"If it looks like chicken and tastes like chicken - "
"Yes, I'm afraid." He stepped toward her, his eyes glittering with anger. "I'm afraid of endangering your life. I'm trying to protect you, Caitlyn."
She plunked the plate down on the desk again. "Protect me from what?"
He gritted his teeth. "There are things you don't know - "
"Then tell me!"
"I am telling you! I'm dangerous for you."
Frustration seethed in her. "Why should I believe you when it feels so right? Don't tell me you don't feel it!"
"What we feel doesn't matter - "
"It's all that matters!"
He closed his eyes briefly, his forehead furrowed. "Catalina, I cannot bear to hurt you anymore. Please go."
Tears stung her eyes. Rejected twice in one day. That had to be a new record. She walked to the door. She was halfway out when she remembered the reason why she'd come. "Was the camera on in the basement this morning? Did we give Howard a show?"
He looked back at her, his eyes glimmering with pain. "No, menina. No one knows what we did."
That was a relief, although it did little to soothe her aching heart. She trudged down the stairs as tears threatened to fall. Dammit. Why was she letting him get to her? She'd known him a total of three days.
But somehow the last three days seemed like half of her lifetime. Her world had turned upside down, and vampires and shape shifters had tumbled out. She'd found her sister, acquired a nephew and niece, and discovered her father was a mind-controlling monster. She had to be too confused and disoriented to know if she was genuinely attracted to someone.
She paused on a landing. Her attraction to Carlos had been immediate, the first time she saw him, and that had happened before she knew about vampires and shifters. Everything she'd found out since - that he'd rescued the were-panther children and adopted them, that he was trying to save his species, that he was helping the Vamps defeat the evil Malcontents - it all added up to a man who exuded strength and honor. Face it. You're falling for him.
A tear rolled down her cheek. He felt the attraction, too. She knew it. He'd kissed her and touched her with a sense of awe and reverence. She hadn't imagined it.
She wiped her cheeks and proceeded down the stairs. She wasn't giving up. Love was too rare and valuable. She hadn't given up on her sister. She wouldn't give up on Carlos.
Chapter Fourteen
"What's going on?" Shanna whispered to Caitlyn as she finished loading the dishwasher.
"Nothing."
Shanna stashed the leftovers in the fridge. "You didn't eat, and you're as jumpy as a jackrabbit."
"I'm not hungry right now. I'll eat later." Caitlyn dried her hands and smiled at the children. "How would you like to see my treasures?"
Tino's eyes lit up. "Do you have pirate treasure?"
"Sure. Come on." She waved for the kids and Shanna to follow her upstairs to her bedroom. She'd spent most of the afternoon unpacking, so the bookcases were now full.
"Oh, how pretty!" Shanna smoothed her fingers along the yards of embroidered silk that Caitlyn had draped over the canopy frame of the queen-sized bed. "You brought this material back with you?"
"Yes." Caitlyn had turned her plain canopy into an exotic rainbow with a different color of silk cascading down each corner of the bed, tied to the bedposts with silk scarves.
Tino glanced at her bed, clearly unimpressed. "Where's the pirate treasure?"
"Here." Caitlyn removed a carved rosewood box from a bookshelf. "Inside, you'll find coins from countries all around the world."
"Cool." Tino set the box on her dresser and opened it.
Caitlyn separated one of her Russian nesting dolls so Sofia could see the hidden doll inside. "You keep opening them until you reach the baby."
Sofia's eyes widened. "Can I do it?"
"Yes." Caitlyn handed it to her, and a sudden thought occurred to her. For years she'd hoarded her treasures as if they were her family. She had a real family now, so she no longer needed empty substitutes. "I missed your last birthday, Sofia. Would you like to keep the doll?"
Sofia's face lit up with a grin. "Yes! Thank you!" She hugged Cait, then ran to the dresser next to Tino. "Look!" She lined up the first two dolls. "This is the daddy, and this is the mommy." She opened up the second doll. "This is the big brother, Tino."
