High Stakes (2 page)

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There was just a slight pause,then he dropped her hand so quickly, her whole arm careened into her leg.

"Certainly, Ms.Baldizzi ." He turned to his ten orsoguests . "Excuse us momentarily. I'm so sorry for the interruption."

Then he gestured for her to walk in front of him. "I have a private office right down the hall. Would you like some coffee, water, wine?"

"No, thank you." Alexis adjusted the strap of her handbag on her shoulder. His aplomb was really starting to bug her. He didn't look the least bit curious as to why she had barged into his reception room at six o'clock on a Friday night. In her job, she was used to people reacting to her with suspicion, yet this guy was completely unconcerned.

"Are you perhaps any relation to BrittanyBaldizzi ?" he asked conversationally. "She's a dentist."

Weeelll
.Slick Rick.BringingBrittany up first.Alexis had to give him credit. He was smooth, and oh-so-polite. Charm personified. He had gone on the attack, mating the first move, which put her on the defensive. And she hated him all the more for it.

"She's my sister." Alexis stopped walking toward the door and whirled to face him, temper getting the best of her rationality.

His eyebrow rose."Sister?Really? You don't look a thing alike, though you're both lovely. And at this exact moment, I couldn't say whereBrittany is, but I would guess she's in her room. She's planning on joining me at the informal dinner I'm having."

Not if Alexis had to kill him first. "Where's her room?" she asked through clenched teeth. Good thing her sister did her dental work because she was probably cracking a filling.

"Suite twenty-three twenty.There's a private elevator from this floor. Is there a problem?A family emergency? Perhaps I can be of assistance."

"You can assist me by getting the hell out of my way." Alexis was upset. Really upset. Like her eyelids were twitching and her hands were fisting and her legs were jiggling.Brittany had abandoned her dental practice, moved into aLas Vegas casino that looked remarkably like a giant dildo, had not spoken to her sister in three weeks, and this guy was acting like they were at a goddamn Meet and Greet.

As far as she was concerned,Brittany had been kidnapped and brainwashed, and this man in front of her was responsible for the whole nightmare.

"Is there something wrong with your eye?"

"No. Now show me the elevator." Alexis headed back toward the hall, barging past him. Her shoulder clipped his forearm, and instead of stumbling back, he never moved an inch. She, on the other hand, bounced back like a tennis ball making contact with a racket.

"Will you get out of my way?" Alexis brushed at her jacket, not wanting any part of him touching her.

"Give your guestsBrittany 's apologies, but she won't be attending any dinner party."

"Why would that be?"

His faint British accent was as annoying as his perfect good looks. Alexis knew his type. He was like a
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poster child forSinCity . Come to Vegas and get swept off your feet by a tasteful, rich Brit who will make you a star… or more likely, charm you out of your panties and leave you a pregnant cocktail waitress.

"I would have thought it was obvious, but since you need it spelled out—she's leaving with me," Alexis tossed over her shoulder, heading toward the door, hoping the location of a private elevator to the twenty-third floor would be obvious. That exit line would sound just plain old stupid if she couldn't figure out where she was going, but sometimes acting confident was more important than actually knowing anything.

"Brittanydoesn't want to leave. She's quite happy here."

That smug, arrogant tone had Alexis jerking to a stop, thoroughly irritated. She whirled around. "You're an asshole." With that, she stomped to the elevator, hit the up button, and gave him her back.

Ethan watched AlexisBaldiz/i punch the elevator button a second time, her foot tapping impatiently, her hand clutching her purse. A few moments earlier, he had been thinking that perhaps just one hot little affair before he settled down would be a really smart idea, and that the feisty Alexiswas a damn good candidate for such a partner. He'd been thinking that she was sensual, passionate, erotic, and would taste juicy and feel soft as he took her.

But that was a few minutes in the past.

Before she'd called him an asshole.

Now desire had been replaced by annoyance. No one in nine hundred years had called him an asshole.

To his face anyway. Who talked like that? Well, he did, but what woman said that to him? It was crude and unnecessary and he completely failed to see what he had done to inspire such rudeness.

