Free Dead and Loving It by MaryJanice Alongi Page B

off his shoulders like a boulder.
    To save time and steps—if he left he’d just be in here five minutes later—he sat down in the chair beside the bed. He cupped his chin in his hand, leaned forward, and watched her sleep.
    Jane scowled, even in the throes of unconsciousness. It would have made him smile if he hadn’t felt so angry and betrayed.
    Betrayed? All right, tell the truth and shame the devil…yes. Betrayed! And angry and sick at heart and furious with the little twit tied to his bed. Most of his anger was directed at himself, it was true, but he had a nice helping saved for Miss Jane.
    She’d fooled him; that was all. A simple thing, but unforgivable. She made him believe she accepted the monster, when in fact she most assuredly had not. The duplicitous wretch agreed to join him for dinner to placate him and then made arrangements to slink out of town like a thief. If he hadn’t shown up early to escort her to dinner, she would have disappeared and he might never have known what had become of her. He would have wasted years of his life worrying about her fate.
    Instead, he’d taken in the situation at a glance and acted accordingly. Well, all right, that was a rather large lie. He had panicked—all he could think of was to get her home, stop her from leaving him. Leaving town, rather. And in his panic, he’d smacked her when he only meant to tap her. The one bit of luck was that it had happened too quickly for the lone witness—the doorman—to see much more than a swirl of cloth. Dusk and speed were his friends, even if Jane was not.
    And that was the rub of it. He’d allowed himself to forget, for one evening, that he was the monster in the fairy tales. He had forgotten there could be no relationship with a woman other than the most carnal type. He wouldn’t have vampire women, and mortal women wouldn’t have him. Well, that was fine. That was just fine.
    He was a monster, and he was done pretending otherwise.
    But Jane would pay for making him forget. She’d pay for making him think, however briefly, that he was a man first and a beast second.

Chapter 5
    J ane groaned and tried to roll over. The phone was ringing. It would be Moira, telling her to get her ass to the Cape. She couldn’t see Dick tonight. She had to answer the phone and tell Moira to go fuck herself, and then—
    Wait.
    That had already happened. So why was she still in bed?
    She opened her eyes and tried to sit up. Three alarming facts registered immediately on her brain: 1) she couldn’t sit up, and2) she was tied to a bed. She was, in fact, 3) tied down in the same room with an annoyed vampire. And not a prayer of room service.
    â€œOhhhhhh, you idiot! ” she howled. If she could have slapped her hand over her eyes, she would have. If she could have slapped him, she would have. As it was, her ankles and arms were spread wide and tied to each poster of the bed. “Do you have any idea of the trouble you’ve landed me in, numb nuts?”
    Dick, sitting in the chair next to the bed, blinked at her. He did that a lot…a long, slow, thoughtful blink when he was taken by surprise. It was like a stall for time or something. She thought it was kind of cute yesterday. “I shouldn’t have expected maidenly protestations,” he said after a long pause.
    â€œYou should expect a fractured skull, you undead idiot! What the fuck am I doing tied to your bed? Is it your bed? It damn well better be your bed! If I’m in some strange dead guy’s bed, your ass is grass!”
    He brought a hand up to his chin…and then got up and abruptly left. She used the chance to yank at her bonds—no good. They were soft, like cloth, but amazingly strong. Were her bonds lined with bubble gum or what?
    She strained to hear and, very faintly, could hear muffled laughter coming from about thirty feet away. Dick had trotted out to the hall to have a giggle at