A Quick Bite (6 page)

“Natural,” Greg murmured with fascination, staring at the shimmering color in the daughter’s eyes, then his mind slowly absorbed her words.
Despite his earlier thoughts?
She didn’t mean on the elevator?

The brunette nodded. “Yes, on the elevator.”

“You can read his mind?” Lissianna sounded more annoyed than surprised, he noted, and recalled that he’d thought her mad when she’d complained that she couldn’t read his mind, yet here the brunette appeared to be doing just that. Greg couldn’t decide if he was sleeping and dreaming all this, losing his mind and imagining all this, or he was awake, sane, and the woman was really reading his mind. Worse yet, he couldn’t decide which of those options he’d prefer. He didn’t want to be sleeping because that would mean Lissianna was nothing more than a fantasy he’d dreamed up, and he wasn’t pleased with the idea of never seeing her outside of his dreams. Losing his mind wasn’t much better as an alternative, but the idea of the brunette being able to read his mind was a bit disconcerting…Especially since his mind was full of lustful thoughts for her daughter.

“So?” the brunette prompted.

Dreaming or not, it appeared he’d have to deal with the matter. Greg shook his head. “Ma’am, curing a phobia isn’t like taking a pill. It takes some time,” he informed her, then asked a little less patiently, “Could you untie me please?”

“That’s not what the article said,” the brunette countered, ignoring his request to be untied. “In the paper you were quoted as saying that new treatments can be extremely effective, and most phobias can be cured in just a few sessions, some only need one.”

Greg let his breath out on a slow sigh, understanding now how he’d come to be here. The brunette had obviously read the interview he’d done for the paper, a special article on phobias. It had come out last weekend.

“That’s true, some phobias are easily treated,” he be
gan, trying to remain calm and…well…patient, but this situation was so bizarre. He was tied to a bed, for God’s sake, and the three of them were standing about acting as if it were perfectly normal. Greg simply couldn’t refrain from getting a touch testy.

“You know, most people make an appointment to see me,” he snapped, then tried for reason again. “And I’m flying down to Mexico tomorrow morning for a vacation. There are things I need to do before then. I’d appreciate it if you’d untie me and let me get out of here. I really don’t have time for this.”

Silence had barely begun to close around his last word when there was a tap on the door. It opened, and a young woman poked her head in and peered about. She was another brunette, her face heart-shaped and pretty. She glanced at him curiously, then turned her attention to the mother. “Uncle Lucian is here, Aunt Marguerite.”

“Oh. Thank you, Jeanne Louise.” The mother, Marguerite, immediately began herding Lissianna and Thomas toward the door, saying, “We’ll deal with this later. We mustn’t keep everyone waiting. Jeanne, has Etienne shown up yet?”

“Yes. He was just coming in as I started upstairs.” The woman pushed the door open farther for them to exit, adding, “The Chinese order has arrived, too. I put the delivery boy in the larder until you’re ready for him. You probably shouldn’t leave him too long though.”

“No. We’ll just go down to the party, and I’ll get everything started,” Marguerite announced as she followed Lissianna and Thomas out into the hall. “Lissianna can open her other gifts later and—” The door closed on the rest of the woman’s sentence.

Greg stared at the wooden surface with amazement,
unable to believe they’d just left him lying there, tied to the bed as he was. It was madness. Crazy.

Head awhirl with thoughts, Greg closed his eyes and tried to sort out just what was going on and what he could do about it. Despite his own actions in getting himself here, he was starting to consider himself kidnapped. However, he wasn’t being held for ransom, and he wasn’t dinner. That was good, he told himself. Wasn’t it?

He was here to treat a phobia. Frankly, Greg thought the whole family needed treatment…and not for phobias, but so be it. They wanted him to treat a phobia, and he wanted to be set loose. Surely there was some bargain he could strike? He’d agree to treat the lovely Lissianna and promise not to report them to the authorities if they cut him loose. Then he’d head straight to the police station.

Or not.

Greg was a little confused on the issue of what he wanted to do at the moment. Part of him was angry and willing to go to the police with the information that he’d been held against his will and so on, but in truth, were Lissianna to slip back into the room and kiss and caress him as she’d been doing, he thought he might forget a lot of his anger. Greg suspected most of it was plain old sexual frustration anyway. Without the frustration, he’d mostly just be confused by the night’s events. Besides, he couldn’t go to the police. What could he tell them?

