Sleeping With the Entity (19 page)

“Yes to both questions. But a window isn’t a threshold per se. It’s a gray area for some clans.”

“So what am I supposed to do?”

“You’re supposed to let me protect you,” he said.

“For how long?”

“For as long as needed.”

“I can’t deal with that,” she said, trying not to hyperventilate. “I can only deal with one night at a time.”

“Fine. We’ll start out with that.”

“Do vampires leave the toilet seat up?” She had no idea where that came from, but the words tumbled out of her mouth before she could stop them. “Never mind, I don’t want to know. But I do not want to be falling into my john in the middle of the night.”

“Understood.” His lips lifted just a smidge in what she could only describe as a wry smile.

“I’m serious.”

He nodded solemnly. “I know you are.”

“I’m not ready for bed yet.” She plunked herself onto the couch. The truth was, she wasn’t ready to leave herself vulnerable with him so nearby. She needed to rebuild her resistance, brick by brick.

“Okay,” he said. “What do you normally do when you can’t sleep?”

She hadn’t said she couldn’t sleep, exactly, but she didn’t correct him. Instead she said, “I’d watch a DVD of a movie.”

“Go ahead and do that then.”

Daniella shook her head. “You wouldn’t be able to cope with my choice of movie.”

He lifted a dark eyebrow. “And why is that?”

“Because they are all chick flicks.” She pointed to the slight grimace that crossed his face. “I saw that.”

“You saw nothing.”

His words aggravated her. So did the way he said them, as if she were a silly child. “Don’t tell me what I saw. I saw you move at freaky fast speed, I saw your bloody wound heal at the speed of light, and yes, I just saw you make a face at chick flicks. Don’t even bother denying it.”

“I don’t watch many movies.”

“You will if you stay here,” she said. She did experience a brief pang of guilt at being an unwelcoming hostess. After all, he was only acting in her best interest. Or so he said.

Nick was trying to protect her from evil banker vampires. She should be grateful. That could happen, but emotionally she wasn’t there yet.

“I also watch shows on the Food Network,” she added for good measure.

“I’ve experienced worse.”

His words made her curious about his past. “What’s it like?”

“Being a vampire?”

She nodded.

“It’s no piece of cupcake. Not that I’ve ever had a cupcake.”

“Never?” This news shocked her nearly as much as the fact that he had fangs. “I can’t imagine that.” She got up and retrieved her laptop before returning to the couch.

“What are you doing now?”

“Googling the history of cupcakes.” She paused to read what was on the screen. “You’re right. They don’t think cupcakes were around until perhaps the 1820s. That’s really close to your time, though.”

“Close but no cigar.” Seeing her look, he added, “Do not ask me what that means as I have no idea.”

“Do you want me to Google it for you?”

“No.” He sat on the couch beside her.

“What else can you tell me about your time? Did you have parents? Well, obviously you must have had parents. You were human once, right?”

He studied her closely for a moment before slowly saying, “I had parents. I was adopted.” He seemed to be eyeing her expectantly.

She was hesitant to confess that she, too, was adopted. Some instinct inside her warned her to wait.

Keeping the focus on him, she said, “What were your adoptive parents like?”

“They were good people.”

That was rather vague in her opinion. “Was your father in the army?

“No.”

“What did he do for a living?”

“He ran his estate. Marchmore in Gloucestershire.”

For the first time, she detected a hint of an English accent in his voice. “Was he a duke or an earl or something?”

“Or something.”

“Was he a vampire?”

“No.” He sounded outraged by her question. “I told you, I had no idea about vampires until I was mortally wounded on the battlefield at Waterloo.”

“Right.” She looked at his face. That much of his story she believed. “You really were adopted by British royalty?”

“It’s not as if the Prince of Wales adopted me, although he was rumored to have several illegitimate children.”

“I didn’t know that.”

“You can Google it if you don’t believe me,” he said.

“No, I do believe you.” She closed her laptop and turned to face him. “So you were an aristocrat?”

He nodded.

“Did you always know you were adopted?”

A cryptic look crossed his face … part pain, part something else. “No.”

