Kristin didn’t think a bunch of people would show up in the pitch dark. Sure there was some moonlight, but not much. She saw his point, though. A cop might come down to the beach to see what was going on. Banan wouldn’t want to chance an indecent exposure charge.
Besides, July in Galveston was damn hot, and night didn’t cool things down much. The wind was blowing, but it just pushed the hot air around. The water would feel good. “Okay, but don’t go out too far. I don’t do water rescues.”
He handed his shorts to her, and she followed him down to the waterline. As he raced into the water, she admired the rear view. Trophy-quality butt.
Banan had already disappeared into the surf by the time she waded out to where the water lapped at the hem of her shorts. Warm water. So much for heat relief. The waves were low and choppy, but she wasn’t in any danger of being knocked off her feet.
As she stood waiting for Banan to emerge, her thoughts wandered to Taurin. Would he show up at her door and wonder where she’d gone? Kristin sure hoped so. He’d promised her another fantasy to make up for last night. Funny, but the shiver that thought brought had nothing to do with fear and everything to do with awareness.
Besides, the whole vampire thing from last night seemed sort of silly now. He’d probably been wearing a pliable mask and she’d been too overwhelmed by Saffron to recognize it. He’d explain everything when she saw him again.
Where the heck was Banan? She hadn’t seen him surface. Kristin edged out farther into the surf until she was up to her waist in the water. Worry tugged at her. She hadn’t grown up around water, but she’d made up for that lack when she went to college in California. She knew the danger of rip currents.
As if on cue, a choppy wave broke over her and she felt the inexorable pull as the current dragged her out. Dammit, she should’ve paid closer attention. She should’ve recognized the warning signs. Kristin was a strong swimmer, and she knew how to escape a riptide. She let it take her and then began swimming parallel to the shore with the current. Had it gotten Banan?
Oh, God. Panic touched her. What if she’d lost him? Kristin raised her head to look around. Nothing but dark water. No, there was something.
A fin. Primal fear touched her, and she tried to swim faster. She almost cried with relief when she finally fought free of the current. Her breaths came in harsh gasps as she swam toward the shore. Suddenly, something brushed against her leg. Something huge. And she knew. Opening her mouth, she screamed.
The shark broke the surface right in front of her. Fear leached the strength from her, and for a moment she floun dered in the water. A great white. In her mind, the theme from Jaws played counterpoint to the staccato beat of her heart.
Survival instincts kicked in as she remembered something from a TV program. Gathering all her strength, she punched the shark in the nose with every ounce of terror-driven power she could muster.
And the shark retreated. She couldn’t believe it. But she wasn’t going to hang around to revel in her success. She was doing a credible imitation of a windmill as she made for shore.
“Hang on! I’m coming.” Taurin?
She blinked the water from her eyes and saw him fling himself down the steps of the seawall and onto the beach. As if in slow motion, she watched him scoop his cell phone from his pocket and drop it onto the sand. Then . . . Then he was beside her in the water. What the . . . ? She blinked some more. He was wearing his vampire face. Oh, crap.
“Relax. I have you.” He wrapped his arms around her, and before she even had a chance to gasp for air, they were back on the beach. “Did he hurt you?”
The hell with the shark. Kristin started to reach toward his face, but before she could touch him, he became human again. No special effects, no trick of the light. Taurin was a freaking vampire.
“Did he hurt you?” He grabbed her shoulders and gave her a little shake.
Like that was going to make her better if she was hurt. “No.” She stared and stared and no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t blink. “A vampire. Talking cats. Where’s the rabbit hole?” She glanced vaguely around. “Has to be a rabbit hole around here somewhere. Where’d you put the rabbit hole?” She was babbling, not a good sign.
Taurin dropped his hands from her and raked his fingers through his wet hair. “This wasn’t supposed to happen.”
“No kidding.” Kristin felt a little woozy. But she’d be okay. She’d never fainted. She could take this. She finally blinked. There was something important that she knew she had to remember, something really important. Impatiently, she pushed at the mental fog messing with her thoughts.
