“I am not sure if Lucian mentioned the name,” Gia said with a frown and then shrugged. “It doesn’t matter. It’s not true anyway.”
“Oh . . . right,” Holly muttered, giving her head a shake.
“But I suppose we should find out so that you can keep up with the lie when you return home,” Gia added thoughtfully as she paused at a door and opened it.
“Yes, that would probably be good,” Holly agreed, trailing her into the new room. Her mind, though, was on the fact that she’d have been over the moon if she’d actually got such an internship. That would have been a dream come true. Instead she was a vampire who, when hungry, might well try to rip out a person’s throat. Lovely, she thought unhappily.
“You will learn to recognize your hunger and feed to keep those around you safe,” Gia assured her, walking across the rose-colored bedroom she’d led her into and to a set of closet doors. As she opened one, she added, “And how to read mortals, how to control them to protect your secret.”
“What secret?” Holly asked distractedly, her eyes sliding over the clothes now revealed. Good Lord, how long was the woman going to be house-sitting? She had enough clothes in there for a year. And every single item appeared extremely short, or skimpy, Holly noted with a frown.
“What secret?” Gia echoed with disbelief.
Holly glanced to her distractedly and nodded.
Gia stared back for a moment, then shook her head and turned back to the closet’s contents. She was muttering something in what Holly was sure must be Italian as she began shifting hangers along the rail, examining what she had available. Holly didn’t understand most of what she said, but did catch a word here or there that sounded familiar. She was pretty sure she knew what idiota and stupido translated to, for instance, but bit her lip and simply waited. At that point, her head was swimming with all the information she’d gained; all the names, the fact that she was now a vampire, that she could rip out a throat without compunction . . . That wasn’t her. But it appeared to be her now. Her life had taken a definite turn, and she didn’t know how to turn it back . . . or even if she could.
“I should be up there with her,” Justin growled, pacing the kitchen for probably the hundredth time.
“You heard Lucian,” Decker said, shaking his head. “No going anywhere near a bedroom with her. No being alone with her. No—”
“I wouldn’t be alone with her. Gia would be there,” Justin pointed out, pausing.
“In a bedroom,” Anders tacked on firmly and repeated Decker’s words, “No going anywhere near a bedroom with her.”
Justin growled under his breath with frustration and returned to pacing, which made Decker chuckle with amusement. Spinning to scowl at the man, he snapped. “What’s so damned funny?”
“Well, it was just a couple hours ago that you were begging Lucian to let you off the hook and have Dante and Tomasso do all the training so you could return to Canada,” Decker pointed out. “Now you’re pacing like a caged tiger and impatient to see her.”
“She’s my life mate,” he said grimly, and then his mouth twisted and he paced away, adding, “And I can’t claim her. She’s married. It’s against the law.”
“That’s tough,” Anders said and actually did sound sympathetic. It was the first sign of sympathy he’d shown. Mostly he and Decker seemed to find this a big damn joke. Bricker getting payback for all the guff he’d given them while they were courting their life mates.
“Yeah, tough,” he echoed bitterly.
“Not exactly,” Decker argued.
Justin glanced to him with irritation. “Trust me, not being able to claim my life mate is tough. How would you like it if you couldn’t have Dani?”
Decker winced at the suggestion, but argued, “No one says you can’t have her. The rule is we aren’t to use undue influence to interfere in a marriage,” he pointed out. “Which means using our abilities like mind reading and mind control. They only instituted that law to prevent immortals from destroying otherwise happy and healthy marriages for a fling.”
“Yeah,” Justin agreed sharply. “And?”
“Ahhh,” Anders murmured, nodding and then glanced to him and said, “You aren’t a fling. You want her for your life mate.”
“And while you can’t use mind control or mind reading to win her, the law doesn’t say anything about you not winning her on your own merits.”
“On my own merits?” Justin asked uncertainly.
“He means using your dubious natural wit and charm,” Anders said with dry amusement.
Justin’s eyes widened and then he frowned. “I’m not sure . . .”
“Of what?” Decker asked mockingly. “The law? It can’t be that you aren’t sure you can woo her. Not Justin Bricker, the Casanova of the immortals. The man who has been telling the rest of us for years that he was such a ladies’ man and we didn’t have a clue.”
“A clue about what?” Gia asked, entering the kitchen.
Justin’s head swiveled to the woman. Ignoring her comment, he asked with alarm, “You left Holly alone? What if she wakes up and—?”
“She is awake,” Gia interrupted. “She’s changing. She’ll be down in a minute.”
“Oh.” Justin relaxed with a sigh.
“So?” Gia asked. “Who doesn’t have a clue about what?”
“We cavemen-type old fellas don’t have a clue about women,” Decker explained with amusement. “While Justin is the Casanova of the immortals.”
Gia raised her eyebrows and glanced to Justin. After brief consideration, she shook her head. “No. He’s nothing like Casanova.
“Did you know him?” Decker asked with interest.
“Of course,” she said with a shrug. “Most of his reputation is due to his charm and skill at wooing rather than his abilities as a lover. He was only passable in that area.”
“Back to the issue at hand,” Justin said, scowling at the pair of them. “I can’t read or control her, so I couldn’t use those abilities to interfere with her marriage anyway, but life mate sex would probably be considered undue influence.”
Gia shrugged. “Then woo her the old-fashioned way . . . no sex.”
Justin frowned at the suggestion, not at all sure he could do that. He’d found it hard not to touch and caress her while he’d sat at her bedside, and she’d been unconscious then. Hell, when she’d attacked him in the car . . . Well, frankly, it hadn’t been just her he’d been fighting. He’d liked the feel of her body on his enough that Justin had almost wanted her to bite him. His body had wanted to do a lot more. He’d had brief, hot visions of her doing the same thing naked, lowering herself onto his erection and riding him as she ripped into his throat with her teeth. Only the reality of their both being fully dressed had prevented his letting her have her way while he had his own . . . well . . . that and the fact that while she’d wanted to sink her teeth into him, Holly probably wouldn’t have welcomed his sinking anything into her.
So, wooing her the old-fashioned way, without sex . . . not so appealing. Frankly, Justin didn’t even know what that would entail. The realization was a lowering one. He’d wined and dined hundreds, maybe even thousands of women over the last hundred years, but every wooing had been with the strict aim of getting them into bed. Now he had to do it with no end game in mind except to win her. He couldn’t even bloody kiss her. What was he supposed to do? Bring her flowers? Read her poetry? Throw his coat over puddles for her?
“Wow,” Decker said on a laugh. “For the guy who’s supposed to know so much about women, you don’t seem to have a clue.”
“What do you expect?” Gia asked with amusement. “He’s a man. You men have never understood us women. Ever.”
Justin glanced to her sharply. “You’re a woman.”