Free A Bite to Remember by Lynsay Sands Page A

to pause outside the door the two men had disappeared through. She glanced quickly around to be sure no one was in the hall to see, then pressed an ear to the wood and held her breath as she listened.
    Not a sound came from the room. Not a word. Not a murmur. Nothing.
    After another hesitation, her mouth flattened out grimly and Jackie opened the door and slid inside to peer around. She spotted Vincent and the worker almost at once. The security man stood across the room, staring out of the window. Vincent stood behind him, his teeth sunk into the man’s neck.
    “Ah-ha!” Jackie cried as she slammed the door closed behind her.
    Vincent stiffened and then whirled to face her, guilt on his face and a drop of blood by the corner of his mouth. The worker didn’t react at all.
    “I thought you said you didn’t feed on your employees!” Jackie snapped, hands on hips.
    Vincent’s mouth curled down with displeasure. “I don’t. He’s not my employee.”
    “Oh, that’s just semantics,” she protested. “He’s in theemploy of a company in your employ. That makes him your employee, if only indirectly.”
    Vincent opened his mouth to respond, then paused and turned back to his dinner. The worker immediately began to move. His face utterly blank, he turned around and crossed the room.
    Knowing that Vincent controlled him and was probably sending him from the room and back to where he belonged, Jackie opened the door and held it for him to exit, but turned to raise an eyebrow in Vincent’s direction before closing it. The vampire ignored her look of enquiry for another moment, his attention wholly on the laborer. She knew he was rearranging the man’s memories and thoughts, so waited patiently until he glanced her way and nodded.
    Jackie immediately closed the door as soundlessly as possible and then waited for Vincent to speak. He didn’t keep her waiting long.
    “I was hungry.”
    “That’s it?” she asked with disbelief. “That’s all you have to say for yourself?”
    Vincent shrugged. “I was hungry so I fed. What do you do when you’re hungry?”
    “It’s hardly the same thing,” Jackie growled.
    “Why? Because you feed on fluffy little baby cows and chickens and I feed on mortals?”
    Jackie could only glare in response.
    “At least my feedings do not necessitate the death of my chosen meal,” Vincent pointed out dryly.
    Jackie found herself blinking several times in response to this comment. She was at a loss for words. Not a singleargument was coming to her aid here and for a moment frustration reared within her, but then she realized there simply was no argument to that. She and her kind—mortals—did kill to eat. His kind didn’t have to kill to survive. In effect, immortals did much less harm to their chosen meal than mortals did, she realized, and suddenly felt on uneven ground as most of her outrage slipped away like smoke.
    Before Jackie could rally her defenses, he started forward, continuing, “I was hungry. I always wake up hungry, and you smelled as delicious as Tiny’s homemade cookies. However, you and Tiny are off limits for biting, so I bit one of the workers from the security company.” He shrugged. “As you saw for yourself, he walked out of here. He was not unduly harmed, and will not remember the occasion. I am sated for now and no harm was done except perhaps to your delicate sensibilities.”
    Jackie had to force herself not to take a step back when he paused directly in front of her. Vincent was close enough that she could smell him, close enough she could feel the heat from his naked chest, close enough she could touch him if she chose to and part of her really, really wanted to. Instead, Jackie barked, “My delicate sensibilities?”
    Managing to tear her eyes away from his very close, very wide chest she scowled at Vincent. “Is that some kind of insult?”
    Vincent raised his eyebrows, looking every bit as arrogant and condescending as his kind could get. “Not at