by Lynsay Sands
“How do you handle her when she has that look?” Vincent asked with amusement.
“Place a coffee and a muffin in front of her and keep my mouth shut until she’s either got some more rest, or woken up properly and made her way past it,” he said with a shrug. “Which is exactly what I did, and then I told her you’d left her a note in the office and she went to the office.”
Tiny took a sip of his coffee before telling him, “Jackie was on the phone most of the morning. We had lunch and then she settled on the couch in the office this afternoon to go through the last of the letters, but when I went in to see if she needed any help, she’d fallen asleep there. She looked like she needed it, so I turned out the light and left her sleeping. Besides, it isn’t like we’re working normal hours here, is it? I didn’t see any reason to disturb her.”
Vincent nodded. His own hours alone insured they worked past a normal workday. He had no problem with Jackie sleeping, it just surprised him that she was.
“I’ll wake her up once you’re done with your muffin and are ready to go,” Tiny announced. “The three of us are supposed to go to your production company today.”
Vincent popped the last of his muffin into his mouth and stood. “I’ll go shower and get dressed, then have another muffin afterward while you wake her.”
Leaving the kitchen, Vincent headed for the stairs, but found himself veering off toward the office at the last moment. He just had to see for himself that the so businesslike Ms. Morrisey was snoozing in the middle of the day.
Reaching the office, he eased the door open and slid inside, then pushed it silently closed again even as his eyes sought out the couch. The curtains were all closed, blocking out the midday sun. It left the room in darkness, but Vincent had the exceptional night vision his kind enjoyed and had no problem crossing the dark room without bumping into anything.
At the side of the couch, he paused and peered down on Jackie’s sleeping figure. She was wearing another dark outfit though he couldn’t tell what color it was in this light, but the blouse she wore appeared to him to be white. His eyes traveled over her again and he almost sighed aloud. No one should look this sexy in sleep.
Jackie’s face was soft in slumber, her defenses down. She was positioned on her back, one arm above her head, the other lying out to the side and hanging off the couch. Her blouse was pulled tight across her breasts in this position and had allowed one more button than usual to slip through its button hole, leaving a generous expanse of creamy flesh on display. He could even see the lace of her bra peeking up from under the silk of her blouse. It was a sight to put ideas in a man’s head and Vincent found himself wondering what it would be like to run his tongue along the line of that lace and dip it between the generous curves of her breasts. He could imagine how soft and warm her skin would be if he tugged her top open and slid the lace down so that he could replace it with his hands. She would be full and ripe in his palms, the nipples hard little pebbles, eager for him to lick and suckle.
Jackie sighed and shifted in her sleep and Vincent forced his gaze away from that tempting area to let his eyes move further down her body. One of her legs was lying straight out along the couch, the other was half-bent at the knee and her skirt was twisted enticingly high around her thighs, revealing the tops of her stockings and more creamy white flesh above them.
Vincent swallowed thickly, fascinated by the sight. He had a sudden urge to drop to his knees and bend forward to run his tongue across the smooth skin along the top of her stocking. He could almost taste her salty flesh on his tongue and imagine the ripple that would go through her muscles were he to urge her legs apart and run his tongue further up her thigh…
Before he’d grown bored with sex, Vincent used to like to feed on the vein in the thighs of his women. He’d like to now. He’d like to kiss and caress Jackie. He’d like to drop to push her skirt up over her hips and duck his head between her legs. He’d enjoy pleasuring her as the blood sang in the veins next to his ears, rushing toward the spot he was lavishing with attention. Then, as she cried out with her pleasure, he’d turn his head and sink his teeth deep, plunging them into the vein and pouring his pleasure into her mind even as he took from her.
Jackie cried out and arched on the couch and Vincent blinked his fantasies away to peer down at her. Her breath was coming in little excited pants, her chest rising and falling quickly, her hands now curled into the cloth of the couch. More than that though, her legs were spread as if he had indeed knelt between them, urging them apart, and her body was bowing in sleep as if he was really doing the things he’d imagined.
Vincent blinked in surprise and began to back away from the couch as her breathing began to slow and her body to relax. He knew exactly what had happened. Damn. Her mind had been open in sleep and his thoughts had somehow slipped through into her dream world. She’d experienced it all as if he’d actually done it. Hell, his own body had reacted as if it had really happened. He had the mother of all erections poking his pajama bottoms out like a tent. It was a state he hadn’t enjoyed for a very long time. All of it was something he’d never experienced before. He’d put thoughts and memories in people’s minds of course, but never without intending to, never connecting to them in their sleep.
A little bewildered and befuddled, Vincent slipped from the room and headed upstairs. His shower would be a cold one, he decided.
“I don’t think Tiny’s too pleased to be left behind.”
Jackie glanced at Vincent and then followed his gaze out the window as she started the rental car. Tiny stood framed in the light spilling out of the front door of Vincent’s house in the growing dusk. With the light coming from behind, his face was cast in shadow and it was impossible to see his expression, but Jackie didn’t have to see it to know what it was. His stiff stance in the doorway told her he was unhappy.