“
Hi, my name is Dr. Hewitt and tonight I climbed into a strange trunk of my own free will, locked myself in for the ride to a strange house, then climbed out and willingly entered said premises, going so far as to walk upstairs and lay down to be tied to the bed. But geez, they didn’t untie me when I asked and now I want them charged.
”

Oh yeah, that would go over well, Greg thought dryly. He’d be laughed out of the police station. Besides, he
didn’t really want to get these people in trouble. Well, at least he didn’t want to get Lissianna in trouble.

Greg licked his lips as he recalled the feel and taste of her. She’d felt so good cuddled against him, and she’d made these erotic little murmurs of pleasure as they’d kissed. If his hands hadn’t been tied, he would have rolled her beneath him, stripped her of every scrap of clothing she wore, and used his hands and mouth on her body to elicit more of those little murmurs.

Her skin was a pale and ivory, and Greg had no trouble imagining her alabaster body stretching and arching on the bed as he closed his mouth over one erect nipple and swept his hand down over her ribs, then across her flat stomach to dip it between her legs and find her damp sweetness. She’d be hot to his touch and responsive and after he’d made her cry out with release a time or two, he’d rise up over her and drive—

Greg groaned aloud in frustration and brought his imaginings to an abrupt end as he felt the complaining ache in his groin. Okay, that had been a stupid move. Now, he was more frustrated than ever.

Sighing, he lifted his head to peer toward the closed door, wondering when Lissianna would come back, or if she would. He’d deduced that he must be in her room, or she wouldn’t have been fetching stockings out of it. So, she’d have to return eventually.
Perhaps after the party
, Greg thought as he noted the muffled sound of music coming from below. The party was obviously under way. Lissianna’s birthday party, he remembered, and wondered how old she was. He would have guessed her to be about twenty-five or twenty-six. A good ten years younger than he. Would the age difference bother her? That thought was troubling. She might think he was too old for her and not repeat tonight’s kisses.

Realizing where his thoughts were going, Greg gave himself another mental head shake. What was he thinking? He was tied to a bed and being held against his will. He’d asked to be untied, but no one had listened. Yet here he lay, his mind consumed with nothing but the beautiful, blond Lissianna.

“You need to get your priorities straight,” he told himself firmly. “How about trying to get yourself loose and out of here? You have a plane to catch in the morning, you know.”

Ignoring the fact that he was again talking to himself, Greg tipped his head back to peer at the bindings that went from his wrists to the bed posts.

Chapter 4

“Oh Lordy, Lordy. I’ve stepped into
baby doll heaven.”

Lissianna chuckled at Thomas’s comical expression as he entered the living room, where they were having their impromptu postbirthday party “pajama party.” Not one to drive after drinking, Thomas had decided to sleep here, which meant Lissianna, Jeanne Louise, and Mirabeau were staying as well. With the bedrooms taken up by various older relatives staying the day, they had been relegated to the couches in the bigger living room…along with cousin Elspeth and her twin sisters Victoria and Julianna. The three girls had flown over from England with their mother Martine to attend the party and planned to visit for a couple weeks.

“Thomas!” Jeanne gasped suddenly. “What on earth are you wearing?”

“What? This?” Thomas held out his arms and did a slow turn. He was covered from neck to ankles in a pair of formfitting Spider-Man pajamas. “Bastien was good enough to supply this most cool sleepwear for me,” he
drawled. “Don’t you like it? The guy has radical taste in sleepwear for a grumpy old dude.”

“They’re not Bastien’s.” Lissianna chuckled. “They were a joke gift for Etienne when he was helping to program a video game based on some comic book or other.”

“I didn’t know that, did I?” Thomas said with a grin. “Bastien was most embarrassed at my effusive compliments on his most ‘cool choice’ of sleepwear.”

Lissianna shared a grin with him, imagining how Bastien must have reacted when he realized how his little attempt to embarrass Thomas had backfired. He’d be mortified to think that
anyone
might believe he wore pajamas like these to bed.

“Anyway, I don’t mind. They
are
comfortable,” Thomas commented, then perched his hands on his hips to eye the rest of them, and said gallantly, “As for you ladies, you’re like a rainbow of lovely flowers.”

