can email me anything new you can come up with and I’ll incorporate what I can.”
“Nope, I’m coming there—”
She talked right over him. “And I don’t want you to come to the meeting because Jack and Alex and Sherene know that you weren’t planning on coming. They’ll think I freaked out tonight and called you.”
“Well you did, sweetheart. Look, we’ll talk about whether I should attend the meeting tomorrow when I get there. You know how I love to drive at night and it’ll be fun. We can go shopping in all those lovely stores in the morning and get you a new suit for the meeting. I never did like that blue thing you were planning to wear. And besides, doll face, I’m worried about you.”
“I’m fine, Lenny. I just got a little overwhelmed tonight but you know how quickly I bounce back from things.”
“Yeah, from regular things. But I know how long it took you to bounce back from Alexander King. Like never. And I bet you forgot every vow you made about repulsive thoughts the moment you saw his sexy face—”
“No, no. I did do the repulsive thought thing, Len! You would have been proud. And it worked. At first…”
“I’m afraid to ask but I have to know. Did you let him bite you?”
“No.” She didn’t admit that she’d wanted to. Very, very badly.
“Honey, you need bolstering. Let me come be your pillow.”
“Okay.” Caro sighed and laughed at the same time. Her brain felt like mush. She couldn’t think about this anymore. “Maybe you’re right. You’ve always been such a good little guardian angel.”
“Get into bed and close your eyes. Don’t think about the proposal, don’t think about Alex. Just go sweetly off to sleep and when I get there, we’ll take care of everything.”
“Thanks, Lenny,” she whispered and hung up.
She tied her robe more tightly, not wanting to give up any of its warmth, and slid between the sheets of the giant bed. She closed her eyes and tried to clear her mind but as she began to slip past the layers of consciousness, she saw Alex’s green-silver eyes and heard his deep, rumbling whisper.
You’ll be mine again soon, Princess. Mine in every way.
Chapter Five
After spending the wee hours of the morning speeding across the flat, largely rural landscapes of northern Ohio and Indiana, Lenny was rather overwhelmed looking out the wall of windows just outside Stoked Corporation’s sixty-fifth-floor office suite. It was a veritable clusterfuck of businesses here in Chicago’s West Loop, and the view reinforced his wonder at how so many thousands of people could work in such close proximity and never know what in the heck the others did all day.
Now, as he stood in the lobby of Stoked’s office, he was feeling equally overwhelmed by black lacquer—and totally freaked out by Merrell, the vampire receptionist. The guy looked like a Stoked advertisement come to life—sculpted cheekbones, pouty mouth and square jaw highlighted by mocha skin and dark brown eyes that smoldered even from a distance.
And Lenny was trying very hard to keep his distance after Merrell sent somebody back into the depths of Black Lacquer Land to find Alex—because now Merrell was blasting Len with a mega-dose of those liquid chocolate eyes.
Merrell was definitely Len’s type but there was a time and a place for this type of come-on and unfortunately, 9:30 a.m. in the Stoked lobby didn’t qualify.
Len was relieved when he saw a familiar tall, dark and handsome figure heading down the hall. Because he definitely needed to get away from the multiple views of Merrell wearing those ultra-tight pants so that he could stop thinking about the multiple things he wanted to do to Merrell’s ass.
Tall, dark and handsome paused. “Lenny? Is that you?”
Lenny stopped checking out Merrell and gave his eyes over fully to Alexander King. Jee-zus…the vamp had style.
Poor Caro had really never had a chance. This guy was the unliving, heavy-breathing reason why everyone lusted afte
r vampires. Dark. Sexy. Dangerous. Sexy. Powerful. Sexy… He cut himself off as Alex strode forward to embrace him.
“Why, Alexander King! Fancy meeting you here!” Len bussed Alex on the cheek, automatically noting—and approving—his choice in cologne.
Alex grinned, still holding Len’s hand. “Lenny, you sly satyr. Caro didn’t tell me you were going to be here for the big meeting today.”
“Umm, well, that’s because we weren’t sure I was going to be free to attend. But I finished up at home more quickly than I had anticipated and was able to come out early this morning.”