Constantine frowned at the third doll. "That's not me. That's a girl."
Sofia ignored him and kept opening dolls. "And this one is me, and this one is my baby!"
"Thank you," Shanna whispered. She sat on the bed and motioned for Caitlyn to join her. "So are you going to tell me what's going on?"
Caitlyn climbed on the bed and winced. "I am so sore. Carlos nearly killed me this morning." In more ways than one.
Her sister gave her a sympathetic smile. "I know how it is. Roman insisted I learn some self-defense, too." She lowered her voice to a whisper. "Is Carlos behaving himself?"
"He's avoiding me." Caitlyn shrugged. "That probably comes as a relief to you."
"I want you to be happy. And safe."
Caitlyn wondered again why Carlos considered himself too dangerous for her. Was he referring to the emotional pain she would suffer if they grew attached to each other and then he dumped her for a were-panther woman? Or was there more to the story that he wasn't telling her?
With a sigh, she sat up and crossed her legs. "Enough about me. I want to hear about you and Roman. How on earth did you meet a vampire and fall in love?"
Shanna smiled. "It's a long story."
"I like this story." Sofia struggled to climb onto the bed with her Russian nesting dolls. "Tell it again, Mommy."
"Okay." Shanna pulled Sofia up into her lap. "Once upon a time, your mommy was working the night shift at a twenty-four-hour dental office called SoHo SoBright."
"I like this part." Tino scrambled onto the bed. "The bad guys were after you."
"Yes," Shanna agreed. "I was in the Federal Witness Protection program after testifying against the Russian Mafia in Boston."
"That's why you disappeared?" Caitlyn asked.
Shanna nodded. "I was given a new name and identity, but the bad guys found out where I was. They were coming after me when a strange and very handsome man appeared in the clinic - "
"Our daddy!" Sofia bounced on the bed.
"Yes. Roman had lost a tooth. A fang, actually. I thought it was a canine tooth from a dog or a wolf, so I refused to help him at first."
Caitlyn grinned. "He lost a fang?"
Shanna nodded, smiling. "He had one night to get it fixed, or he'd be a lopsided eater for all eternity."
Caitlyn laughed. "How does a vampire lose a fang?"
Shanna rolled her eyes. "He...bit something he shouldn't have."
"It was VANNA," Tino announced.
Shanna stiffened with a shocked look. "How do you know about that?"
"Gregori told me," Tino said. "He keeps her in the closet in his office."
Caitlyn gasped. "He keeps a woman in a closet?"
"She's not a real woman," Shanna muttered.
"She's a big rubber lady," Tino said. "Gregori has VANNA White in his closet. He let Phineas keep VANNA Black."
"What?" Caitlyn was still confused.
"VANNA stands for Vampire Artificial Nutritional Needs Appliance," Shanna explained. "They're life-sized female toys with synthetic blood pumping through them. It was Gregori's brilliant idea so Vamps could pretend they were still biting women. They asked Roman to test the doll, and he lost a fang."
Caitlyn snorted. "Is this for real?"
"I'm afraid so." Shanna gave her son a disapproving look. "Gregori shouldn't have told you about her."
"He put underwear on her before he let me see her," Tino said.
Shanna groaned. "I need to have a long talk with Gregori. He went over the line."
"That's what Connor said." Tino wrinkled his nose, trying to remember. "He told Gregori to shut the hell up. Then Gregori told him he was an old grouch because he never got any and Connor should borrow VANNA for the night. Then Connor said if he was ever desperate enough to tup a rubber woman, he'd - "
"Enough!" Shanna cried with a horrified look.
Caitlyn covered her mouth to keep from laughing.
Shanna shook her head. "I need to have a long talk with Connor, too. They've got to stop treating you like you're one of the guys."
Tino lifted his chin. "I am one of the guys." He tilted his head. "What's a tup?"
Shanna grimaced.
"Who is Connor?" Caitlyn jumped in to change the subject.
"He's Roman's bodyguard," Shanna grumbled. "He guards us at night. He's a medieval Scottish warrior."
