Hungry For You - Argeneau Series - Book 14 Page 0,35

stop in once he’d landed and had headed straight to her home after claiming his rental car. As it turned out, that had been something of an ambush. He’d arrived to find Marguerite, her husband Julius, and Lucian and Leigh waiting for him.

Cale hadn’t even gotten through the door before Marguerite was telling him about her certainty that Alex was the one. He’d heard her out, taking in Lucian’s solemn face and crossed arms the whole while, and had known instinctively that Lucian was there to back Marguerite and would just pester him until he agreed to meeting the woman. That being the case, the first chance he’d gotten to get in a word, Cale had agreed to go to the enforcer house and arrange to meet the woman. He suspected he’d surprised everyone by agreeing so easily, but the moment he had, Marguerite had insisted he should head over at once. Lucian had spoken up then, giving him a quick rundown of the people there. He’d then given him directions before sending him on his way to the enforcer house, where he’d managed to get in one bag of blood before being hustled off to the restaurant.

That one bag hadn’t been nearly enough, he acknowledged as Alex raised a hand to feel his forehead. The gnawing sensation in Cale’s gut immediately intensified in response to her scent. He definitely needed to feed, he thought, and didn’t realize he’d said it aloud until Alex frowned and said, “We just ate.”

“It was a very small burger,” he muttered and moved away, ostensibly to set down his roller, but really to get away from Alex and the blood he could actually smell pulsing under her skin.

“Yes it was,” she said almost apologetically. “I always get the little cheeseburgers rather than a proper burger. It’s those reconstituted onions. I really like them. Still—""And it’s the only thing I’ve eaten all day,” he interrupted as he straightened.

Her eyebrows flew up, and she was suddenly moving. “Okay. Time to go.”

“You don’t have to come with me,” Cale said with alarm when she grabbed her purse and coat.

Alex shrugged her coat on. “How long have you been in Toronto?”

“Today,” he admitted with confusion.

“That’s what I thought. So you don’t know where the nearest twenty-four-hour grocery store is. I do.”

“Yes, but I can find my way back to that restaurant we visited earlier,” Cale assured her, thinking he’d make a quick run to the hotel, drop off his suitcase, grab a bag or two of blood, and hit the drive-thru again on his way back. He’d enjoyed the food they’d had earlier and wouldn’t mind more of it.

“No way,” Alex said firmly. “There’s absolutely no nutritional value to that stuff, and you haven’t eaten all day. We’ll go to the grocery store and gather the fixings for a nice healthy picnic.”

“But I thought I’d stop and check into my hotel on the way back and drop off my luggage,” he said desperately.

Alex turned to peer at him wide-eyed. “You haven’t even checked into your hotel yet? ”

“No. I’m afraid not. I went straight to my aunt’s from the airport, then on to the … er … well Mortimer’s place, and then wound up at your restaurant and now here,” he finished.

“Oh, well we should head straight to the hotel first then, and we should get moving. They could give your room away,” she said worriedly, rushing out of the room.

“Right,” Cale muttered wearily, collecting and shrugging into his own jacket. This complicated things.

Six

“This is nice. I’ve never been in this hotel, but the rooms are lovely.”

Cale glanced around as he followed Alex into his hotel room. It had been twenty years since he’d stayed at this particular hotel. It was owned by an immortal who ensured that the windows had blackout curtains and the closets had outlets for special travel refrigerators. That thought in mind, Cale paused to open the sliding glass door to see if his blood had been delivered. The closet was empty.

“What’s wrong?” Alex asked coming up beside him.

Cale forced away a frown. “Nothing. I was just debating whether to change or not.”

She looked him up and down. “Well, I guess that depends on whether you were planning to help me finish the painting or not … I mean, you don’t have to if you—”

“I’m helping,” he interrupted as she began to babble.

“Thanks,” Alex said softly, and then cleared her throat. “Then you should probably change. You seem to have managed to avoid getting