Kissed by a Vampire. Caridad Pineiro
guard embraced Alex heartily, clapping him on the back. He had the build of a sumo wrestler, was a good half foot taller than Alex’s six feet and twice as broad as Alex across the shoulders and waist. He was also one of the drug dealers along the Ocean Drive strip and an informant Alex had relied on during many an investigation.
“Good to be alive, Pedro, unlike the guy who shot me,” he said, playing the little game they always did. As far as most of the locals in South Beach knew, Alex was part of the underground that fed the sinful pleasures to be found as part of South Beach’s nightlife. Only a select few knew he was an undercover agent.
With a playful jab to the other man’s rotund middle, he freed himself from the bouncer’s embrace and stepped through the door into the club.
The Widget was packed. Alex ducked and weaved through the throng, searching with keen eyes for signs of any illegal activities. As he passed through one section close to the video games, he caught sight of a familiar silhouette, but quickly lost sight of the woman among the crowd.
He peered over the people lingering close to the dance floor, searching for another glimpse of her and thought he spotted her once again near the bar. As he elbowed his way past the bodies milling nearby, he confirmed that she stood at the bar, apparently waiting for service.
Her hair was short and dark, nearly sealblack, and cropped close to the elegant line of her neck. The dress she wore was lethally feminine, hugging her very generous curves and providing enticing glimpses of pale, creamy skin beneath all the black.
Something infinitely sexy about this woman called to him.
Dangerously sexy, he thought as his gut tightened with a need so intense his knees wavered.
His powerful reaction made him increase his pace toward her, eager to find out why she affected him so and why she seemed so familiar. But then the woman turned and smiled at someone beside her.
She wasn’t alone.
He stopped dead in his tracks. He wasn’t one to poach on another man’s territory, only …
The woman’s profile rang a powerful chord from him.
She seemed to sense his interest for she slowly dragged her gaze from the tall, well-built man next to her and transferred it to him. A moment of puzzlement narrowed her dark and exotic almond-shaped eyes, before a dazzling smile stole onto her lips.
Her smile appeared to be challenging him to come over. The pull of it was so strong that he stepped forward until she once again turned away to attend to her date.
Was she playing with him? he wondered for a moment before it came to him again that he knew her. He was certain of it, but Alex was at a loss to place the intriguing woman. He chalked it up to the brain fog he had experienced for months after the surgery he’d had to endure to repair his body’s wounds. He blamed that lack of clarity for his failure to identify the alluring creature standing just yards away.
As the crowd shifted in front of him, blocking his view, he sidestepped a few people and then pushed forward, searching for her again.
Needing to see more of her.
But she was gone.
He dropped back into the crowd, questioning where she had gone. Wondering how it was that they were … connected. There was no other way to describe the reaction he’d had at the sight of her. However they knew each other, it had to have been something more than just a chance meeting.
Pity him for being unable to remember.
Her vamp radar detected the powerful thrum of interest.
She glanced away from the man next to her to survey the crowd for the origin of that sensation as they waited for the bartender to bring their drinks.
Her petite stature had her peering through the throng of bodies lingering nearby and moving on the dance floor. She peeked between the humans, then rose on tiptoe until her gaze collided with that of a handsome Latino.
Tall and well built, he had dark hair that was short on the side, longer up top and stylishly gelled into place. His olive skin lacked the tan of many in the establishment, but was creamy looking against the pale beige of his guayabera shirt.
He was intently staring her way, his deep green eyes narrowing to examine her as their gazes met and held. Her own was puzzled as she explored his features, trying to imagine why it was that he seemed familiar.
Puzzled that she couldn’t remember someone so deliciously attractive.
She hadn’t been in Miami in nearly a century, which meant that if they had met, it had to have been somewhere else.
His stare was so intent—so desirous—that it dragged a sexy smile to her face. A smile that dared him to come visit and explore whatever connection was happening between them.
When he returned that invitation with the determined glitter in his gaze, it roused desire, making her question how she could fail to remember him. Maybe Manhattan? She searched her memory, but her companion dipped his head close, dragging her attention back to him.
“The drinks are here,” her dinner date said, nuzzling the side of her face, the heat of his human state pulling her attention back to him.
She smiled, the handsome Latino man forgotten as the words from an old song—about loving who you’re with if you can’t have the one you love—played in her brain.
It didn’t matter where she had seen the handsome Latino or why he was calling to her so strongly. For tonight, the man beside her would be the one to share her bed and be her meal. The attractive stranger would just have to wait until tomorrow.
The delay would only help tenderize him. Make him even more susceptible to her charms in the future.
After all, there would always be another tomorrow in her undead life.
Chapter 2
The call came in the late afternoon on his office line, well after the DEA psychologist had cleared him for duty. The relief from the outcome of his visit to the shrink that morning was disturbed by the sound of his ex-colleague’s troubled voice.
“Garcia. Heard you were back from leave,” Dan McAnn said, striving for an upbeat tone but failing miserably.
“Back and ready to head undercover again.”
“Good to hear,” Dan said, but then an awkward pause filled the air.
Alex leaned forward and tightly gripped the phone, his head hunched downward as he contemplated the reason for his old friend’s call. Dan had retired a few years earlier after the stress of the job and family problems had created one too many issues at the office, including troubles with Dan hitting the bottle way more often than could be tolerated.
“Is everything okay, Dan? Do you need anything?” His inflection was conciliatory since Dan had been a good agent at one time and Alex had liked him on a personal level.
Another pause came on the line followed by a heartfelt sigh. “I’m okay. Got a great job as a security guard over on Star Island.”
“Must be rough hobnobbing with the rich and famous,” he teased, grateful to hear that his life seemed back on track.
“It’s my kid, Alex. She’s been missing for almost a week.”
He reclined in his chair, now understanding the reason Dan was calling. “I guess you went to the police, but they don’t want to do anything.”
Dan let out an abrupt exhale. “You know that Andrea and I … She’s been a problem child. Some drugs. Ran away right before I … retired.”
Alex was well aware of the problems. Talk around the office had been that Dan’s daughter had been the major reason he’d started drinking heavily and missing work. More than once Dan had run out of the office to deal with one of Andrea’s scrapes with the law.
“Local