Read Online Born Into Love by Catherine LaClaire - Free Book Online

staring.”
    “The museum is as insular as you said I was. Like the café’s new recipe for Roquefort salad dressing, we are a topic of conversation."
    Remy, the curator and a guy with slicked-back ebony hair sat at a table near them. Every time Mercedes raised her eyes, one of the trio seemed to be studying Diego.
    In a shocking move he returned their stares and added a smile. A second later he sent a bottle of cabernet to their table.
    Mercedes mouth dropped. “Why’d you do that?” Diego cut into a steak so rare that blood mixed with his potatoes. She grimaced.
    “See?” he said. “You are free to wear that horrified expression over my chosen entree, but poor Ms. Rogers, she is a nice person conned into eating lunch with a serpent and his gangster babysitter. She needs a delicious wine to ease her palate.”
    Mercedes laughed but couldn’t stop staring at Diego’s plate. “How can you eat that?”
    “No choice. I need my strength.”
    “May I suggest supplements?”
    “Once again I have managed to charm you.”
    “Yes, you have.” She intended to sound playful but her comment held the ring of truth. Maybe he wouldn’t notice the heat rushing to her cheeks? “The sole melted in my mouth, but I can’t stay long and I want to call Annie. By the way, you have an unopened pitcher waiting below.”
     
     
    * * *
     
    “Really? Tell me about it.”
    Mercedes ticked off a description and included other pieces. Diego recalled some as items he and his brother had used. Items he should have left behind.
    “Should I send the pitcher to radiography? I heard a faint sound when I handled it. We have a mystery on our hands.”
    “I am sure it contains nothing important. Probably shells. The item is something given to me a long time ago.” Days he did not want to relive.
    How could he explain? Tell Mercedes that the gift spent hundreds of years bundled away in his castle? Forgotten because he wanted to forget. A sudden unease caught up with him. Perhaps he should examine it, but in the privacy of his own home. “I will arrange to have it returned to the house.”
    “And then you’ll have it opened?”
    “Yes.”
    “What do you think is inside?”
    “I suspect it contains something moldy and dank.”
    “You’re no fun.” Her fingers tapped a beat on the table.
    “You are anxious to revisit the ceramics.”
    “Yes, but I’ll be thinking of you.”
    “What are your plans for tomorrow?”
    “Dr. Mendez arranged a direct donation at the blood bank. I’ll be their first customer.”
    “I will drive you.”
    “Please, Diego. I can’t accept.”
    “I am not doing it for you. I am helping Annie.” Mercedes’ lips pursed like a gathering of rose petals.
    “No wonder you do so well in business. You’ve cornered me.”
    “Is that so horrible?” Her gaze rested in his. “Do I make you uncomfortable?”
    “Oh yes.”
    The loveliest rose tint painted her cheeks. He admitted to enjoying her blushes. He wanted to sweep her away to a spring fed oasis and feed her ripe dates. “I will accept your response as a good thing until you tell me differently.”
    He escorted her out of the dining area, all the time feeling Remy and the goon’s eyes on his back. Such awareness was not a vampire gift. When mortal, he always knew when and where an enemy lurked. Unfortunately the ability failed against the treachery of the sorcerer.
    “Mercedes, I have several A-type investment managers to visit downtown. Shall we meet at the entrance at closing time?”
    “Sounds perfect.”
    In the pupils of her eyes he caught his human reflection. An ache grew in his heart. How would she react when she learned he was a shell? A problem he would soon have to face, but his immediate concern was nausea.
    She walked away and he hurried to the men’s room. The blood of the animal that served as his lunch did not register as the greatest problem, but the flesh. The inability to digest food was the most humiliating reminder that he