TALL DARK AND HUNGRY Page 0,4

making out in public, private, or anywhere they found themselves. But, then, neither he nor his mother had anyone to make out with.

Bastien ignored the twinge of envy that ate at him as he heard another soft sigh from Kate, followed by a faint moan. In the next moment, his head whipped around in surprise when Kate spoke in suddenly businesslike tones.

"This might help." Kate had straightened and was digging a photo out of her purse. "It's a relatively new picture. Terri e-mailed it to me last month. Now, I have to go. Be nice to her." She set the photo onto the table between them, then turned and began easing her way through the tables toward the exit of the tiny, crowded restaurant.

"God, she's wonderful," Lucern sighed as he watched Kate pause and step to the side to make room for someone entering the small eatery.

Bastien rolled his eyes, not missing the fact that his brother's gaze was fixed firmly on his fiancee's der-riere. Suddenly aware that his own gaze had followed Lucern's, he gave his head a shake and turned his at¬tention to the photo on the table. It was a picture of a woman in her late twenties. She had full lips curved in an impish smile; and large, soft eyes.

"A beauty," he commented, noting that Kate's cousin appeared to be Kate's opposite. She was brunette to Kate's blonde, and buxom and curvy in a way that made him think of ripe fruit, as opposed to Kate's slen¬der figure. But she was stunning in her own way.

"Is she?" Lucern asked with disinterest, his gaze still following his soon-to-be wife.

"If you'd stop ogling Kate and take a look, you could see for yourself," Bastien pointed out.

Lucern turned an amused glance his way, then looked at the picture and shrugged with disinterest. "She's all right. Not as beautiful as Katie, though."

Bastien snorted. "No one is as beautiful as Katie, in your eyes."

"You're right," Lucern agreed, lifting his glass to take a swallow of whiskey before adding, "Kate's perfect in my eyes. No one comes close to her in anything."

"Forgive me, brother. But I believe the modern ex¬pression is 'You got it bad.'" Bastien gave an amused shake of his head. He liked Kate well enough, but she wasn't perfect. Damned near, perhaps, but not quite. "So? What time does this Terri person's plane get in?"

Lucern glanced at his wristwatch, shrugging. "In about an hour."

"What?" Bastien squawked.

"What, what?" Lucern asked.

"You're joking! She doesn't get in in an hour."

"Yes, she does."

Bastien stared at him blankly, then asked, "Which airport?"

"JFK."

"Dear God."

"What?" Lucern asked. He looked concerned as Bastien began scanning the tiny restaurant in search of their waitress. Of course she'd disappeared right when they wanted her, probably into the kitchen.

"You could have mentioned this before, damn it," Bastien growled. "Hell, why didn't Kate mention it? She knows it takes an hour to get to JFK. Where the hell is that waitress?"

"She probably didn't realize how late it was," Lucern excused Kate. "Besides, she's a little distracted right now."

"Yeah? Well, it will be her fault if we're late."

"We'll make it," Lucern said soothingly as the waitress walked back out of the kitchen. Gesturing her over, he added, "Terri has to collect her luggage and go through customs anyway."

Bastien shook his head in disgust. Lucern rarely worried about anything anymore, but a couple hun-dred years in the business world had made him a de¬tails man. "She may have to get through customs, but we still have to get the car and drive there. Let's just hope traffic isn't particularly slow today."

Leaving Lucern to deal with the bill, Bastien took out his cellphone and called his driver. While he drove himself or took taxis at night, when he traveled during daylight Bastien always had a driver. Aside from saving the trouble of finding parking, it pre¬vented his being out in sunlight any longer than nec¬essary--he simply had to jog from the car to the entrance of wherever he needed to go. Not that he couldn't have stood walking a few minutes in sun¬light, or even longer than that really, but it meant he would need to ingest more blood, which could be pretty inconvenient at times.

Once assured that the car was on its way, Bastien snapped the phone closed and slid it back into his pocket, then began to consider how best to handle this situation. While he used a chauffeured limo when necessary, his usual driver was on vacation and Bastien really didn't