“The gate was blocked by a truck actively engaged in loading trash,” Duncan corrected gently. “Obviously, it was not supposed to be open.”
Okay, so he had her there. “You’re right,” she conceded. “I’m sorry. Again.”
Duncan laughed softly, his warm brown eyes dancing. He sure didn’t look like a vampire. Miguel she could buy. He’d growled for God’s sake. Duncan looked like a blue blood Harvard business graduate with an expensive tailor and enough rebellion in his soul to let his hair grow long. But maybe that was the point. What better face to put on the vampire culture than someone who looked like the corporate executive next door?
“Your problem?”Duncan prompted her.
Emma drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “My roommate, Lacey,” she started, then stopped. Lacey was way more than just a roommate, but he didn’t need to know that. “She went to one of Victor’s parties. It was a weekend thing, but she should have been home by at least Sunday night, because she had to work Monday morning. That was three days ago, and I still haven’t heard from her. Lacey wouldn’t do that.”
She looked at Duncan, waiting for him to respond somehow. To tell her everything was okay, that the party was still going on, or they’d decided to take a plane to the Bahamas and there was no cell coverage. Something, anything, to explain Lacey’s silence. He didn’t say anything right away. He sat almost perfectly still, clearly thinking about everything she’d said, but not rushing to respond. It was frustrating for someone like Emma, who tended to live life at full throttle, but at the same time, there was something mesmerizing about his stillness. She didn’t think she’d ever met anyone who could remain so still. She would have attributed it to him being a vampire, except that Miguel, standing right next to him, was fairly bristling with energy, his muscles bunching beneath the lines of his elegant suit.
Duncan, on the other hand, was like a big cat—a tiger, maybe—so beautiful and sleek on the outside. But even as you admire his beauty, your heart’s racing with fear, because some part of you knows that this is danger, this is death. There was a coiled power to Duncan, as if it was barely contained within his skin. It demanded all her attention, and yet, outwardly, he was just sitting there, still and quiet, waiting. Just like that tiger.
Emma wasn’t a tiger. She was always fiddling with something. Her teachers used to scold her constantly for her twitching, as they called it. But the truth was she had too much energy to be still. It would burn her up from the inside if she didn’t use it somehow.
“Was this the first time your friend joined Victor at one of his events?” Duncan asked.
Emma stifled her jerk of surprise at his sudden question. “No,” she admitted. “Lacey likes to party. Working and living in D.C. was my idea, but she agreed to come with me for the social scene. There’s a party of some sort almost every night in this town. More than one most nights, and on weekends—” Emma shrugged, then hesitated. She didn’t want to tell Duncan the rest of it, didn’t want him to think badly of Lacey, but . . .
“Lacey’s sort of obsessed with you all,” she added reluctantly.
“You ‘all’ what?”Duncan prompted.
“Vampires,” Emma said, wincing. “She must read ten books a week, absolutely gobbles them up. Paranormal romance mostly, and most of that vampires. She met Victor at a VIP function hosted by the company she works for. They’re a K Street lobbying firm—big, big money. Anyway, she came home that night happier than I’ve ever seen her, because she’d finally met a real live vampire. Two days later, there was an invite in her work e-mail, a party here at the embassy.”
“Here.”
“The first party, yeah. That was maybe two months ago. I’d have to look it up to be sure. I don’t keep track of Lacey’s social calendar, but I’m sure she’s partied with your vampire guys at least once a week since then.”
“Were they feeding from her?”
Emma blanched at the straightforward question. She’d asked herself the same thing a thousand times, but she’d never asked Lacey. She didn’t really want to know.
“I don’t know,” she admitted to Duncan. “I never saw—” She drew a shaky breath. “I never saw any marks on her neck or anything.”
“You wouldn’t necessarily. It is likely, however, that your friend was permitting—”
“Lacey,” Emma interrupted. “Her name is Lacey.”
Duncan acknowledged the correction with a dip of his head. “As charming as I’m sure Lacey is, I doubt Victor would have continued to invite her unless she was providing blood. It’s not uncommon, you understand.”
Emma looked at him blankly. “What’s not uncommon?”
Duncan gave her a pitying look. “There are many humans, Ms. Duquet, who are eager to serve as a blood source for vampires. It can be quite enjoyable for them.”
She frowned. “You mean for the humans? How can that be enjoyable?”
“Sexually,” he drawled, and the word seemed to whisper seductively from his kissable mouth directly to her ear. It was so real she could feel the warmth of his breath teasing her cheek as his voice curled around her senses.
Emma’s heart beat faster. Sweat popped delicately between her br**sts, and moisture of an entirely different sort pooled deep between her thighs. She felt her ni**les tightening and was glad for the heavy fabric of her jacket which would keep anyone from noticing. Except the heated look on Duncan’s face said that he knew she was aroused, knew that her ni**les were scraping exquisitely against the lace of her bra. She wanted to clench her legs together against the ache, but refused to give him the satisfaction. She clenched her fingers around the chair arms instead.
This was ridiculous.
She gritted her teeth, forcing her brain back on track. “Look,deli she said. “I don’t know anything about human and vampire interactions. I don’t even like the movies. All I know is that Lacey partied with you guys, and now she’s missing. She hasn’t come home or even called me in three days. Something’s happened, and I want to know what you’re going to do about it.”
“Is it not possible, Ms. Duquet,” Duncan said patiently, “that Lacey has met someone she enjoys and is spending an extra few days alone with him?”
“She’d have called me. She knows I’d worry.”