“Excellent,” Alex said. Lenny tried not to preen, it was hard not to under Alex’s friendly and appreciative gaze.
“Have you seen Caro yet?” Alex’s question sounded innocent, casual. “I was wondering if she’d been able to fill you in on how things progressed last night.”
Len looked into Alex’s eyes for signs of guilt, repentance, humor. He couldn’t see a damn thing except a sexy silver gleam. Typical Alex.
“Actually, I saw Caro first thing this morning. And she did, in fact, fill me in on last evening’s activities.” Len didn’t try to mask the fact that he was pissed off about said activities, but still, he was surprised to see concern flicker through those silver-green eyes.
“Hey, do you have time for a cup of coffee?” Alex asked. “I was just headed back to check out our new temporary digs. Why don’t you join me?”
“All right. As a matter of fact there are several things I want to talk to you about. I’m here for more than just saying hello.”
“Okay, then.” Alex put a hand on Len’s back and guided him toward the hall.
Len, noticing Merrell’s quickly shuttered interest as they passed by the reception desk, indulged himself with a wink. Merrell looked away with the tiniest hint of a smile.
As Alex and Len entered the office Jack had arranged for the event planners to use, Len let out a low whistle of approval. It was a large suite with a big worktable, an accommodating seating area and plenty of tech toys.
Of course there were no windows. Stoked took good care of their vampire employees.
“Nice setup. It actually looks like some work could get done in here.”
“I’m gonna work these fingers to the bone, Len.” Alex smiled and flexed his ring-bedecked fingers.
“A novel event, I’m sure.” As somebody who’d struggled for every penny he ever earned, Len could never resist getting his digs in on his wealthy friends.
There was a soft knock on the door and a beautiful young man holding coffee mugs came into the office.
Len watched the guy set the mugs down and leave. “What is it with the employees around here?” he asked Alex. “They all look like teenage underwear models.”
Alex laughed and handed Len one of the mugs. He motioned for him to sit down.
“That’s because they probably are teenage underwear models.” Alex slouched elegantly in his chair, letting his long legs stretch out under the table. “The head of human resources has friends in all the local modeling agencies. The management likes to pick employees who are, or were, models, because they think it’s good for business. Which it probably is.”
Len shrugged. “Maybe so. But it’s weird.”
“Agreed.” Alex wrapped his fingers around his coffee mug and Len couldn’t help checking out the huge cabochon ruby adorning his middle finger, an heirloom gem any immortal would recognize as belonging to venerable royalty. And, a satyr through and through, Len had always coveted bright, shiny things. Alex wore it well. Len brought his eyes back to Alex’s face and saw those full, chiseled lips twist into a sexy, canine-flashing smile.
Len sighed silently. Sacred gems, profane mouth. Fuck-me body and a four-thousand-dollar business suit. Alex pulled it all off like a prince. He seemed more mature than he had been five years ago, more at ease with himself. And Lenny should know—his family had served Alex’s family for centuries and he was intimate with the pleasures and the burdens of being vamp royalty.
Len had been raised in Alex’s household and they’d grown up as friends and fellow rebels, both of them a trial to their conservative, traditional families. When Len had wanted to strike out on his own, Alex had slipped him the funds to start a catering business in Manhattan. Ironically, Alex had been his biggest client, the vamp prince having grown up with a fondness for lavish parties.
And it was at those parties that Len struck up a friendship with a lovely young mortal named Caroline Connery.
“So congratulations on your business.” Alex raised his mug in a toast. “And on winning a totally kick-ass account. This could mean big things for you guys, right?”
“Well, yeah. But I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little disappointed in having to split the account. It could get messy. Particularly after the way things went last night.”
“Lenny, I want to assure you that I—”
Len interrupted him, wanting to get this part of the conversation over as quickly as possible. “You know, Alex, I’ve had to scrape Caro’s remains off the floor more than once after you’ve laid waste to her. When something’s been broken again and again it becomes difficult to repair. She’s a beautiful person. She deserves better than you.” He took a sip of coffee and cleared his throat. “In other words, don’t fuck with her or I will be forced to hire someone to twist your balls off.”
