The Vampire and the Vixen (3 page)

“Did you know who I was the other night?”

“Not until Arthur introduced us.”

“But, out on the balcony…you knew.”

He nodded. “Yes, but by that time it was too late.”

“Too late?”

“To resist you. As soon as I walked into that room and saw you I wanted to kiss you.”

The breath whooshed from her lungs. Why couldn’t she ever breathe when he was around? She had to find a way, or they couldn’t work together.

Her glance flicked to the tissue paper ghosts hanging from the ceiling and then to the grinning jack-o-lanterns taped to the windows. “I…I can’t explain my behavior the other night. It was unprofessional, and if I could take it back, I would.” Would she?

“I wouldn’t.”

She jerked her gaze to his. “What?”

“I wouldn’t take it back. And Kelsey?” He leaned forward and folded his arms on the table. “I want to do it again.” His smoldering eyes matched the heat in his voice.

And melted her insides. Sweet Jehoshaphat. For several pulse-pounding, breath-stopping heartbeats she did too. Until sanity returned.

As every feminine instinct screamed in protest, she looked him in the eye, got a firm grip on her resolve, and said, “It can’t happen again. You’re my boss.”

For a moment it looked like he was going to object. Then he nodded. “I know.”

The tension slipped from her shoulders. “We have to forget about the other night.” No matter how hard that might be.

His lips curved, but didn’t quite form a smile. “I’m not sure if I can do that. Because Kelsey, you played the vixen very well.”

Her mouth opened. Closed.

He picked up his pen, and then returned his attention to the papers in front of him. “You’d better get going. Tracy wants to talk to you, remember?”

“Right.” Damn. She had forgotten. No surprise there.

After taking a few minutes to compose herself, Kelsey walked around the corner of Tracy’s small cubicle. She propped her hips on the edge of the desk. “What did you want to talk about?”

Tracy turned from the computer screen. She looked at Kelsey’s face. Her eyes widened. “You didn’t kiss him again, did you?” Her gaze flicked to Kelsey’s neck.

Kelsey smoothed a strand of hair that had escaped its clip back behind her ear. “No.” She tamped down the regret of never being able to again.

“Good.” Tracy looked around, then leaned closer. “I think Rafe’s a vampire.”

Kelsey frowned. “I know. I saw him in his Dracula costume at the fundraiser, remember?”

“No.” Tracy’s long blonde hair scattered as she shook her head. “I think he’s a real vampire.”

Chapter Three

Kelsey laughed. “Yeah, right.” Then she took a closer look at her friend’s serious face. “You’re kidding right?”

“No. I wish I was.”

“O-kay.” Kelsey still didn’t get the joke, but she’d play along for a little bit. “What makes you think that?”

“I’ve noticed certain…things.”

“Like?”

“Well for one, he said he won’t be here during the day.”

“He works the night shift. He doesn’t need to be here during the day.”

“Or, he
can’t
be out during the day, so he
has
to work the night shift.”

“I really don’t think—”

Tracy cut her off. “He didn’t want garlic on his pizza tonight.”

Kelsey sighed. “A lot of people don’t like garlic. It gives them bad breath.”

“Well, he didn’t eat any pizza either. And did you notice? The signet ring he wears is gold, not silver. Silver burns vampires. And he bit your neck. Which is exactly what a vampire would do.”

Kelsey shivered. Rafe’s lips against her throat had been warm and sensuous. But he hadn’t really bitten her. More like, sucked gently. Her pulse quickened and her breath caught.

She cleared her throat. “Are you working off of some kind of list you found out of
Vampires for Dummies
? I suppose next you’re going to tell me he sparkles in the sun.” Tracy’s adoration for a certain forever-seventeen literary vampire who did just that was legendary around the library.

Tracy’s eyes narrowed. “Leave Edward out of this.” She waved her hand. “Besides, he’s just a fictional character.”

“My point exactly.
All
vampires are fictional characters.”

“Fine. Don’t believe me. But I’m going to prove I’m right.” Tracy paused. “Just be careful around him, okay? You’re not going to start dating him or anything, are you?”

“Of course not, he’s my boss.”

“But you kissed him the other night.”

