The Accidental Vampire Plus Vampires Are Forever and Bonus Material

by Lynsay Sands

  Inez stared after the black cab, disbelief giving way to anger. She’d been dragged from her bed and rushed out here only to have the ignorant idiot hop in a taxi and ride off on her.

  “Do you need a taxi, love?”

  Inez glanced around at the question, and then sighed at the sight of the same smiling cabby who’d brought her to the airport. The man had burbled happily on about this and that and nothing at all the entire ride out from the core of London where she lived. Now she would no doubt get to enjoy the same happy burble all the way to the Dorchester hotel where Thomas was staying.

  “What I need is a tea,” she muttered, then sighed and nodded and moved to where the man held the taxi door open. Inez didn’t see the dark-haired, thin-faced man approaching the cab until they were both nearly to the door. She hesitated in surprise. He didn’t. However, before he could slip into the open door, the taxi driver stepped in front of it.

  “I’m taking the lady,” the cabby announced firmly. “I brought her out, and I agreed to take her back.”

  The man didn’t even glance her way, his attention focused on the driver. Inez had no idea what he said, but suspected he must have promised extra money, because the driver suddenly stepped out of the way for him to get in, closed the door, and got in the driver’s seat without another word, or even a glance in her direction.

  Once again, Inez was left gaping after a departing taxi.

  “Diya need a taxi, lady?”

  Inez glanced around with a start as a younger driver hailed her. Mouth tightening, she rushed forward, not willing to allow another ride to be stolen from her. Reaching the car unimpeded this time, Inez slipped onto the backseat, forced a smile, and muttered thanks as the driver closed the door behind her. She then sagged wearily on the seat, thinking she really needed that tea now. Unfortunately, it would have to wait until after she got to the Dorchester and made sure Thomas Argeneau had everything he needed. That had been Bastien’s order. “Collect Thomas, take him to the hotel, and see that he has everything he needs.”

  And that was what she would do. She would make sure Thomas Argeneau had every single thing he needed…right after she gave him a piece of her mind for riding off without her. Then she could have her tea.

  “Thanks, just set it there on the table,” Thomas said as the bellhop followed him into the suite’s sitting room. When the man did and then turned, mouth opening to inform him of all the amenities on offer, he waved him to silence.

  “I’m good, thanks,” Thomas assured him. Offering the man a tip for seeing him to his suite and carrying the knapsack, Thomas urged him toward the door.

  “Thank you, sir.” The bellhop’s lips spread into a grin that he quickly softened into a more businesslike smile. “Just ring the desk if you need anything. Ask for Jimmy and I’ll get you whatever you need.”

  “I will. Thanks again,” Thomas murmured.

  Closing the door behind the bellhop, he then turned and stepped back into the sitting room of his suite. Classy, luxurious, tasteful…Nothing less than he’d expect. Aunt Marguerite always had shown good taste.

  Moving forward, Thomas collected his knapsack and headed for the door leading into the rest of the suite, intending to place it in the bedroom. The ring of his cell phone made him pause, however.

  Dropping the knapsack back on the table, he pulled the phone from his back pocket and flipped it open as he dropped onto one of the love seats.

  “Yo?” he said lightly, already knowing who it would be.

  “You arrived all right, then?” Bastien asked.

  “Of course, dude. The flight was smooth sailing.”

  “And Inez had no problem finding you at the airport?”

  Thomas’s eyebrows rose. “Inez?”

  “Inez Urso. I called her to meet your plane and take you into the city.”

  Thomas could hear the frown in Bastien’s voice, but ignored it, his mind on his arrival in Heathrow as he suddenly recalled a little, dark-haired woman running through the airport waving. Thomas had noticed her, but Etienne hadn’t mentioned there being anyone to meet him so he’d just assumed she was there to collect someone behind him and kept walking. Now that Bastien mentioned Inez, however, he recalled the pristine and tucked-up little miss he’d met some months ago in his cousin’s office. But the woman who had been waving so frantically at the airport that morning had been less than pristine and tucked up. She’d looked like she’d just rolled out of bed.

