Luscious Craving (10 page)

“No—but
it’s
fun.”

“How much fun?
Is he good in bed?”

“What makes you think I’ve slept with him?”

She gave a snort. “Give me a break, Steele,” she said. “You’ve got that big-O look in your eyes. But do you think you can give me one night on the town?”

“Absolutely,” I said. “What else are friends for?”

“Outstanding,”
Bibi
said. She leaned forward, gave me a hug. “Let’s both go home, get fancied up. Meet me in front of the
Bellagio
in about an hour. Then we can decide where we want to go.”

All of a sudden, she grinned, her eyes dancing wickedly. “You know, I might just go pick up my things from
Randolph
’s penthouse. Katherine usually stays out at the lake house, but you never know…I would hate for her to think the diamond bracelet
Randolph
bought me to soften the blow was hers.”

“You are one mean and avaricious bitch,
Bibi
,” I said, delighted when she crowed with laughter.

“Oh, honey. You know it.”
Bibi
hoisted her soda. I raised one of the votive candles lining the bar. We
clinked
them together.

“To moving on,”
Bibi
declared.

Now there was an outstanding sentiment if ever I heard one.

“To moving on.”

Six

I met
Bibi
an hour later by the lagoon in front of the
Bellagio
. The wall along the lagoon’s edge was crowded with tourists watching the spectacular fountains spurt water in the air in time with music. I knew when
Bibi
was approaching. Male heads snapped around as if she had them all on a leash. Her turquoise leather skirt was so short there was at least a mile of legs between the hem and her rhinestone Jimmy
Choos
. A leather jacket of the same color was open to reveal a lacy top and a black silk scarf edged with fringe.

“You look great!” she said as she gave me a hug. “Where did you get those jeans? They’re fabulous!”

I looked down at the jeans that had cost me a month’s tips. The right leg was plain denim, but the left leg had been slit up the side. Black lace had been sewn in to reveal a hint of leg from ankle to hip. I was wearing a lacy black camisole and a cashmere shrug that tied over my breasts. My hair was up and my silver stakes at the ready, though I was hoping I wouldn’t need them tonight.

“So where to?”
I asked.

Before
Bibi
could answer, a shadow moved behind her, and I heard a deep voice ask, “Are you ready to go?”

Bibi
gave me an apologetic smile then turned to a guy dressed in jeans, black T-shirt, and black jacket. He had that dark, steamy, Mediterranean look that makes some women melt. I’m not one of them.

“I don’t know if you two have ever run in to each other,”
Bibi
went on brightly. “Candace, this is Theo. Theo, my friend, Candace. Theo’s dancing in the New Year’s Eve show. Candace is…”

“All over the place,” I said. “I work the floor.”

“Nice to meet you,” Theo said, eyeing me with a broadening smile. “Sorry I didn’t recognize you without the harem outfit.”

“That’s all right,” I said pleasantly. “I didn’t recognize you at all.”

“Theo’s been telling me about a new club off the Strip he went to last week. He’s offered to take us there.”

Theo lifted
Bibi’s
hand and kissed it with a suave European flair. “I can take you wherever you want to go.”

“Come on, Candace. Theo says this place is where the action is
really
happening. It’s called Taste.”

“Taste?”
I repeated even as I thought,
Uh-oh
.

Uh-oh
turned out to be right on the money. Taste was dimly lit, filled to the brim with high fashion and loud music.
People dancing and drinking and reveling in the thrill of hard bodies in close contact.

It was also filled with vampires.

The second the bouncer let us through the velvet rope, I felt my body temperature plummeting toward absolute zero. The trouble was, there were so many vamps I couldn’t figure out who might pose a true danger and who might not. My vampire-detection system had shot from zero to a hundred in less than sixty seconds. One thing was for certain, I did
not
want to be here, and I didn’t want
Bibi
here, either.

Bibi
and Theo had already hit the bar. Each was holding a cocktail. I grabbed
Bibi
by the elbow. “Wrong place, wrong time,” I said. “Let’s go get some Mexican food. I’m craving quesadillas now.”

She yanked away. “What is the matter with you tonight?” She pouted. “I thought you were on my side. That you were going to help me have fun.” She downed this drink as rapidly as she had her first, then turned to Theo. “I’ll bet Theo will help me, won’t you?” she asked. “You’ll help me have fun.”

By way of answer, he set his drink down on the bar and pulled
Bibi
out onto the packed dance floor.

Shit, shit, shit
, I thought. Now all I could do was
wait
. I was not about to leave
Bibi
at a place like Taste all on her own. The worst part was
,
I felt partly to blame. The simple truth was that I had let myself step away from the vampire scene in the last six months since Ash had walked out. Wounded by our most recent encounter, not to mention my run-in with ultra-strong vampire Temptation McCoy, I had been more than willing to give the vampires of Vegas a wide berth. If I had kept more current, I might have known the sort of place Taste was ahead of time.

