Free Fresh Blood by Jennifer Colgan Page A

my
superiors, Mr. Carlisle,” he said as evenly as possible. “It’s
nothing we can’t handle.”
    “Of course, of course,” Carlisle grinned back
and tugged on the chain of his captive vampiress. She growled.
“Would you like to join in some of our private activities tonight?
Your new feeder looks especially interesting.”
    “She’s not ready.”
    “She looks ready to me.” Carlisle inclined
his head to the dance floor where Vera was dancing in sensuous
circles around Erica. When the other woman leaned over and kissed
Erica on the lips, Max growled, too. “I’ve got to go. I’ll get back
to you in a few days.”
    Carlisle nodded absently. “I’m sure you will,
Maxwell, I’m sure you will.” He laughed and pulled his captive
female to him as Max walked away.
    Walking across the dance floor took forever,
and by the time Max reached Erica, she swayed in a dreamy haze
while Vera ground their bodies together. She smelled of vampire
wine.
    She giggled when he grabbed her wrist and
dragged her toward him. “You were supposed to stay on the
couch.”
    “I wanted to dance!” She delivered her
protest through a feathery laugh. Wrapping her arms around his
neck, she pushed her hips against him. Vera tried to sidle between
their bodies, but Max shoved her aside.
    “She’s finished,” Max told Carlisle’s woman.
“Hands off.”
    “So selfish. Couldn’t we share?” Vera tried
again to come between them and Max pushed her aside once again.
This time he pulled Erica away, toward the Round Room’s grand
entrance. She stumbled after him with a mild protest.
    “Do we have to go? I was actually having
fun.”
    “Yes, we do. There’s nothing more we can
accomplish here tonight.”
    Erica giggled again. “Okay.”
    When they reached the door he had to
physically push her through it. Out in the corridor, he had to hold
her up. This wasn’t normal. He hadn’t seen her drink the wine.
She’d had nothing except her meal and the drink he’d ordered for
her with dinner.
    Max draped Erica’s arm over his shoulder and
hoisted her onto his hip. “Come on. Time to go home.”
    “I don’t want to.”
    “I’m sure you don’t. But you need to sleep
this off.”
    She looked up at him and with adoration in
her eyes. It stung him. If she’d looked at him that way when she
was sober, he’d probably have fallen in love with her on the spot.
“Are you going to punish me, Max? I was so bad.”
    “We’ll talk about that later. Right now,
let’s concentrate on keeping you on your feet.”
     
    * * * *
     
    The trip back to Erica’s apartment was a
struggle. Though she dozed during the car ride, she woke as giggly
and unsteady as before and he had to carry her to the front door.
He searched her purse for the keys while she leaned on the doorjamb
and fixed a seductive gaze on him. When he opened the door and
pushed her inside, she lurched toward the couch and fell across the
fluffy cushions, kicking her shoes off as she did.
    “Oh, it feels good to get those off!” She
laughed again as Max closed the door and shrugged off his jacket.
He crossed the room and looked down at her, sprawled on the sofa,
the hem of her dress cresting on her thighs just above the band of
her stockings. The sliver of pale skin exposed above her garter
beckoned him. Had he been a lesser man--a lesser vampire--he’d have
been unable to resist a taste.
    “What am I supposed to do with you?” he asked
as she rolled on her side to make room for him on the couch. “I
can’t leave you like this and by the time you sober up it’ll be
daylight.”
    “Sober up? I’m not drunk, Max. I only had
that spritzer with dinner and ... hmmm ... What else did I
have?”
    “It’s not how much you drank, it’s what you
drank. Someone drugged you tonight.”
    Erica’s response was a sensuous sigh that
rasped against Max’s heightened senses. She rolled onto her stomach
and gave him a seductive grin over her bare shoulder.
    “I don’t believe