by Dianna Love
“Sorry.” With a smooth motion, Eli uncocked the Walther again and laid it back on the workbench. “As our boss so quickly surmised, I was making a point.”
Ainsley blushed, though whether from the not-so-subtle reminder that the man she’d been making out with was her boss, or just the fact that she’d been caught making out, was anyone’s guess. Then her chin came up.
“This was my fault, Eli. Really. Del wanted to head up to bed. I mean, his bed. Oh, you know what I mean.” Her flush deepened. “Our respective beds. Alone. But I detained him.”
Before she could stammer out any more, Delano interrupted with a question for Eli. “How was St. Cloud?”
“Busy.”
“The blood supply?”
“Back up and flowing. Though we’re not taking blood. I figured you had that covered here.”
Delano nodded his approval. “And the house?”
“Repairs’ll be done within the month, complete with refurbished lab.” He glanced at Ainsley, then back to Delano. “We really should talk.”
Ainsley leapt on Eli’s words, evidently grateful for the chance to bolt. “I’m sure you two have lots to discuss. I’ll just make my way back upstairs.” She turned to Delano. “Thank you for the tour.”
He inclined his head. “No trouble.”
When the door closed behind her, Eli snorted. “Thanks for the tour?”
Delano scowled. “She was bored. She just came down here looking for a little diversion.”
“And you provided it, I see.”
“Eli,” he said warningly.
“Oh, go to hell with that tone, Delano.”
“Excuse me?”
“My job, or a pretty sizeable part of it, is to protect you. But dammit, I can’t do that if you’re going to put yourself in front of a freakin’ freight train every time I look away.”
Delano stiffened. “For pity’s sake, I was just kissing her. Since when did you, of all people, decide kissing an attractive woman was a crime?”
“Kissing her? Delano, I was here. You were about to devour the woman. And this is not some morality judgment thing. You know me better than that. This is about you not dying before we can find a tool to fight these bastards.”
Delano scrubbed a hand across his face. “You’re right.”
“Damn right I am.”
Delano looked at his thumb. It still bore the slight but unmistakable indentation of her teeth. Jesus. He wouldn’t have taken her blood. Given the stakes, he had enough self-control to stop before that happened, no matter what Eli thought.
And no matter what else happened…
But she’d bitten him. Twice. If she’d broken the skin… Though thankfully saliva wasn’t the best vehicle for transmission for most viruses. Witness the rarity of HIV transmission from oral contact, or even from biting, for that matter.
Eli just stood there, as though expecting something more. Delano raked his hair back off his face. Dammit. In his own defense, he wanted to point out that Ainsley had been the aggressor. She’d literally grabbed him by the lapels and laid a lip-lock on him. The only problem with using that defense was his natural instinct to shield a lady.
Besides, it would be a cop-out. He could have fended her off easily, had he really wanted to. He just hadn’t been able to deny himself the interlude.
“It won’t happen again.”
Eli snorted. “Come on, man, I’ve seen the way you look at her. Hell, I’ve seen the way she looks at you. This isn’t gonna go away. You have to tell her. You have to explain why it could be disastrous for the two of you to hook up.”
His mouth hardened. “No.”
“Delano—”
“Don’t you think I’ve done the equation a hundred times? It still comes out the same. One way or another, her blood killed Edward Webber, even though it was not her choice. It may yet kill more predators before we have a workable vaccine to protect the vulnerable. But if we’re going to curb the behavior of those rogues, Ainsley is our only hope. You and I, we’re veterans of this war, Eli. We’ve taken lives.”
Eli’s hands clenched at his sides. “We’ve stopped ruthless killers!”
“Granted. But don’t you see their faces in your dreams, Eli? Don’t you see the humanity in them in those last moments before the spark of life leaves them? In the end, they are but men who lacked the strength to cling to their own humanity in the face of this mutation.”
“What I see in my nightmares is that sonofabitch who slaughtered half my team in Afghanistan.”
