With a shake of her head, Kaitlyn left the laundry room. As her mother had always said, the best way to make time fly was to keep busy.
Kaitlyn glanced at the clock. It was almost four. Plenty of time to fold the laundry, make the bed, vacuum the rugs, and make herself beautiful before her date arrived.
Zack rose with the setting of the sun. For the first time since he had built the casino, his first waking thought wasn’t about going to work, but about a woman. Kaitlyn. She had been foremost in his thoughts since the minute she’d walked into the club. Not that he was complaining. He was more than happy to have a beautiful young woman running around in his head. In fact, he’d be happy as hell to have her take up permanent residence there.
He grinned, thinking the lovely Kaitlyn must have bewitched him. Sure, he was crazy about women. Always had been, but he had always loved them and left them, never looking back, rarely remembering their names once he told them good-bye. But Kaitlyn, she was different. And even though all they had shared so far was one mind-blowing kiss, he sensed he would never forget her.
With a shake of his head, he left his lair and went up the private stairway to his apartment where he took a quick shower and changed into a clean shirt and a pair of pants. If he didn’t hurry, he would be late.
He was doing a quick walk-through of the casino floor, on his way out, when he had the sudden sense that he was being watched. Pausing near the dice table, Zack pretended to be interested in the game while he let his preternatural powers expand. Sounds grew louder, colors brighter, smells sharper and more intense.
He glanced casually around the casino, his gaze resting quickly on each patron. It was still early. The crowd was light. He had no sense of another vampire on the premises, no scent of werewolf, and yet he would have sworn there was another supernatural creature in the building, although there was no trace of it now. Had he imagined it?
He finished his walk-through, stopped to talk with a few of the pit bosses, conferred briefly with the head of security, and left the casino, bound for Kaitlyn’s.
She opened the door before he knocked, a smile of welcome on her face. Dressed in a pair of white slacks and a lavender sweater, her cheeks flushed with color, she was even prettier than he remembered.
“So,” she said, “what do you want to do tonight?”
“Take a walk?” he suggested. “Go for a drive? See a movie?”
“It’s a nice night for a walk,” Kaitlyn said.
“Then that’s what we’ll do.”
Kaitlyn felt the same peculiar sensation she had on other occasions when he took her hand in his. Not a chill, exactly, more like a warm shiver of awareness that she felt all the way down to her toes.
She pondered her strange reaction to him as they walked down the narrow, tree-lined path toward the lake. Maybe what she felt for Zack wasn’t all that extraordinary. He was an extremely handsome man, after all, and there was no denying that she was physically attracted to him. But then, what woman wouldn’t be?
The night seemed to close in around the two of them as they neared the lake, which gleamed like a dark mirror in the light of the full moon.
Zack paused at the edge of the water where someone had thoughtfully placed a wooden bench just big enough for two. He waited until Kaitlyn sat down and then sat beside her, one arm resting on the back of the bench. A warm breeze, carrying the fecund scent of earth and foliage, rustled the leaves of the trees. A fish popped up in the middle of the lake, sending ever-widening ripples across the face of the water.
“It’s lovely here,” Kaitlyn said. “Do you ever come here to swim?”
“Now and then. Do you like swimming?”
She nodded. “My father taught me when I was a little girl.” She would never forget how much fun it had been to go swimming with her dad. Of course, they’d had to go at night, but she had never been afraid, not when he was there. Before she was old enough to swim, he had let her sit on his chest while he floated in the water. The most fun had been clinging to his back while he swam swiftly, effortlessly, from one end of the lake to the other and back again.
“What else do you like to do?” Zack asked.
“Oh, lots of things. I enjoy going to movies and plays and doing crossword puzzles. I don’t like to cook, but I love to bake.” She smiled at him. “I make a really wicked strawberry pie,” she said. “I’ll have to bake you one.”
Zack nodded. “Anything else?”
“I love to read.”
“Me, too.” He had spent many a long, lonely night in the company of a good book. “What do you like to read?”
“You’ll laugh.”
“Why would I laugh?”
“Because I like to read old fairy tales.”
He didn’t laugh, but he couldn’t hold back a grin. “You mean like Little Red Riding Hood and Sleeping Beauty?”
“Yes, but my favorite is Beauty and the Beast. It’s such a wonderful story, the way Belle learns to love the Beast in spite of his gruff attitude and fearsome appearance.”
“I guess you’re really into those happily-ever-after endings.”
“What’s wrong with that?”
“Nothing.” He glanced out over the water, wondering if he would ever have a happy ending of his own. “I guess everybody wants one.”
“So, what do you like to read?”
“Murder mysteries. Arthur Conan Doyle. Dashiell Hammett. Mickey Spillane.”
“Blood and guts, huh?” she asked with a grin. “Death on every page.”
He had to laugh at that. She had no idea.
“What’s so funny?” she asked, frowning.
“I was just thinking how far apart our tastes are in books.” And in food and drink and sleeping habits, he added silently.
“So, Mr. Macho Man, what do you like to do?”
“Oh, you know,” he said, flexing his muscles. “The usual manly things. Watch extreme sports on TV. Gamble. Drink too much. Drive too fast.”
She punched him in the arm. “Be serious.”
“I know what I’d like to do right now,” he said, his voice soft and seductive.
A thousand butterflies took wing in Kaitlyn’s stomach. There was no mistaking the desire in his eyes. “Oh?” Her voice emerged as little more than a squeak.
His finger traced the curve of her cheek. “Shall I show you?”
She swallowed. “Will I like it?”
“I think so.” He drew her closer, his voice low and husky in her ear. “I hope so,” he said, and kissed her.