Page 7 of Top Secret Vampire

“My services are anything but dubious.” I politely pointed out.

“You’re killing me here, Wolf.” Reese fanned her face with her hand.

“Never,” I vowed.

“I didn’t say I wasn’t interested in hiring him,” Reese told Tracy.

“Regarding a potential ghost, I’ll be delighted to do what I can in that regard,” I said, trying to keep this conversation on track.

Tracy kept huffing and shifting on her seat, and I wondered how long it would be before she wrapped her hands around the exposed skin of her throat to shield it from my view.

She had nothing to fear. The only person my fangs ached to sink into was Reese—as it should be with true mates.

“I need more details,” I said, returning to the conversation at hand—again. “First, tell me about the seagull.”

Reese sighed, and her pale blue eyes with incredibly long lashes widened. “One attacked me while I was walking on the beach.”

“Were you carrying food, perchance?” I asked.

“Perchance?” Her lips twitched. “Who says things like that?”

“Me.Isay things like that.”

Her smile quivered. “I was not carrying food.”

I jotted down this detail on the paper. “Were you,by chance, wearing a scent that might hint at food, such as vanilla or cinnamon?”

“Scents make me sneeze.”

“Very well.” I noted that as well. “And what do you mean by a message,Leave Town?”

“Someone spelled that out in seashells on the path between my house and the beach.”

“I do not like to suggest such a thing,” I said in a delicate manner, “but is there a chance you’re mistaken and that the shells only hinted at this message?”

“Tell him about the lipstick.” Tracy shot daggers at me. Unless they were made of oak, she was wasting her time.

“Lipstick?” I kept my gaze on Reese. Truly, it was all I could do to not rise and stride over to her. I’d take her hand again and kiss it. Glide my tongue up to the pulse point in her wrist and beg her for one drop of the precious liquid thrumming through her veins. This was all my feverish heart would need right now.

Patience,I chided myself. We’d only just met. Humans did not bare their wrists to every vampire they encountered, and they didn’t understand the magnitude of true mates. Soul mates, perhaps, but such bindings had nothing to do with blood.

“The words,Leave Town, were not only written in shells and left on my path,” Reese said, “but someone snuck inside my house and wrote the same thing on my bathroom mirror in lipstick.”

“Yourlipstick?” I studied her plump lips.

“I don’t wear lipstick,” Reese said. “In addition to scents, I’m not tolerant of artificial colors or flavorings. I have a hard time finding toothpaste that doesn’t give me a reaction.”

“We buy a certain kind on Amazon.” Tracy tilted her head, studying my face. “You’re not really a vampire, are you? This . . . costume is some sort of fetish, correct?” Her hand flicked toward my body in general.

I flashed my fangs, savoring how she gasped and leaned back in her chair. “I will attest to the fact that I’m a born vampire.”

A frown bloomed on Reese’s face. “I’ll admit I don’t know anything about vampires outside of fiction novels, but perhaps you’ll satisfy my curiosity. Unless I’m irritating you. In which case, tell me to stop.” Her voice dropped off. “Please, tell me to stop.”

“I’m happy to indulge you in this.”

“Cool. What’s a born vampire?”

“Some vampires are made, as in bitten and drained of their blood before they’re fed their host’s blood to turn them, but—”

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