Delano lifted an eyebrow. “So you don’t suffer any pangs in those hours when everyone else is asleep?”
“Shit, Delano.”
“Would you have Ainsley carry the same weight? Wrestle the same demons in her sleep?”
Eli closed his eyes and sighed. “Have I mentioned how much I hate it when you pull this sensei crap?”
“A time or two.”
Eli took a deep breath and expelled it. “Okay, fuck it. Forget about this vaccine thing. We can hunt them down and kill them, one at a time.”
Delano rubbed a hand across his forehead. “We could. But as long as there are vulnerable populations, there will always be another predator to take the place of the ones we slay. We have to make that … lifestyle … untenable. Which brings us back to Ainsley’s blood.”
Eli looked away. “I don’t like it, Del. She should have the chance to choose for herself.”
Del? Ainsley must be rubbing off. “And what if she chooses to withhold her genetic gift?”
Eli swore.
Delano pressed his advantage. “Our security is top notch. You made sure of it personally. Janecek is not going to get to her. All we need to do is make sure she keeps her distance from me, and all will be well.”
Eli’s eyes narrowed. “Whachu mean we, white man?”
Delano smiled as though his insides weren’t being eaten by corrosive acid.
“She’s bored, Eli. And she’s lonely. She’s cut off from everything she used to know. Her whole world was literally turned upside down in the wake of Webber’s attack. And now she’s stuck here, in a strange city, virtually under lock and key, seeing no one but her bodyguard, her clients at the clinic, and us.”
“Us. There’s that plural thing again.”
“You’re heterosexual and unattached.”
“Last time I checked.”
“And you want to keep Ainsley safe, don’t you? You want me to unlock the secrets of her blood—”
“Whoa.” Eli threw up a hand in the universal stop signal. “I think you’d better quit right there, before I leap to the completely laughable conclusion that you’re asking me to sleep with Nurse Crawford.”
“Eli—”
“Jesus, you’re serious! You want me to seduce her.”
Delano’s nails dug into his palms. “I want you to pay attention to her. I want you to entertain her, keep her preoccupied.”
“And what exactly are you suggesting I do to entertain her? Huh? ’Cuz somehow I don’t think you had a friendly game of Chinese checkers in mind.”
“It would seem that she needs male attention.” Delano managed to keep his voice calm and controlled, a major accomplishment in the circumstances. “Just give her some attention.”
Delano’s reasonable tone seemed to anger Eli even more. “I see. So, what did you have in mind? A little flirting? Maybe some petting on the couch? More?”
Delano sighed.
“And how should I open with her? Verbal or non-verbal? I mean, I could just come out and say, ‘I think you’re hot, let’s go, baby.’”
“Eli—”
“You’re right. That rarely works. At least not with a woman like Ainsley. It’d have to be way more subtle. Let’s see … maybe I should start by crowding her in the kitchen or when we pass in the hallways. You know, get a little too close. Just enough to make her take notice. Then maybe I could comment on her hair. She does have great hair, don’t you think?”
“I really d
on’t—”
“After that, I could graduate to brushing up against her, all accidentally-on-purpose-like. An elbow to a breast in that tiny kitchen, followed by a quick apology. Then, while we’re sitting on the couch watching TV, maybe I could let my leg relax against hers.”
“I’m not terribly—”
“Oh, here’s a thought — a collision! Yeah, I like that. The corner where the hall comes out to the living room would be perfect. I could kind of catch her and steady her, but not before making sure she got a real good feel, if you know what I mean. In my personal experience, next to broad shoulders, a good set of abs pretty much tops every lady’s wish list.”
“Dammit, Eli, I don’t care how you do it! Just for God’s sake do it.”
Eli’s face softened. “Look, man, I’m just trying to show you why this plan of yours can’t work.”
“It will work.”
“Come on. I haven’t laid a finger on her, and already you can’t stand it.”
