Free Bite Me by C. C. Wood Page B

looked at my friends. “I think it’s time to call it a night. I’m pretty sure our Adam Levine look-alike called the boss on us.”
    There was a chorus of boos but they started pulling out their wallets and cell phones. Since we only got to do girls’ night with all of us once every few weeks, we usually took cabs to the restaurant. It wasn’t cheap, but neither was a DUI. I gave out tipsy hugs and kisses before I climbed into my cab. A couple of the other girls lived close enough to each other to share a cab, but since I downsized I lived a good fifteen minutes from all of them.
    I paid for my cab and managed to make it up the stairs to my apartment. As I tried to fit my key into the lock, a long-fingered hand took it and opened the door. I shot a look over my shoulder, but I already knew who was there. I could smell his delicious scent before I looked. Conner met my eyes with an amused look of his own.
    As he ushered me into the apartment, he asked, “How drunk are you exactly?”
    He sounded as though he were suppressing a laugh. I gave him a haughty look down my nose, but I was pretty sure I ruined it by tripping and falling onto the couch.
    His eyes twinkled, and his dimples popped out as he stared down at me. “I guess that’s my answer then.”
    I leaned back against the couch cushions. “What are you doing here, Conner? I thought you weren’t coming by tonight.”
    He stretched out onto the sofa next to me, his arms crossed behind his head. I tried not to drool and focused on what he was saying.
    “I finished with my business early and decided to see if you made it home safely.”
    I didn’t want to find that sweet, but I did. After two weeks of spending almost every night together, he constantly surprised me with his thoughtfulness and sweet gestures. I never thought a three hundred year old vampire would be such a gentleman. During the time he was born, women were little better than property. I’m sure some men of the time were nice to their women, but I doubted they were as considerate as Conner. The only problem was that I was beginning to feel a little like a shameful secret. I had never been to his home. He rarely wanted to go out in public. If he wasn’t so attentive and sweet I would have believed that I was a short-term fling for him. Hell, even though he was all those things, I was beginning to wonder exactly what his motives were.
    I leaned my head back against the couch and cursed silently as the room started to spin.
    “Thank you, Conner.” I stifled a sigh.
    If I made any little noise he seemed to notice. It was both refreshing and annoying. The fact that he paid attention was wonderful, but I was a thinker, so I tended to mull things over. If I got too quiet or sighed while I was thinking, he noticed.
    I still wasn’t sure what to think about him. Now that I was spending more time with Conner, I was beginning to realize that he wasn’t as transparent as I thought before. He had a fucking awesome poker face when he put his mind to it.
    I realized I had been contemplating the back of my eyelids for a while and that Conner was silent. I opened my eyes and saw that he was watching me closely.
    “What’s on your mind, Donna? I can practically see the wheels of your brain turning.”
    “Do you want the honest answer or the tactful one?” I asked flippantly.
    Conner just rested his elbow on the back of the couch, propping his head on his hand, and raised an eyebrow at me. I decided that meant he wanted an honest answer.
    “I’m just thinking about you and your motives.”
    His face started to shut down, but he fought it. I knew I had surprised him.
    “What do you mean?” His accent was a bit stronger, which was both sexy and concerning. His accent thickened when we had sex or the few times I heard him get upset. I was pretty sure he wasn’t turned on at the moment, which meant he was getting annoyed.
    “Well, I don’t know how things are in the vampire world but I do know how they