The Last of the Red Hot Vampires - By Katie MacAlister Page 0,42

allow you to be uncomfortable. Would you like me to remove the cause of your discomfort?"

"You may," I said, chafing a bit at the leisurely way he drew a finger along my collarbone to the thin strap of the teddy. He paused for a moment, passion flaring deep in his eyes.

"Would this be the sort of garment that closes at the crotch?"

Warmth burst out in the pit of my stomach, quickly spreading to surrounding areas. Deeply personal parts of my body were tingling in celebration. I swallowed hard again, trying to keep my voice steady. "How do you know about that sort of thing?"

He grinned. "Just because I'm immortal doesn't mean I don't live in the here and now."

"That's a little more up to date than I imagined. But as you ask, yes, it is that sort of teddy. You're going to have to undo the snaps in order to get it off."

"I am only too happy to oblige," he murmured, his hands caressing my belly for a moment before they slid lower.

I clutched his shoulders, my eyes closed as I braced myself for the touch of his fingers on my most intimate parts.

That touch never came.

"I'm sorry if I'm a bit...anticipatory," I whispered, my eyes still closed. "I can't seem to help it."

Beneath my hands, his shoulders tightened. I opened my eyes to find him staring past me, his brows pulled down in a frown as he looked around the room.

"Is something wrong?" I asked, looking around as well. No one else was there.

"Don't you feel it?" He let go of me, taking a step forward, looking around us in a puzzled manner.

"I don't feel anything out of the ordinary, given the fact that I was about to jump your bones."

His back stiffened. He grabbed his shirt, pulling it on quickly. "Do you have a dressing gown?"

"Bathrobe? Yes, I do. It's on the chair behind you."

He tossed my robe to me. "Theo, is this some sort of odd English foreplay that I've never heard of?"

"Put it on. We're about to have a visitor." He stalked over to where I stood in the corner of the room, waiting for me to comply.

"All right, but this really will make me hot. It's crushed velvet and not the lightest thing in the world." He watched silently as I donned the bathrobe. Dressing gown was actually a more appropriate term - it was one of my private pleasures to have a tailor custom make the long, full-skirted robe that closely resembled a Victorian lady's dressing gown. It had a square-necked front, heavily embroidered with gold thread, which set off the crimson velvet nicely.

I had just done up the buttons in the front when Theo spun around and looked to the opposite corner of the room. To my astonishment, the wall next to the bed rippled, then tore, a horrible rending sound filling the air. A short, dark man stepped out and snarled something I didn't understand. The lightbulb in the bedside lamp exploded, followed by tiny tinkling sounds as the glass rained down onto the floor.

"You are summoned," the short man growled, grabbing for me.

Theo wrapped his arm around me, pulling me protectively to his side, putting his body between us. "Not without me."

The man smirked. It was such an oily, evil smile; I felt soiled by exposure to it. I didn't have long to fret about that, though. The man simply grabbed Theo by the free arm, and yanked him - and me - through the tear in the wall.
Chapter 10
We were falling, sinking, spinning, our insides churning outward in a soul-rending process that sank us deep into a horrible miasma of pain and nausea. Just when I thought I was going to pass out or die (I wasn't sure which, and at that point, didn't really care), the horror ended and I dropped to a yielding, warm surface.

"Ow!" grunted the surface.

I pushed myself off, apologizing under my breath to Theo. "Sorry about that. Did I hurt you? What just happened? Who is that horrible man? How did he come through the wall? And just where the blistering inferno are we?"

"Ah. There you are. You may leave, Digan."

I was insanely glad that Theo made me put my bathrobe on. The man who had spoken strolled into view as we got to our feet. My jaw just about hit my feet at the sight of him - he was one of the most beautiful men who'd ever walked the earth. Theo was handsome