Seamus came up behind him as he leaned against the doorframe of the reception room.

"Who the hell is that?" he asked in a low voice audible to vampire ears, but not mortals. "And why are you letting her go upstairs?"

Ethan forced himself to relax. For several hundred years, he had been gaining steadily on his temper, displacing his passions from the battlefield to the bedroom, and he wasn't going to let one ill-mannered woman destroy that progress. "She says she'sBrittany 's sister. But I can't say I see the resemblance."

His dentist was tall, slender, with fair skin and dark, straight hair. This Alexis was flat-out short, not much higher than his shoulder. She had wispy blond hair that had been escaping from a twist at the back of her neck. She was curvier, too, if that glimpse he'd caught of her backside when she was sprawled out on his carpet was any indication.

She was the complete genetic opposite ofBrittany .

"That can't beBrittany 's sister." Seamus adjusted his red tie and shook his head, dark eyes' clouded with disbelief. "Brittanyis… sweet."

"Yes, she is," Ethan said, rather grimly. "Brittanyis pleasant, naive, cheerful…"And got on his everlasting nerves. Being with her was rather like ingesting too many sweets in a short period of time.

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But that was his problem, not hers. He clearly was a bloody in-grate, and not nearly as civilized as he liked to think. Yet he still didn't see how a "woman like Alexis—pushy, impatient, short— could share the same DNA withBrittany .

"That woman is a harpy," Seamus said firmly, as Alexis slapped the elevator door with her hand and swore eloquently at it.

"That's a little harsh, don't you think?" Ethan spoke with little conviction. Alexis had been, well, harping at him. But what puzzled him—or rather irritated him—was the realization thatBrittany in all her sweet feminine perfection got on his nerves, while Alexis, who certainly had shades of the harpy about her, stirred his blood.

Just a little.

Enough to puzzle him.

Well, hell, actually a lot.

Which infuriated him.He was supposed to be giving up on women. He had promised Seamus and the entire Vampire Nation that his randy days were over and he had grown serious and wise with age. He was supposed to chose a suitable wife andget on withi it, not visualize a most unsuitable woman lifting her skirt for him.

"Harpy's not quite the right word for her."Luscious…'
t
sexy… edible, maybe.

"Bitch?"Seamus asked with a grimace.

Ethan laughed loudly, earning him a glare tossed over Alexis's shoulder. "No. Not what I had in mind.

And I suppose she has the right to feel put off, you know. That was a nasty spill she took when James pushed her."

"I thought you said James tripped her on accident. I wasn't looking… too busy checking the latest exit polls on my Sidekick."

Holding his hand up, Ethan prevented Seamus from spewing out a half-dozen statistics that meant nothing to him.One of the downsides of his career choice. "Later on the exit polls, please. And James didn't push or trip Alexis, technically. I think he was reaching out to get her attention and forgot that he is much stronger than he used to be."

"Ah, to be a young vampire again."Seamus shook his head. "Whenall the world was new and exciting and everyone looked like a meal…" He grinned. "It's hell to get old. Now it's all responsibilities and shaping a new world order. I haven't even put the bite on anyone in a hundred years."

"Whine to me when you hit your five-hundredth birthday. Until then I don't want to hear it." Especially since Ethan was distracted at the moment. "So why do you think Alexis is here?" he asked quietly, aware that mortal ears had severe limits, but not wanting to chance Alexis hearing him.

"To save her sister from your evil clutches, I take it."

That was what concerned Ethan. His mild interest inBrittany had become much more when he had
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realized who she was. What she was. And Seamus had been ecstatic. Neither one of them wanted to give up the idea ofBrittany .

"I don't have any evil clutches.Haven't since at least the sixteenth century. But if they are well and truly sisters… is Alexis an Impure likeBrittany is?" He wasn't sure if that was a plus or a minus, or if it mattered in the slightest. Alexis was not a woman who could be easily persuaded or guided.

During the time he had been with her, Ethan hadn't been able to pick up on any of Alexis's thoughts. Not that he had really been trying to probe her mind, but nothing had come across to him.

