High Stakes (12 page)

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"I'm ready. And I'm done with the dinner, it was delicious, thanks."

"You're welcome." He didn't move from his spot in the hallway, which meant she had to shimmy past him, brushing her arm against his.

She shivered.

"Cold?I can get you a sweatshirt, too." Alexis watched his lips move. Thought about how close they were to hers, albeit higher from the ground.

"It's August in Vegas. I'm not cold." And she shut the bathroom door in his face before she leapt on him.

His bathroom was large and luxurious, white on white, with nickel faucets. A peek in the shower showed a wide variety of gels and shampoos, and there were bath beads sitting beside his Jacuzzi tub. "The softer side of vampires," she mused, as she unzipped the dress and let it drop to the floor.

Alexis wasn't wearing a bra, which was potentially dangerous, but there wasn't much she could do about that at the moment. Standing in her panties, she reached for the T-shirt Ethan had set on the marble countertop for her. But first, she spotted a scale tucked under the vanity. Never one to be able to resist the temptation to horrify herself, she pulled it out and stepped on.

And went blind."Holy crap, I'm a cow." She sucked in her gut, glared at the digital readout, shifted her feet, and then out of sheer desperation shucked her underwear off, too. They might weigh half a pound.

Better to be completely accurate.

This time when she stepped on, it was a gratifying pound less. "Ha. See, I knew it. Damn lace is heavy."

The knock on the door had her jumping and falling off the side of the scale onto the floor, making a loud metal-on-tile scraping sound in the process.

"Alexis? Can I get you anything else?"

Hello.Naked here.With Ethan two feet away on the other side of a thin wood door. Just the thought had her inner thighs hum-mine. Nudity was for bathing or sex, and her body seemed to be ready for the second option. And she'd forgotten to lock the door.

"I'm good, thanks." She tugged on thekelly green T-shirt and reached for her panties. Once they were covering all the important parts as best as a black lace thong could, she felt marginally better. She debated locking the door, but figured he would hear the click and get offended.

"Okay. I spoke with the security advisor a half an hour ago, but I'm going to ask him to bring the tapes up now from the reception area."

"Good idea. You need to find this guy. And can you ask him to bring my shoes, too? I left one in the elevator and one by your bleeding body. In the trauma of the whole experience, I forgot them."

"Sure."

"Hey, Ethan?"Alexis pulled the jogging pants on and was mortified to find that they actually fit her in the waist. Shouldn't a woman be smaller than a man? "How's your vision? Do you have, like, x-ray eyes or anything?" Better to know what she was dealing with.

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She could practically hear his grin. "I'm not superman, beautiful. I can't see your naked body through this door, no matter how much I want to."

"Oh." She rolled the bottom of the pants and flipped off the door with her middle finger, just because he'd aggravated her.

"I saw that."

Alexis lost the ability to breathe. If he had seen her falling off that scale naked, she was going to croak.

"You said you couldn't see me!"

Now he laughed.Loudly. "I can't. But I know you did something rude. Icould.just feel it."

Oh, she hated it when someone got the best of her. "You're going to feel me busting your ass in a minute."

"I can hardly wait."

Ethan opened the door to his security advisor a minute later, still wearing a grin. Alexis made him laugh, in a way he hadn't in a long time.A hundred years or more. He'd been serious lately, trying really hard to keep a lid on his emotions, urges, instincts, temper.

In the process it seemed he'd forgotten how to laugh, and that was rather a shame.

"I brought the disc for you to view, Mr. Carrick, sir."

"Thank you, William. Is he on it?"

"Yes." William stepped into the room, a cardboard box in his hands. "And I wasn't sure which shoes belonged to Ms.Baldizzi so I brought them all."

"What do you mean, you brought them all?" Alexis came up behind Ethan and stared into the box. "How many pairs of shoes are left lying in the elevator?"

"About three a day, miss," William said with a completely straight face, his little electronic earpiece tucked in place, his goatee trim and tidy.

