Read Online Close Liaisons by Anna Zaires - Free Book Online

in his limo was bound to attract attention, and Mia was sure they wondered about his dowdy companion.
    A tall, rail-thin hostess greeted them at the door. Without even asking for their reservations, she led them to a private booth in the back of the restaurant. “Welcome back to Percival,” she purred, leaning suggestively over Korum while handing them the menus. “Should I start you off with sparkling or flat?”
    “Sparkling would be fine, Ashley, thanks,” he said absentmindedly, studying the menu.
    Mia felt a sudden, shocking urge to tear out every straight blond hair from Ashley’s model-like head. A strange nausea-like sensation roiled her stomach as she pictured the two of them together in bed, his muscular body wrapped around the blonde’s. Stop it, Mia! Of course, he slept with other women! Undoubtedly, the creature left a trail of Ashleys anywhere he went.
    “Have you decided what you’d like?” he inquired, looking up from his menu, seemingly oblivious to the murderous expression on Mia’s face.
    “No, not yet.” Taking a deep breath, she forced herself to concentrate on the menu. This was undoubtedly the nicest restaurant she’d ever been to, and the menu – which lacked prices for some reason – listed some dishes and ingredients that she’d never heard of. Her eyes widened as she noticed goat cheese and caviar in the appetizer section and eggs in one of the noodle dishes. Her mouth watered. “I think I’ll get the roasted beets and goat cheese salad, followed by the pesto-artichoke Pad Thai.”
    Korum smiled at her indulgently. “Of course.” He motioned to the waiter and relayed her order. “And I will have the watercress jicama salad and the shiitake parsnip ravioli in cashew cream. We’ll also get a bottle of Dom Perignon.”
    Mia looked at him in fascination. She hadn’t known that Ks consumed alcohol. In fact, there was so much that she – and the public in general – didn’t know about the invaders who now lived alongside them. It dawned on Mia that she had the perfect opportunity to learn sitting across her at the table.
    Feeling slightly reckless, she decided to start with the question that had been bothering her ever since their first meeting. “Is it true that you drink human blood?”
    Korum’s eyebrows shot up on his forehead, and he nearly choked on his drink. “You don’t pull any punches, do you?” A big grin breaking out on his face, he asked, “Are you asking if we have to drink human blood, or if we do it anyway?”
    Mia swallowed. She was suddenly far from sure this was the best line of questioning. “I guess both.”
    “Well, let me set your mind at ease . . . We no longer require blood for survival.”
    “But you did before?” Mia’s eyes widened in shock.
    “Originally, when we first evolved into our current form, we needed to consume significant amounts of blood from a group of primates that had certain genetic similarities to us. It was a deficiency in our DNA that made us vulnerable and tied our existence to another species. We have since corrected this defect.”
    “So it’s true? There were humans on your planet?” Mia was staring at him open-mouthed.
    “They weren’t exactly human. Their blood, however, had the same hemoglobin characteristics as yours.”
    “What happened to them? Are they still around?”
    “No, they are now extinct.”
    “I don’t understand,” Mia said slowly, trying to make sense of what she’d learned thus far. “If you needed them to survive, how and when did they go extinct? Was that before or after you . . . um . . . fixed your defect?”
    “It happened long before then. We succeeded in developing a synthetic substance before the last of their kind disappeared, and it enabled us to survive their demise. They were an endangered species for millions of years. It was partially our fault for hunting them, but a lot of it had to do with their own low birth rate and short lifespan. Just like you, they had a