Lissianna glanced down at herself, then at the other women in their nighties. While Jeanne Louise and Mirabeau didn’t have any clothes at Lissianna’s mother’s house, Lissianna did, just not pajamas. She tended to sleep in the nude. The three of them were wearing sleepwear borrowed from Elspeth and the twins. The trio apparently had a thing for baby dolls, it was all they’d had to loan them.

Still, Thomas’s description was apt. She was wearing a light pink lace baby doll, Elspeth was in red, Victoria in peach, Mirabeau in mint green, Julianna in baby blue, and Jeanne Louise wore lavender. Put them together and they did nearly make a rainbow.

“So?” Thomas launched himself onto the cot that had been rolled in for him. Scrunching his pillow into a solid ball he could lean on, he eyed them all with interest. “What happens at pajama parties?”

The girls all laughed at his eager expression as they be
gan to stake out their own spots, two girls to each of the three pull-out couches in the room. Within moments they were settled and peering at each other.

“Don’t look at me,” Mirabeau said when Thomas glanced her way. “I’m over four hundred years old; they didn’t even have pajama parties when I was a girl. I’m not sure they even had pajamas. I don’t know what happens.”

Lissianna chuckled, and said with disgust, “Over two hundred years old and still considered a child.”

“We always will be to Mother and Aunt Marguerite,” Elspeth said calmly. “I guess it’s relative. We
are
children compared to them.”

“But ancient compared to mortals,” Lissianna pointed out unhappily. She was feeling her two hundred and two years. Birthdays could be such a bummer when you were older than the country you lived in. Canada became a country in 1867, by that time, Lissianna was already sixty-nine years old; old for a mortal, but not for a vampire as most mortals would call them. It wasn’t a term her kind cared for. Vampires were thought to be soulless creatures with an aversion to garlic, holy water, and sunlight. As far as she knew, her people were no more soulless than the average person. As for the three supposed weapons used to fight off vampires, neither garlic nor holy water would hurt them. Sunlight was another matter, they wouldn’t burst into flames if they stepped out into it, but it did make life easier to avoid it. Really, the only thing society had right about vampires was their longevity, strength, and the ability to read and control minds…oh, and they did need to feed off blood.

“You guys may be old, but we aren’t,” Julianna piped up, and her twin sister Victoria nodded. “Yeah.”

Lissianna forced a smile for the twins. They were only seventeen years old, making them the babies in the group,
she thought, then realized that Elspeth was right. Everything
was
relative.

“So,” she said, determined to stay cheerful. “You two are young enough to know. What happens at pajama parties?”

“Fun stuff,” Victoria grinned widely. “You eat lots of good bad stuff like pizza and chocolate and chips.”

Lissianna smiled indulgently. The twins were young enough that food still held more attraction for them than it did for her and the others.

“And you tell scary stories and talk about boys,” Julianna informed them.

“Hmmm,” Thomas sounded dubious. “You can skip the talking about boys stuff, unless it’s me you want to talk about. And I’m stuffed to the gills, no need for pizza.”

Lissianna didn’t doubt him. Her mother had ordered in a ton of bagged blood, as well as normal food for the party, and she’d watched in amazement as the mountains of food and drink had been laid waste. From what she’d heard, the amount of bagged blood they’d gone through was just as staggering. Apparently the supply had nearly been wiped out. Lissianna had actually heard her mother ask Bastien to have more blood sent to the house for breakfast the next day.

“So that leaves scary stories,” Mirabeau commented. She paused for a moment, during which no one offered to tell the first tale, then glanced at Lissianna, and asked curiously, “What was it your mother drove into Toronto to get you for your birthday? I missed seeing you open her gift.”

“Yes, what was it?” Jeanne Louise asked curiously. “I didn’t see it either.”

“Yes, you did see him, Jeanne Louise,” Thomas coun
tered with amusement, bringing a confused frown to his sister’s face.

“No, I didn’t,” she insisted. “I—” She paused as his words sank in. “Him? You mean she gave Lissi a person? A man?” Her eyes widened suddenly, and her mouth made an “O,” then she exclaimed, “That guy in her bedroom?
He
was her gift?”