Page 32 of My Boyfriend Bites

“No.”

“What happens if you suspect someone has gone missing?”

“I tell the captain,” Maurice stated in a monotone.

“And what does he do?”

“She,” Maurice emphasized, “would put out a general message asking that passenger to report to guest services. If that person doesn’t show, then the protocol is to have us perform a search of the ship as well as go through security footage.”

“And if that person still can’t be found?”

His brow knit. “We try and trace their movement on the ship, although, usually, if they’re still missing at that point they’ve either remained ashore in a port of call or gone overboard. If the latter, then the coast guard is contacted.”

“What do you know of pirates?” Dante asked on a lark.

Maurice smirked. “They wear eye patches.”

“Have you heard they’re targeting cruise ships?”

“Yeah, someone was saying one of our rivals got hit a few weeks back, but when I asked the captain, she said it was bullshit.”

This interview wasn’t getting any answers, so Dante finished it. “You’re going to sleep and forget we met. As far as you recall, you began to feel ill at the bar and decided to go to bed early.”

Maurice said nothing, just rose and fell face-first onto his bed.

A waste of an interview, although he did discover cruises didn’t pay as close attention to passengers as expected. Dante left and headed back for his level, only to ignore his door and stare at Selene’s. Was she still up?

Only one way to find out. Just as he prepared to knock, he heard her talking, “Hey, Mom, cruise is going well. How’s the farm and my bunnies?”

He let his hand drop. Time enough tomorrow to continue the slow seduction.

A Valentine’s Day he planned to make memorable.

Chapter 9

Selene slept in.A rarity for her, but she’d found it hard to sleep the night before. The eventful day kept playing over and over in her head. It might sound terrible, but the deaths in the jungle—and the one in the cabana by the pool—weren’t what nagged her the most.

Dinner with Dante, and what it might entail, took center stage in her thoughts. Running into him shortly after musing that he might be a vampire had her questioning her theory. While he didn’t run as hot as her, he was by no means cold. Nor was he pale for a guy who never went outside, but that could be the Italian in him. Was it also the European in him that made him such a good flirt? His comment about preferring her naked had left her flushed. No masturbation, though, a day with that many dead bodies shouldn’t be finished with her pleasuring herself.

The last corpse nagged her the most, even though she had nothing to do with it. What did it say that she didn’t want Dante to be responsible? It should be noted the killing itself wasn’t the issue. Death happened. Circle of life and all that. She wasn’t one to judge a diet, either, seeing as how the rabbits she raised were mostly slaughtered. The kitchens she sold them to only part oftheir demise. She and her siblings often chased them during the full moon. Blood sport for their wolves. And before anyone demonized her for such a thing, wolves were wild creatures at heart. Carnivores who hunted. To deprive her lycan half of being its true self could lead to problems, or so her father had claimed. At a young age he’d taught them,“It is in the wolf’s nature to hunt. To prevent it is to risk losing control of it as the suppressed instincts burst forth.”

She might have argued his point but for the fact the times she let her wolf be a wolf, she found herself slightly better able to keep it leashed. When her furry side didn’t get to be itself, the slightest thing could bring out her incisors.

With that understanding, why did she care if Dante might have killed the man in the cabana? Because it came across as sloppy. Hunting on the boat, an enclosed space, lacked sport. Not to mention leaving the body where it could be found. Did the killer want to be caught?

Her mom hopefully hadn’t caught any of her angst when she’d called her the night before. Selene left out the disturbing parts of her voyage and spent most of it telling her about Dante. How charming he was, how they had plans for dinner, yes, on Valentine’s. Mom had sounded so happy, gushing, “I knew this cruise was a good idea.”

Selene would reserve judgement on that until later that night.

As she exited her room for breakfast, she ran into Renard leaving the suite across from hers.

“Morning,” he said with a bob of his head.

“Hi.”

“You seem none the worse for wear for yesterday’s misadventure,” he noted as he kept pace on their way to the elevator.

“I had last night to process the kidnapping and my escape.” Her lips twisted. “Thanks for sending Dante to find me.”

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