Delano shook his head vigorously. “You’re quite mistaken. What I feel for Ainsley is responsibility. The danger she finds herself in, her social isolation, her anxiety about a non-existent infection, the removal from her ordinary world … it’s all my doing. The kindest thing I could possibly do at this point is put you in her path. I just don’t need to hear the details. I feel guilty enough as it is for manipulating her.”
“And well you should.”
“And well I should,” he agreed. “That’s my burden to live with. In the meantime, you’ll be good for her. Hell, you’ll be good for each other.” As he said the words, he realized how true they were. Eli and Ainsley. They were perfectly matched. Aside from their shared nursing background, they were both handsome physical specimens, both single and unattached, both quick to laugh. A new emptiness opened up inside, lending his voice more bite. “You must do this for me, Eli.”
His friend closed his eyes for an interminable moment, as though consulting some inner voice, or perhaps the voice of some long-dead Comanche ancestor. “Okay.” He opened his eyes. “I’ll do it.”
Delano let the breath he was holding escape. “Thank you.”
Eli inclined his head in acknowledgement. “You’ll owe me one. Oh, and one more thing.”
“Yes?”
“Don’t try to sell me any more of this horseshit about how you don’t care. Your guts are gonna feel like you chowed down a metric ton of ground glass, and we both know it.”
Delano cursed, employing a particularly loathsome word he hadn’t used in a good sixty years.
“Exactly,” Eli agreed. “Now, sun’s almost up. We should both hit the sack. I can bring you up to date on St. Cloud tomorrow.”
“Rise and shine, cupcake.”
Ainsley lifted her head and squinted at the imposing figure looming in her doorway. Eli? In her bedroom? Calling her Cupcake? Oh, thank goodness. She was still dreaming. She rolled onto her side, drew her knees up and burrowed deeper into the pillows, striving to get her dream back on track.
“Come on, sleepy head, it’s way past noon.”
She opened bleary eyes again, tracking Eli as he moved across her bedroom to the window. She’d tossed and turned for hours, finally falling into a light sleep punctuated by highly erotic dreams. Dreams of Delano, his hands all over her body, her hands on him…
How the devil had Eli made his way into her dream?
Then Eli swept the heavy curtains back. The dazzling light of midday flooded the room, sending a dagger of pain to her brain.
Groaning, she pulled the covers over her head. “Go away, Eli. You’re wrecking my dream.”
“Ouch. You’re wrecking my ego.”
She snorted beneath the covers. “I think it’ll survive.”
“No need for sarcasm.”
“Okay, I’m sorry. Now, would you please go away?”
The edge of her bed depressed. “Sorry, angel.”
Wait a minute, Eli in her room? She jack-knifed up to find Eli actually sitting there, on her actual bed. “Eli? What is it? Is something wrong?”
“Something’s very wrong.”
He said the words sternly, but the tone didn’t match the dancing light in his eyes or the suggestion of an upward tilt to his lips. The latter was enough to make the knot of anxiety dissolve.
“Okay, out with it, buster. What the heck is so very wrong?”
“Delano tells me that in all the time you’ve been here, he hasn’t taken you to see anything of Montreal. A beautiful woman sitting up here in this penthouse while the city waits down there? To my way of thinking, that’s just plain wrong. And I aim to fix that, starting right now.” He gave her a thump on the thigh. “So shake a leg, honey.”
He stood again, and she gaped up at him. “You’re going to take me out?”
“I thought we’d start with le Vieux Montréal.”
Ainsley grinned. Touring Old Montreal in broad daylight like an ordinary visitor to the city? “Oh, can we?”
He feigned offence. “Did I not just invite you?”
“I mean, is it safe?”
“It is when I’m in charge.”
She rolled her eyes. “What’d I tell you? The ego remains undented.”
His lips quirked. “Seriously, it’s not high risk. I wouldn’t be suggesting it if it were. But just the same, we’ll have a discreet security team maintaining a cushion around us at all times.”
