"What does S.E.C. stand for?" Inez asked as he tugged the empty bag from his teeth.
"Sweet Ecstasy Concentrate," Thomas muttered and promptly slapped another bag to his teeth before she could ask what that was. He knew she would the moment he finished with this bag, though, and had no intention of telling her. He felt like a complete idiot for not reading the label and getting himself into this fix. And what a fix! He had a full bag of Sweet Ecstasy swimming around in his body and-he realized as she stepped closer and he felt the sweat break out on his forehead-he was already starting to feel the effects. The first bag was making its way into his system. Soon he would be hard-pressed to keep his hands off Inez if he didn't get away from her.
His eyes slid over her body in the wrinkled slacks and blouse she'd been forced to re-don that morning in her rush. She still looked delicious to him and he found it hard not to stare when he noted the way the silk of her blouse was pulled tight at her breasts, the material pulling the slightest bit open with every indrawn breath and then relaxing closed with every exhalation. It was just the tiniest bit, hardly noticeable, but he was noticing and his body was responding as if it were a full-body peep show.
Giving his head a slight shake, Thomas decided he needed some distance and quickly. He hooked his free arm through one shoulder strap of his knapsack, then managed to snag two more bags of blood in that hand before heading out of the sitting room in search of his bedroom.
The first bedroom door was open, the lights on and Inez's purse lay on the bed. Her room. Thomas bypassed it and moved on to the next room The second bedroom was in darkness, but he didn't bother with the lights at first. Walking inside, he set the blood on the bedside table, and let the knapsack drop onto the mattress before turning back to flip on the light. Much to his relief, Inez hadn't followed, or if she had, she'd stopped when she realized he was going to his room.
Pushing the door closed with his foot, Thomas turned back to the bed and then realized the second bag of straight blood affixed to his teeth was empty. Pulling it from his fangs, he set it on the bedside table and quickly rifled through his knapsack in search of a clean shirt and jeans. He hadn't taken a shower or changed his clothes since leaving Canada. He might as well take a quick shower while he finished off the next two bags of blood. It was the only way he could manage it. He had to get out there and find Marguerite.
Thomas took the clothes and blood into the bathroom, set them on the counter, and then stepped into the small room-sized shower and turned it on, quickly adjusting the temperature. He then began to strip, deciding that he wasn't even going to go back out to the living room and tell Inez that he was going out, but would slip out through the door in his bedroom instead. It just wasn't safe to be around her at the moment. He didn't think she'd appreciate his slavering all over her and jumping her bones this early in the relationship. He might know they were lifemates and be perfectly all right with it, but she had no idea. Coming on so strong so soon in the relationship was likely to bring it to a grinding halt.
Grimacing, Thomas ignored the erection now waving around between his legs, grabbed a bag of blood, and slapped it to his teeth as he walked to the shower. This was perfect irony, he supposed as he stepped under the spray of water. It was probably fate paying him back for giving Rachel and Etienne Sweet Ecstasies at the Night Club while they were courting. He deserved every miserable moment he was going to suffer.
Unfortunately, fate hadn't seen fit to find a way to give Inez the Sweet Ecstasy too, so he was definitely going to suffer alone...if he could avoid her. The warm water dropped down on his erection in a soft rainfall that was almost a caress and Thomas groaned and turned his back to the spray. Yes, the first bag of blood was definitely hitting his system now, and it would only get worse and probably very quickly. It was a swift shower for him and then a rush into his clothes and out through his own door without risking even seeing Inez again. He'd left the coordinates Herb had given him in the other room, but didn't really need them, he had perfect recall and avoiding her was the best idea until that first bag of blood had left his system.
Inez heard the shower turn on in Thomas's room and frowned. Obviously, she wasn't going to get any answers from him for now. Pacing impatiently to the window, she glanced out, surprised to find herself looking out over a stretch of water as her mind went over what she'd learned from the delivery man.
Lifemates were life partners who matched an immortal and whom they could live with, love, and exist with happily.
