TALL DARK AND HUNGRY Page 0,43

have Bastien's address?"

"What does he need my address for?" Bastien asked in dismay. What had he missed while he'd been mooning over that kiss?

"To send some sample arrangements to you so that you can take pictures of them with your digital cam¬era and send them to Kate via e-mail," Lucern said. "You weren't listening, were you? Mooning over Terri would be my guess."

"I liked you better when grunting was your com¬munication of choice," Bastien told him grimly. He was surprised to hear a chuckle from his older brother.

"Very good," Roberto inserted, sounding as prim as an old woman. "Yes, I wrote down the address. I'll start right now and have them delivered first thing in the morning for Mr. Argeneau to take pictures. Please, please, please choose as quickly as you can, so we can be sure to get what we need in time."

"Yes, Roberto. I promise I will," Kate assured him. "Either Lucern or I will check every hour to see if he's e-mailed the pictures, and we'll choose at once."

"Good, good." Roberto took a moment to expos¬tulate again on what a terrible tragedy this all was be¬fore saying good-bye and hanging up.

"Well," Kate murmured once he'd gone.

"Yes, well, Bastien?" Lucern queried.

"Well, I'll be sure to send those photos to you the minute the arrangements arrive," Bastien said quickly. "Now, I'd better get going if I want to be ready in time to take Terri to the theater tonight. Bye." He hung up before either Kate or Lucern could protest, and grinned at the fact that he'd man-aged to avoid the grilling he would surely have got.

Whistling softly, Bastien stood and crossed the room to the bar in the corner of his office. There were two fridges behind it: one unlocked and a smaller locked one. He unlocked the smaller fridge, retrieved a bag of blood, and relocked it. He then opened his mouth, extended his teeth, and slammed the bag into them as he walked back across the room.

Bastien checked the messages on his desk while in¬gesting the blood. None of them seemed to be ur¬gent, which meant either he had some damned fine people working for him who were capable of taking care of matters on their own, or he wasn't as indis¬pensable as he'd always thought.

Perhaps that was a good thing, Bastien thought as he tossed the now empty blood bag in the wastebas-ket under his desk and left his office. He said good night to Meredith, who was gathering her things in preparation for leaving, then walked to the elevator to the penthouse.

Bastien considered the night ahead as he rode up¬stairs. He had about an hour to get ready for the play, which was plenty of time. And he'd made late reser¬vations at a nice little Italian restaurant not far from the theater. He hoped Terri liked Italian. As he re¬called, it had always been one of his favorites back... well... a long time ago, when he still used to find food interesting.

He was debating whether they should take a taxi to the theater, or go by car, when the elevator opened onto the penthouse. A taxi, he thought, would be the better option; he really didn't want to be bothered with finding parking.

"Do you like cheese on your salad?" Terri asked as she finished slicing celery. She'd decided that salad was the smart choice to snack on: healthy, quick, and light enough to tide her over until the meal after the play; and it wouldn't leave her uncomfortably full. "Whatever you like," was Vincent's answer. He was leaning back against the counter beside her, arms crossed over his chest, legs crossed at the ankles in a relaxed pose as he watched her work. They'd been chatting amicably about her stay so far. Vincent seemed curious to know where Bastien had been tak¬ing her, and if she was having a good time.

Terri had enthused about everything she'd seen and done, and how kind and amusing and smart Bastien was, and how he seemed to make everything more interesting, when she heard herself and realized she was gushing. She sounded pathetic--like a woman falling in love.

She'd quickly cut herself off and asked about the cheese to change the topic.

"I haven't seen Bastien like this in a long, long time."

Vincent's announcement drew Terri's curious gaze. "Like what?"

"Happy."

Terri felt a leap of hope and excitement, but quickly stifled it. Ducking her head, she turned her attention back to what she was doing. "Oh?"

"Yes. We were a lot younger