Alex laughed, the low rumble a mixture of appreciation and acknowledgment. “You’re a great friend to Caro. And I certainly approve of your, um, rather forthright defense of her. You probably won’t believe me but I feel sorry if Caro was hurt by what happened last night. I should have kept everything strictly business.”
Len looked at Alex in silence for a moment and then said, “What, no speech about how we’re all sexual animals and Caro and Jack and your girlfriend were just as hot as you were and all’s fair in games between consenting adults and whatnot?”
Alex’s features creased into a grimace as he shifted in his chair. “God, Lenny. Do me a favor and don’t remind of all the drivel I used to dish out.”
Len lifted an eyebrow in genuine surprise. “Why, Alex! Do I sense remorse for past dirty deeds?”
Alex’s lips quirked into a cocky half-grin. “Not for all of them. Just some of them.”
“Okay. But I don’t want to give you the wrong idea about what Caro told me last night. She hasn’t really discussed her personal feelings about you. With me. If you want that information you’ll have to ask her.” Len cleared his throat again. Man, he should shut up. He was always talking too much in these situations. “What I’m trying to say is, don’t tell her about this conversation.”
“I wouldn’t dream of it,” said Alex. “But I’m hoping you won’t feel like you’re betraying any confidences by telling me your honest opinion of how she’s doing in general…like how things have been going for her emotionally. I was really sad to hear about her grandma passing away.”
“Yeah, it was really rough. But she’s doing a little better now. And it was good that she was living with her these last few years. I’m sure it would have been much worse if she’d been in New York when it happened.”
“That’s one good thing, I guess. It may sound like complete bullshit coming from me, but I really want the very best for her. I know she’ll forever regret the bond between us…and someday we’ll have to come to terms with it, but for now I’m doing my best to abide by her wishes.”
Lenny watched Alex’s eyes for any telltale flickers of vamp malarkey. There weren’t any. Too bad he didn’t have something to record this conversation with—he could use Alex’s radical and very unprincely admission to make a princely sum in certain circles interested in preserving vamp traditions. But he’d never betray his friend like that.
Len wondered if Alex realized the extent of displeasure his relationship with Caro caused the royal community. Hmm. No time like the present to ask. “Did you know Lyra Murdoch has been rattling some chains at the Immortal Council?�
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Lyra was the vampire CEO of VampedUp, Stoked’s chief competition for the immortal cosmetics market. Lenny had learned that VampedUp was definitely pissed about Stoked’s multi-persuasion marketing plans.
“No. But it doesn’t surprise me.” Alex spread his fingers on the smooth surface of the table. “Lyra’s a bitch.”
“She’s your cousin, right? Some kind of countess?”
“Yeah, but I prefer not to think about us sharing blood. In any way.”
“She’s a scary one all right.” Len shuddered. “And she seems particularly upset this time. The reason I bring it up is because she’s upset about you and your company’s willingness to do business with Stoked.”
“Let her rattle her kinky chains all she wants.” Alex’s shoulders shifted. “I could give a devil’s damn about the Immortal Council. They weren’t there for me when I needed their help with Caro…why should I listen to anything they have to say about my business?”
“Um, maybe because they could put a stop to all mortal and immortal business partnerships? I know the Council might not strike fear in your big bad vamp heart, but they seem to send mortals into paroxysms of terror. And mortals are a big part of the Party Mavens client base.”
“If Lyra makes trouble for you, or any of my friends or business associates, I will take care of her. With gusto.” Silver streaks lit up Alex’s eyes.
Lenny, familiar with the dangerous expression on Alex’s face, believed him implicitly. He cleared his throat. “I should also tell you then that Lyra is here in Chicago. Some friends heard she’s been throwing private parties at a new club. I was thinking about crashing one, but thought it might be good to acquire some…backup.”
“Consider yourself backed up.” Alex’s smile was downright scary.
“Okay then.” Lenny nodded and stood up, suddenly anxious to leave.
“So will you be attending the meeting with the Stoked execs, or will it be just Caro?”
“Oh, it all depends on if I can find something suitable to wear.”
Alex laughed as Len sashayed out the door.
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