Ridge shifted, uncomfortable at his involuntary eavesdropping.
“I’m fine, Kat.” The answer sounded too tense to be entirely honest.
“I can cancel.”
“No! No, this is too important.”
“Are you sure? I can tell him to forget it.”
“No. I need to know. If you can find out . . . I’d like to know. Maybe . . . I think it would help. Maybe.”
“This’ll work, Mom. I know it will. You saw what Grace could do.”
“But you’ve got to stay safe. Promise me you won’t endanger yourself. I couldn’t stand it if . . .”
“Nothing’s going to happen to me, Mom. I can take care of myself.”
Yeah, well, that’s what I’m here to find out, Ridge thought grimly.
High heels clicked on the stairs, followed by the softer pad of rubber soles. Ridge turned to greet his date.
And caught his breath.
Kat Danilo paused in the hall doorway, a long, slim candle of a woman. Cream silk skimmed down a lithe and graceful body, draped seductively over hips, trailed into a short train. The gown was strapless, its cleavage framing round, sun-kissed breasts. An artful slit permitted glimpses of a gently muscled calf and one spiked gold heel.
Kat advanced to meet him, extending a hand, her smile bright and easy. In contrast to the formality of her gown, her hair was a short, spiky blond ’do that framed delicately angular features with saucy wisps.
“Ridge, this is my daughter, Katherine Danilo,” Mary said with evident pride. “Kat, Ridge Champion.”
Some bone-deep instinct had him bowing over those slender fingers. Unlike her mother’s, her hand felt warm and surprisingly strong. Her eyes crinkled at the corners as she smiled, a clear and crystalline blue. He thought he saw a hint of indigo in their depths.
She wore the same gold heart locket as the girl in the picture, but her features were stronger, her gaze years wiser. So who was that in the photo? A sister?
That dossier he’d read was beginning to seem even thinner than he’d thought. Which made him wonder what had been kept from him, and why. The Majae’s Council often played inscrutable games, even with the vampires of Avalon.
“Hello, Ridge.” The girl’s lips looked full and tempting, slicked with bronze gloss. He wanted to taste them. That Kentucky bourbon voice sounded like an invitation to sin.
“It’s my pleasure, Kat.” Or it would be, if he wasn’t careful. How the hell was he supposed to maintain his objectivity with a woman who made his every cell thrum with need?
Unfortunately, he had no choice. There was too much at stake here—starting with Kat Danilo’s life.
TWO
The vampire drove a black Porsche. And what’s more, he looked like the kind of vampire who’d drive a black Porsche.
Kat eyed Ridge Champion in the dashboard lights as he drove with speed and skill. Hair that looked as darkly silky as Russian sable, thick brows slashing over cat-green eyes. A profile that could have been chiseled by Michelangelo. Lips a little sulky, a strong cleft chin, nose a Greco-Roman sweep. And, God help her, dimples that flashed when he smiled. What the hell kind of grown man had dimples? If he hadn’t been a vampire, she’d have figured he was gay.
Gay? Kat winced. Apparently, being really nervous brought out the catty bitch in her.
Her mouth tasted as if she’d eaten a bag of cotton balls. Animated cotton balls, currently tumbling around in her lurching stomach. She tried to work up enough spit to swallow.
He whipped the Porsche between a pair of stone columns. Kat blinked at the houses that rolled past. Middle-class suburbia, nice but decidedly down-market from the Porsche. “You live here?”
“Not exactly.”
He pulled into the driveway of a bland brick split-level. Garage doors opened and then closed again behind the car’s sleek taillights as he braked to a silken stop. Kat started to reach for the door handle. . . .
The universe twisted itself inside out, taking her stomach along for the ride. A hot white starburst exploded in front of her eyes, blinding her. Kat clung to the door, blinking furiously, as the world settled into some kind of weird new configuration. Her stomach settled with it. “What the hell was that?”