Deadly Desire (Riley Jenson Guardian 7)

He smiled and touched his fingers lightly to my cheek. The caress was tender and yet oddly sad. Just like the brief flare in his eyes. "I know. The problem lies with my instincts, not yours. A vampire doesn't like to share."

"What about an Aedh?"

Quinn had never been entirely human, even before he'd turned vampire. The Aedh weren't flesh and blood, they were beings of energy who sometimes took on winged human form to procreate. His father had been a priest of the Aedh, whose job it was to guard the gates that joined this world to the other.

He smiled. "The Aedh has sympathy for the vampire, but he's certainly the reason for the tolerance currently being displayed."

"Then I need to thank him." I reached up and kissed him again. His lips were warm and delicious, tasting faintly of coffee. "Shame you have business meetings to attend to."

"We have tonight." He pulled away from my grip. "Up woman, or you'll have Jack calling to hound you."

I muttered something unpleasant under my breath, but gave in to the inevitable. By the time I'd showered and dressed, Quinn was gone.

The eggs were cold when I got around to eating them, so I just ate the bacon and toast and then gulped down the coffee. I was almost out the door when my cell phone rang.

"On my way, Jack," I said, answering without bothering to look at the screen.

"Well good," my brother said. "Because it is nearly nine-thirty, and your ass should have been in the Directorate by now."

"So Jack has sent you to track me down?"

"No. Well, sort of. He's sending me undercover later today, so I told him I needed to talk to you first. You feel like breakfast?"

"I've had breakfast."

"What, you've never heard of a second breakfast? We're never going to make a good hobbit out of you, are we?"

I grinned. Rhoan and Liander had been on a Lord of the Rings kick of late, and could practically recite the old movies word for word-although neither of them had gotten around to reading the books. Rhoan wasn't much of a reader, and Liander had never gotten past the first few chapters-although he kept picking the book up, and did get a little bit farther each time.

"I'll be into second, third, and fourth breakfasts, you know that." All this good sex made a gal hungry. Besides, I needed to keep my iron intake up to avoid problems with the amount of blood Quinn was taking.

"Meet you at Beans in ten, then."

"Will do." I hung up and punched the call button. The elevator answered straight away, zooming me down to the parking levels.

Rhoan was already waiting by the time I got there, and drew me into a bear hug. "Nice to see you again."

"Says the wolf who's always off gallivanting with his mate."

He grinned and took my arm, guiding me to a booth. "The flat does get a little crowded with the three of us there all the time."

I slid into the booth, punched an order of hazelnut coffee and pancakes into the electronic ordering machine, then slid my credit card through the appropriate slot.

"So," I said, as Rhoan repeated the process. "Tell me about the undercover job."

"It's at a gay strip bar." Anticipation glinted brightly in his silver eyes. Like most wolves, Rhoan was a exhibitionist by nature, and he loved flaunting the wares.

But he was also addicted to sex-or rather, the danger of sex with a man who might well be his prey. He might be committed to Liander, but when it came to work, all bets were off. And Liander, knowing of his addiction, had given his blessing.

"Who's the target?"

"No one specific. Apparently the club is one Armel visited quite often. Jack wants me undercover there to see if there's any whispers as to what might have happened."

"Armel was bisexual?"

He nodded. "Apparently many old vampires are. I suppose restricting yourself to one gender does tend to limit your food source."

That was true. But it made we wonder if Jack, or Quinn, ever had male lovers. Neither of them had mentioned it, but I guess it wasn't something you just dropped into casual conversation.