Page 2 of Eternal Kiss

I wanted to explain the man Doug had been. The one she didn’t know, but now wasn’t the time. When I failed to say anything, she continued, “I apologize for being insensitive to your feelings. I’m sorry for your loss.”

“Thank you. Let’s step inside and get out of the heat.” I pulled the keys from my pocket, unlocked the door, and ushered Dinah inside. Her steps were hesitant as she looked around.

“I called in a cleaning crew as soon as the club was released by the detective. I didn’t want you to see the place in disarray,” I explained. I had called in a crew after I gathered Doug’s ashes, and then I’d had to get creative, finding a body to show the detective while compelling him that the homeless person was Doug Caan. If it hadn’t been for Dinah inheriting the club, I wouldn’t have bothered. “In all honestly, I could have opened the club a couple nights ago, but I didn’t want to step on any toes.” I moved behind the bar and poured myself a drink. “Can I get you anything?”

“I’ll have water, please.” Dinah sat across from me on one of the stools and wrapped her hands around the glass when I placed it on the bar. “I have no knowledge of running an establishment such as this. I earned a degree in business, but I currently work in marketing for a major music producer.”

“Please don’t worry about the day-to-day operations. I’ve been overseeing The Limelight for almost a decade, and unlessyou have someone in mind to take my place, I would love to continue in that capacity.” I dropped my voice and said, “You should sell the bar to me.”

Dinah shivered at the compulsion, but she quickly shook it off. “I would like to take some time and think about that.”

Interesting. “I have put together several documents, which outline my role and compensation within the organization as well as all the other employees. I’ve also included a document listing weekly costs versus revenue.” I produced a ledger from behind the bar and placed it in front of her. Call me old school, but I still used pen and paper before transferring the numbers to a computer program.

“Please feel free to reopen as soon as possible. I’ll want to take a more thorough look at what you’ve prepared, but I don’t see the need to change anything with regards to how the club is managed. I appreciate the ledger, but I’d like an electronic version as well.”

“I will open the club as soon as I contact all our employees, and if you give me your email address, I’ll send you all the information you need to make a decision.” She gave me her email, which I typed into my phone. Then I did the most asinine thing I’d managed in several centuries. “Now that business is out of the way, what do you say to dinner? I would love to show you around our city. Well, at least the French Quarter. We won’t have time to see everything New Orleans has to offer, but…” I clamped my mouth shut. What the fuck was I doing? I needed to get away from the vixen, not spend more time with her, but as I mentioned earlier, her type was my kryptonite. I had bedded hundreds of females and even a few males over the millennia I’d been on Earth, but none had struck me the way Dinah Caan did. I wanted her like I’d never wanted anything.

“I would love to go to dinner with you. I can meet you back here around six, if that’s okay.”

I didn’t want Dinah wandering the Quarter alone. “Six is perfect, but I’d like to pick you up at your hotel if you don’t mind?”

She flashed a brilliant smile my way. “I don’t mind. I’m staying at Caesar’s. Text me when you get there, and I’ll meet you in the lobby.”

“It’s a date.” Seriously? Who the fuck had taken over my body? I was acting like a schoolboy instead of the badass I was. Maybe Dinah was a witch and had cast a spell on me. There was no other reason for me to behave so far outside the norm. Dinah stuffed the ledger into her messenger bag and slid from the stool. She walked away without looking back.

I pulled on a different glamour, locked the club, and followed her. For all she knew, I was her employee, nothing more. She had no prior knowledge of her father’s club or other assets. She had no idea how a talented saxophone player became the owner of the biggest hotspot on Bourbon Street. How he amassed such wealth in his fifty-five years. If I had my way, she would never know. Some truths were better left buried with the dead.

Dinah strolled along the busy sidewalks, glancing at displays in windows. I followed at a distance, stopping when she did. To the people around me, I was another tourist. Even the residents and business owners of New Orleans saw me as some mundane human with ill-fitting clothes, shaggy hair, and thick glasses. As an Ancient, I could become anyone at any time. I had been tempted to show my true visage to Dinah, but better sense kept me from doing so. No one other than my brothers knew the real me, not even those of my kind, including Arabella, so why did I want Dinah to see me in all my vampire glory?

Was I replacing one Caan with another? Did I think Dinah could fill the void left by her father? Maybe somewhere deep in my subconscious I did. It had to be the reason I asked herto dinner. I needed to stay away from the raven-haired beauty. I needed to convince her I could run the club without her interference, sending her back to Nashville. Then again, just the thought of her leaving my city had my fangs itching to drop. To remake her. To claim her as my own. Never in my thousands of years had I wanted a queen. Unlike most of my brothers, I ruled alone. Always had. Dinah froze, her heart beating erratically. Every pulse resonated within me, causing my fangs to ache and my sharp nails threatening to lengthen. I pulled back my power, and she took off. Instead of following her to the hotel, I called the front desk and asked for her room number. Under normal circumstances, they shouldn’t have divulged a guest’s information, but when I asked for something, I got it. Once I had the information, I detoured to a local floral shop, ordering two dozen red roses, where I personally wrote a brief message on the card, then once again used compulsion to convince the clerk to have them delivered immediately.

