Free Fangs for the Memories by Kathy Love

woman.
    And, man, did she ever want Rhys. He’d felt flashes of overwhelming desire throughout their conversation. All he had to do was mention Rhys’s name, and she exuded longing.
    Damn, he wished he had a sweet thing like her lusting for him. Oh, wait, he did. Lots, actually.
    But he didn’t get too long to bask in his success.
    Jane straightened in her chair and said in a firm voice, “I will stay—but only a week. That should give you time to find someone else to watch Rhys, should he need it. And that will give me time to find my own place.”
    A week? Sebastian frowned. Rhys needed more than a week to get this woman to fall for him. He breathed in with frustration, ready to argue, when he smelled again the lust that was permeating the apartment. Damn, a week just might be plenty of time. If they needed more, he’d worry about it later. Right now, she was staying. Good enough. And she would keep Rhys in the apartment. Sebastian needed that time to figure out who had attacked Rhys and why. Rhys, in his confused state, would be an easy mark if the attacker had been after him specifically. It was best to keep him here— safe.
    “A week is great.”
    She nodded, obviously relieved he hadn’t pushed for longer.
    But now Sebastian had the peculiarities of being a vampire to deal with. Being a vampire was easy. Being a vampire who didn’t know he’s a vampire; that might be tricky. Rhys could end his existence with one short stroll in the sunshine. Or if his hunger wasn’t appeased regularly, Jane could die from one overzealous chomp.
    “Watching Rhys should be quite easy,” he said, contradicting his thoughts, but he didn’t want to scare her away. “There are really only three things you need to be careful about.”
    Jane listened, her green eyes wide.
    “He has an allergy to the sun, so he cannot go out in the direct sunlight, which generally isn’t a problem. Since we work nights, his sleep schedule usually keeps him out of the sun anyway.” All of that was basically true.
    “Can he go out on overcast days?”
    “Yes. But only totally overcast. Sun is poison to him.”
    She nodded.
    “Also, Rhys has a lot of weird food allergies, so he generally sticks to a high protein drink.”
    “He doesn’t eat?” She looked dubious.
    “He does, but only rare meat. Very rare. He’s doing this weird, Atkins type thing, too. It seems to keep the whole allergy thing under control.” He threw up his hands as though the whole concept was strange to him, too. “I don’t even ask.”
    “But will he remember that?”
    “I don’t know, but I think we better continue it. He’s lived on this stuff so long—I wouldn’t want to screw up his digestive system or something.”
    She nodded, but the slight wrinkling of her nose stated she still found the idea odd.
    “And—and this was exactly what the physician told me—we must humor Rhys for the time being. That is important. Otherwise we could fracture his memories, again the doctor’s words, and his real memories might be lost permanently.”
    Jane looked stricken.
    God, he was good.
    She still appeared apprehensive, but she said, “Okay.”
    “Great. So let’s discuss money. How is fifteen hundred dollars?”
    Sebastian didn’t think it could be possible, but her eyes widened more. “That—that’s too much.”
    Sebastian shrugged. “I love my brother. And I want to see him happy.”
    “I can’t take that kind of money. That is… It’s too much.”
    Sebastian smiled, impressed by her shocked reluctance. He’d thrown out a large sum, assuming the amount would definitely clinch the deal, but obviously he hadn’t needed to. Jane was too ethical to accept it comfortably.
    “If I didn’t want to pay it, I wouldn’t.”
    She hesitated again, but after a moment, she offered her hand to him. “Okay.”
    He smiled. Did he mention he was good?
 
 
Chapter 7
     
    Jane couldn’t believe this. She had agreed to live with two men she didn’t know. One of