At least I could check it out now. The place really was spectacular. The walls were suede, a dove gray color that shimmered as clever lighting effects projected colors on the surface. The dance floor was small and intimate, but in reality the club was huge, with a honeycomb of lounges and private spaces. With
Bibi
and Theo occupied for the moment, I decided to explore, edging my way around the dance floor. The lounges that ringed it had deep banquettes with sides high enough to give the patrons enough privacy to do whatever they had in mind.

I saw a man approach. He was dressed in expensive but casual clothes and walked with such an imperious air that I was surprised when he asked if he could take my drink order. I declined and turned another corner to face a three-story waterfall that cascaded into a pool filled with floating candles. I couldn’t understand how the candles stayed lit until I realized that the fountain was actually contained within a glass column. Another turn brought me to a room that was totally dark except for a light on the far wall that illuminated a huge red velvet mouth. The mouth was actually a door that led to another dark room, but I had seen enough. Gorgeous and unusual as it was, the longer I spent in Taste, the colder I got.

I turned around, trying to retrace my steps, but the mazelike rooms, the darkness, and the pounding music were disorienting. Each room I passed through looked just like the one before it. And each one sent a shiver through my body. There were so many vampires here, my senses were on overload. I managed to lurch back to the main room where the dance floor was, but there was no comfort there. The music was louder, the dance floor was teeming with dancers. I was getting dizzy now. With all these bodies crammed together I had no idea who was human, and who was a vampire.

Find
Bibi
and get out now
, I commanded myself.

Then, all of a sudden, Theo was there. Over his shoulder, I could see
Bibi
, out on the dance floor. Dancing with abandon, her body gyrating, hands over her head. Even in that packed space, the other dancers had fallen back a little, to give her room to move.

They’re watching her
, I thought. I might not be able to tell the humans from the vamps, but I was dead certain the vampires did not have the same problem.

“What’s the matter, Candace?” Theo asked, moving his body closer to mine. “Don’t you like to dance?”

“
Bibi
and I have a deal when we go out together. We always keep each other in sight.” Kind of a lame answer, but it happened to be the truth. It also happened to be true that
Bibi
wasn’t abiding by the rule.

“
Bibi’s
just fine,” Theo commented. He laughed, and the sound grated in my ears. “Just look at her. She’s having the time of her life.” He pulled me out onto the dance floor and began to move his hips against mine. “Surely you don’t want her to have all the fun.”

I don’t want her to have any fun at all in a place like this
, I thought. But being on the dance floor did get me closer to her. I let my hips begin to move in time to Theo’s and felt his hand move down my back to cup my ass. He urged me toward him, sliding one hip against my crotch,
then
turned me so that my back was against his chest. He wrapped his arms tightly around my waist, his hands sliding down my belly. I pushed my hair out of my eyes and came face-to-face with…myself.

Dancing right across from me was a woman with wild and curly dark brown hair the same length as mine. She had a tight, athletic build. The dress slicking down her body, hugging her every curve, almost an exact match of one I had in my own closet.
A vibrant bronze silk that clung close and plunged low.
She smiled, showing gorgeous white teeth, ran her tongue along the bottom of them in a slow, seductive gesture. And in that moment, beyond a shadow of a doubt, I knew the truth.

My look-alike was a vampire.

Bile rose in my throat. If I didn’t get off the dance floor right now, this second, I was going to be sick all over it.

I jerked away from Theo, began to push through the crowd, ignoring the sharp words snarled in my wake. I didn’t give a damn. I had to get out. Get away.
Now.

I have literally no idea how I found the ladies’ room. I kept heading away from the center of the coldness until I hit a door that opened. It closed behind me, and the pounding of the music abruptly ceased. It wasn’t piped in, thank God. The ladies’ room was even darker than the dance floor, illuminated only by a cluster of votive candles on the sink counters. I didn’t give a damn. I could see enough to stumble to one of the empty stalls. I rushed in, shut the door that reached all the way to the floor, and locked it behind me, then leaned against it.

Breathe, just breathe, Candace
, I thought.

I closed my eyes and rested the back of my head on the door. The clatter of the silver spikes in my hair was both reassuring and frightening. I had a weapon, but of course I couldn’t use it in the crowded club.

Come on now, get a hold of yourself
, I thought.

Yes, coming face-to-face with my
doppelgänger
was extremely creepy, but it was nothing to have a panic attack about. They say everyone has a double. It was just my sick, twisted luck that mine was a vampire. Coming to Taste was teaching me an important lesson. I now knew that my vampire-sensing skills could actually go on overload. I had experienced this once before, when I had sought out Ash at a vampire meeting place called the Majestic. But that experience had been nowhere near this disorienting, or this strong.

Congratulations. You’re a fast learner
, I told myself sarcastically.
Now find
Bibi
and get out
.