I’m not who you think I am, Winter. Was that a warning, now that Sebastian had been returned to him?
But that was exactly the sort of man she had assumed him to be…
Confused, she tried to drop the subject, but her mind wouldn’t leave it alone. Like a sore tooth, her mind kept going back to prod it, over and over, until it throbbed painfully.
By the time she sat down to tea and toast at the tiny little breakfast bar, she was grumpy as hell.
Just as she took the first mouthful of tea, Nial strolled into the kitchen. He pulled up the fragile second bar stool and sat next to her.
Her appetite fled. Her mood darkened. It didn’t help that her body seemed to want to reach out to him and wrap itself around him as tightly as possible. She pulse with need. Damn.
Nial was wearing jeans. But not just any jeans. Black ones. Midnight black. Designer. Sophisticated. Stretch. And they stretched over every muscle in his thighs and butt. And they emphasized every long inch of his legs. And a charcoal black shirt that seemed to lay limp and cling to every inch of his flesh as if it couldn’t get enough of him.
She knew the feeling.
He dipped his forefinger into her tea and licked it. “Irish breakfast and cream. Mmm.”
She sighed. “Do you do this with all your human dates?”
“I don’t date humans. Sebastian is just starting to wake. He’ll be down in a minute, I’m guessing. The smell of toast will bring him here, guaranteed.”
Winter stared at him, trying to process his first incredible statement. Did that mean she was a rare exception, or that he didn’t consider her human? Or something else entirely? They weren’t ‘dating’? It was too convoluted a statement to begin to interpret it without further clarification. And Nial was already beginning to close up on her.
“Bloody brilliant,” Sebastian said from the door. “The two people I’m trying my hardest to get away from, and they’re in my bloody kitchen, eating my bloody bread, half-way around the fucking globe from where I left them.”
Chapter Eleven
SEBASTIAN’S HAIR WAS tousled and his eyes sleepy, and his tee-shirt crumpled from long wear and sleep, but otherwise, he looked so healthy—and pissed—that Winter could feel tears pricking her eyes at how excessively normal he looked.
Nial turned on his stool. “Only one of us is stealing your daily bread, Sebastian. As she is the one that saved your life, I’d be a bit more grateful, if I were you.”
Sebastian ruffled his hair, frowning. “What?”
“What date is today?” Nial asked.
“Twenty-second, isn’t it?”
“It’s Friday. The twenty-third. You lost a day, Sebastian. The symbiosis is two-way. Winter must have your blood, much more regularly than your needs. As far as I can tell, you must have her pheromones.”
Sebastian considered that for a moment, his jaw hardening. “I must smell her,” he said flatly. Then he gave a short, hard laugh. “Perfect,” he said, in his distinct accent. “Virtually the one thing we can’t bottle.”
He moved further into the kitchen and opened the fridge. “Did you leave me anything to eat?”
Nial cleared his throat. When Winter glanced at him he had a strange expression on his face and she knew it was because Sebastian was speaking of eating. It would be an odd novelty for Nial to hear such words coming from Sebastian of all people.
Winter said, “We only got here last evening, about twenty four hours behind you, we think.” It would distract Nial from thoughts of Sebastian eating, anyway.
Sebastian straightened up, turning to look at her, his eyes narrowing. “You followed me. From Ningaloo. It was you two sniffing around after me, wasn’t it?”
“You were already weakening in Australia, Sebastian. What did you want us to do? Set up a death watch for you?” Nial snapped.
Sebastian shut the fridge with bang. “Bugger it,” he muttered. He turned around and picked up half of Winter’s toast and bit into it.
Winter has lost all her appetite anyway. She shoved the plate toward him. “Take it all,” she offered. “It’s your bread after all.”
Sebastian picked up the plate without comment and settled with his back against the fridge, eating ravenously. The blond locks of his hair had fallen forward over his eyes as they tended to do when he wasn’t perfectly groomed, but he was too busy eating to push them back.
Nial watched him eat with an intense fascination.
