"Yes?" Inez asked, relaxing a little as her gaze slid over the black nylon jacket he wore with the A.B.B. logo on it. The same logo that was on the cooler he carried as well as the one on the table in front of Thomas. A.B.B., Argeneau Blood Bank; it was one of the companies under the Argeneau Enterprises umbrella. It was also a company she didn't know much about. Inez had always been kept away from anything having to do with A.B.B. Now she understood why, of course.
Her gaze jerked back to the man's face as a spate of Dutch was spat at her in anxious tones. Inez shook her head with a small frown. "I'm sorry, I don't--"
"Ah! English." The man nodded. "I have made a mistake. I delivered the blood here earlier."
"You didn't leave it with the front desk, did you?" Inez asked curiously, wondering how they would explain why a cooler of blood would be delivered to one of their hotel rooms.
The man blinked, obviously not expecting the question. Still, he answered, "No, of course not. I found out the room number, brought it up, and found a maid to let me in to leave it. But I made a mis-"
"Mind control?" Inez asked.
He peered at her, his expression confused.
"Did you use mind control on the maid to let you in?" she explained.
"Oh, yes," he was frowning now, and becoming a bit annoyed. "But I left the wrong cooler. The one I left was to go to the Night Club."
"The Night Club?" she asked curiously.
The man snapped his mouth closed and stared at her, and Inez blinked in surprise as she felt a slight ruffling on the edge of her mind. It was so faint that if the man weren't concentrating so hard on her and she knew nothing about immortals and what they could do, she didn't think she'd even have noticed it.
"You're reading my mind," Inez accused and then frowned. "But Thomas couldn't read my mind."
Whatever he read in her thoughts seemed to make him relax. He even smiled and said lightly, "Lucky him."
"Why lucky?" she asked warily.
The man grinned and said simply, "Who would not think him lucky? He has found his lifemate."
"Lifemate?" Inez echoed the word slowly. She'd heard the word before. Now that the man had said it, she distinctly recalled overhearing Thomas talking on the phone through the bathroom door and saying something about biting his lifemate. She tilted her head and asked the man, "Not being able to read me means I'm his lifemate?"
"Yes." Now he was frowning too. "Has he not explained things to you?"
"No," she admitted and glanced to where Thomas still stood talking into the phone before turning back and asking, "Do you think you could?"
He hesitated and then said, "It's probably something he should explain."
Inez scowled at the suggestion, knowing Thomas wouldn't explain.
"Besides, I really have to trade coolers. The Night Club is waiting on this delivery. They were very upset that I got the coolers mixed up."
Inez considered him silently as her business side-kicked in telling her that she had something he wanted and he had something she wanted.
Before she could speak, his eyes grew sharp and he threatened, "I could control you and move you out of the way to get what I want."
Her eyebrows flew up. He'd obviously read her mind again, though Inez hadn't noticed the earlier flutter again. She considered her options and then asked, "Can you control Thomas too?"
When he hesitated, she added, "I'm the vice president of the UK division of Argeneau Enterprises and we oversee all the European operations. In effect, I'm your boss."
A slow admiring smile crossed his face. "You play hardball."
"I didn't get to be vice president by pussyfooting around," she said with a shrug and then stood waiting anxiously as he decided whether he would take control of her, get what he needed, and get out-which she definitely didn't think she'd like-or if he was going to answer her question.
Much to her relief, he gave a low chuckle and said, "Okay, guarantee I won't get in trouble for this mix up and I'll play. This could be interesting."
Beaming at the man with gratitude and relief, Inez nodded. "Agreed. I'll talk to your boss. Now, explain lifemates to me."
He shifted the cooler he held from one hand to the other, and then said, "Lifemates are exactly what they sound like, a life partner, the one who matches you, whom you can live with and love and exist with happily."
Inez frowned as she considered his words and then asked, "And not being able to read someone is how your kind recognize a lifemate?"
"We also start eating again, but not being able to read or control them is the most important attribute."