Ethan liked the way Alexis was hovering behind him, sort of leaning around him.Like she was with him.

Comfortable being behind his protection. It may have been an illusion or wishful thinking on his part, but she did actually touch his arm to shift him out of the way as she reached into the box. A red bra flew out of her hand and across the room.

"Geez!That's definitely not mine." Keeping her hand tucked behind her back this time, she leaned farther
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over the box. "There'sthree more bras in here and a thong.From six elevators? "What the hell goes on in these elevators?"

Neither he nor William spoke.

"How long did it take to accumulate all this?"

The corner of William's mouth twitched. "This is since yesterday, miss."

Alexis grabbed her throat and curled her lip back. "Is everyone in the world depraved except for me?"

"Oh, come now, Alexis, I'm sure you're capable of as much depravity as the next person."

She glared at Ethan.

"Are any of these yours?" William looked ready to be on his way.

"I see my shoes, but they're underneath a pair of boxers thatam not touching. I think I'll just get a new pair next payday-Thanks."

Ethan wanted to offer her a new pair, but was pretty sure shetell him to stick them in an uncomfortable place.

William retrieved the flung bra from the sofa and tossed it back into the box."Sorry, MissBaldizzi ."

"Hey, it's not your fault. Thanks for trying." She turned and tapped the disc Ethan was holding. "Does this show us who shot you?"

"We shall see." Ethan dismissed William. "I'll be in contact. Let me know when you'veIDed him."

"Absolutely, sir."

William left and Alexis turned to him, crossing her arms over her chest, which prevented him from seeing her nipples. "Just one question… vampire or mortal?"

"William?Vampire. Most of the guards are mortal, but as head of security, he needs access to certain information."

"Well, I hope he figures out who that guy is… I mean you can't just walk into casinos and shoot people.

If you have it on tape, my office can prosecute. I don't normally do homicides, but I can assist the senior prosecutor. I have a ninety-five percent conviction rate, by the way."

Even though she seemed to be handlingall of this quite well, there were obviously some issues she hadn't thought through. "Alexis, you can't prosecute. There is no police report, and no victim. I cannot be medically examined by mortals, which is why I had Seamus intercept theEMTs . There is no crime here, according to the mortal world. We want to discover his identity so we can find out ifIwas a direct target, or if it was an accident. Either way, we'll erase his memory to avoid suspicion." well, that sucks. I wanted to send the bastard to jail." She took the disc out of his hand and headed for the TV. "Will this play in your DVD player or just the computer?"

"The DVD player is fine. And why do I have the feeling you enjoy putting men in prison?" There was
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true disappointment on her face, which didn't really blend with her cute blond hair, perky nose, and pink lips. Wearing his sweatpants and a T-shirt, she looked more like an escapee from a local high school gym class, not an attorney.

But that gleam in her eye was allprosecutor .

Alexis pushed Play on his remote control. He liked the way she just made herself at home in his suite.

Most women were intimidated by him, and waited for his initiative.Maybe not sexually, but to be involved in his life in any way, yes. He hadn't had a woman assume she could take charge in his home since his mother.

Maybe there was something to be said for modern aggressive women.

Hekind of liked Alexis's attitude.

Or maybe that was blood loss talking.

"Okay, what the hell are we looking at?" Alexis frowned at the TV screen.

Ethan studied the image in front of him. A man, in his early thirties, lean, well dressed in an expensive but discreet suit, was walking off the elevator. He leaned to the side, whispering, his hand dangling in midair.

Alexis tilted her head. "He's talking to himself or something."

"Actually, he's talking to Kelsey. She took him upstairs, remember?" For which he really should fire her.

But Kelsey was not the brightest bulb in the vampire pack, and he had always thought it was better to keep her reasonably contained than to let her loose on her own. She was only thirty years a vampire, and still driven by blood lust. And she had warned him about the attacker, even if she had inadvertently led the guy right to Ethan.

"Oh, my God, I can't see her. She's there, but can't be recorded? That's so bizarre." Alexis sank down into an easy chair a foot in front of his flat screen.