  “Thomas?” Bastien said impatiently. “Did she not show up?”

  “Yes. She was there,” he answered truthfully, a knock drawing his gaze to the door of the suite. Standing, he moved to answer it.

  “Good,” Bastien was saying as Thomas opened the door. “She’s very efficient as a rule, but I did wake her up at five in the morning to collect you and I worried that she hadn’t made it there in time.”

  “Yes, she—” Thomas stopped abruptly as he recognized the woman at his door. His gaze slid over her limp, dark curls, her slightly wrinkled clothes, and her makeup-free face with its irritated scowl. Inez Urso. A very angry Inez Urso, he added, noting the fire flashing in her eyes.

  When her mouth opened, Thomas instinctively slammed the cell phone to his chest to prevent Bastien’s hearing the tirade he suspected was coming. He wasn’t wrong. The phone had barely hit his chest when a barrage of words shot from her full, luscious mouth and poured over him. Unfortunately, very little of it was in English. Portuguese would have been his guess. He gathered that was her mother tongue and the language she slipped into when upset, and Inez Urso was definitely upset.

  When she began to move forward, Thomas automatically backed up, allowing her into the room. He was too distracted to do otherwise, finding it fascinating how a woman who had looked perfectly plain on first sight could become almost beautiful as she berated him. Her eyes were flashing, her cheeks were flushed with anger, her lips flapping so rapidly they were almost a blur. She was also waving a finger angrily under his nose, something he normally found vastly annoying if the women in his family tried it. But coming from this short woman, he found it kind of cute and couldn’t help the smile that tugged at his mouth.

  Big mistake, Thomas realized at once. Inez Urso did not like his amusement and her rant took on some real energy. Unfortunately, that’s when he became aware of the chittering coming from the phone.

  Thomas scowled down at it, and then glanced toward the door closing behind the little barracuda still lecturing him, judging whether he could get her back out of the room long enough for him to deal with Bastien. It didn’t seem likely, at least not without being rude and Aunt Marguerite had raised him better than that.

  He held up a hand for silence. Surprisingly—she obeyed the directive, her tirade ending at once, but then he supposed she’d been close to winding down. At least, her eyes had lost some of their heat, becoming more subdued. Inez was still breathing rapidly from her anger, though, and Thomas found his eyes falling to her slightly heaving chest, noting that with every inhalation, her blouse was stretched tight, threatening to pop a button.

  A sharp inhalation drew his gaze back up to her face. Her dark brown eyes were flashing again, her mouth opening to go at him once more. Thomas didn’t blame her at all…really…it was perfectly rude to stare at a woman’s chest. Aunt Marguerite would be pissed at him too. Still, he didn’t really have time to apologize properly, or let her vent with Bastien’s voice still squawking into his chest, so Thomas said, “Hold that thought.”

  Inez blinked at the order, but closed her mouth and Thomas gave her an approving smile before whirling away. He hurried through the small dining area and continued on into a small hallway with two doors leading off of it. The first led into a spacious marble bathroom, the second a bedroom. Knowing the bathroom would have a lock, Thomas slid inside and then locked it for good measure lest the woman follow to finish her lecture. He then took a breath and raised the phone back to his ear. “Bastien?”

  “What the hell was tha
t about?” his cousin growled.

  “Oh, I…er…sat on the remote control and accidentally turned on the television. Some foreign film was playing and I couldn’t figure out how to shut it off,” Thomas lied blithely.

  “Right,” Bastien said with open disbelief. “What was the name of this movie?”

  “The name?” Thomas echoed and then scowled. “How the hell would I know?”

  “I don’t know, Thomas. I thought maybe you caught it before you turned it off. It sounded terribly interesting. I quite enjoyed it when the woman called the man an idiot for making her drag her butt out of bed at five o’clock in the morning and haul herself down to the airport without either tea or a shower only to have him ignore her and march out to get in a taxi and take off to the Dorchester Hotel.”

  Thomas closed his eyes on a sigh as he recalled Bastien spoke several languages, including Portuguese.