"I don't know. I didn't sense anything from her, but I wasn't focusing on it. I was focusing more on staying out of her firing range.Not my kind of woman, Ethan, seriously." Seamus shuddered.

Ethan looked at his friend and campaign manager, suddenly curious, and unable to resist the chance to give Seamus a hard time. "What
is
your type of woman? I haven't seen you with a female since that little French girl tried to get you to take a turn on the guillotine. Are you saving yourself for marriage or something?"

Seamus scowled. "With all due respect, Mr. President, mind your own damn business."

With a laugh, Ethan clapped Seamus on the back, as the elevator finally opened for Alexis. "Let's go back to the guests.Brittany won't leave, I can guarantee it."

BecauseBrittany could not leave.As an Impure, she was his ticket to reelection for the presidency of the Vampire Nation. She would appease his minority constituents, and lend credence to his claim that he was older, wiser, less inclined to violence than he had been in his youth.

Which was true.He did see the value of negotiation and democracy now, whereas at one time he'd thought the only solution to a problem was to raise his sword. Now he was ready for diplomacy, andBrittany would make a truly valuable first lady.

"Are you sure? You haven't exactly been, uh, aggressive withBrittany . You're usually much more, well, successful earlier on with women." Seamus cleared his throat.

"I'm wooing her, Seamus." Ethan glared at his friend. "This is a serious venture, not a hot tumble in the barn. I'm being delicate."

Which was a laugh in itself.Ethan hadn't wooed any woman with the intention of doing more than getting her out of her clothes.

This was different, and he was having a little trouble adjusting himself to the prospect of a monogamous relationship.Marriage. Jesus. He got vampire sweat in his armpits just thinking about it. And withBrittany an Impure, their marriage could last some sixty years or more.

"Well, pick up the pace on the wooing. It looks like you're not interested in her. If Iwere a girl, I wouldn't think you were being delicate, I'd think you wanted to be 'just friends.'" Seamus made quote marks with his fingers.

Everyone was a critic. "If you were a girl, I wouldn't be pursuing your platter-face. But do you think you can do this better? You woo her. Let's see how far you get, Mr. No Date This Century. At least I'm still having sex."

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"You're having sex? You're not supposed to be having sex!" Seamus looked instantly alarmed. "You're supposed to be convincingBrittany and every other undead that you've reformed. You can't be whoring around at the same time you're 'wooing'Brittany ."

"Will you quit with the damn quote marks in the air? And I didn't mean I was having sex this minute. I just meant I have recently. You know, more recently than you, who last had sex when Napoleon was alive."

"Kiss myarse ."Seamus's brogue, which he had lost over the centuries, reappeared in his anger.

Ethan laughed. "Relax. If you want to be a monk, that's your business. And I'll turn on the charm withBrittany if you feel things are moving too slowly. I agreed to get myself a wife, didn't I? My word is sacred."

Yet for some reason, instead of picturing sereneBrittany at his side, a vision of her obnoxious sister rose in his mind.

And his thoughts regarding her had nothing to do with marriage and everything to do with arousal.

Shit. Seamus was right. He wasn't trying to charmBrittany . Not with much enthusiasm anyway.Because the thought of beddingBrittany left him cold.

And the thought of Alexis made him lava-hot.

Which was one more reason to avoid Alexis.

It didn't matter if she had challenged him by her dismissal and insult. He was a Master Vampire, elected president of all undead registered voters. He knew plenty of women who would sleep with him willingly and with great pleasure.Scores of women.

Her attitude was not a reflection on his manhood in any way, and he did not need to prove himself to her.

Ethan grimaced.Liar. Itmattered a hell of a lot that AlexisBaldizzi had looked at him like he was a troll.

Which wasn't a positive thing at all.

He had sworn to give up violence and casual sex, and in ten minutes AlexisBaldizzi had him contemplating doing both to her.

Alexis impatiently watched the elevatoropen, annoyed that she'd had to stand there pacing for five minutes while Carrick had stood in the doorway and watched her. He had spoken too low for her to hear his words, but when he'd laughed, she'd had the annoying suspicion that he had been amused by
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