Inez played the words through her mind slowly and then played them again. A life partner...live with and love...happily. And she was that for Thomas...which she supposed meant that he was that for her too...A life partner...and a special one, chosen for her by nanos or God or by some other mysterious manner. However it came about, they had been chosen for each other. It was just the way it was. They'd met, he'd bit her, tried to read her but couldn't, and to his kind that meant they were lifemates.
She didn't know whether to jump up and down for joy, or run back home to England like a scared bunny. On the one hand it was like a dream come true. Actually it really was a dream come true since she'd spent most of that day fantasizing about coming home to the man. And who wouldn't jump at the possibility? Thomas was handsome, intelligent, and so incredibly considerate...not to mention dangerously sexy.
But it was scary too. After all, the man was handsome, intelligent, and sexy and she was just...well...herself. A little below average height, a little heavier than was considered attractive by today's standards, and while her features were passable, her nose was just a little too sharp to be pretty, her cheeks a little too round, her hair a little too wild...
Of course, that was the physical aspect. Inez feared she didn't have the looks to hold a man such as him. The other side of the issue was that he seemed intelligent and considerate...and that was all she knew about the man. She didn't really know him at all. She had no idea what he liked or didn't like, what his interests were, or his ambitions, did he have any? And yet, according to the delivery guy, none of that mattered. They were lifemates and so would work well together, were meant to be together.
It was a tempting idea; a lifemate with whom to share life's joys and troubles, someone to come home to at the end of the day and relax with; a lover, friend, and partner. She'd never feel lonely again. Not that Inez felt that way a lot now. Usually she was too busy to feel lonely, but her family was far away and on those rare occasions where she had a little time to herself she was aware of how alone she was. As a lifemate to Thomas, she would never be alone again. And the best part was that, according to the delivery man, it couldn't be a mistake. He couldn't be the wrong man and she wouldn't later end up struggling to disentangle herself from a bad relationship. If he couldn't read her, she was his lifemate and lifemates worked out. Period.
It was almost too good to be true, like fat-free ice cream or calorie-free chocolate and yet if it was true, it was the most wonderful thing she'd encountered in her life and she wanted to believe in it. She wanted Thomas. Inez had never had such a quick attraction to a man. Usually, she had to get to know them and like them before she even started thinking of them in a romantic way, but Thomas...Well, after he'd presented her with the bath and breakfast and explained that he hadn't meant to snub her...she'd pretty much been lost.
Goodlooking and sweet too? The man was walking, talking cheesecake. Irresistible. And, apparently, hers. All those fantasies she'd had earlier about his greeting her at the door when she got home, kissing her and stripping away her clothes to make love to her, suddenly seemed possible and she shivered in anticipation at the idea.
Suddenly impatient for Thomas to come out of the shower, Inez turned away from the windows, her gaze sliding over the room and stopping on the empty blood bag.
"You're in for one hell of a night." The delivery man had said and the memory of his expression brought a frown to her face. Obviously there was something different about the blood in the first cooler and the first bag Thomas had consumed, but she had no idea what. Thomas had said the S.E.C. on it stood for Sweet Ecstasy Concentrate, but what was that? She wished he'd told her before disappearing into his room, but he hadn't and now she was terribly curious. Impatiently so. She wished she'd asked the delivery man what it was, or that she knew someone else who could tell her-
Blinking, Inez suddenly whirled away and hurried into her room to retrieve her purse. Digging inside, she pulled out her cell phone and punched the speed-dial number to call the office. Her call was answered on the second ring and she immediately asked to speak to Wyatt.
"Ms. Urso," his secretary said with surprise, obviously recognizing her voice, "I thought you had flown to Amsterdam to help Mr. Argeneau's cousin."
"Yes, I did and I'm calling from there," she said calmly. "Is Wyatt in?"
"Yes, of course. Just one moment."
Inez paced the length of her room as she waited, her footsteps slowing when she heard the click of the phone being answered on the other end.
"Inez. How is Amsterdam?" Wyatt Kenric, Inez's direct supervisor, asked jovially.
"Fine, fine," Inez said and shook her head, finding it hard to believe the good-tempered man was an immortal...and that she'd worked with him so long without realizing it. She should have realized there was something fishy. He worked evenings, leaving her to run things during the day. How many company presidents did that? Sighing, she pushed the question aside and dove right in, saying, "Look, Wyatt, we got a delivery of blood here at the hotel, but I think there might be something wrong with it. What does S.E.C. stand for under the blood type?"