  “Hmm,” Bastien added now. “That’s the same hotel I booked you into. What a coincidence.”

  “All right, all right, so it wasn’t the television,” Thomas muttered irritably and then asked, “Did she really call me an idiot?”

  An exasperated sigh came through the line. “How could you walk right past her, Thomas? Why would you? For Christ’s sake! I called her to make things easier for you and you just—”

  “You didn’t mention that anyone was picking me up at the airport,” Thomas interrupted grimly. “Neither did Etienne. He said you had a plane waiting at the airport and had booked a room at the Dorchester. That’s it. There was no mention of anyone waiting for me at the airport, so I just hopped in a taxi.”

  “Well, when you saw Inez—”

  “Bastien, I met the woman once for about three minutes in your office almost six months ago,” Thomas pointed out dryly and then acknowledged, “I did see her waving and rushing toward me at the airport, but didn’t recognize her. I thought she was there for someone else. How was I to know otherwise when no one told me she would be meeting me,” he ended, emphasizing every word.

  “All right, I get the point. You didn’t know,” Bastien said.

  “Right,” Thomas sighed.

  “Okay.” A moment of silence passed and then a sigh slid from the phone and Bastien said, “I should have contacted you myself and told you she would meet you rather than counting on Etienne. You’ll have to apologize to her for me.”

  “Are you sure you told Etienne?” Thomas asked.

  “What?” Bastien asked, his voice short. “Of course I did.”

  “Of course you did, because you wouldn’t ever make a mistake. Those are for lesser immortals like Etienne and I.”

  “Thomas,” Bastien said wearily.

  “Yes?” he asked sweetly.

  “Never mind. Look, she’s there to help you. Let her. She knows London and she’s a damned efficient woman. One of our best employees. She gets things done, that’s why I decided to have her help you.”

  “You mean that’s why you decided to have her baby-sit me, don’t you?” Thomas asked dryly.

  There was a brief silence on the other end of the line, then Bastien took a breath, but before he could speak, Thomas said, “Don’t worry about it. I know you think I’m useless. Me, Etienne, and anyone under four hundred years old. So don’t worry about it. I’ll apologize to her and let her help me.”

  He pushed the end button on the phone before Bastien could respond and tossed it irritably on the marble counter as he headed for the door. He’d grasped the doorknob when a thought made him hesitate. Releasing the doorknob, Thomas turned back to briefly pace the room.

  He didn’t want another berating by Bastien’s underling. While it was cute and he’d found it fascinating to watch the fire dance in her eyes as she’d spat words rapid-fire at him, it would have been more entertaining had he understood some of it. Besides, he didn’t know London and this woman obviously did and while he’d like to be able to find his aunt all by himself and be the hero of the moment, the main concern was finding Aunt Marguerite. Common sense said he would probably get farther faster with help, and Inez was the only help on offer. But she was, no doubt, in a really rotten mood right now and he couldn’t blame her. Bastien might owe her an apology, but Thomas felt he owed her something too. He might not have known she was coming to collect him, but the woman went out of her way to do so and was ignored and left behind for her trouble.

  After pacing the room twice, Thomas reached for the hotel phone on the bathroom’s marble counter. He punched the button for room service and quickly placed an order, then hung up and moved to the tub. His cell phone rang as he pushed the button to drop the tub’s stopper into place, but—knowing it would be Bastien with more orders and instructions—he ignored it and grabbed the bottle of bubble bath off the counter. Thomas dumped a generous amount of the liquid in and turned on the taps, then sat down on the side of the tub to wait for it to fill.

  Inez dropped wearily to sit on one of the love seats situated on either side of the fireplace and scowled at the knapsack on the table in front of her. The man couldn’t even bother with proper luggage. He was staying in a five-star hotel and checked in with a knapsack. It was the only article of luggage in the room and the only thing he’d been carrying when she’d seen him at the airport.

  She glared at the offending article and then realized what she was doing and shook her head, her eyes closing in dismay. She was losing it. Inez never lost her temper, yet here she was not just glaring at luggage, but she’d greeted her boss’s cousin by berating him like a harridan and cursing him in two different languages. Her boss’s cousin!