I stood outside the hotel, sipping a café au lait, staring at the higher floors. I had no idea what side of the building Dinah was on until I caught sight of her in one of the windows. Her presence called to me like a siren, and that was the push I needed to walk away. I used my free time to stroll along the Quarter. Being late October, the residents had decorated for Halloween, each representation more elaborate than the next. Not as prevalent as Mardi Gras, the holiday still brought in plenty of tourists to boost the economy. Two young boys busked at a corner, and I slowed long enough to drop some bills in their tip basket. The youngest one thanked me with a gap-toothed grin, never slowing his drumming hands. I winked at him and continued on my way.

Instead of going home, I retrieved my car and drove to Doug’s house. It wouldn’t be long before Dinah took possession of the property, and it would break my cold, dead heart if shesold it. It too had been my gift to my progeny. I stepped inside, and what I found nearly broke me.

Chapter Two

Dinah

I stopped infront of the locked door of The Limelight, and a chill formed goosebumps on my arms, even in the southern heat. It had been over a week since a murder was committed after hours inside the jazz club. I had expected to see crime scene tape covering the entrance, but there was none. Candles lined the sidewalk along with other items paying their respects to the victim. There was a note on the door stating the club was closed until further notice. I was still in shock to learn that Kirkland Douglas Caan, owner and saxophonist of one of the most sought-after pieces of real estate in New Orleans, had been gunned down by an unknown suspect. If I were one of the residents of the city, one of many who enjoyed jazz music inside the club, I might also have lit a candle. But I wasn’t one of those people. I was Doug Caan’s only child.

As such, I now owned what most would consider a legacy passed down from one generation to the next. The father I barely remembered left the place, along with all his assets, to me. The detective said Doug was in the wrong place at the wrong time, but was he really? Since he owned the club and spent every night there, he could have been right where he was supposed to be when the bullet found his chest.

My mother often waxed poetic about the man who swept her off her feet, but I never understood how she could forgive him for abandoning us. Abandoning me. He had been my hero. The dad who tucked me in before leaving at night to play in whatever club hired him. Then he up and left before I turned seven without so much as a goodbye. I spent months waiting for him to return. Months crying when it was time to go to bed without his kiss to the forehead. He had sent cards at Christmas and my birthday filled with a sizeable check. Did he think they made up for his absence? They didn’t, and neither did this dark building with its secrets. There had been a riot outside the club where he was playing the night he disappeared. My mother assured me when I was older that had nothing to do with Dad leaving town, but what if he wasn’t who she thought he was?

“Dinah?”

I turned at my name and found myself face-to-face with the most striking man I’d ever seen in my twenty-eight years. “Yes?” I managed to breathe out.

“I’m Luke Bennett,” the man drawled in a sensuous accent. All previous interactions had been through my father’s attorney, save for the phone call earlier setting this appointment. I had expected the manager of Doug’s club – my club – to be my father’s age. This man was early thirties at most. He held out his hand for me to shake. I placed mine in his and was shocked at the coolness of his skin. Still, I never wanted to let go.

Working in the music industry in Nashville put me in the presence of beautiful men and women, but Luke was in a class all his own. And he had class in spades. He wore a dark grey suit that fit him like he was born in it. Oh, how I wanted to peel it off him. The man was a few inches over six feet with light brown hair and light eyes. The way those eyes bore into my soul had me ready to call the lawyer and tell him I was keeping the club. I wanted to slide Luke’s jacket off his arms and rip his shirt openso I could see what the clothes were hiding. I’d never been as attracted to anyone as I was him. Not even Blake, who I’d spent the last four years with. I shouldn’t even be thinking about Luke in such a way. If he was to be my employee, I would need to keep things professional between us, but that didn’t stop my mind from going where it shouldn’t.

When I realized I was still holding his hand while I checked him out, I couldn’t help but blush. I had to get myself together. If he was my manager, we would be working closely together, and I couldn’t have him suing me for sexual harassment before I had the chance to even get my bearings. Dropping his hand, I didn’t apologize. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Luke.”

“My deepest condolences. Doug was a good man.” Luke shoved his hands in his pants pockets, pulling them taut across his legs and – holy mother of God. I had to look away before I made a fool of myself.

Pretending it was his comment and not something else that had me flustered, I said, “Doug was a stranger to me. He left when I was six, and I haven’t seen him since. You obviously knew a different Doug Caan than I did.”

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