"So he's a Vamp." Caitlyn searched her memory. She'd met so many new people in the last few days. "And Gregori is Radinka's son? How can he be a Vamp with a mortal mother?"
"He's a young Vamp," Shanna explained. "He was attacked in the Romatech parking lot by some Malcontents, and Roman had to transform him in order to save him." She bit her lip. "Speaking of Gregori, I sorta asked Radinka to have him take you around and introduce you to the vampire world."
"What?"
"It'll be fun," Shanna insisted. "Gregori's lots of fun."
"I like Gregori," Sofia said.
"Everybody does," Shanna agreed.
"What?" Caitlyn repeated. "I don't even know him."
Shanna checked her watch. "Roman will be waking up any minute now, so we should get back home. And you'll want to get ready for Gregori. He'll be here in about thirty minutes."
Caitlyn huffed. "You set me up on a blind date with a vampire?"
"It's not a date." Shanna scooted off the bed. "Believe me, you don't want to date Gregori. He's a bit of a playboy. Radinka's afraid he'll never settle down and give her grandchildren."
Caitlyn scrambled off the bed. "So you set me up with a vampire playboy? Oh yeah, now I feel really safe."
"Relax. He's just going to show you around the new and exciting world of vampires. Think of him as a tour guide."
Caitlyn stepped closer to her sister. "You're doing this to keep me away from Carlos, aren't you?"
Shanna winced. "Okay, I admit it. I'm worried about you and him being alone here at the townhouse all night."
"I can take care of myself, Shanna. I can't believe you did this to me."
"That's what sisters are for." Shanna shooed her children out the door. "Dress nice. Knowing Gregori, he'll probably take you dancing."
"Another guy who likes to samba?" Caitlyn muttered.
Shanna laughed. "No. With Gregori, it's all disco."
Thirty minutes later Caitlyn descended the stairs in a flirty black cocktail dress and red-hot high heels. She loved dressing up for a night on the town, so she decided to forgive her traitorous sister for interfering in her life. It had been months since she'd had an official date, so she wasn't in a position to complain that her date wasn't officially alive.
Beggars can't be choosers, she told herself as she reached the foyer. She'd practically thrown herself at Carlos, and that hadn't worked out well at all. He was still hiding in the fifth floor office.
She draped her red pashima shawl around her shoulders, then checked inside her red beaded evening bag. Cell phone, ID, red lipstick, some cash for emergencies. Maybe she should jam a bottle of synthetic blood in there in case her date got a little peckish.
The doorbell rang, and her nerves jangled. Relax. It's just a date. With a vampire. She strode toward the front door, her high heels clicking on the marble floor.
She peered through the peephole and spotted a tall man standing on the porch in a pool of light. He looked very dapper in his tuxedo, and she reluctantly acknowledged that he was handsome. But not nearly as handsome as Carlos.
She punched the intercom button on the security pad next to the door. "Just a minute. I have to turn off the alarm."
"Don't worry, Toots," a deep voice came through the speaker. "We've got all night."
Toots? This might be the shortest date on record. When Carlos called her menina and Catalina, her heart went pitter-pat and her body melted like warm chocolate. Toots was just plain annoying. She punched in the numbers her sister had showed her, then opened the door.
He smiled as he entered the foyer. "Wow! My mom said you were pretty, but what an under-statement. Girl, you are smokin'!"
Definitely a player. "How do you do? I'm Caitlyn Whelan."
"Gregori Holstein." He shook hands with her.
She bit her lip to keep from giggling when she noticed his long black cape lined with red silk. "A vampire in a cape? Isn't that a bit cliched?"
"Nothing cliched about me, Toots." He adjusted his black onyx cuff links. "I just happen to be classy." His green eyes gleamed as he looked her over. "So are you. Nice dress. Nice legs. Nice shoes."
"Nice uppercut." She fisted her right hand.
He laughed. "Aren't you glad you were forced to go out with me?"
"I believe you were coerced, too."