"Why?" she asked curiously.
He frowned and then said slowly, "We can control and read most mortals. Actually, all mortals except for a lifemate."
"All?" she asked with amazement.
"If you can't read them, they are a lifemate," he said simply. "For some that is a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence, others are lucky enough to find another if they lose the first, but there are often centuries between one and the other, centuries of being alone. It's not a horrible circumstance, but it isn't a happy one either. Everyone needs someone they can share the centuries with, someone with which to enjoy life's pleasures and sorrows."
"So," Inez said slowly, "while Thomas can't read or control me, every other immortal can?"
He nodded. "I could shut you down, move you out of the way, and wipe this from your memory if I liked."
Inez cringed at the very idea. She was someone who liked to be in control at all times.
"I kind of picked that up about you right off," he announced with a grin. "You have control issues."
Inez scowled as she realized that he was still reading her mind despite her not sensing it. "Please stop reading my mind."
"Sorry," he said, however, there was little sincerity behind the words. "But that's my point. If Thomas was able to do this to you...Well, it hardly makes for an equal relationship, does it? Even if an immortal cared for someone, it would be hard to resist the temptation to take control to get what you wanted when you wanted it. Those sorts of relationships don't work. An immortal needs someone he can't read and control and who can't read and control him or her. It allows them to relax and let down their guards."
"Guards?" Inez asked curiously.
"Immortals can often read other immortals too. It's harder if the immortal is older than you, but if they get distracted, we can even read them. To prevent that, we have to put up guards in our minds and keep them up. But at home, with a lifemate who can't read our thoughts, or control us, we can relax and not worry about such things."
"So it's better to be with someone who can't read or control you," she acknowledged, and then added, "But just because you can't read or control them, doesn't guarantee a happy relationship. What if you met someone you couldn't read or control but who was completely unsuitable to you? What if their personality doesn't suit yours?"
"That doesn't happen," he said with a shrug. "If you are lifemates, you will suit each other."
Inez frowned at his simple assurance and said with disbelief, "Surely just because you can't read each other doesn't guarantee a happy relationship?"
"Yes, it does." When her mouth pursed with disbelief, he assured her, "I am only a hundred years old, but I have never heard of any true lifemates who didn't suit each other and have a happy union. Oh, certainly they have occasional disagreements, but that is it. They are made for each other."
"But how is that possible?" Inez asked with amazement.
"I don't know," he admitted, not sounding too concerned. "Perhaps the nanos recognize something in the individual that compliments their immortal and prevents their being able to read or control the other so they can be happy together. Or perhaps God makes a perfect mate for each individual and then puts them in their path. I have no idea, but does it matter? Why question something if it works?"
"You believe in God?" she asked with surprise.
His eyebrows rose slightly. "Don't you?"
Inez reached up unconsciously to clasp the cross around her neck and he smiled as if she'd spoken aloud and then said, "If you're done with your questions, I really need to switch coolers and get the other one to the Night Club."
Sighing, Inez nodded. "I'll get it for you."
Turning away from the door, she headed across the room. A million questions were running around inside her head, but she had some thinking to do before she would ask them, and if she asked them of anyone, she thought it should be Thomas. She understood enough now to be going on. Thomas couldn't read her. That made them lifemates. Simple. No muss, no fuss.
Actually, it was the perfect arrangement for a woman who didn't have time for a social life, Inez thought as she reached the table and the cooler sitting on it. She glanced to Thomas, opening her mouth to explain about the cooler and mix-up as she saw that he had apparently finished his conversation and was closing the phone, but before the first word was more than formed on her tongue, his phone was ringing again and he was returning it to his ear.
Shrugging, she picked up the bag that lay on the floor and replaced it in the cooler. She spotted the empty bag on the table and hoped the delivery guy wouldn't be in trouble for being a bag short. She'd definitely have to call and talk to his boss now, Inez supposed. She'd promised.
Closing the cooler lid, she carried it back to the door.
