Free Hot Summer Bites: A Castle of Dark Dreams Novella (A Penguin Special from Berkley Sensation) by Nina Bangs

schedule just yet. The park has lots of attractions, and Kristin and I have to experience them all before she leaves.” Taurin fixed his unblinking stare on Banan. “She’ll probably be too busy to do much swimming.”
    Banan looked amused. “We’ll see.” He turned his attention back to Kristin. “Today was fun. Looking forward to tomorrow.” Ignoring Taurin’s glower, he walked away.
    “Fascinating man.” Kristin sounded thoughtful. “And a lonely man, I’d guess. He doesn’t have any close friends. Not many people want to get close to someone whose alternate form is a great white.”
    “He’s a predator.” Taurin didn’t want her thinking about Banan, feeling sorry for Banan, feeling
anything
for Banan. The fierceness of his jealousy blew him away.
    “So are you.” Nothing in her inflection hinted at her emotions.
    Taurin figured she had to be ticked at him. So where was the temper? “Yeah, but I don’t sneak up on people and rip off limbs.”
    “You just drain them dry.” Some bitterness finally seeped through. “Or rip out their hearts. Metaphorically speaking, of course.”
    “Rip out their hearts? Getting a little melodramatic aren’t we, sweetheart? Look, we have to go somewhere and talk about this.” So he’d messed with her career a little. He had to make her understand the damage she’d caused with her story.
    She nodded and then followed him out of the castle. They walked in silence until they reached the Sea World Fantasy.
    “We can start here.” He’d already made arrangements to use one of the mock mini-submarines for as long as they needed it. “This’ll give us privacy.”
    Kristin didn’t say anything as she climbed into the small sub. Taurin climbed in after her, closed the hatch, hit a switch, and started the virtual descent into the equally virtual sea.
    She didn’t notice when he opened a small panel by the hatch and turned a key. There, no interruptions until they were ready to leave. The sub rocked gently as water seemed to rise past the windows.
    “Cool.” She wandered around the small area, inspecting the instrument panel and the two cockpit-type seats in front of it. Beyond the panel was a large wraparound window that gave a panoramic view of the sea and sea bottom. “Very realistic.”
    Okay, time to start giving her the info she wanted. “Once a couple gets down here, they don’t pay much attention to what’s going on outside.” He took a deep breath. She wanted kinky, so he’d take it over the top. “I remember a woman who came in with three guys. They all squeezed into this one sub. Then—”
    “You know you’re a slime-sucking toad, don’t you?” Kristin turned to face him. She used the same tone she’d use to tell him they were having asparagus for dinner.
    Looked like the kinky sex story would have to wait. “Yeah, but you did a job on a lot of lives.”
    “Give me a break. I didn’t
know
you guys were the real deal.” She flung her arms into the air as her voice rose. Her calm façade was cracking. “You almost ruined my whole career.”
    Fine, she wanted mad, he’d give her mad. “Some of those vampires had lived in San Antonio for more than a hundred years, pretending they were their own children when people started to ask questions. Do you know how hard it was to pick up and leave a city they loved?” He was doing some shouting of his own now. “But what would you care? All you want is the story, no matter who it hurts.”
    “That’s not true.” Her cheeks were flushed.
    She was cute when she was steamed. Probably wouldn’t want to hear that right now. Fish swam past the windows, but she was too focused on her mad to notice.
    “Could’ve fooled me.” Jeez, he was getting soft. He shouldn’t be thinking about cute and Kristin in the same sentence. “I bet even as we speak you’re scheming to double-cross me. You’re greedy. You want both stories to hawk to every sleazy publisher in the country.”
    “I’m not.” Her