She heard voices outside the room and rolled out of bed. She made a quick trip to the bathroom to take care of necessities, then moved over to the sink to wash her hands and face. Once there, however, she got a good look at her hair and had to stifle her shriek of horror. Her hair had been wet when they’d gone to bed, which meant it now looked like someone had shocked her with a few hundred volts sometime while she slept. And all she had with her was her toothbrush and her purse.
Her purse, at least, had a brush in it, so she managed to tame her hair into a tight braid against the back of her head, tying it off with a scrunchie, also from her purse. She brushed her teeth, washed her face, and put her clothes back on from last night, minus the underwear. She didn’t mind pulling on the same clothes, but she drew the line at day-old underwear. Besides, it was only until she could get upstairs to change.
Checking her reflection one last time, she opened the bedroom door, and walked out into the hallway, which was now completely empty. The voices were still there, but they’d already moved upstairs. In the kitchen, probably, where Christian’s beloved espresso machine lived.
She considered stopping at her room to change first, but then she caught Alon’s voice among the others, and rushed into the kitchen instead.
“Alon!” She ran right into his outstretched arms, hugging him tightly as he rocked her from side to side. When she finally pulled back, she had tears in her eyes. “Are you okay? Really okay?”
“Never better, Nat. I feel great.”
Natalie was hugging him again, overcome with happiness at seeing him alive, when she heard a dry cough from behind her. She glanced back and found Christian staring at the two of them with eyes that were deadly serious.
Oh, right. Vampire possessiveness. She turned, and gave Alon a smacking kiss on the lips, then spun around with a grin and walked over to Christian.
“Good evening, my lord,” she said teasingly.
His arm snaked out to snag her around the waist and yank her against his body. One hand dropped to her butt with sharp smack, before stroking it possessively. He gave her a knowing look, obviously feeling the absence of underwear, and a hot blush crept up her face.
To cover her embarrassment, she went up on her toes and kissed his unresponsive mouth. “I missed you when I woke up,” she murmured against his lips. His expression softened, and he kissed her back, this time with feeling, uncaring about who was watching. When he finally released her mouth, Natalie was a little wobbly, and had to cling to his shirt. His smile said he knew the effect he had on her, but she didn’t care as long as he held her the way he was now. She turned in his arms, and took in the other two people in the room.
“Hi, Marc,” she said.
“What? No kiss for me?”
Christian growled a warning, but she just laughed. The other vampire standing with him was vaguely familiar, but she didn’t know his name.
“Natalie, meet Scoville,” Christian said. “Formerly in Anthony’s service, now sworn to mine.”
Natalie nodded her head politely at Scoville, not really understanding what the vamp was doing here, when he’d been the one whose lie got Christian down to Laredo. But if Christian was okay with the guy standing in his kitchen, she had no complaints.
“What happened to Jaclyn and Cibor? Are they still sleeping?”
“No,” Christian said. “They left already. Jaclyn needed to be with her own people.”
“But she’s okay?”
“Fully healed, but it may take a few days before she’s feeling that way. She was hit pretty hard.”
“I should call her later, and ask if—”
They all stopped at the sound of the doorbell, turning almost as one to stare in that direction.
“Are we expecting company?” Marc asked, glancing at Christian.
“Not that I know of.”
Christian’s hold on her tightened when Marc went to answer the door, almost as if he was preparing for the need to defend her. Natalie glanced around the kitchen, and saw that the house was still at DEFCON 1, with shutters over all the windows and doors. She also noticed that Alon and Scoville had both gone hyper alert, their attention riveted on the doorway that Marc had taken. It made her long for her gun.
Marc opened the front door, which Natalie took to mean that the person ringing the bell posed no threat. The vampires all seemed to read it entirely differently, though, if the shift in their body language was anything to go by. Christian pretty much shoved her behind him, not relaxing until the door closed again, and Marc came into view down the hallway.
“Express delivery,” he said, indicating the FedEx-type envelope in his hand. Except the colors were wrong, and it couldn’t be FedEx because they didn’t deliver this late in the day. Not usually anyway. Maybe vampires had their own version of a guaranteed delivery company. VampEx. Natalie stifled a laugh. Somehow, she didn’t think Christian would see the humor right now.
Marc stared down at the envelope, as if wishing he had x-ray vision, then looked up at Christian with a shrug. “Seems innocuous enough.”
Christian lifted his chin at Alon, and passed Natalie into his care, despite her protests. Sure, she was the most vulnerable person in the room if that envelope decided to blow up or something, but Christian could at least talk to her before passing her off like a football.
“Relax, Nat,” Alon murmured in her ear. “He’s just protecting you.”