"I'm afraid he had one," she announced, handing over the cooler and taking the one he held out. "I hope that's not a problem."
His eyebrows flew up, and a perfectly filthy grin lifted his lips. "Not for me, but you're in for one hell of a night."
Thomas moved quickly back to the table to write down the latest coordinates Herb was giving him, said thanks, snapped his phone closed, and straightened to glance around just as Inez closed the suite door. He'd heard her speaking to someone, and been half aware of her moving to the table and back to the door, but hadn't paid her much attention as he talked to first Bastien and then Herb. He'd actually been too stressed out to speak much to Bastien. With everything that was going on, the man's constant calls were becoming something of a nuisance. Knowing the calls were due to his worry about Marguerite, Thomas hadn't snapped at him like he would have liked to do, but merely told him he'd called Herb for new coordinates, would head out as soon as the man called back with them, and would let Bastien know the moment he'd found Marguerite. He'd then hung up on him only to have the phone ring again as Herb called to give him the updated coordinates. It was yet another locale. She, or at least the phone, was obviously on the move. The location was supposed to be accurate to within fifty feet since it was in the city. Hopefully that was close enough that he could spot Marguerite if she hadn't already left the area by the time he got there. The quicker he got there, the better the chances he'd arrive before she moved on...which meant Thomas had to move.
"Oh, you're off the phone."
Thomas focused on Inez, noting the feline grace to her walk as she crossed the room toward him. She was short, curvy, and had a seductive smile. Her lips were the kind that gave a man ideas.
Realizing he was allowing himself to be distracted, he growled, "Who was at the door?"
"The A.B.B. delivery guy," she answered. "He said he dropped off the wrong cooler here. You got what was meant for the Night Club. He came back to switch coolers."
"I hope you gave him an earful," Thomas muttered, moving to what he now realized must be the replacement cooler. It looked the same, but when he opened it he saw that it was just straight blood in this. Several bags of A positive.
"An earful?" Inez sounded surprised. "Why? Is there a great deal of difference between the other blood and this?"
"Oh yeah, there's a difference," Thomas muttered with disgust as he picked up a bag of the cold liquid. The moment he touched the bag, he felt the teeth in his mouth shift and begin to extend. Much like Pavlov's dogs, his body responded to what it knew was coming. He suspected he even salivated as the dogs did at the sight of their food arriving.
Inez was peering curiously down at the bags in the cooler, but glanced up just as he opened his mouth and popped the bag to his fangs.
"Your fangs aren't there all the time," she said with surprise. "I saw them slide out of your upper jaw."
Thomas didn't comment. He couldn't with the bag in his mouth, but he wondered that she hadn't noticed that he didn't always have fangs. It would be hard for immortals to hide what they were if they walked around flashing fang all the time.
"So you don't even have to taste the blood?" Inez asked curiously.
Thomas shook his head, his nose flaring as she moved a little closer and he caught a whiff of her scent. Damn, he'd found it enticing in the hotel in London, but right now it was positively intoxicating. Stupid delivery guy, he thought impatiently, and stupid him too for not reading the bloody bag before slapping that first one to his teeth on arriving in the suite.
"That's good," Inez announced, drawing his attention away from his thoughts. "I don't imagine blood tastes good."
Thomas stared at her silently, his nostrils flared to take in as much of her scent as he could. His skin was now tingling a little. He could actually feel the body heat coming off of her. It made him want to move closer...so he took a step back. This was going to be hell, he realized with dismay. He had to get away from her.
"S.E.C..." Inez said and he noted that she'd picked up the empty bag on the table, the one from the first batch of blood. She'd examined the label, apparently noting the initials under the blood type. Large and bright red on the white label, those initials were the only difference from the other bags. But Thomas hadn't stopped to read the label. He'd been too hungry to take the time to do so and had slapped that first bag to his teeth without hesitation. It was only Bastien's call that had prevented his slapping the second bag to his mouth, and pure luck that he'd glanced down and noticed the initials.
