“See, it’s not difficult to open up and playnice after all.”
She shot him a disgruntled look. “What aboutyou? How many women have you been with?”
For the first time Ian didn’t know how torespond to her; he finally went with the truth. “I’m not sure.”
Her eyes fell to her hand before shefinished her drink off. “Doesn’t it bother you that you don’tknow?”
It never had before, and truthfully it stilldidn’t. It bothered him she didn’t like it, but she didn’tunderstand what it was like to deal with the impulses and urges hehad to deal with day in and day out. “No, things are different forme.”
“Let me guess, the whole ‘I’m a man and Ihave needs’ thing.”
“No, it’s far more than that. I’m alsoinhumanand have needs. I do what I must to get through thedays and nights.”
“Oh.” She didn’t know how to respond tothat; she could never understand what drove him to behave the wayhe did.
“I’m not ashamed of it, but I don’t likethat my history bothers you.”
“Pfft,” she said and waved her hand throughthe air. “Your life is your own. You can bang as many women as youwant.”
She said the words, but she couldn’t shakethe strange sense of hurt she experienced as the words passed herlips. It made absolutely no sense to her; what did she care what hedid in his spare time, or who he did it with? She had to keep herguard up around this man. She refused to become one of the many hewould never remember. What was wrong with her that she wasattracted to such a man, and a vampire no less?
“How old are you, Paige?” Ian inquired,looking to change the topic.
“Twenty-two, you?”
“Twenty-two.”
“Is that including vamp years?” sheblurted.
The rumbling sound of his laughter caused asmile to tug at her lips. “Born this way, remember? Every year is avamp year for me.”
“Oh yeah,” she mumbled, feeling more than alittle stupid for asking the question. She could blamethaton the alcohol, she decided.
He grabbed his glass from the bar and turnedaway from her. “I saw a deck of cards in the kitchen, want to playa game?”
She would have agreed to just about anythingif it meant a distraction from her thoughts about him. “Ok,” shesaid and returned to the couch.
The warmth from her buzz had returned by thetime he came back with a deck of cards, a pad of paper, and a pen.He set them on the table and pulled the cards from the box. Shewatched in amazement as his fingers shuffled through the deck withthe speed of the undead. The flashing colors and numbers made heralready fuzzy head spin so much she had to look away or riskgetting sick to her stomach.
She turned back as he dealt the cards out.“What are we playing?” she asked.
“Five hundred rummy, and be warned, I don’tlike to lose.”
“Neither do I.” She gathered her cards andheld them before her.
A strange sense of comfort settled over heras the heat of the fire danced across her skin, and the alcoholseeped into her system.
CHAPTER 9
Paige cracked one heavy eyelid and groaned at thesunlight filtering around the closed curtains. Demented littleelves were inside her head, chipping away at pieces of her Scotchsoaked brain. She’d definitely lost some of her brain cells to thealcohol last night. Actually, she would bet some of her cells werestill floating around in the liquid right now. Her stomach was mostcertainly floating in it.
She pulled the pillow over her head, moaningwhen the movement caused her belly to lurch. “Not going to throwup,” she said aloud, but a good minute passed where she wascompletely uncertain about that.
Had she really spent last night gettingdrunk and playing cards with avampire? God, she had, shereallyhad, and the worst thing about it was she’d spent alot of time laughing with him too. What had made her think to drinkScotch? She’d been trying to prove she didn’t do girly drinks,which she didn’t, but it had been months since she’d sat down anddone anything more than sip at a drink or two.
Her stomach rolled, her head beat out atempo that would have made Korn proud as she swung her legs overthe side of the bed. The possibility of not being able to stand upcrossed her mind, but she somehow managed to push herself to herfeet. She didn’t know if it was the booze still making her sick, orthat she’d stayed up till four in the morning with Ian,thevampire.
She shuddered, a flush covering her fromhead to toe. She yearned for a shower, and then maybe she’d crawlback in bed and stay there until tomorrow. Opening her door, shepoked her head out to search the hall. She didn’t see Ian anywhere,nor did she hear him moving about.