Winter gripped her teacup tightly. “It’s time you came clean, Nial.”
He barely looked at her. “Hmm?”
Sebastian did, though. “What are you talking about?”
“Nial dug me out of Montana to come find you, Sebastian. Suddenly. After how long? Four years apart? Five?”
Sebastian was studying Nial now. “Nearly four,” he said. “That is a good question,” he added. “How did you two end up in cahoots together? I would have bet even money Winter would spit on your boots than work with you. Just how did you manage to pull that off, Nial?”
Nial lifted a languid hand and let it fall again. “My natural charm, I suppose.”
Sebastian snorted. “You don’t have any.” He took another huge bite of toast, chewed furiously and swallowed. “So why did you come looking for us?”
Nial’s gaze slid toward Winter before he fixed Sebastian with a steady gaze. She saw his chest rise and fall. “I need you both for a job. One that only you two can pull off.”
“No,” she said instantly, not even thinking about it. Even before any emotion touched her.
Sebastian’s plate lowered as he stared at Nial. “You’re stark raving mad,” he said.
“You’re the best,” Nial said simply. “And this job is no joke. I need the best.”
“I’m retired,” Winter said, standing up.
“How much does it pay?” Sebastian asked.
“No!” Winter whirled to face him. “We’re not doing this! I’m not doing this!”
Sebastian rolled his eyes at her. “If he’s so desperate for the best, then he’ll pay for the best. Nial’s loaded, Winter. Don’t tell me he didn’t try to sweeten you up with luxury lollies like a first class suite on one of those seven star airlines, stretch limousines and hot and cold running waiters?”
Winter caught her breath.
Sebastian grinned. “Gotcha,” he said. “It’s pocket change for Nial. A night’s work for us if we can resist strangling each other for a few hours, plus we get to fleece him of a few of his millions. Personally, I call it a good cause. From the look forming on your face, Winter, I’d say you do, too.”
She swallowed hard. She could find nothing to say.
Sebastian dumped his plate in the sink and turned to Nial, who still sat unmoving on the stool, his feet flat on the floor.
“How much?” Sebastian repeated.
“I was hoping you’d do it as a favor for me,” Nial said mildly.
“For nothing?” Winter exclaimed, horrified.
“Jesus-Mary-Joseph…” Sebastian stalked out of the kitchen, into the front room. It seemed natural to follow him and she brushed past Nial’s knees and moved into the little room to find Sebastian gripping the back of one of the armchairs, head down.
“I don’t suppose either of you cares to know what the job is?” Nial asked, behind her.
“No,” Sebastian answered, not moving.
“I suppose you think that will change our minds?” Winter said, suddenly feeling tired.
“He’s trying to maneuver us, Winter,” Sebastian said. “Win our sympathy. Get us to agree.”
“You might be human now, Sebastian, but you have a stake in this, too,” Nial said. “You might still give enough of a damn to want to do it.”
Sebastian held up his hand in the universal gesture for ‘stop’. “I really do not give a fuck,” he said.
“What’s he talking about?” Winter asked, puzzled.
Sebastian lifted his head. “Something to do with vampires, I imagine,” he
said with great weariness.
Winter moved closer to Nial. In that tiny room it didn’t take much. A half step. A sway of her hips. But Nial was a predator. He must surely be aware of what she was doing, too. So when she reached slowly for his wrist and circled it with her fingers, he knew what she was doing and let her.
Her fingers didn’t meet, but they didn’t need to. She stood with her fingers passively cuffed against his wrist, almost like she was taking his pulse. In a way she was. A very different sort of pulse.
“What about the vampires?” she asked.
Sebastian waved the question away with his hand like he was done with the subject.
“We are going to be exposed,” Nial said evenly. “Around the world, to humans, and against our will.”
“How?” Winter said sharply, as she felt his pulse spike.
“There is a Congressional hearing coming up, arranged by a special Senate Committee led by the southern Republican Reverend James Deacon.”