It was odd watching the man talk to nothing. But Ethan was more interested in his face, not his marionette hands moving up and down in thin air. The image wasn't perfect, and the room was dim, with just the overnight lights on, but Ethan was certain he'd never seen him before.

So why did this man want him dead? He obviously thought a bullet would do the trick, so he either didn't know Ethan was a vampire, or didn't understand what would kill one of hiskind . This man, the way he turned his head, the way he smiled with a healthy dose of disdain, the way he gripped what Ethan guessed was Kelsey's backside, didn't point to him being insane, or a self-proclaimed vampire slayer. It wasn't fire that burned in his eyes. It was despair.Coldness.

This man was a professional killer, Ethan was sure of it.

They heard heavy breathing from the TV as presumably the pair kissed, grinding against each other.

Kelsey must have hit the reception desk because there was a thump as the furniture shifted and the phone was shoved.

This is really disturbing. I think I'm being scarred as we speak. It's like paranormal porn."

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Alexis did look a little pale. "Do you want me to turn it off?" No, are you kidding? I have to see what happens. It's like a car accident, but with tongue. You don't want to look, but you have to."

Personally, Ethan was finding the combination of heavy breathing from the TV and Alexis next to him wearing his clothes a bit arousing. Her chest heaved as she stared, head tilted, one eye closed. Ethan watched her watching the recording.

"He's going up her skirt! Oh, man, maybe we should fast-forward."

"How can you tell if you can't see her?" Ethan redirected his attention to the TV. Okay, so he could see it, too. With a little mental imagery, he had no trouble reconstructing the scene.

"His hand is like jerking upward, like he's pulling up her skirt." Alexis fell back against the chair arm."

Aahh! No, no, please don't do that. Just stop!" She yelled at the screen, throwing her hands up. "Don't get out the… oh, no, yuck, yuck, yuck, did they have to do that?"

The man, whoever he was, now had unzipped trousers, and a decent-sized erection pointed directly at them. Ethan grimaced. The man gave a tight moan, his hips pumping toward what body part on Kelsey Ethan really didn't want to know. "Jesus, where's the remote? I don't want to see this either."

While he started looking around, a little desperate, Alexis covered her face with a throw pillow and started laughing. Her little snorts were muffled by the plaid fabric, but her shoulders shook.

"What's so funny?" Ethan found the remote, but somehow managed to freeze the screen, instead of fast-forward.Right in mid-thrust. "Damn it." Seamus was the electronics whiz, not him. He was old, for chrissake , they'd barely had the wheel when he was a kid. He couldn't be expected to keep up with all this technology.

Alexis peeled the pillow back, watched him pushing every button on the remote frantically, and started laughing again. "I'm sorry, it's just so weird and gross,you have to laugh. I'm going to die every time I see Kelsey now."

Ethan finally hit the right button and the man's head snapped back, and eyes rolled upward. Yeah, he was going to have a hard time seeing his receptionist in the same way, too, after catching this little glimpse into her sex life.Especially since he was seeing her feed now.

Even without Kelsey's image, he knew that's what was happening. The man's head tilted, neck elongated, ecstasy over his features. Tiny droplets of blood appeared on his flesh, then immediately disappeared. Then suddenly he was moaning in distress, eyes still closed, body suspended, hovering over the desk.

This was where Kelsey had run out on him, leaving him under a weak glamour on the goddamn reception desk. The elevator dinged.

"Oh, God," Alexis said in a somber voice. "She left him there, didn't she?"

"Yes." Ethan was embarrassed. What they were watching… it wasn't how he wanted to introduce Alexis to his world. It shouldn't matter, but it did, that sheknow it didn't have to be crude like this.

"Alexis…"

She glanced at him. "Are you going to say something totally embarrassing to both of us, like that it isn't
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always like this… that a feeding can be an exchange of souls, as pure and sweet and sensual as making love with the right person?" well, he wouldn't have used those moronic words, but thesen-timent , yes.