I Want You To Want Me. Kathy Love

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СКАЧАТЬ to the canvas satchel on a chair. Rooting around, he found a black T-shirt.

      A bang sounded from directly underneath his feet, and he paused, the shirt halfway over his head. He listened for a moment longer, detecting the sound of Erika speaking again—the gentle, lilting tones like a caress all around him.

      Longing gathered in his stomach, spreading downward. He wanted to be down there with her, hearing what she was saying—although he didn’t doubt that it wasn’t flattering to him.

      Jerking his shirt on the rest of the way, he moved to look for his cell phone. Where the hell was Ren? He needed his brother here. At the very least, Ren and Maggie would provide a buffer between himself and Erika. Not to mention he really needed to talk to his brother about things that couldn’t be discussed over the phone.

      He paused in his search. Okay, that was worrisome, when he needed Ren’s opinion on a problem. Even though Ren was older, Vittorio had always been the more rational one, the responsible one. Or at least he’d tried to be. But maybe he needed Ren’s more extreme reasoning now. He definitely needed the one person who understood him and his past.

      Finding the silver cell phone on the nightstand, he flipped open the cover and scrolled through his short list of numbers to Ren’s. The line rang several times, before his brother answered.

      “You have the worst timing in the world,” Ren stated.

      “I try,” Vittorio said wryly, not in the mood for Ren’s complaints. He had one of his own. But he did ask, “Why? What did I interrupt now?”

      “Maggie getting naked.”

      Vittorio made a noise, not expecting that answer. Although knowing his brother, he probably should have.

      “Then why did you answer the phone?”

      There was silence on the other end, then a little hitch in Ren’s breath.

      “Oh, for Christ’s sake,” Vittorio muttered. “You aren’t actually doing it, are you?”

      “Not yet,” Ren admitted. “So I’d appreciate it if you made this quick.”

      An image of what Ren would likely be doing to Maggie moments after hanging up the phone flashed through Vittorio’s mind. Then the image morphed into himself and Erika with her soft, pink lips and stormy blue eyes.

      Do not go there.

      He gritted his teeth, forcing down a frustrated groan. “Where are you?”

      “Maggie and I are in Italy. Vacation, little brother, something you should look into. What’s going on?”

      Vittorio had no idea how to explain what was going on. Nor did he really want to—not why he was in New Orleans, nor this crazy attraction to Erika. The intensity of it was irrational. A weird anomaly. Instead he took out his frustration on Ren.

      “Why didn’t you mention that Maggie’s friend, Erika, was staying in one of your apartments?”

      “Why would I?”

      “Because I arrived here last night to stay in the upstairs apartment for a while and ended up scaring the shit out of her. She brained me with her cell phone.”

      As Vittorio could have expected, Ren laughed. “Her cell phone? That’s pretty funny.”

      “Yeah, it was a laugh riot.”

      Ren’s laughter dwindled, although Vittorio could tell he was still grinning. “So she assaulted you with a phone. I’m sure you’re fine, what with being a big ole vampire and all.”

      “Yes,” Vittorio admitted begrudgingly, “I’m fine. But I’m not happy about the whole thing. You could have told me she was here.”

      “Well, if I’d known you were coming I would have. And why do you care if Erika is there or not?”

      Vittorio heard Maggie’s voice in the background. Then Ren said, “You like her, don’t you?”

      Vittorio didn’t suppress a growl. “What are you? A teenage girl? I don’t like her—I don’t even know her. I just—I just wanted to be alone.”

      “Okay,” Ren said, but Vittorio knew he didn’t believe him. “What do you want me to do about it? I can hardly kick out Maggie’s best friend.” Then he lowered his voice and added, “I’m sure as hell not going to do it with the potential of kick-ass sex in my near future. I don’t think Maggie would be happy with me, if I did that. Not to mention, I don’t want to. Erika is nice. You should talk to her instead of acting like a miserable hermit.”

      Vittorio growled again, both irritated with his brother’s assessment of him and his response to getting rid of Erika. He’d known Ren couldn’t, and shouldn’t, make her leave, but…

      Ah, hell!

      “When are you coming home?” he asked.

      “Wednesday.”

      Four more days. Hardly a long time in the life of a vampire, yet it felt like an eternity. He considered telling Ren why he was here, but then couldn’t. Ren would be home soon.

      And Vittorio could avoid Erika for that short amount of time—and then he’d have his brother and sister-in-law back to run interference.

      “Okay,” he said, mostly to himself.

      “Okay. So play nice. And we’ll see you then.”

      Abruptly, Ren hung up. He obviously had other things on his mind besides his brother being surprised by the harmless mortal woman downstairs.

      Except she wasn’t harmless. She had him seriously rattled. And he wasn’t harmless to her either.

      That was why he had to stay focused on finding out the truth. He rummaged around the darkness to find his wallet. And he had to start now. The more time away from Erika, the better.

      Maksim followed Vittorio, staying a safe distance behind him, weaving in and out of the tourists crowding Bourbon Street. Just because he wasn’t a vampire, didn’t mean that Vittorio wouldn’t sense him. Vampires were very good at detecting other paranormal creatures.

      But it was clear Vittorio wasn’t concentrating on anything but his own mission. His walk was fast and focused, his movements lithe and graceful with the inherent agility of the undead.

      Irony, that. Zombies were such a clumsy lot, while the undead…poetry on two feet. He liked that about Orabella, among other superficial things. It was her personality that he found lacking. As well as her morals. The lack of morals didn’t bother him as much as her personality either, come to think of it.

      Vittorio turned off Bourbon onto a side street. Maksim waited a moment before following, just in time to see him step through street-dirtied plastic curtains designed to keep the cool air-conditioning inside.

      AC. Hallelujah!

      Maksim pushed aside the plastic, breathing a pleased sigh as a gust of chilled air blew over him. Even the stale scents of cigarette smoke and beer didn’t dampen his pure СКАЧАТЬ