  Dear God, she hadn’t just lost her mind but probably her job too once Bastien heard about this. Thomas Argeneau was probably on the phone in the other room right now complaining to him.

  The rude little pillock, Inez thought unhappily. She still couldn’t believe he’d looked right at her and then just marched happily off and hopped in a cab. What kind of idiot—

  Her thoughts died abruptly when the phone on the end table beside her began to ring. Inez switched her scowl to that, waiting for Thomas to answer it. It rang three more times before she recalled that he’d actually had a cell phone in his hand. Supposing he was still on that and couldn’t talk on two phones at once, she heaved a sigh and picked up the receiver only to get a dial tone.

  Too late, Inez realized and dropped it back in its cradle with a shrug. She hadn’t wanted to play secretary for him anyway. She was the vice president of U.K. productions for Argeneau Enterprises Worldwide, for heaven’s sake. He could answer his own damned phone. As well as his own door, she added mentally when someone knocked on it.

  Inez glanced toward the door Thomas had disappeared through, expecting him to appear to answer it, but there was no sign of the man.

  “Room service,” a deep voice called as the knock came again.

  Inez glanced toward the door again and then rose impatiently to open it, stepping out of the way as the bellhop began to roll a trolley into the room.

  “Thank you, miss.” The man smiled as he passed. “Where would you like it?”

  “What is it?” Inez asked rather than answer. Her gaze was fixed on the small teapot on the tray, but kept drifting to the silver-covered plate. Delicious aromas were drifting up to her nose, making her stomach rumble with interest.

  Eyebrows rising, the man lifted the silver cover. “A proper English Breakfast. Eggs, bacon, baked beans, sausages, fried tomatoes, mushrooms, black pudding, hash browns, and a fried slice,” the man rattled off.

  “The full Monty,” Inez murmured, her eyes roving over the food until he replaced the cover.

  “And, of course, tea,” the man added. “So? Where shall I put it?”

  Inez shook her head helplessly. She hadn’t a clue where Thomas wanted it, but she wanted it in her stomach. Right then. Dear God, breakfast and tea. The very idea made her want to weep, the actual sight of the food made her moan silently in her head. She was starving and could have killed a cup of tea, bu
t had no doubt this was all for Thomas. He was probably going to eat it all right in front of her too, the—

  “Oh, good. It’s here.”

  Both Inez and the bellhop glanced toward Thomas Argeneau as he entered the room. The bellhop was smiling. Inez was not. Her eyebrows drew down in displeasure as she eyed him. If he’d just taken a little more time she might at least have pinched a sausage before he came out.

  “Roll it in here please…Jimmy, isn’t it?”

  “Yes, sir.” The bellhop smiled and promptly followed him with the cart.

  Inez watched the food roll away with a little sigh. Just a small sip of tea even would have been nice, but the man hadn’t even bothered to think of her when it came to that. There had only been one teacup on the trolley.

  Her thoughts were disturbed when the bellhop returned. The man threw her a wide smile and wished her a good day as he crossed to the door and left.

  Inez scowled after him. Sure! He was happy. He’d probably eaten and even had half a dozen cups of tea by now. He’d probably also got a big tip from Thomas.

  “Inez?”

  Her gaze moved resentfully to the open door to the rest of the suite. “Yes?”

  “Come here, please.”

  Inez frowned at the request and hesitated. Come here? Come where? To his bedroom? It would be just her luck if the man was a pervert and thought one of her duties as an employee of Argeneau Enterprises was to “service” relatives.

  “Not gonna happen,” Inez muttered under her breath.

  “Please?” Thomas called.

  Throwing up her hands with exasperation, Inez headed for the door. She’d go see what he wanted, but if he tried anything, anything at all…

  Inez stepped through the door into what she’d thought would be the bedroom and found herself in a dining area. However, neither Thomas nor the food was in there, and it just made her suspicions increase regarding his motives. Continuing on through the dining room, she stepped into a small vestibule leading to three more doors. Thomas was calling from the room on the right.