“That’s the one who introduced the no-mercy bill for the death penalty in Georgia, isn’t it?” Winter asked.
“The very one,” Nial agreed dryly. “The subpoenas go out in two weeks and one of the witnesses has a high definition video of a vampire feeding that he will be presenting to the committee.”
Sebastian gave a dry laugh. “Of course you conveniently know all this ahead of time.” He looked at Winter. “He’s conning you.”
But Nial’s internals said otherwise.
“I know,” Nial told Sebastian, “Because the vampire who was caught on video told me about the committee, the hearing and the video. He’s a member of the House. A Democrat, and you’ve seen his face on television probably more times than you’ve seen the current president.”
Winter held up Nial’s wrist, showing Sebastian her grip on it. “He’s telling the truth.”
Sebastian pushed his hands into his pockets. “You so sure you can tell, Winter? Vampires can control their heart beats. Did he mention that?”
No, he hadn’t.
She dropped Nial’s wrist and stepped away from him, sick horror working through her as she tried to instantaneously reassess everything that had happened over the last few days in light of the fact that Nial might have been lying to her all along.
Nial caught her arm and tried to pull her back toward him. “He’s making it worse that it sounds. We had an agreement, Winter. I lived up to it.” He glanced at Sebastian, then shook his head. “Damn it, I was honest.” He pulled her up against him and this time she had no problem feeling his racing heart. But could she believe it?
He let go of one of her arms long enough to wrap his around her back and hold her against him and it was only then she realized how hard she was trying to pull away.
“Just hear me out,” he asked, his voice low. “Please.”
His eyes were so blue, so intense.
Winter looked away…and saw that Sebastian was watching with a shocked, stunned expression on his face. She quickly turned her face from him, as guilt stabbed into her. A soft moan escaped her.
“Sebastian, do you mind?” Nial snapped, irritation thick in his voice.
“You chased me around the globe, now you want to turf me out of my own room? Think again,” Sebastian said softly.
“Very well. You get to live with the results,” Nial returned. He lifted Winter’s chin, making her meet his gaze. “You would give Sebastian a fair hearing. Why not me?”
She stopped trying to pull herself out of his grip and stood still, because he was right. If it had been Sebastian, she would have tried to listen. To understand.
Because it was Nial, she had instantly assumed he was working some sort of agenda.
Nial’s arm loosened around her back. Relief showed on his face. “Thank you,” he breathed. His fingers stroked over her cheek. Gently. “We agreed on the Lear to try and see if honesty would work. I’ve kept up my end of the bargain, Winter. I knew it was the only way to keep you here, in my arms. I didn’t want to jeopardize that.”
“But you knew all along I couldn’t get a perfect reading on you because you could change your heart beat at will. You lied by omission,” she said.
He shook his head. “I can choose to change my heart beat if I want to. Since Helena, I haven’t done so because it would ruin your monitoring. How is that lying?”
“How can I believe you?” she cried.
“Ah, the dilemma of professional liars,” Sebastian murmured.
“Shut up!” Winter threw at him. She could barely see him for the tears blurring her vision. He held up a hand in peace.
Nial turned her face back to him. “You’ll have to do what couples have been doing for time out of mind, Winter. You’ll have to trust me.”
Couples. Her heart squeezed hard at the word. She was mortally aware of Sebastian standing seven feet away, absorbing all of this, every little detail. She needed to block him out, so she rested her hand on Nial’s chest. She felt the cool, sensuous touch of silk, then pushed her way inside Nial.
He caught his breath. “That’s you in me, isn’t it? I actually felt it.”
“Sorry, but I need to be inside. Away from him.”
“I can do better than that,” he assured her and kissed her. He held nothing back. His tongue thrust into her mouth, exploring and stroking, making her moan and her head to tilt back to give him better access.
She felt her hand on Nial’s chest get squeezed between them as she was pressed up against him by his hands on her ass, cupping her and drawing her closer. She wrapped her arms around his neck and indulged in the purely feminine whim of clinging to him, even as his hand slipped beneath her skirt and stroked her bare flesh, making her pelvis jerk against him.
