Christian (Vampires in America: The Vampire Wars Book 10) (10 page)

She shut down her files and snapped her laptop shut. Standing, she ran a nervous hand through her hair, smoothed her skirt, and pulled on her jacket, then slipped her glasses into her pocket and the computer under her arm. She knew she was developing a real paranoia about her work when she wasn’t even willing to leave the laptop while she walked to the other end of the house. But she couldn’t bring herself to leave it. And besides, she might need the information on it when she talked with Jaclyn.

She walked out to where MariAnn was searching beauty product sites on the Internet, and said, “I’ll be in Jaclyn’s office. I’m not sure how long. She has some questions.”

“Okay,” the receptionist said, without glancing up.

Jaclyn’s office was as far away from Anthony’s as you could get, while remaining in the same building. Anthony’s offices on the second floor overlooked the front of the property, and were to the left of the main doors.

Jaclyn’s offices were in the opposite corner, overlooking the back of the house, and separated from the main stairway by an intervening hallway. Her offices had been bedrooms originally, but no one slept aboveground anymore.

Natalie checked her phone as she walked, tempted to call Christian again. “Right, like he didn’t get the first message, or the two hang-ups after that,” she muttered to herself. One of Anthony’s guards walked past, and smiled. Maybe he was just being friendly, but she suspected he was amused by her muttering. That was okay. Let them think she was nothing but an absent-minded number-cruncher.

She swung down the back hallway, and pushed open the door to Jaclyn’s office. Her human assistant, Lisa, was typing away—no Internet surfing for her. And Cibor was lingering in an open doorway down the hall, talking to someone Nat couldn’t see. She waved her fingers hello, then gave a questioning look in the direction of the closed conference room door. Cibor did that chin lift thing that guys did, the one that could mean all sorts of things, but in this case meant, “
Why, yes, Natalie, go on in.
” Becoming a vampire didn’t change everything.

Natalie opened the conference room door and froze in her tracks, overwhelmed by dueling emotions. On the one hand, she was so relieved to find Christian sitting there, looking perfectly healthy in black jeans and a sweater, that she drew what felt like her first full breath of the night. On the other hand . . . why the fuck couldn’t he have called her if he was sitting in the same damn building?

Christian was on his feet and in front of her before she could say a word, his eyes searching her face, probably seeing the dark circles and the frazzled hair. If his expression was anything to go by, he wasn’t liking what he was seeing. He cupped her cheek in one big hand, his fingers spearing back into her hair, as he stepped even closer. “Are you in trouble,
chére?”

Natalie shook her head, horrified to discover her eyes filling with tears of relief that he was alive. But Christian took them the wrong way.

“
Merde!”
Christian cursed. “I knew I should have called sooner.” Putting his arm around her, he guided her over to a chair, as if afraid she’d lose her way, or maybe fall over, if he left her on her own.

“I’m fine,” she said, completely embarrassed. She didn’t cry, she didn’t faint, and she sure as hell didn’t break down like a hormonal teenager because a handsome boy gave her a soulful look. “Really,” she insisted. “I just didn’t sleep well, and—”

“Why not?” he asked, turning to take a bottle of water from Jaclyn. He held the cold bottle against her neck briefly, then twisted the cap off and handed her the bottle, wrapping her fingers around it next to his, and urging her to take a drink.

“Stop.” She took a small sip, then put the water on the table. “Thank you, but stop treating me like an invalid. I’m fine,” she added firmly, speaking to Jaclyn, who was standing behind Christian with a worried look on her face.

“Tell me why you didn’t sleep,” Christian demanded, his handsome face going all macho badass, as if he could compel her to answer by force of personality.

“I called you,” Natalie said accusingly, avoiding the question by turning it back on him.

“You two know each other?” Jaclyn asked.

“We met yesterday,” Christian replied without looking, and gave Natalie a hard stare. “I should have called,” he conceded. “I was going to stop by your office on my way out of here.”

“I told you we needed to meet somewhere else. It’s not safe here.”

“Not safe?” Jaclyn repeated. “Natalie, what—”

“What did you see?” Christian asked, narrowing in on her concerns with remarkable clarity.