“It won’t happen again.” A stab of disappointment pricked her stomach. “If I’d known who he was, I never would have kissed him in the first place.”

“You mean what he was.”

Kelsey shook her head. “I swear, I never would have guessed these words would ever, in a million years, come out of my mouth because they go against everything I stand for and believe in as a librarian, but, Trace, I think you’ve been reading too many books. Maybe lay off the paranormals for a while.”

Tracy rolled her eyes.

“And I meant just what I said.
Who
he is. As in my boss.” She pushed away from the desk and stood. “Are you ready to get out of here?”

“Yeah, I am.” Tracy logged out and switched off her computer. “Congratulations on your promotion by the way.”

“Thanks. That’s what I was talking to Rafe about.” She ignored the pleasurable shiver saying his name elicited. “I, um, wanted to make sure I got the job based on my qualifications, not my—”

“Talents.” Air quotes accompanied the word.

“Exactly.”

****

Rafe leaned back in his chair. He pinched the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger. The florescent lights and the too bright computer screen made his eyes ache. He closed them.

A vision of Kelsey’s lush, kissable lips appeared behind the lids. He shouldn’t have kissed her. Especially after recognizing her name as soon as Arthur introduced them. But he hadn’t been able to help himself. The long blonde curls cascading over her shoulders and blue eyes that matched the color of her dress perfectly had made her seem every inch the vixen she portrayed. And he’d been far from immune.

He chuckled wryly. How many times had his natural instincts gotten him in trouble over the years? Too many to count. He opened his eyes, and then clicked the mouse. The glowing screen shifted. Undulating waves of black and dark blue drifted across the monitor.

After flicking the switch to shut off the overhead lights, he stood in front of the plate glass window behind his desk. Darkness shrouded the main square of the small town laid out before him. At this hour, the clock tower showed it was almost two in the morning, the streets were deserted.

Somewhere out there, Kelsey slept. Was she dreaming of him even as he was thinking of her? He rubbed a hand over his face. He wasn’t tired. Night was the time he came alive. But thoughts of his sexy new Assistant Director made him want to climb into bed. With her.

And pick up where they’d left off.

He wanted to measure the feminine weight of her breast in his palm. He wanted to press his lips to the pulse in her slender neck. He wanted to taste her.

****

Kelsey moaned at the sting of Rafe’s sharp fangs. A hot rush of pleasure licked through her veins when he opened his mouth over the small wounds and sucked. Warmth pooled between her thighs, then flared even hotter as he buried the hard thrust of his arousal inside her. When he kissed her, the salty tang of her own blood lingered on his tongue. Then the world exploded as she contracted around him, drawing him even deeper, taking him with her into the conflagration.

Kesley sat up with a gasp. She placed a palm over her heart where it threatened to beat out of her chest. Her breath escaped in short, staccato bursts. Heat raced through her in the wake of the shivers contracting her womb and making her limbs tremble.

Sweet Zacchaeus.

The memory of their real life kiss was bad enough. How would she face Rafe later tonight after dreaming about him like that?

****

After commanding her foolish, racing heart to behave, Kelsey sucked in a lungful of air, and then knocked on Rafe’s office door. When she received no response, she pushed the door open and peeked in. “Rafe?”

The chair behind his desk was empty. A quick scan of the room showed it was too. She released the breath she’d been holding.

She placed the report on his blotter, then looked around. He hadn’t changed much about the office, but his presence was indelibly stamped on the small space. The spicy scent of his aftershave lingered. Draped on one arm of the coat tree next to the door was a black leather jacket. A framed map of the world on what looked like parchment hung on the wall above the credenza.

The single picture on the polished wooden surface caught her eye. She picked it up to study it more closely. Although the people in the grainy, sepia toned photograph wore old-fashioned clothing, the man in the middle dressed in the military uniform of a Confederate soldier looked just like Rafe. She squinted. Had it been taken at one of those old time portrait studios? The weathered, wooden house in the distance didn’t look like a backdrop.

“That picture was taken during the Civil War.”

Kelsey bit back a scream and almost dropped the frame.

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to frighten you,” Rafe said.

Kelsey placed the picture back on the shelf, then clasped her hands together to keep them from shaking. “No, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have been looking at it.”