It was that expression and the conflict in his stormy eyes that made her say, “I’m adopted, too.”

He leaned forward. “You are?”

She nodded.

He repeated her earlier question back to her. “Did you always know you were adopted?”

“Yes.”

“You never mentioned it to me before.”

“You never mentioned you were a vampire before.”

“You know the reason for that. Is there a reason you keep the fact that you’re adopted a secret?”

“I don’t keep it a secret.”

“What do you know about your birth mother?” he asked.

“She died when I was born. She was a cousin of my mom’s.” Daniella yawned. “I’m sorry. It’s just been a long day, you know?”

Nick nodded. “You should go to bed.”

She shook her head. “I’m not ready yet.”

“Then at least lie down here on the couch.” He moved to a nearby chair.

She reached for the remote before stacking the throw pillows in the corner of the couch and getting horizontal. A moment later, the opening credits for the movie
The Proposal
filled the screen.

*   *   *

Two hours later, or one hour and forty-eight minutes to be precise, Nick watched the end credits roll for the movie. Daniella had been right. Chick flicks weren’t his cup of tea, although he did enjoy the lead actress’s nude scene when she ran into the hero.

Perhaps something like that would happen while he protected Daniella.

She’d fallen asleep on the couch about twenty minutes ago. The truth was that he’d spent more time watching her than he had the end of the movie. She was curled on her side, her hand tucked under her cheek, a strand of her hair sliding down over her face.

Reaching out, he smoothed the silky strand away before yanking his hand back as if burned.

Shit, he was getting too emotional about all this. About
her.

Hell, yes, the truth was that he’d kept his eyes on her instead of the flat-screen TV—but the truth also was that he’d lied to her about being adopted. It had been a deliberate move on his part. He didn’t expect the slight pang of guilt as he got out his smartphone and he texted the info about her birth mother to Neville on a secure vamp account.

He’d done what he’d done to protect his clan. Yet now his job was also to protect Daniella.

He set the smartphone aside and reached for a soft throw from the arm of the couch. Tucking it around Daniella, he wondered if he should carry her to bed. Would it freak her more to find herself in her bedroom or still on the couch?

Why did he care how freaked she got?

Because a calmer Daniella meant a more obedient Daniella, and that would make his bodyguarding duties easier. If she’d been fifty years older and not had this hold over him, that would also have made his duties easier.

Vampires and humans having sex never worked out well. In fact, it often resulted in dangerous if not deadly results. Vampires experienced everything with heightened senses, including desire. Nick wanted her more than he wanted blood, and that was saying something. What it said was that he was in deep shit here.

Chapter Fifteen

Six days later, the day before Halloween, Daniella was in her cupcake shop mixing, baking, and frosting before daybreak as usual.

What wasn’t usual was that she had a vampire living with her. She’d survived six long days and nights with Nick in close quarters. She’d been careful not to kiss him again. He’d shown similar restraint. But the sexual tension between them continued to grow despite the fact that neither one of them acted on it … or even talked about it.

Daniella had ditched the romantic comedies and instead chosen the Food Network for late night viewing. After falling asleep that first night on the couch, she’d stuck to her bedroom, going into her bathroom to change into a pair of cotton flannel pajamas that weren’t at all sexy. She continued to have sex-ridden Regency dreams every night and may even have moaned in her sleep although she sure hoped not. If he heard her, maybe Nick thought she was having a vampire nightmare instead of a vampire wet dream.

“I think it’s so awesome that your man can’t stand to be away from you for a minute,” Xandra said as she frosted a batch of mocha latte cupcakes.

He’s not a man, he’s a vampire,
was Daniella’s first thought. A Regency vampire with the nickname
Prince of Pleasure.

He even looked like a Regency rake at the moment. His dark hair tumbled over his forehead with Byronesque flair. All he needed was a cravat. Or to walk out of a pool the way Colin Firth did as Mr. Darcy in the BBC production of
Pride and Prejudice
all wet and sexy.

Daniella had actually seen Nick wet and sexy in the shower. Well, not actually
in
the shower but just out of it, with a towel hanging low on his hips—very low and just barely hanging on as she’d just barely hung on to the door frame when he’d emerged from her bathroom with droplets of water meandering down his bare muscular chest.