His gaze flickered just long enough to make her aware she was sitting in bed in her nightshirt with the bedclothes pooled on her lap.
Oh, Christmas. The clinch with Delano last night. That’s probably what he saw every time he looked at her. She felt a blush rise in her neck.
“Can you be ready in half an hour?”
“Give me fifteen minutes.”
Chapter 11
TWO AND A HALF hours later, Eli helped her clamber out of the calèche he’d hailed at Rue de la Commune, in front of the old port.
“How’d you enjoy that?”
Ainsley grinned. “You have to ask?”
He shrugged. “It’s a guy thing.”
She laughed. “It was great. But I’d like to come back one day to explore the Notre-Dame Basilica. Oh, and the Pointe-à-Callière.”
He squinted at her. “Interesting.”
“What?”
“The Basilica, sure. I mean, it’s a bloody Neo-Gothic wonder. Everyone is awed by it. But I wouldn’t have pegged you for the museum of archaeology and history.”
She shrugged. “I like history.”
And she did. Except as they toured Old Montreal, from the Bonsecours Market to the Place d’Armes, she’d found herself wondering if Delano had walked these cobbled streets in another time. Another century. She shivered.
Eli checked his watch. “We’d better head back. Both of us could stand a nap before the boss rises.”
At the mention of Delano, Ainsley’s face sobered. “About last night—”
He threw up a hand. “Whoa, whoa, whoa. Stop right there.”
“Stop?”
“Gawd, yes.” He lowered his hand. “Number one, there are several three-word phrases in the English language that are guaranteed to tighten a man’s sphincter, and that, my darlin’, is one of ’em. Don’t wanna hear it. And secondly, it’s none of my business.”
“But—”
“No buts.”
“But—”
“You had fun today, right?”
Ainsley blinked. “Well, yes, bu—”
“Then let’s leave it lie just like that, why don’t we?”
She shook her head. “You make things awfully easy for me, Eli.”
“That was sort of the point.” He raised an arm, flagging down a passing taxi, which stopped amid the squealing of sorely abused brakes. He opened the back door of the cab. “Après vous, Madame.”
She grinned at his French, delivered as it was with that unique accent of his. “Merci, monsieur.”
When she moved toward the car, he didn’t move ba
ck as far as she expected. Consequently, she had to squeeze past him to get into the back seat. No doubt it was a security precaution, his standing so close, but she found herself taking notice of his sheer size and power. And not for the first time today.
Criminey, but he was nice looking. Nice smelling, too. Not to mention funny and considerate and easy to be around. And his body — oh, baby, seriously ripped. Under different circumstances, she’d be giving him some not-so-subtle signals, just to see if there was any answering spark there. He’d be playful in the bedroom. She’d lay money on it. And a good thing, too. That levity would mitigate all that overpowering, hulking brawn…
She blinked. Oh, God. She was having decidedly sexual thoughts about Eli. Eli! Her co-worker. A fellow nurse. What was wrong with her? She’d all but torn Delano’s clothes off last night, and now she was—
“Scoot over, Angel. I have no desire to get clipped by traffic trying to get in that other door.”
Face burning, she slid across the bench seat to hug the far door. Eli climbed in and instructed the driver.
He turned to her. “You look tired.”
Normally, she would not welcome that kind of observation from an attractive man, but it was too good an opportunity to let slide.
“I am.” She aimed an apologetic smile at him. “Mind if I snooze on the way home?”
“Go right ahead. Actually, eyes closed might not be a bad idea any time, given traffic in this city.”
She gave the expected chuckle, then settled back against the seat cushions to feign rest.
Eyes closed. Yessiree. That worked just fine.
Just fine for contemplating exactly when she’d turned into the Whore of Babylon.
Delano leaned back in his chair as he listened to Eli’s progress report. He heard every word his friend said, and responded appropriately, but another part of his brain was busy cataloguing scents.