He leaned his hips against the credenza, stretched out his legs, and crossed one foot over the other. “I don’t mind. Why bother putting pictures out if no one is going to look at them?” He motioned to the frame. “That’s my great, great granddaddy in the middle.”

Was it? Or was it him?

She groaned silently. Damn Tracy. Her ridiculous theory had prompted the most erotic of erotic dreams last night. Did it have to mess with her sanity as well? Rafe wasn’t immortal. Vampires weren’t real.

Were they? “The resemblance is…striking.”

He chuckled. “We could have been twins if we hadn’t been born in different centuries.” His gaze caught hers. Unblinking. Sincere. Not a trace of deception in the blue irises.

Or was he just a very good liar? With centuries, or maybe even millennia, of practice.

“It’s nice to have family heirlooms like that. I don’t have anything that old.”

“It’s easy to lose track of things over the years.” His gaze searched hers a moment longer, then he stood. “Was there something else you needed besides a family history lesson?” A hint of amusement colored the words.

“No. I put the latest enrollment numbers on your desk. The picture caught my eye as I was on my way out.” She turned to go. “Have a nice night. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Have dinner with me Saturday.”

She froze. Her heart, which she’d just managed to get under control, sped. A slow pivot brought her to face him again. “Haven’t we talked about this already? It’s not a good idea to date the boss.”

“No one has to know.”

“Rafe.”

He took a step closer, bringing the scent of his aftershave into sharper focus on her senses. Bringing everything about him into sharper focus. The breadth of his shoulders beneath the gray sweater. The intensity in his gaze. And the memory of what it was like to kiss him. And make love with him.

The dream had been so vivid.

So real.

“I like how you say my name.”

“Ra—” She bit her lip, then shook her head. “We can’t do this.”

He traced a crooked finger down her cheek. “I can’t stop thinking about you.”

Oh Lordy. She locked her knees so she wouldn’t melt into a puddle on the Berber carpet.

His hand slid to cup the side of her neck. “Your pulse is racing.” His thumb brushed the spot. “Are you still going to tell me this is a bad idea?” His breath stirred the wisps of hair around her face.

“Y-yes.”

“Because I’m your boss? Or is that just an excuse?”

“An excuse?”

“Is it really because I’m your boss, or is it because of what I am?”

****

“I think you might be right about Rafe.”

Fate, in the form of Arthur knocking on Rafe’s door to talk to him about something, had saved Kelsey from needing to answer the mind-boggling question about what he was.

As soon as she arrived at work the next day, she’d made a beeline for Tracy’s cubicle.

Tracy’s gaze shot to Kelsey’s neck. She grabbed her own. “Did he—?”

Only in her dreams. Unfortunately. “No.”

Something in her tone must have given her away, because now Tracy’s eyes bugged. “You want him to bite you?” she squeaked. “He could kill you.”

Kelsey shook her head. “He won’t.”

“Vampires are dangerous.”

“Well, he hasn’t tried to bite me yet, and we’ve been alone together on more than one occasion.” With his lips enticingly near her throat. “He’s had plenty opportunity to do something and he hasn’t. Besides, vampires and humans co-exist and are…together…in all those books you read. What about Snookie and Eric?”

Tracy rolled her eyes. “Snookie is from Jersey. You mean Sookie.”

Kelsey waved a hand. “Whatever. They’re like boyfriend and girlfriend, right?”

“You still want to date him, even if he is?”

Oh, she wanted to do more than that with him. “I can’t date him. He’s my boss.”

Tracy snorted. “I think you have bigger concerns at the moment. Besides, no one cares.”

“Ryan thinks the only reason I got the promotion is because I’m sleeping with Rafe.” A tiny thrill shot through her. If only.

“Ryan’s a moron. No one else thinks that.”

“How do you know?”

“Because gossip travels like rag weed in the fall around here. And I haven’t heard anyone say boo about you and Rafe. Ryan’s just jealous because he didn’t get the job. Everyone else knows how good you are at what you do. You deserved it.”

“You really think so?”

“Yes.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “Now, back to more important matters. What are you going to do about Rafe’s…condition?”