"Whatever." He patted her butt.
Cara moved out of his reach and pulled her pants up. That was it. She did not want to see Seamus for the rest of the night. He could take his vampire persuasion, sarcasm, and dickheadedness, and leave her alone.
"Get out." She would not suffer any more humiliation.
The smile fell off his face. "Oh, shit, are we starting this again? I thought you were over that."
Zipping her jeans, she headed in the direction of the bedroom, so frustrated she wanted to scream "Die vampire scum!" at the top of her lungs.
"And this is my apartment, by the way."
"Then I'll leave." Cara yanked her suitcase up, forgetting her new strength. The little wheeled bag hit the ceiling, scraped the plaster, and ricocheted back down to the carpet.
"You can't leave."
As if he hadn't told her ninety times. "This topic is getting boring. I'm leaving. And you can't stop me."
Fueled by indignation and irritation, Cara called her animals, ran to the front door, threw it open, and tore out into the hallway with her suitcase, not sure where in the hell she was going, but wanting away from Seamus.
It wasn't a big surprise that he followed her. What was startling was how fast he got there. In about one point six seconds he was at her back, another blink and he was in front of her. She slammed into his chest, unable to stop herself, and he stumbled back a few feet, causing her to trip over her suitcase. They hovered together, tangled arms and ankles, for a movie-like hang time, then they both crashed to the floor, Cara knocking hard on Seamus's rib.
"Ooff." She pushed on him, trying to roll over, sit up, scramble away in some way, shape, or form to get the hell out of contact with him.
Seamus just put one palm on her butt and was able to hold her flat against him. She wiggled harder, ticked that he was stronger than her. "Let me up."
"No. We need to talk."
A door opened to the right. Cara glanced over. Saw two pairs of feet. One male, given the black socks and big size, the other female, polish on the naked toes.
"You know, you might want to take that sort of thing to your room," a voice said.
Cara closed her eyes. It sounded like Ethan.
"Seamus Fox, you old dog. I had no idea you had it in you." That was Alexis, amusement heavy in her voice.
"Do you mind?" Seamus said with great dignity. "We were having a private conversation."
"Is that what we're calling it these days? We really have gotten too politically correct."
Cara shoved backward, trying to break Seamus's grip. "Let me go!"
"No." He locked eyes with her, and Cara saw that he would hold her there for the rest of their immortal lives if she didn't try another tactic. Seamus was as stubborn as she was. As if to prove it, he rolled, forcing her on her back, his legs and chest weighing down on her.
Fortunately, Alexis intervened before Cara screamed expletives at him, or worse, kissed him. She'd never kissed him, and she suddenly had the urge to do that. Just place her lips on his and taste his warm flesh.
"Well, this is cute and all, but seriously, you guys need to go into your room. Or better yet, Ethan and Seamus can work and Cara and I can go hang out."
Seamus stared down at her, his breath landing on her cheek, hot and rapid. He smelled delicious to her, like salsa—tangy and sweet. Her head pressed against the hard floor, but she was only vaguely aware of it. There was only him, his Irish blue eyes stroking her, stripping her, worshiping her. She relaxed her thighs apart, wanting his erection to rest more fully against her.
It seemed like a wonderful idea to just reach up, to touch his lip with her finger, run her touch along the warm fullness.
His mind reached out to hers, a persistent brushing of his thoughts over hers.
Let me make love to you.
She wanted to… hell, that was an understatement. She needed it with a primal fierceness that scared her. And she would have said yes, except that she never got the chance. Her mouth was opening when Seamus jerked back with a curse.
"Hell!"
"What?" Cara suddenly remembered they were lying in the hotel hallway. She sat up and tugged her T-shirt down over her waistband.
"Satan bit me, the annoying little shit." He was glaring at her Chihuahua.
Mr. Spock sat on his haunches, his little tail wagging. He looked adorable. Cara wondered if Seamus had thought to pack Mr.
Spock's clothes. He had half a dozen adorable sweaters and T-shirts.
"That little dog couldn't have possibly hurt you," Alexis said, leaning against the doorframe, arms folded.
"It didn't hurt. It pissed me off."
"Everything pisses you off," Cara said with a sniff, the mood broken, thank goodness.