No one, human or vampire, had the right to look that good.

She vigorously beat the batter for the next batch of cupcakes, a new maple bacon spice version. Business had continued to be brisk all week, with several foodie blogs listing their approval of her cupcakes. A reporter with the local ABC affiliate had emailed her to set up an appointment to interview her next week. She had no idea how she would explain her vampire boyfriend’s appearance at her side.

Not that Nick was her boyfriend. She shouldn’t think of him that way. He was her vampire bodyguard, and that was all.

Yeah, like that sounded any better.

She glanced over at him, where he sat with his smartphone in his hand, texting away, taking care of business. He certainly had adapted to modern technology well. He’d adapted to everything well, including sleeping on her couch and using her shower.

“I’m totally stoked about Halloween,” Xandra was saying. “I can’t wait to see Lois’s fangs. I know mine are going to be better.”

“I don’t know. I think Lois is going to be a strong contender,” Daniella said. What she couldn’t say was that Lois was a vampire. When she’d pressed, Nick had admitted as much. Not that Lois had actually talked to her about it herself or that Daniella had brought the topic up when the two of them were alone—or rather alone with Nick—at Heavenly Cupcakes. Daniella still had a hard time seeing the maternal-looking Lois as a vampire.

“When are you going to put on your costume?” Xandra asked.

“When we’re done baking.”

“Is Nick going to come in costume, too?”

“I don’t think so,” Daniella said. “He’s not a big fan of the holiday.”

“Trashy and tasteless” had been his exact words. Oh, and “insulting,” too. He particularly didn’t like the way vampires were portrayed with stupid black capes and slicked-back hair like amateur magicians in a carnie show.

“That’s a shame,” Xandra said. “He would look good as a pirate like Jack Sparrow. Minus the eye shadow.”

“Definitely minus the eye shadow,” Daniella agreed. While she could picture Nick as a pirate, she couldn’t imagine him in makeup. Besides, his eyes were expressive and captivating enough as they were. And those dark, thick eyelashes of his … no, Nick definitely didn’t need anything to make him appear sexier.

He looked up and caught her staring at him. “Everything okay?” he said.

Not really, but what could she say?
No, nothing is okay? My life is a mess and so am I? Banker vampires are after me and I don’t have time for any of this? I especially don’t have time to lust after a hottie vampire
. There was no question about that.

Since she couldn’t say any of that, she smiled politely and said, “My dad comes home tomorrow.”

It was a friendly reminder that there was no way she could explain Nick’s presence in her apartment once her father got back.

Once the store opened and Xandra was busy dealing with the morning rush of customers, Daniella pulled Nick aside in the back work area.

“You can’t still be living with me when my dad returns,” she reminded him. Choosing her words carefully, she added, “Can’t you and the … others … call some kind of truce or something?”

“Possibly or something,” Nick said. “I’m going to have Bruce watch you for half an hour while I go work on some things. Don’t leave the shop, don’t invite anyone in, and try to stay out of trouble.”

“Never fear, I am here,” Bruce announced with a grand flourish as he entered the work area. “Wow, this is quite a production. A cupcake production zone. I’m impressed.”

“How good are you with a pastry bag?” Daniella asked him.

Bruce grinned. “Let’s find out. After all, I’m a fellow artist. Clowning is an art form, too.”

“Don’t get distracted,” Nick warned Bruce. “I won’t be long.”

*   *   *

“Long time, no see,” Neville greeted Nick as he entered the Vamp Cave.

“I can’t believe it’s been six days and you still haven’t found anything about Daniella’s birth mother,” Nick growled.

“First off, her mother had twelve cousins, eleven of them females. Six had babies the year that Daniella was born. That’s all I discovered before the Gold Coast aka the GC gang crashed our computer system.”

“Why can’t you use another computer system? It’s not like Vamptown has the only gateway to the Internet in the city.”

“We’re being watched.”

“And hacked,” Nick said.”

“If we leave to use a computer or smartphone outside of Vamptown it definitely will not be secure.”