“What did she see? See when?” Jaclyn insisted, her voice betraying more than a little impatience at being kept out of the loop.

“I saw Noriega waiting for you,” Natalie blurted out. “And I saw—” She sucked in a breath, staring at Christian, wondering if she should admit everything, even to him.

“You saw me kill him.” Christian was whispering, but she could tell by Jaclyn’s sucked-in breath that she’d heard.

“But that’s good news,” Jaclyn said excitedly. “She can tell the Council—”

“She tells the Council nothing,” Christian snarled, standing and spinning to face Jaclyn, putting himself in front of Natalie.

“But her testimony—”

“Would paint a target on her back. I’ll take care of Anthony, and whatever idiot he sends next. Natalie stays out of it.”

Jaclyn gave him an appraising look, a smile playing around her lips. “It’s your decision. But, you understand that Raphael will be told the truth.”

Christian didn’t look happy about that, but he nodded once, sharply. “I understand.”

“Well, I don’t,” Natalie snapped, jumping up from her seat. “Anthony lied about what happened, and there’s—”

Christian spun to face her again, the clear warning on his face enough to cut her off. Either he was being an ass and refusing to discuss it, or he didn’t want to talk about it in front of Jaclyn. She decided to play along for now, but he was going to have to tone down the alpha male crap if they were going to get along.
Which apparently we are
, she thought resignedly.

He grinned as if he knew what she was thinking. “Jaclyn tells me you know a good dojo,” he said, taking her hand. “Let’s go get coffee. We can talk about it.”

Natalie blinked at the sudden change of subject. A second blink and they were out of the conference room and on their way down the back hallway with Christian on one side, and Marc on the other.

“Let me carry that for you,” Marc said, sliding the laptop from beneath her arm. She didn’t even remember picking it up. Or maybe she’d never set it down. Natalie went to grab it back from Marc, but Christian touched her arm with a grin.

“My lieutenant is perfectly trustworthy.”

“I’m sorry,” she muttered, blushing hotly. “I’m becoming paranoid.”

“Paranoia is a survival instinct. You should listen to it.”

“But not in this case,” she noted dryly.

Christian chuckled. “No.”

They didn’t go for the main staircase, but hurried down the back stairs instead. Marc took the last several steps quickly, pausing to check the window in the door before opening it slowly and looking around. He nodded to Christian, and the three of them hustled out to a big, black BMW sedan as Marc beeped the locks open.

Christian slid into the back with Natalie, while Marc slid behind the wheel. He passed the laptop over the seat to Christian, then turned the key and accelerated smoothly out from behind the big house.

The guards barely glanced at them when they passed through the gate, far more concerned with who was coming
in,
rather than going out. And before long, they were speeding back toward the city.

“Where are we going?” Marc asked, meeting Christian’s gaze in the mirror.

“The house,” Christian said, raising an eyebrow in her direction, when she shot him a questioning look. “You wanted coffee. We have excellent coffee. And something you won’t find elsewhere. Complete privacy.”

Natalie swallowed, her throat suddenly dry. Privacy? With Christian? She could imagine all sorts of ways
that
wasn’t a good idea. “You have a house?” she asked weakly.

“We have to stay somewhere, and as you saw for yourself, it’s not exactly safe for us on the estate.”

She nodded. “Okay. But just for coffee. My car is—”

“We’ll get you back to your car,” Christian said, settling back in his seat. “Now tell me why Jaclyn says you know a good dojo.”

“ARE YOU LISTENING at all?” Natalie asked irritably. They’d been on the road a little while, heading for the house he and Marc called home. Natalie had been telling him about the dojo she frequented, and her eyes were now flashing with an anger that made Christian smile. He much preferred her anger to the fear that had been clouding her face earlier, and the tears had nearly undone him, no matter that she tried to hide them.

He had a weakness for women, a need to protect them. Though he’d learned the hard lesson that not all women were worthy of protection. Especially not in the world of vampires.

It was his father’s fault, Christian considered. His father had taught him to always look after his mother and sisters. Christian had understood the admonishment when it came to his mother; she was his
mother,
after all. But his sisters had been older than he was by several years, and had seemed to devote most of their energy to tormenting him. That fact had brought him to the reluctant conclusion that he was supposed to protect all women, regardless of their disposition.

