A Bite to Remember by Lynsay Sands Page B

even come up with something to say, movement out of the corner of her eye drew her attention to the door as it closed behind Marguerite.
    Jackie groaned inwardly as she realized the woman had heard everything and probably read the rest in her thoughts. She hadn’t exactly been guarding them. This just wasn’t her day and this case was one she now wished she’d never taken on. One way or another, Jackie was sure she was going to end up hurt.
    “I’m afraid I’m not hungry either, Tiny,” Jackie said wearily. “I think I’ll go shower and change into something more comfortable, then do some work.”
    Tiny sighed as he peered at the meal he’d prepared, but didn’t say anything to dissuade her as she left the kitchen.

     
    Vincent was pacing the length of the living room, his mind in an uproar when Marguerite found him. She eyed his stiff stature, then asked, “Have you tried to read Jackie yet?”
    Vincent waved the question away with irritation. “No. As I said in the kitchen, I don’t like to read people’s thoughts.”
    “Well, you shall have to try to overcome your reticence and read Jackie’s,” Marguerite said firmly. “There’s something in her past that causes her distrust of immortals and I think it would help if you knew what.”
    Vincent stiffened. “She doesn’t trust us?”
    “She doesn’t trust anyone with immortal blood in their veins,” Marguerite said quietly. “Except perhaps for Bastien and even he she only trusts so far.”
    Vincent frowned. “Why?”
    “Try to read her mind and you might find out,” Marguerite suggested. “Otherwise you’ll have to read Tiny.”
    “ Try to read her mind?” he asked and then his eyes widened as Vincent recalled Bastien saying Marguerite was coming out here because she thought he was lonely and might need help cheering up, or even seeing to the situation.
    “Oh, no,” he said grimly. “No, no, no, no. Do not even go there.”
    “Go where?” she asked innocently.
    “Do not start playing matchmaker. I could read Jackie if I tried, I just haven’t tried. She is not my life mate.”
    “I don’t know Vincent. I’ve seen it four times now in the last couple years. There’s a certain chemistry between life mates and you two seem to have it.”
    “Aunt Marguerite,” he said in warning.

    “So, prove me wrong. Try to read her,” she challenged.
    Vincent’s mind raced. Part of him was excited at the idea that Jackie might be his life mate. The other part was absolutely terrified. He’d lived more than four hundred years on his own. Four hundred years was a long time to wander the earth in search of a mate, and that’s what he’d been doing.
    Vincent wanted a life mate. He wanted someone to share his hopes and dreams and even his sorrows with. His parents’ relationship had been full of love and support and caring. They’d been true life mates, bonded and inseparable until his mother’s death. He wanted that. He wanted someone to laugh with and cry with and to hold close in the dark of night and the harsh light of day. It was why he’d traveled so far and wide during his life. Vincent had been actively seeking his life mate.
    During the first three hundred years, Vincent had gained a reputation as a ladies’ man because he went out of his way to meet as many women as he could. It was only the last fifty years or so that he’d grown tired of the hunt and begun to fear he might never find her. Not all immortals did.
    Now, his aunt was holding out that hope to him and he was afraid. Oddly enough, he wasn’t just afraid that he might be able to read Jackie, which would mean she wasn’t his life mate, but he also feared not being able to read her, a sure sign that she was his life mate.
    Vincent liked Jackie, he found her intelligent, and funny and sexy and he even enjoyed her strength and her slightly hard edge. His own mother had been a strong woman and he wanted that kind of woman for himself. But…
    “Go try to read her,”