Shaking her head, she shifted the car into gear and steered up the driveway. “Yes, I know, and at first I planned on his coming, but then I realized Sharon and Lily had already been told he was your housekeeper. There’s no reason you would bring your housekeeper to the office at the production agency. Your production assistant? Yes. Marguerite? Her too. But not your cook.”
“I realize that,” Vincent acknowledged. “I think he does too, but he’s still not happy with it.”
“Tiny’s a worrier,” she said with a shrug. “He’ll worry until we get back. He always does.”
“He cares about you,” Marguerite commented from the backseat.
“Yes.” Jackie smiled faintly as she brought the car to a halt to wait while the security gates at the roadside opened. She and Tiny had been partners for a long time and were good friends. More than that, he was the closest thing to family she had since her father’s death.
Vincent shifted in the seat next to her and Jackie glanced over to see him looking relaxed and at ease in the passenger seat. She let her gaze wander over him briefly, then—recalling that Marguerite was behind her and could see her checking out her nephew—she turned her attention forward again as the gates to his driveway finished opening.
A small silence folded around the three of them as she pulled out onto the street and Jackie was content to let it be as she drove.
As she’d expected, Vincent and Marguerite had not found anything missing or out of place in the house during their search last night. Vincent had left her a note to that effect on the desk in his office so she wouldn’t be left to wonder until he awoke. In truth, Jackie had forgotten all about the search until she’d read the note. She’d had trouble getting to sleep the night before. Her mind had been busy going over everything that had been said and done since she’d met Vincent Argeneau. And not for business purposes. Now that she’d acknowledged he was nice and not like Cassius, her defenses had been badly weakened. She couldn’t seem to think of much besides the man and how handsome he was.
In the end, Jackie had only managed a bare four hours of rest before her alarm had gone off this morning. Feeling l
ike death, she’d stumbled to the bathroom and tried to shower herself awake.
Much to Jackie’s irritation, when she’d finally made her way downstairs it was to find Tiny in the kitchen, wide awake and cheerful as hell as he’d placed a cup of coffee and muffin on the table in front of her. She’d gulped the coffee, but passed on the muffin. Jackie always felt slightly nauseous when she hadn’t had enough sleep and this morning had been no exception.
Tiny—recognizing the rings under her eyes and used to her moods when she hadn’t slept enough—had kept conversation to a minimum, merely telling her there was a note for her in the office. Grunting what she considered to be a thank you, Jackie had poured herself another coffee and wandered off to the office to find the note.
She hadn’t been surprised that the search had proven that nothing else in the house had been disturbed or taken last night. It was what she’d expected. The list of employees had been the target then…or had become the target when their saboteur had seen it lying there. It made her eager to get to the production office and get her hands on another copy of it. Unfortunately, she’d had to wait for Vincent to wake up to do that.
Jackie had spent part of the morning on the phone with the office in New York, getting updates on the cases underway there, then had settled on the couch with some paperwork and promptly fallen asleep. If falling asleep on the job weren’t bad enough, she’d then proceeded to have wet dreams about Vincent Argeneau. Just recalling them was enough to make her flesh tingle.
“So what excuse do I give everyone for coming into the office today?”
Vincent’s question drew Jackie’s thoughts from her heated memories of the passionate dream she’d enjoyed that afternoon. Remonstrating with herself to keep her thoughts on the job at hand, she glanced his way as she parked the car in the lot of the large white building that housed V.A. Productions.
“What do you mean what excuse do you give?” she asked with surprise. “It’s your company. Surely you come here?”
“Well, yes,” he said, managing to sound doubtful. “But why am I bringing you and Marguerite here?”
“I’m your personal assistant and you want to familiarize me with all aspects of your business,” Jackie answered promptly, reminding him of her own cover in this case. “And Marguerite asked to come along because she’s never seen your company.” She met the woman’s eyes in the rearview mirror. “You haven’t, have you?”
“No,” Marguerite assured her. “This will be my first visit.”
“Good,” Jackie opened her car door and got out, then walked around the car to meet Vincent and his aunt as they disembarked on the other side. They walked in together, Vincent between the two women.
Jackie had known that Vincent had money. That had been obvious from his house: big, beautiful and expensively decorated, it was also on some prime real estate. Everyone wanted to live on the water out here. Still, she supposed she’d just assumed that he was your average level of wealthy and had, perhaps, purchased his home years ago, when the land was worth less. Three steps inside the doors of the big white building that housed his production company, however, told her that the man wasn’t just wealthy, he was loaded.
Jackie had expected the building to house several other companies aside from his own. It didn’t. The entire building housed V.A. Productions and nothing else. The entry led into a large lobby with two receptionists and an armed guard. All three were mortal, she saw, glancing from face to face and noting their eyes. And all three glanced toward them with polite enquiry when Vincent ushered the women through the front door. Their expressions were quick to change to shock, however, as they recognized the V.A. in V.A. Productions. The shock was still on their faces as he led Jackie and Marguerite past the desk and into the elevator.
“Why do I get the feeling that you don’t come here often?” Jackie asked dryly as Vincent pushed the button for the top floor and the elevator doors closed on the three stunned faces.
“They recognized me, didn’t they?” Vincent said with a shrug.