The sudden silence on the line didn't surprise her. She'd expected as much and now forced a light laugh and said, "Oh, I'm sorry. Of course, you don't know. I'm Thomas's lifemate. He's explained about Atlantis and everything."
Inez actually heard his breath whoosh out over the line. He sounded both relieved and startled as he said, "Really?"
"Yes. He couldn't read or control me. In fact, they almost called you in to wipe a memory from my mind, but then Thomas explained everything and...well...here we are in Amsterdam."
"Well, congratulations, Inez. I'm happy for you. Tell Thomas I'm happy for him too," Wyatt said.
"I will. He's in the shower at the moment. Actually, that's why I called you rather than bother him. I was hoping to have this all cleared up before he got out."
"Oh, yes, the blood delivery," he murmured, sounding a little less jovial. "S.E.C. you say?"
"Yes," Inez murmured. "I don't really know enough yet to know if that should be there or not. It might be perfectly all right, but the other blood he had didn't have that on it, and it's in bright red letters, so I wondered..."
"You did right to wonder," Wyatt said seriously. "S.E.C. stands for Sweet Ecstasy Concentrate. You don't want him drinking even one bag of Sweet Ecstasy, at least not in the concentrated form."
"Sweet Ecstasy," Inez repeated, hoping she sounded as if she'd never heard the term before. "What is that? Would it hurt him?"
"Sweet Ecstasy is the immortal version of a Viagara/ Spanish fly mix," he explained. "It's blood full of oxytocin, dopamine, norepinephrine, phenylethylamine, and various other hormones and pheromones. The donor blood has been dehydrated, removing at least half the liquid so that it's a concentrated chemical mix. It's then used to make Sweet Ecstasy drinks, where the concentrated blood is combined with a sweet soda as a mixer and served in a glass. One bag of the concentrate is used to make several drinks, at least four, sometimes six if the owner of the club is cheap. If Thomas drank a straight bag of the concentrate it would be the equivalent of four to six drinks of the cocktail."
"I see," Inez said quietly.
Wyatt gave a chuckle. "It's a good thing you noticed the S.E.C. before he had any. If he'd just slapped a bag to his mouth without checking you'd have your hands full."
"My hands full," she echoed, wondering what that euphemism meant. Was Thomas suddenly going to turn into some kind of ravening, horn-dog vampire, dry humping every piece of furniture in the suite? Or did problem mean-?
"I'll call the Amsterdam office and have someone rush over some proper blood for Thomas," Wyatt assured her. "With any luck they'll have it there before he gets out of the shower."
"No, that's all right, Wyatt," she said in a panic. "I don't want to trouble you. I'll take care of it. Just give me the number and I'll call right away."
"Don't be silly. I'll handle it. It won't take me a minute to call."
Inez bit her lip. She hadn't foreseen this possibility, but should have. She thought frantically for a minute, and then said, "Oh, hang on Wyatt, there's someone at the door."
Inez pressed the phone to her chest and paced her room once, then twice, then lifted it to her ear and gave a laugh. "It seems I called you for nothing. That was the A.B.B. guy. Apparently he realized his mistake. We got the cooler meant for some place called the Night Club?"
"Ah," Wyatt said slowly.
Perhaps it was her paranoia, but Inez was positive she heard suspicion in his voice. The funny thing was she hadn't really lied about anything. Everything she'd said had happened, just not in the time range she'd claimed. Now she felt like she had to give him some kind of verification that she was telling the truth.
"Yes," Inez continued, hoping her voice didn't sound as stilted as it seemed to her. She had always been a rotten liar and felt like she was lying now, even if she wasn't really, well sort of not really. "He's replaced the blood, but I promised him I'd call and make sure he wasn't in trouble for the mistake. He didn't say who his boss was, though. Do you know?"
"Yes, yes, I'll take care of that for you."
"Thank you Wyatt," she said, relaxing. He'd call, find out everything she'd said was true, and take care of her promise to keep the delivery guy out of trouble too.