Vacation with a Vampire & Other Immortals by Maureen Child, MAGGIE SHAYNE Page A

seductress’s peignoir before and now felt like a silk throw. “Change,” he finished.
    “I…I thought…after last night…what we shared…”
    “It was the bloodlust, Anna.” He looked away when he said it, unable to hold her eyes, she thought, probably because he knew he was being a coldhearted bastard. “When a vampire feeds from a living being, sexual desire is…one of the side effects. It’s nearly irresistible.”
    She blinked, her eyes burning with tears. “That’s all it was? It would have happened…with anyone?” she asked.
    “No, not with anyone. But with any beautiful woman, probably, yes, it would have happened.”
    “Then it meant nothing,” she said softly.
    “It didn’t mean what you want it to mean. Can we leave it at that?”
    She was silent for a moment, but inside, way down deep where he couldn’t see—or could he? She was burning with anger, humiliation and rage.
    “I gave you my blood,” she said softly. “And I gave you my body. And you won’t even give me a few weeks on your precious island before I die?”
    He lowered his head. “I will visit you again before you die,” he told her. “And I’ll repay your favor at that time. But until then, it’s best you go.”
    Blinking rapidly, she lowered her head. “All right, then.”
    Suddenly it felt as if someone were poking around inside her brain. Her head snapped up, and she found his eyes on her, the intensity in them telling her that he was doing something . Trying to read her thoughts? So she filled her mind with the image of walking along the beach, saying goodbye to the island.
    “If you don’t mind,” she said softly, “I’d like a few minutes alone. I’m going down to the beach. I’ll gather up any more of my things that might have washed up today.”
    He seemed to relax a little, and he nodded. “That’s a good idea. I need to pack a few things for the trip, anyway. I’ll meet you at the boat in…half an hour?”
    She nodded and headed back up the stairs to his bedroom, where she pulled her clothes on as fast as she could, then grabbed the lighter from the nightstand and tucked it into her pocket.
    She was staying on this island. She was staying for the rest of her life. As near as she could figure, that might be another four to six weeks. So she was staying. Whether her guardian vampire liked it or not.

Chapter 11
     
    I t was killing him to treat her as coldly as he was. He didn’t want to. He wanted to scoop her right up off her feet and carry her back to bed. He wanted to ravish her over and over. He wanted to drink from her again. He wanted to feed her, too. Feed her from his own veins. Share the Gift with her.
    But what he wanted had nothing to do with anything. Self-preservation came first. It was what had brought him to this island in the first place. The need to stay solitary. The need to be completely self-contained and not dependent upon anything temporal. And everything was temporal, when you came down to it. Everything. Humans, totally mortal. Lived, died, gone. Houses, homes, rotted with time. Cars fell apart. Money. Jobs. Hobbies. Friends. Relationships, even with other immortals. Nothing lasted.
    Nothing but him.
    He was meant to be alone. He’d lost sight of that for a time with Cassandra. But he’d learned from that experience, from the pain of it. And he’d brought himself around to being at peace with solitude again. Until Anna had shown up here and brought all those old longings back to screaming life.
    If she stayed any longer, he was going to fall in love with her. He was going to let himself believe she really was everything she seemed. Already he felt himself sliding down that slippery path. How many times, just in the past hour, had he caught himself believing in her?
    Why was it so hard to let her—make her—go?
    She was one of the Chosen. All right. He got that. That meant that there was an automatic bond between them. He couldn’t hurt her, not even if he wanted to. And