“Why the hell did you go in the water anyway? Do you see a lifeguard anywhere?”
Kristin closed her eyes in an attempt to control a little spurt of dizziness. A second later they popped open. She’d remembered. “Ohmigod! I forgot. Banan is out there. We have to save him.”
Taurin stared at something behind her. “No, we don’t.”
She turned. Banan was striding naked toward them. He looked steamed.
“Why’d you punch me in the nose when I was trying to save you? I bet you lost my shorts.” He looked around. “Yep. They’re gone. You’ll have to go back to the castle and get me a new pair.”
Kristin stared at his bloody nose. Her brain wasn’t working at full force because her thoughts felt like they were slogging through knee-deep mud. “Why did I punch you in the nose?”
Nose. Punch. Shark. Naked guy coming out of water. Shark? Banan was a . . .
Kristin fainted.
CHAPTER FOUR
“Oh, shit.” Taurin caught Kristin as she toppled, and eased her onto the sand. “Why’d you have to scare her like that?” He glared at Banan.
“Me?” The wereshark looked aggrieved. “I was trying to save her cute little butt. You’re the one who charged into the water in full vampire mode. Using your preternatural speed to pop up next to her didn’t help, either.”
“Just remember, her cute little butt isn’t yours.” What was that about? He didn’t remember signing ownership papers on any part of Kristin Hughes. All he cared about was watching that cute little butt wave good-bye as she left without a story.
Taurin retrieved his cell phone from the sand where he’d dropped it and then lifted her into his arms. He started toward the steps.
“Hey, what about my clothes?” Banan had retrieved his T-shirt and was wiping the blood from his nose.
Taurin considered leaving the shark bare-assed on the beach. The thought brightened his night. And he’d be damned if he’d let Banan play out any sexual fantasies with her like they’d originally planned.
So why the change in plans? Why all the negativity aimed at Banan? After all, the guy hadn’t done anything to him. It was one of life’s mysteries he’d explore later.
Setting Kristin down gently, he handed his phone to Banan and waited while the shark explained his situation to Holgarth. Taurin grinned. Knowing the power of the wizard’s poison tongue, he’d guess Banan wasn’t getting off easy.
By the time Banan gave back the cell phone, he was scowling. “If he has a brain under that pointed hat, Holgarth will never go into the water again.” The shark’s expression said he’d love to catch the wizard in his world.
Taurin forgot about Banan as Kristin stirred. She blinked and stared up at him. Then she stared at Banan.
“What happened?” She frowned.
“You checked out for a few minutes.” Taurin watched her warily.
“I never faint.”
Taurin saw the exact moment she remembered the sequence of definitely not-quite-normal events that had led to her “checking out.” He expected her to scramble to her feet and make a break for the castle. She didn’t.
“Sorry I dropped your shorts in the water. I owe you a new pair.” As she stared at Banan, her expression turned calculating. “Maybe we should meet for lunch tomorrow. You could tell me how you change and—”
“He’ll be busy tomorrow.”
Taurin scooped her off the sand, ignoring her startled squeak. “He has to spend the afternoon scaring the crap out of the tourists. Gives them something to tell friends about when they get home.”
She glared up at him. “I can walk. Put. Me. Down.”
“You’ll run away.”
“I know you’re a vampire. I know I should run. But self-preservation takes a backseat to a sensational story.”
He jogged across Seawall Boulevard with her in his arms.
“Oh, come on, you’ll embarrass me if you carry me into the castle.” She wiggled around in a vain attempt to free herself.
He hissed at her and, surprised, she shut up. “I’m not taking you into the castle. I’m taking you to my car, and then we’re going to a place where we can talk without any damn cats interrupting us.”
Before she could open her mouth to object, he set her down beside his car and unlocked the doors. “I won’t bite you. You’re booked for the week, and I never bite guests. But once the week is up, hey, all bets are off.”
He jerked the car door open and glared at her. “You can walk away from me now, but I guarantee if you do you’ll never get a story from this park.”
