“That isn’t necessary.”
“Please,” he said. “It would make me feel better.”
She hesitated. Eddie Harrington was of medium height, young and slender, with a shock of bleached blond hair and dark brown eyes. Had she been an ordinary girl, she would have refused to go with him, but she was her father’s daughter. Blessed with preternatural speed and the strength of ten men, she was confident of her ability to take care of herself.
“Come on,” he coaxed. “It’s just a cup of coffee.”
“All right.”
“Great.” He took one of the bags from her arm and followed her to her car.
He whistled appreciatively when she unlocked the door of the Porsche. “Nice ride!” He put the bag he was carrying on the backseat, then placed hers beside it.
“Thanks.” Kaitlyn locked the car. Wishing she had never agreed to this, she listened to Eddie make small talk as they strolled toward the coffee shop, which was a few doors down from the market.
A waitress showed them to a booth. Kaitlyn sat down and Eddie slid in beside her. It annoyed her that he didn’t take the seat across from her.
Eddie ordered two cups of coffee, then sat back, one arm stretched out on the seat behind her. “So, do you live around here?”
“Yes, do you?”
“No, I’m just laying over for a few days on my way to L.A.”
“Oh? Is this a business trip?”
“You could say that.”
The waitress arrived with their coffee. “Will there be anything else?”
Eddie glanced at Kaitlyn, one brow raised in question.
She shook her head, wishing again that she had refused his invitation. There was something about Eddie she didn’t like, didn’t trust, although she had no idea what it was. He seemed nice enough. And it was, after all, just a cup of coffee. It wasn’t as if she was agreeing to a lifetime commitment.
“Have you lived here long?” he asked.
“No.” She added cream and sugar to her cup. “What kind of business are you in?” Not that she cared, she thought as she stirred her coffee.
“At the moment, I’m just scouting around.”
“Oh.” She sipped her coffee. It burned her tongue, but she kept drinking. The sooner she finished it, the sooner she could get out of here. She should have bought a half-gallon of ice cream at the store. It would have given her a good excuse to hurry home.
“So, I was thinking, maybe we could go out later, take in dinner and a movie.”
“I’m sorry, I can’t. I have a date.”
“How about tomorrow night?”
“I’m afraid you’re wasting your time. I’m seeing someone.”
“Are you engaged?”
“No, but we’re exclusive.” She drained her cup and set it aside. “I really need to go.”
He stared at her, his eyes narrowed, as if he didn’t believe her, but she didn’t care.
She lifted one brow. “Do you mind letting me out?”
“Sure.” He wasn’t smiling now.
Kaitlyn slid out of the booth. “Thank you for the coffee,” she murmured over her shoulder.
It was all she could do to keep from running out the door. She didn’t know who Eddie Harrington was, but he gave her the creeps.
Chapter 11
Zack stood in the shadows alongside Kaitlyn’s house, debating whether to see her again. She was a nice girl, obviously a little naïve when it came to men. He had the feeling she had been sheltered most of her life until she came here to live. He sensed the strength in her, but it was more physical than emotional, and the last thing he wanted to do was hurt her. In all his existence, he had had only one long-standing relationship with a woman, and that had been over a century and a half ago. It just wasn’t smart to care too deeply for mortals. At best, they lived a mere seventy or eighty years; at worst, they died in your arms at the age of twenty, like his beautiful dancer, her mind gone, her body ravaged by disease.
He rarely thought of Colette. She had been a pretty young woman, with bright red hair, a winsome smile, and a dancer’s slender figure. They had spent three incredible years together and then, without warning, she took sick. Within the space of a few hours, she was out of her head with fever. He had taken her to the hospital, but the doctor shook his head and said there was nothing he could do. In a few days, she looked more dead than alive. He had begged her to let him bring her across in hopes that the change would heal her in mind and body, but she had been too far gone to decide, and when he had tried to bring her across, it was too late. She had died in his arms. The memory of her death had haunted him for years. Even now, thinking of her filled him with guilt and regret. He wasn’t sure he was ready to face that kind of failure, of loss, again.
He shoved his hands into his pockets. Best to go back home where he belonged. He was about to head back to the casino when Kaitlyn appeared at the front window. One look and he knew he couldn’t let her go, not yet. He had been alone too long, waited too long to feel the warm rush of desire that spiraled through him whenever she was near, a hunger not just for her blood, but for the sound of her laughter, the beauty of her smile, the chance to hold her close in his arms and feel alive again. And if she broke his heart . . . well, he would just have to live with it, because he didn’t want to live without her.
Zack was leaving the cover of the shadows alongside Kaitlyn’s house when he caught the scent of a stranger. It could mean nothing, he thought. It could be a tourist out for a walk, the mailman, a repairman, except there was no reason for any of them to be in this particular place at this particular hour.
He took another breath, committing the scent to memory, before making his way up to the front porch.
Kaitlyn answered his knock almost immediately, leaving him to wonder if she had been standing by the door waiting for him—or for the man whose scent he had detected only moments earlier.
The look in her eyes when she saw him, the warmth in her voice as she invited him inside, was all the answer he needed.
Murmuring her name, he pulled her into his arms and kissed her until she protested that she needed air.
“Damn, woman,” he muttered.
She smiled up at him, thinking that the awe in his voice and the heated expression in his eyes was the nicest compliment she had ever received.
Standing on her tiptoes, she folded her hands over his shoulders and pressed her lips to his.
Without breaking the kiss, Zack lifted Kaitlyn into his arms and carried her to the sofa. Still without breaking the kiss, he settled her on his lap and wrapped his arms around her. She fit into his embrace as if she had been created for no other purpose than to mold her body to his. Her skin was warm and smooth, her hair fragrant with the scent of honeysuckle, her lips soft and pliable. His body reacted as expected when a soft moan rose in her throat.