"You trying to leave pisses me off." He stood up, held out his hand for her.
She ignored it and scrambled to her feet.
"Seamus, do you have anything for me tonight or can Alexis and I go back inside and leave you to your little domestic drama?" Ethan was smirking next to his wife.
Seamus glared. "I need to talk to you, actually." He turned back to Cara. "Get back in the apartment."
That infuriated her. "No."
"I'll pick you up and haul you back if I have to."
How could he do that? Go from seductive and caring to bossy bastard? Cara felt angry tears blurring her vision.
"Whoa, whoa." Alexis stuck her hand up in a T shape. "Time out. Seamus, go do your thing with Ethan. Cara and I are going downstairs to have some girl time."
When Seamus opened his mouth, she added, "Don't worry, we'll take bodyguards. We'll be fine. How much trouble could we get into in our own casino?"
"Seamus, could I offer a bit of advice?" Ethan asked, as he glanced through the schedule Seamus had handed him.
"Sure." Seamus lifted the orange cat off his notebook computer and dropped him on the floor. A tuft of fur wafted up and stuck on Seamus's lip. "Damn it." He plucked it off and tossed it in the wastebasket with a grimace. "These cats get into everything. It's like living on Animal Kingdom."
"That ties in with what I'm about to suggest. It seems to me that you and Cara have some issues."
Yeah, like the fact that she couldn't stand him.
"So maybe it would be wise if we found other arrangements for Cara. Just because you turned her doesn't mean she has to live with you."
Seamus felt a tremor of alarm. Maybe things weren't going so hot, but he didn't want Cara to leave. It wasn't safe. And he would miss her. Because he hadn't slept with her yet. "She can't be on her own yet. She doesn't know how to be discreet, she doesn't know our rules. And what if those guys from the alley come back around? These attacks don't make any sense, Ethan. What if she's in danger?"
"Relax. I don't mean leave our protection. I meant we could get her a suite of her own. I think she'd be happier that way."
"I don't want her to have a suite of her own." The very thought offended him. Why the hell couldn't she stay with him? What was so freaking awful about him?
"Look, I can see you're attracted to each other. But I think Cara is still confused and upset that her life has altered drastically. I think she might appreciate the space and the privacy." Ethan nudged the Chihuahua off his pants. "And she'd take her pets with her."
"No," Seamus said. He had no logical reason to say no, but it popped right out of his mouth with no hesitation whatsoever. "She stays with me."
Ethan studied him. "Then you might want to drop the master and servant routine. I don't think she enjoys being told what to do."
He had no idea what Ethan was talking about. He had been nothing but considerate of Cara in the forty-eight hours since he'd met her. He was living with a Chihuahua, for hell's sake. That was pretty freaking accommodating of him. He clicked to open his Internet browser. "I don't know what you're talking about."
Ethan snorted. "I don't think you do. You seem to have no clue you're falling for Cara."
That shocked him speechless. Seamus stared at his computer screen filled with the day's news, the TV lineup for that night, his daily horoscope, and the weather. Las Vegas. Sunny and eighty.
Seamus Fox. Stupid and three hundred seventy.
"I'm not falling for Cara." The minute he spoke the words, he knew he was lying. He was. The control he strove for, clung to, was already slipping away from him.
"Come on, Seamus. Maybe if you just let yourself have a relationship, you might enjoy it."
"I don't want a relationship, and you know why." The very thought of commitment to a woman made him sweat in unpleasant places.
"Because of Marie?" Ethan stood up and tossed the packet of papers onto Seamus's dining room table. "Come on, Fox. It's been two hundred years. Marie lied to you, betrayed you. But she's dead and Cara isn't Marie. You've got to learn to trust another woman sooner or later."
Later worked for him. "She didn't just betray me, Ethan. She had me sent to the guillotine. The only thing that saved me was a dull blade." It had gone only halfway through his neck. Assuming he was dead, they had tossed him in a pile of headless corpses, including two of his vampire comrades.
He touched his neck. His scar had never fully healed.
"I know that. I saw you that night afterward. Marie was a bitch. But you shouldn't judge Cara by Marie's betrayal."