Obviously the threat of losing her precious story did the trick. Without a word, she dropped into the passenger seat. Good thing it was so hot, because she was still soaking wet.
She remained silent until he pulled into the driveway of the beach house. “Yours?”
Okay, one word was a start. “No. It belongs to the castle. Any of us who feel the need for some downtime can come here to stay for a few days. Deimos—you haven’t met him yet—is planning a midnight beach party here next Monday. You’re invited.”
He could slip into her mind, but not without her feeling him. Besides, he didn’t need to. She figured the invite meant she’d still be alive for the party. The big, bad vampire wouldn’t rip out her throat, suck her dry, and then leave her empty husk on the beach.
Taurin led the way around the side of the darkened house to the empty beach behind it. He found a spot well away from the water, yanked off his T-shirt, and spread it on the sand. “Sit.”
“Thanks.” She sat on his shirt before trying to finger-comb her hair. Then she lifted her face to the breeze. “That feels good.”
Taurin sat beside her. Where to start? May as well get straight to the point. “You can’t write about what you saw last night and tonight. No one will believe you. And you won’t have any proof.”
He could tell she was turning possibilities over in her mind. “You’re right about no one believing me. That’s not a problem, though. No one believed my story about werewolves in Minnesota, either, but lots of people tramped through the forests looking for them anyway.” She didn’t sound particularly discouraged. “Of course, I’d have to dodge Eric with his little pink mind-eraser. Even if I wrote the story, I couldn’t defend it if I didn’t remember what happened.”
“Mind eraser? Who told you about Eric’s power?”
“Asima. She thought I’d be comforted knowing that Eric wouldn’t take away my memories if I acted like a reasonable woman.”
Hah! Reasonable wasn’t part of Kristin’s vocabulary. And Asima stuck her snooty cat nose into everyone’s business. She was an equal opportunity pest. “I’ll make a deal with you. You’ll get that sex story you want if you agree to forget about the paranormal stuff you’ve seen.” He watched her wiggle her bottom into a more comfortable position. Her hair lay damp across her shoulders, and the tempting lines of her body stirred him in a way he didn’t want to be stirred. Fine, so he wanted to be stirred, but not by her.
She turned to stare at him. “How’d you know about the sex story?” Then suspicion dawned in her eyes. “You read my mind, didn’t you?”
He tried to smooth the tension from his smile. “Nope, can’t do that. Only a few of the very old vampires, like Eric, have that power. Sorry. Another soulless bloodsucker myth goes down in flames.”
She narrowed her gaze on him. “You’re right, it wasn’t you. You came to my room already dressed as a sexy handyman, so someone else knew about my story and decided to give me what I wanted. I wonder why?”
Uh-oh. He could almost hear her mental footsteps as she circled the question, studying it from every angle. Then the footsteps stopped.
Her smile was sweet and so wicked it shriveled his . . . heart. “Gotcha! Whoever is at the top of this conspiracy ladder somehow knew I was coming to the castle looking for a kinky sex story. They decided to give it to me so I’d focus on the sex and not notice all the interesting ‘beings’ living here. But you, Saffron, Asima, and Banan blew it.”
Slow and calm. Losing his temper wouldn’t help the cause. He shrugged. “It doesn’t matter now. What matters is your decision. What’ll it be: authentic tales of hot sex from an actual witness—who, by the way, is Italian and therefore appreciates all things sensual—or unsubstantiated claims of nonhuman entity sightings? People will read both articles, but one of them pays a lot higher dividends.”
She was thinking about her choices way too long. He was insulted. Her week’s tour through Live the Fantasy with him would be a never-to-be-forgotten experience. Six hundred years of learning what women wanted guaranteed that.
He pushed aside the uncomfortable feeling that he was pimping himself out with this deal. It wasn’t like he’d be having sex with her at every attraction in the park. He’d just be making up erotic stories about things that had never happened there. If he could preserve the Castle of Dark Dreams as a place where all his friends were safe, then it was worth it.
