Real Vampires: Glory Does Vegas by Bartlett, Gerry (white hot kiss TXT) 📕

I reached between us, unzipping him. Oh, yes, he was ready to surge inside me, filling me until I was breathless. Miss him? Until I wanted to weep on his bare shoulder and beg him to stay. Instead, I held on and bit his shoulder, making him groan and push me against the wall until we both found our satisfaction.

He ran his hands over my bottom, pressing me against him. A deep kiss, then he looked into my eyes. “I love you, Gloriana. Don’t forget that while you are serving all those men who come to that club for only one thing. They want to be aroused by staring at women dancing half naked on the stage. You think that is enough for them? They will try their luck with any woman within reach. You are tempting. Surely you know that.” He slid me down his body.

“We have bouncers. Big men who can handle anyone who steps out of line.” But I knew he was right. I’d already had to turn down offers.

“It’s a dangerous atmosphere. I have learned that you keep Valdez in a room away from you while you are serving drinks. He can’t protect you from there.” Jeremiah stared down at me, reading my mind. “I know you have your own skills you can use against mortal men. Are you tempted by the blood running through their veins?”

“I admit a hearty negative blood makes me want to jerk one of the men into a dark corner and have my way with him.” I laughed when I saw Jeremiah’s face. “But that’s easy to resist when I think how difficult it would be to explain. I do want to keep my job.”

He growled his opinion of that.

“Relax.” I smiled and tried to smooth away his frown. “My tray is heavy enough to do some real damage if I decide I need to use it for self-defense.”

He finally smiled. “My warrior woman. I’d like to see you in action again.”

“Be assured, Jerry.” I found his shirt I’d picked on the floor, a mass of wrinkles. “I know, with his bat-like hearing, that Valdez would hear me if I screamed. That should be good enough.” I patted his chest and kissed his cheek.

He took my hand and kissed my palm, a gesture from ancient times. “I won’t harp on it. The clock is ticking and I won’t make you late.” He buried his face in my hair and inhaled. “I’ve put my mark on you and now you smell like sex.” His grin was wolfish. “I don’t like the idea of mortals being around you when you look like you do now.”

“And how is that?” I ran my hands through my hair. It was a horror, I could tell.

“Well loved.” He ran his hands down my body until they rested on my hips. “Why don’t you shower again while I make a call?”

“Jerry.” I didn’t know what to say. Then I did. “You could change Valdez’s contract. Allow him to guard me properly. If that is such a concern for you.” I did smell like sex. I selected a fresh shirt from the closet.

“No, I have another idea. Get ready to go. I understand and admire your work ethic.” He patted my bare bottom while already scrolling through contacts on his phone.

“Be cryptic, why don’t you?” I marched off to the bathroom, determined to get ready in record time. It wasn’t easy. He’d marked me? How? Then I realized I could feel my cheeks warm with whisker burn that went all the way down to my breasts. My hair was so wild I would have to wash it again to make it behave. I showered quickly, washing and blow-drying my hair as fast as possible. Too bad vampire tricks didn’t include hair miracles. No, we had the same problems mortals did—straight hair stayed straight, curly stayed that way and humidity did its thing to flatten any style I tried to fix in a hurry.

The whisker burn would go away on its own. Marked me? Jeremiah, Jeremy Campbell, Blade. Whatever the hell he called himself, he’d marked my soul when he’d turned me vampire four hundred years ago. Wasn’t that enough? I threw down the brush I’d found in his bathroom. Sherie had left it there for me, bless her. I stomped out of the bathroom in his shirt and nothing else. Yes, I was going to be late.

“You look fine. Keep the shirt. I’ll have that picture of you in my mind, naked except for that shirt, for a long time.” He grinned and held out my thong. “I think it’s dry. The shorts are indecent. I love them.”

“It’s a costume, Jer.” I was growing to like his new modern name. I slipped into the thong I’d washed as soon as we’d waked up and I’d seen it on the floor. “It shows a lot of my butt.”

“I love your butt.” He kept the shorts out of reach. “Are you sure you have to go now?”

“Yes. When are you leaving?” I hated to ask. Were we done for a while?

“I’m putting it off until tomorrow. We’ll have tonight together, if you wish.” He dropped the shorts into my hands.

“Yes, I wish. I love our time together. You know that.” I stepped into the shorts and zipped them up.

“I’ll be back for Dom’s blood tasting. He says it’ll be on Halloween. Sounds like fun. I am interested in a distributorship if the numbers hold up. Meanwhile…” He pulled me in and kissed me. “I’ll have a surprise for you tomorrow.”

“A surprise?” Knowing him it could be anything from a yacht to a diamond the size of my thumbnail. “You know how I feel about surprises.”

“You hate them. I know.” He was grinning. “This one I think you’ll like. If you don’t, you can give it away, maybe to the poor. How’s that?”

Since I was the poor, that wasn’t exactly a great thing to say. I kissed him good-bye and surprised Valdez