Jackie lifted an eyebrow at the comment, but Vincent didn’t notice. His attention was fixed on the elevator panel over the doors, watching the floors light up as he added, “Besides, I’ve never been here this early and the guards are on a different shift than our other workers. They switch shifts at seven P.M. rather than six like the rest of the building. Security suggested it so that they wouldn’t be changing guards as everyone was arriving or leaving.”
“Smart,” Jackie commented with approval, then forgot all about it as the elevator gave a ding and the doors began to open.
This was obviously the executive floor, she saw as they stepped out into a world of plush carpet and muted music.
Another reception desk awaited them here, this one also sporting two receptionists and an armed male guard. As in the entry, the receptionists were both a male and a female and both were human.
And, as with the ones below, these three people looked shocked to see Vincent Argeneau entering, but none of them did more than nod in greeting as he passed.
Jackie waited until they were started down a long hallway before moving closer to Vincent to ask, “Are your night security here human as well?”
“No. Immortal,” Vincent assured her.
“I’m surprised immortals would take the position,” Jackie commented. Among humans, security guards were among the least respected and lowest paying jobs. She didn’t understand why, herself. After all, security were basically on the front line should anything happen. They were also responsible for the safety and security of everyone in the building, but still the job was considered the lowest of the low. And, in her experience, immortals were far too arrogant to take on what was considered to be no better than a grunt job by most people.
“We pay well,” Vincent explained. “Still, the position is usually filled with the young borns and the newly turned.”
Jackie nodded absently, but asked, “So you have three shifts for security, seven P.M. to three A.M., three A.M. to eleven A.M., and eleven A.M. to seven P.M., right?”
“Yes.”
“And the guards are human from eleven A.M. to seven P.M., but immortal from seven P.M. to three A.M. What about the three A.M. to eleven A.M. shift?”
“Human.”
Jackie nodded. She’d expected as much. “We’ll need to talk to your security chief. They need to change things.”
“Why?” Vincent asked with surprise.
“Because while it’s smart to stagger the shifts so that security isn’t changing while the other workers are, the shifts need to be rearranged,” Jackie murmured, working it through quickly in her head. “The security shifts need to change an hour before the others rather than an hour after. The three shifts should be five P.M. to one A.M., one A.M. to nine A.M. and nine A.M. to five P.M. And you need to put immortals on both the five P.M. to one A.M. shift and the one A.M. to nine A.M. shift, or split up the groups so that each has an immortal and a human on it. The way it stands, an immortal would have no trouble slipping in before the seven P.M. to three A.M. immortal shift starts and any time after it ends.”
“You’re right,” Vincent said with a sigh. “We’ve never really been concerned about immortals breaking in here. The security is to keep mortal thieves out, or to handle upset mortals who didn’t get roles or jobs and keep them from causing trouble, not to defend against immortals. There’s never been a reason to fear immortals causing trouble.”
“There is now,” Jackie pointed out.
“Yes,” he acknowledged with a small sigh that spoke of his unhappiness with the knowledge that his saboteur was one of his own. Jackie cast him a sympathetic glance, but didn’t say anything as he suddenly took both her arm and Marguerite’s to turn them into the last door at the end of the hall.
“Vincent!” Sharon nearly leapt out of her seat as they entered what was obviously her office. You would have thought the woman had been shocked with a cattle prod, she got up so swiftly.
“Hi
Sharon. You remember Jackie. And this is my aunt, Marguerite Argeneau,” Vincent greeted as he paused before the woman’s desk.
“Oh, Mrs. Argeneau, hello,” Sharon gushed, hurrying around the desk to offer her hand. Jackie couldn’t help noticing that her presence was completely ignored.
Vincent seemed to notice too, however. At least, she thought the tightening around his mouth might be because of the rude exclusion of her presence. He didn’t comment, but he did immediately begin to herd her and Marguerite toward the inner door and away from the woman’s fawning over his aunt.
“Is there any coffee around here?” he asked as he walked and then added pointedly. “Jackie might like a coffee. So would I. What about you, Aunt Marguerite?”
“No, thank you,” Marguerite murmured as he ushered them into his office.
Sharon wasn’t given time to respond to his comments as by the time he’d finished making them, Vincent was closing the door to the office.
Jackie glanced around the large, luxurious office as she and Marguerite followed him to the desk. Pausing in front of the two chairs before his desk, she then turned slowly, her gaze drifting over everything in the room. All she could think as she took in the huge marble desk and opulent décor of the room was that the man had expensive taste. Or perhaps it was his decorator who did, Jackie decided as she took in the stark black and white interior. The office was nothing like his home, where the neutral base colors were all offset by colorful accessories such as throw rugs, pillows, candles, and paintings in rich, vibrant colors.
“I take it you really don’t come in here often?” Jackie asked with amusement as Vincent walked around the desk to drop into the chair behind it.
“What makes you think that?” he asked, expression wary.
“Oh, I don’t know,” she said with amusement. “Perhaps it’s everyone’s apparent shock at your being here now…and the dust on your desktop,” Jackie added to prevent his coming out with the “I’ve never been here this early,” comment again.