The tiny part of his brain dedicated to truth was laughing its ass off. Like it would be such a great sacrifice if he had to make love with Kristin. Uh-huh, right.
Kristin studied him as she tried to figure out how she could have both stories. Fact: Eric could take away her memory of everything that happened here. But if she made note of this possibility as soon as she got back to her room along with info about what had happened so far and e-mailed it to Connie, her best friend, then she could have her cake and eat it, too, so to speak.
And Taurin was a triple-layered Italian-cream cake. “You have a deal. I get info on all the sexual events you’ve witnessed, and I keep my mouth shut about all the paranormal stuff.”
Sure, she felt a little guilty about lying, but she couldn’t pass up a chance at the biggest story of her life. She’d salve her conscience by sharing her profits with Taurin. And in the end, her story would be great for Live the Fantasy’s business. They’d rake in a fortune when people swarmed the place.
“Uh, just to satisfy my curiosity, why don’t you want anyone to know you guys exist?” They’d be superstars. Larry King and Bill O’Reilly would fight for the right to interview them. David Letterman and Jay Leno would joke about them. Couldn’t get bigger than that.
“Once humans know we exist, there’ll be a certain segment who’ll want to destroy us. Humans have a history of killing what they don’t understand, either on religious grounds, or out of fear, or just for the hell of it. If you wrote that story and convinced enough people it was true, then lots of them would come sniffing around. All nonhumans would have to leave the castle, because we couldn’t take the chance that one of the humans might get lucky.”
Okay, now she felt really guilty. Unbidden, thoughts of her San Antonio vampire story surfaced. Was there a chance those vampires were for real? Had she driven them away from their homes? No, she wouldn’t think about that now. She had to stay focused on Taurin and what he was offering.
“I’ll be recording our sessions. How do you feel about that?” This was the last hurdle. “Oh, and don’t worry about the park’s reputation, because I’ll make sure the public knows this stuff wasn’t sanctioned by the management. It’s just that the park does such a great job with its fantasies that people get carried away.” That should ease any guilt he was feeling about ratting out his employers.
“No problem as long as you don’t use my name.” His ex
pression gave nothing away.
Now that the business side of the discussion was over, she didn’t know what to say. She had a thousand questions about his life as a vampire, but she’d wait until they were on their way back to the castle. Something about the moon-lit beach didn’t lend itself to work-related chatter.
“So, I guess we can go back to the castle now.” The adrenaline rush had worn off, and reality smacked her right in the face. Dark, empty beach. Dark, dangerous vampire sitting beside her. Feet, take me outta here. Only her feet couldn’t take her anywhere until her behind decided it wanted to move away from his sexy presence. Her bottom was perfectly happy.
He watched her from eyes that shone in the night. “Don’t be in such a hurry, Kristin. Enjoy the moment.”
She made a big show of drawing in a deep breath of sea air, scooping up a handful of sand, and staring for a moment at the dark waves breaking on the shore. “Okay, enjoyed the moment. We can go now.” When had she morphed into a giant wuss?
“In a big hurry to get away, aren’t you, sweetheart? We haven’t sealed the deal yet.” His smile was slow, hot, and knowing.
“Sealed the deal?” Her voice reached for a higher octave. She was trying for I’m-cool-with-creatures, but her voice wasn’t a good liar.
His sensual smile slid into a frown. “You sound nervous. Guess I can understand that. I won’t lie to you, all the nonhumans in the castle have a potential for violence, but only when provoked.” His smile returned. “Thinking of provoking me, lady?”
Oooh, yes. “I don’t provoke vampires. So how are we going to seal the deal?” Did she really need to know this? Uh-uh. Did she want to know it? Definitely.
He leaned toward her, blocking out the pale moonlight with his broad shoulders. Broad bare shoulders. She couldn’t help it; she ran her fingers across his chest, savoring the tactile sensation of smooth warm skin over hard muscle.
And when he lowered his head to cover her mouth with his, she opened her lips to him without even once thinking about how she’d describe this scene in her article.
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