Their heartbeats were melding, matching. Spiraling upwards.
“Oh, for heaven’s sake,” Sebastian said, sounding disgusted.
Winter tried to yank herself out of Nial’s arms, utterly shocked. She had forgotten about Sebastian.
But Nial kept her in his arms with an iron grip. He lifted his mouth from hers and turned his head to look at Sebastian. “You refused to leave,” he said simply.
Sebastian’s face was white with anger, his hands in tight fists. “So I did,” he said evenly.
“Enough, Nial,” Winter told him and pushed against his shoulder so she could step away. Nial let her go. “This bickering is not getting us anywhere. Can we agree to treat each other with adult dignity for the next thirty minutes so we can conclude the business at hand and move on?”
Nial picked up her hand and kissed the back of it. “Of course,” he said softly.
Sebastian made a soft sound. Winter glanced at him, alarmed. He was staring at her hand, his eyes filled with some nameless, pain-filled emotion.
The ring.
Winter looked to Nial for guidance on how to deal with this, but Nial was also watching Sebastian and he wasn’t letting go of her hand.
Sebastian was the first to speak. He pushed a shaky hand through his hair. “What’s wrong with letting the world know about vampires, Nial? They exist. Why hide?”
Winter stared at Sebastian, astounded. He had deliberately changed the subject. Avoided one that had clearly provoked a harsh and painful reaction in him. Why?
She turned to Nial, expecting him to explain that the ring was a prop, left in place for safekeeping. It was up to Nial to explain it, not her. The ring had been left in Nial’s care, after all.
Nial lowered her hand. “We’re having trouble keeping up the pretense these days, with electronics, security and all the IDs people need just to live. There are plans to step out and reveal ourselves. You’ve heard rumblings about them for years yourself, Sebastian.”
Sebastian nodded.
Winter stared at Nial. He was bypassing the subject, too. She looked from one to the other man, puzzled.
“Lately, the rumblings have turned into concrete plans,” Nial added. “But not like this. The video of the feeding looks brutal and if it is presented v
ia the hearing, then we will become public enemies. There are ways to announce such things so that we will at least get a sympathetic introduction. The Reverend Deacon will make sure that vampires look like devil worshippers and baby killers.”
“At least,” Sebastian added, pushing his hands into his pockets.
“You’re going to do it,” Winter breathed.
“I don’t even know what the job is yet,” Sebastian pointed out.
“But you’re doing to do it, anyway,” Winter said. “I know that tone of yours. Nial just sold you on the job.”
Nial looked at her. “Have I sold you, Winter?”
“Winter?” Sebastian said.
She looked at him. There was no anger left in him. He just looked like the Sebastian she knew so well and watched break hearts all over the world, with his limpid green eyes and charm. He gave her a small smile. “I know you probably don’t want to do this for me. Not now. But I’m asking anyway. And if you really can’t bring yourself to do it for me, then do it for Nial. Please.”
Stunned, she found herself nodding. And just like that, she was working again.
And she still didn’t know the details of the job, although she could guess. Something had to be stolen and the job was dangerous and difficult.
Chapter Twelve
ONCE HE HAD their agreement, Nial insisted they hurry back to New York on the first available flight—or even charter a flight if necessary.
Sebastian made a half-hearted attempt at protest, then fell in with Nial’s demands by picking up the bags he’d never got around to unpacking and announcing he was ready to go.
As Winter had never had a chance to unpack, either, she was in the same position. She zipped up her overnight bag with a dollop of resentment and glared at Nial. “Ready,” she told him.
Nial, the only one to have unpacked anything, took the longest to be ready, but by the time the village taxi arrived at the front gate, he carried his bags out to the little sedan and tossed them in the open and waiting trunk, slid onto the back seat of the sedan, already chatting to someone at Dublin airport with the most sincere-sounding Irish accent Winter had ever heard, asking about flights to New York on various airlines.
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