I Only Have Fangs For You. Kathy Love
skin, and her bowed, red lips, she looked more like a very naughty schoolgirl. His eyes roamed down her body. Her curves were gentle and lithe under the black brocade.
He gritted his teeth and forced his gaze to the dance floor. What was he thinking? Physically, she wasn’t even close to his type. He liked flashy women with long hair, long legs, and abundant curves. Mina had an unremarkable figure, weird hair, and her legs were….
Against his will, his gaze returned to her. From where she stood he couldn’t see her legs. Although he knew from the sprinkler night, they had no flaws. Shapely and smooth and pale. His cock swelled against the denim of his jeans.
Bryce, the upstairs bartender, leaned forward, telling Mina something. From his angle, Sebastian could see only her profile, but he could tell one corner of her rosy lips turn up into a smile as Bryce talked. Sebastian realized he’d never seen Mina smile. A real smile anyway.
Bryce said something else, and Mina laughed. A brief, nearly nonexistent laugh, but Sebastian suddenly found himself leaning forward in an attempt to hear it. He pushed up from his table and strode to the bar, taking a stool next to where she stood.
“Good evening, Bryce,” he said. “Mina.”
Mina glanced at him, a quick flash of something that looked an awful lot like disdain flickered in her eyes, then she looked back to Bryce.
“Hey, Sebastian,” Bryce greeted in his laid-back Southern drawl. The handsome werebear was every inch good ole Southern boy, and he always struck Sebastian as being out of place in the big city. Even though he’d been working here for nearly three years.
Sebastian glanced back to Mina. She looked out of place here too. But unlike Bryce, whose easygoing personality would allow him actually to fit in anywhere, Mina truly didn’t belong here.
Again, his instincts niggled him. Again, he wondered why she was here. Could she somehow be involved in the calls to the club? He studied her as she waited for Bryce to make her drink orders. She had shifted down the bar away from him. Her sidling movements had been subtle, but he’d noticed the escape.
He tried to read her emotions, but as usual there were too many and she was too guarded for him to get a clear impression. He found it interesting that someone so reserved could be surrounded by such a whirl of emotions. He wondered what would happen if she loosened up and let them show. The idea excited him.
“Bryce, may I get a scotch?” he asked suddenly, needing a drink to calm his reaction to her. A little booze, a lot of blood, and he’d be thinking far more clearly. And not about Mina.
“Sure thing.”
He chuckled at the bartender’s words. “I need that too.”
Bryce grinned. “Well, I reckon you won’t have any problem finding one of those here tonight.”
Sebastian sensed rather than saw Mina stiffen at their conversation. He glanced at her.
She looked down at her order pad, her brow furrowed, her lips twisted slightly. He couldn’t tell what her expression meant, whether it was disdain or maybe even jealousy.
Disdain, he figured. But either way, she was reacting, and for some perverse reason, Sebastian liked that he was getting some sort of response from her. It amused him to see her bow-shaped lips pucker as if she’d just sunk her fangs into a lemon. For a split second, he’d thought about what those lips would look like puckered for a different reason.
“There was a tall blonde here last night. I’m hoping she’ll be back tonight. Legs that could make a grown man grovel,” he said, watching Mina’s face.
She concentrated on her order pad, and he wasn’t even sure she was listening.
“And her ass.” He couldn’t help adding.
Mina flipped a page of the pad, maybe with more force than necessary, but otherwise she didn’t acknowledge him.
Bryce, however, chuckled as he set a scotch in front of him. “Sounds good.”
Sebastian studied Mina for a moment longer, wanting to see something other than her usual remoteness. But she continued to fiddle with her order pad.
Sebastian looked back to Bryce, only to find the bartender watching her too. A definite look of interest in the werebear’s brown eyes.
A flash of something possessive squeezed Sebastian’s chest. He frowned. What difference did it make to him if Mina and Bryce became Carfax Abbey’s newest cupid’s couple? Maybe a good lay from a wild werebear would loosen Mina up.
But even as he told himself that, his fangs distended, scraping the inside of his lips, agitating him.
What the hell was wrong with him? He’d never, never been interested in a woman, alive or undead, who wasn’t interested back. Eternity was too long to work that hard when there were thousands of women in the world, in this city alone, who wanted a good time.
He glanced at Mina as Bryce placed a drink on her tray. She smiled at the bartender. A small smile, definitely a reserved smile, but a smile nonetheless. A real smile. Something she’d never given Sebastian. Another wave of something that felt altogether too close to jealousy washed over him.
Without another word, Sebastian picked up his drink and left the bar, returning to his booth. He was obviously not getting enough female attention if he was feeling irritated by odd little Mina smiling at a coworker. After all, he might find her attractive in some weird way, but he didn’t want her. And she didn’t want him.
Wilhelmina watched Sebastian’s abrupt departure with a mixture of confusion and relief. She’d spent the past two days keeping her distance from him. He unnerved her, and made it difficult to keep focused on her plan. Not that she had a plan. In fact, she’d come up with nothing that could stop his dissolute ways.
She’d considered starting rumors in the club. Things like he was in the mob or he was married, but she didn’t think that would discourage women’s interest in him. He was too charming, too sensual, and far too beautiful for rumors to stop him. She had her doubts that anything would deter mortal women from being with him.
As if to punctuate her point, a tall blonde, probably the tall blonde, sashayed up to his booth smiling broadly at him. Mina’s gaze dropped quickly to her bottom. Yes, she was the woman.
Sebastian grinned up at the blonde, that lopsided smile of his making him look so charismatic, so charming, so harmless.
He gestured for the woman to join him, which she readily did, sliding her long legs under the round table as she scooted closer to him.
“Dang, that man is good,” Bryce said from beside Wilhelmina. She turned to see the long-haired, goateed bartender shaking his head with admiration.
Wilhelmina frowned, ready to disagree. He was despicable. But Greta cut her off, setting her tray on the bar. “Who’s good?”
Bryce jerked his head in Sebastian’s direction. “Our boss.”
Greta turned to look at him, a fond smile curving her full lips. “Oh. Why, yes, he is.”
Wilhelmina gaped at the tall, stunning vampiress as the meaning of her words sank in. “You…with him?” She looked back at the booth where Sebastian chatted with the mortal.
A rich, throaty laugh escaped Greta.
“Don’t be so shocked. It wasn’t a big deal. We just ended up getting together one night.” She fanned herself. “And what a night.”
Bryce shook his head as he left to take a drink order at the end of the bar.
Wilhelmina stared at Greta, stunned. She knew that mortals couldn’t defend themselves against Sebastian’s preternatural charms, but she hadn’t considered that other preternaturals would fall prey to him, too. Especially Greta, who was as dazzling as any vampiress she’d encountered.
“Why?” she finally managed to ask Greta.
Greta