But his feelings for Natalie went beyond that. When she’d walked into the room tonight, every cell in his body had been screaming at him to go to her, that she was
his
to protect. He’d acted without thought—the need to touch her had overwhelmed everything else in that moment.

He’d never had a reaction like that to any woman before, and wasn’t sure what it meant. Did he want Natalie in his bed? Hell, yes. Hearing her sexy voice cry his name as she shattered around his cock would be reason enough. But did she have the potential to be more to him? He frowned, not knowing the answer to that question. Or maybe not liking the answer that kept trying to push its way past his doubts.

“Are you really interested in this?”

His attention snapped to Natalie’s narrowed gaze. He was interested, but he hadn’t been listening. He wasn’t going to tell her
that
.

“Of course,” he lied smoothly. “What can you tell me about the dojo master?” Whoops. Her eyes narrowed even further. Had she already told him about that?

“Other than the fact that he’s my best friend?” she said pointedly.

“Of course. Friendship is all well and good, but where did he get his training?”

“Maybe you should meet him instead. Him having a penis and all, you’ll probably listen better.”

Marc’s bark of laughter told Christian everything he needed to know about what he’d missed.

“My apologies,
chére.
I admit to a certain distraction this evening. I’m puzzled by Anthony’s hostility. I never met him before yesterday, so I don’t know where it comes from. And I can’t help wondering what he hopes to gain from it.”

Natalie’s expression lost its anger, becoming thoughtful as she considered what he’d said. “I don’t know that much about vampires,” she said. “I mean, yeah, I’ve been working for Anthony for almost two years now, but I haven’t had that much interaction with anyone outside his office. Except for Jaclyn, but she’s different.”

Christian tilted his head curiously. “Different?”

“More . . . human.”

His smile broadened into a grin. “Jaclyn is both powerful and well-connected. She’s probably more deadly than most of the vampires on the estate, not to mention the vampires on her own staff, and
their
job is to protect her. You’re making assumptions because she’s female. That’s sexist.”

“Oh, that’s rich coming from you.”

“For the record, I find most women generally more interesting than men. I was distracted earlier, but it had nothing to do with your lack of a penis. I’m actually delighted you don’t have one.”

“How do you know?” she demanded, then immediately blushed so fiercely that he could feel the heat from her skin. “Okay, forget I said that. You bring out the worst in me.”

Christian inched closer until his lips were against her ear. “I like it when you lose control, when the schoolmarm glasses come off, and the real you comes out to play.”

“That’s not the real me,” she muttered. “The real me is the one who sits in front of a computer all day, wearing those glasses, and following boring numbers from place to place.”

Christian didn’t believe that. The tidy accountant was the woman she’d been raised to be—a proper, Southern woman. But the real Natalie was the one whose heart had been in her eyes when he’d touched her earlier, who’d been frantic to warn him about Anthony, even though they’d barely exchanged ten words before that. The Natalie who held a black belt in judo. And, yes, he
had
been listening when she’d talked about the dojo earlier. It had simply taken his brain a minute to catch up with everything he’d heard.

“The real you is many things, Natalie, but none of them is boring.”

“I don’t know what—” she started to whisper, then turned to look out the window as they pulled into the driveway of a large ranch-style house. “Is this where you live?”

The garage door opened, and Marc drove inside, hitting the visor button to close the door behind them.

“For the time being,” Christian told her. “Once I’m Lord of the South, we’ll need something bigger.” He opened the door and slid out of the car, holding a hand out for her to exit on his side. He saw the indecision in her eyes, the urge to open her own door, to put distance between them. He didn’t say anything to persuade her either way. But he knew a fierce satisfaction when her slender fingers gripped his, and she emerged from the car to stand so close that their bodies were nearly touching.

She seemed startled by that closeness, as if she’d expected him to step back. Her gaze snapped up to meet his eyes, then traveled down to linger at his mouth, her tongue coming out to lick her lips. His cock grew heavy, and he nearly groaned out loud. Could she be that innocent? Did she truly not know the effect she had on him?