"I just met Cara and you're a lousy shrink. Let it drop. We have more important things to worry about, like your campaign, and who the hell wanted me dead in that alley. I should have taken this more seriously. I should have questioned Kelsey more thoroughly."
Ethan just shook his head. "I'm not sure that would have mattered. And I trust you to be thorough, Seamus."
"I'm sorry about Cara," Seamus said, feeling guilt sit in his gut like a stone. "I shouldn't have turned her."
"But you did, and maybe you should ask yourself why. Maybe she's meant to be your mate."
"Marriage has made you obnoxious." Seamus headed to the fridge for a drink. "Not everyone wants your domestic bliss, you know. And I am sorry I ever met Cara in the first place." Maybe if he said it out loud, he'd actually believe it. "She's not happy, and I really don't want her to toss controversy onto your campaign."
"I'm sure it won't be a big deal. We'll just have to make sure her behavior is discreet. Keep her presence a secret."
Seamus had a suddenly horrible thought. "Then why the hell did we let her run off with
your
wife? Alexis wouldn't know discreet if it bit her in the ass."
Cara was so relieved to be out of Seamus's apartment, that she would have done anything Alexis suggested for entertainment, whether she wanted to or not. But it was all the better that Alexis had suggested hitting the casino downstairs and gambling a little. They had gone and grabbed Kelsey, who had been reluctant, but wanted the company, and after changing clothes and doing one another's makeup, they had hit the casino floor.
"All I have is ten dollars," Cara said, digging in her purse. "Where is the money machine?" She needed something to distract her, and mindless gambling entertainment sounded like a perfect way to spend the night.
"Oh, we don't have to pay." Alexis scoffed and went up to the box office. "My husband owns this joint. Being married to Ethan has its privileges besides great sex. They can give us loaded cards to use."
"Okay. But if I win, I'll give back the original investment to Ethan." Growing up without a father, her mother dying at twelve, Cara was used to being poor but proud. She didn't like to take handouts.
"Fair enough."
Alexis went up to the box office, one of the two bodyguards trailing after her. The other stood at a discreet distance from Kelsey and Cara. Cara smiled encouragingly at Kelsey. "So, how do you know Ethan and Seamus?"
"I'm Mr. Carrick's secretary. I met him in New York in the sixties when I was a brand-new vampire, and he asked me to come to Vegas with him as his secretary. That's when I met Seamus."
Kelsey darted her eyes around the whole time she was talking, and she crossed her very thin arms over her flat chest. She had long black hair that tumbled over her sharp alabaster cheekbones. "Did you feel that?"
"Feel what?" Cara just felt aware, but content. Neither hot nor cold, nor hungry. Just… vampiric.
"That bad feeling. That fingers-on-my-spine feeling. There's someone here."
"There are lots of people here." The floor was packed, despite it being an average Thursday night in September. Time had no relevance in a casino. It could have been any day of the week, any month, any city, morning, noon, or night, and it didn't matter.
"There's someone bad here."
Cara didn't doubt that. If you had that many people in a room, there was bound to be someone nasty in the bunch. "Maybe you're picking up on someone's distress. Maybe someone lost a lot of money or something."
"No." Kelsey locked eyes with her. "Never mind." She gave a soft smile. "Seamus likes you a lot, you know."
"He could have fooled me."
"Well, men are stupid."
In that, Cara had to totally agree with Kelsey. Just thinking about how he'd ordered her to his room made her hot all over again. And bad hot, not good hot.
"But you can trust Seamus. He's a good man. He took care of me when I had my… accident."
"I'm sure he's responsible." He did what was expected of him, she could clearly see that. She just didn't want to be an obligation to Seamus Fox. She didn't want him to feel sorry for her. She didn't want him to control her life.
Alexis came back up to them, waving cash cards. "Where to first?"
"The Wheel of Fortune machine," Kelsey suggested, a spark of something other than fear in her eyes. The slots didn't appeal to
Cara at all, but she felt compassion for Kelsey. She had obviously been through something traumatic and the rest of the vampires at the Ava cared about her, worried about her.
If the slots made Kelsey relax, Cara was all for it.
An hour later, Alexis was grumbling that she'd lost her shirt on the slots. "Well, Ethan's shirt," she said with a grin.