Chapter Eleven

Marissa cast a discreet lookaround the garden parlor as a strange stirring passed through the crowd, people shifting, conversations quieting.

"Aw, man, don't say that," Dev came back, his light tone sounding a little forced. "The kids at school used to call me a vampire."

"Oh, oh, oh, God, you know what?" Chelsea's voice was high-pitched, her face flushed. "I was a psych major in college and we used to joke about vampires all the time, like…like, according to Freudian theory those long fangs compensated for a small weenie." She hooted. "Or a serious case of impotence."

Dev smiled, close-lipped, a tic of muscle shivering along his bruised cheek. "You don't say."

"Chelsea," Marissa intervened quietly. "I think you're embarrassing him."

"What? Nuh-uh." Chelsea gestured at Dev with her drink, nearly sloshing it. "Come on, it's not like you're a real vampire. But if you were"—she giggled—"you wouldn't be able to get it up, no way."

The room had gone deathly quiet. Dev's hand was tight around his cocktail glass.

Marissa swallowed uneasily. Jesus, could the tension get any thicker? "Well, I think your teeth are sexy," she came to the rescue. "Nothing beats a man who can give a good hickie, right?" She elbowed Hadley. "Right?"

"Actually…not so much for me. I have a needle phobia, so the idea of being bitten is…" Hadley shuddered. "Ick."

Question answered: yes, the tension could get thicker. Way thicker. It now sat in the room like a big, spotted hippo, while, oddly, one-by-one heads began to turn and stare at Toni Parthen.

She looked back with a how-is-this-my-fault? expression. "Um, Hadley," Toni asked. "Didn't you just give blood this past weekend?"

"Well, yes, but that was because I lost a bet and had to give to a colleague's charity of choice. Ugh, it was awful. I had to be sedated to the point of near unconsciousness." Hadley took a quick gulp of her pinot grigio. "Just thinking about it makes me ill."

Thomal shoved his face into his hand, strangely enough, and moaned.

Marissa glanced around at the other faces. Something very funky was going on.

Beverly coughed softly. Her turn to come to the rescue with a subject change. "So, Toni, there's a pool going around up on the third floor about who your husband is. You gotta spill his name so someone can cash in."

"It has to be that that cutie-patootie, I'm telling you." Aerobics Abby pointed at the too-dreamy-to-be-true Arc across the room. "They make a perfect couple."

A nasty snort came out of the head of security, Jacken Brun, who looked like a dangerous animal someone had tried to stuff into a suit. The fancy outerwear did nothing to tame a set of ominous black eyes, a rock-hard jaw, and a body of barely contained violence. He reminded her too much of the neo-Nazis from last night's attempted kidnapping, and after a brief handshake, she'd steered clear.

"Arc? Good God." Toni scoffed. "I'd marry a demon before I'd get together with him."

Arc shot her a narrow look, while others around the room smothered smiles.

Marissa didn't understand the joke, but at least the mood was lightening.

"So he's single?" Susan asked hopefully.

"Oh, no, sorry, girls." Beth Costache, owner of the TradeMark Clothing Store, where Marissa and Hadley had made a party out of choosing tonight's cocktail ensembles, hooked her arm through Arc's.

That made sense. Beth had ravishing beauty queen looks and the kind of sweet personality that most men, and women, for that matter, found totally engaging.

Hadley pointed to a blond fellow with glasses who was standing next to Toni, a fist still pressed to his mouth to cover a smile. "Him?"

Toni laughed. "God, no. I agree that Alex is a great choice, but he's my brother."

Marissa heard Dev laugh softly. It was a no-way-they'll-ever-guess-it laugh that had her whipping her head toward him and narrowing her eyes. "It's not you, is it?"

The accusation startled him. "Jesus, absolutely not," he protested, his eyes widening. "I mean, Toni and I had dinner together once, but that was all."

"Well, not completely all," Alex piped in. "Didn't you get naked in your bedroom with my sister once?"

The head of security snapped to attention. "What?"

Dev put a hand over his eyes. "Oh, shit."

"Alex, you big dope," Toni said. "I told you that in confidence."

Alex pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "Did you?"

"Un-be-freaking-lievable." Kasson, the shy warrior with a cowlick at the front of his light brown hair, aimed a disgruntled look at Thomal. "Dev tried to snake Toni right out from under us."

Dev pointed an accusing finger at the hot blond on crutches. "Thomal made out with her."

"Hell if I did," Thomal countered. "I got kneed in the balls before any lip action could—"

Chelsea's giggle rang out again. "So, so, Toni, you have to tell us girls how Dev stacks up, you know, in case any of us want to go for him."

Hadley cut a look at the small blonde. "Cripes, Chelsea, can you think of nothing else to talk about tonight but penises?"

"Okay, okay, you don't have to say. Just…" Chelsea's giggle was half a hiccup this time. "Paw the ground with your foot for one answer or take a sip of your drink with your pinky out"—she demonstrated—"for another."

The head of security shot a warning glare at Toni. "Don't. Move."

Toni spread her hands innocently, a martini glass held in one, amusement crinkling her eyes. "I'm just standing here, Jacken."

"But, if she were going to move, it'd definitely be to paw the ground." Dev tossed a wink at Marissa that sent a lightning bolt straight to her womb. "Of course, that means—whoa!" Dev scooted behind a dainty sofa as the head of security took a menacing step forward, although the man was brought up short by Toni's quietly spoken, "Jacken."

Jacken swept his dark eyes over the partygoers, muttered something under his breath, then slitted his eyelids at Dev. The promise of revenge at a later date was clear.

"C'mon, Jacken." Dev's silver eyes were bright with veiled laughter. "The naked incident happened way before you and Toni were even remotely together."

Marissa frowned over those words, then inhaled sharply. "Wait." She gaped at Toni. "You're married to Jacken?"

The residents of ??ran? laughed, while the new hires exchanged surprised glances, murmuring and chuckling. Impossible: beautiful and classy Toni was married to a man who looked like he could mack down a bowl of pliers, no problem.

"Well," Hadley offered generously, "I'm sure he's the type of guy whose bark is worse than his bite."

Jacken dipped his chin, peering up through his eyebrows, while a laugh exploded out of Alex.

Toni shot her brother a quelling frown.

"Oh, gimme a break." Alex flung up his hands. "You can't honestly expect me to keep a straight face through that?"

Marissa glanced curiously at Hadley. Another private joke they were missing?

Hadley shrugged.

Jacken's cell phone rang. He reached for it…just as a high-pitched alarm shrieked.

Marissa slapped her hands over her ears. "Ow!"

Jacken blasted for the door, the other men on the institute's security unit running after him. "No one leaves this building!" Jacken yelled back at them.