Taryn paused halfway down the wide marble steps, scanning the crowd slowly. Speaking softly, she checked in with her audience. “Are you fellas picking up all this stuff? How is the spectacles camera working?” In her ear she heard Jordan chuckle.

He replied, “Perfect, Tar. The scan was great.”

“Just like a pro!” Pete added a second later.

“I guess that makes me a professional working girl, huh?” she joked pertly, hearing Pete and Jordan chuckling in her ear.

“We are pretty strict about sticking within the confines of the law, ma’am.”

Taryn jerked her head sideways to see who had spoken. She’d been completely unaware of the man’s approach. Through her earpiece, she heard raised male voices, but the words were indistinct. She couldn’t tell if it was at her or each other. Quickly, she used her index finger to shove the heavy, horn-rimmed glasses back up her nose.

“Move your finger!”

“Don’t turn so fast!”

Taryn tried to ignore the voices coming through and focus on the genuine, full-fledged and most assuredly sexiest hunk she’d ever seen. His hair was dark brown and his eyes were so dark they reminded her of sky at midnight. Dressed in a three-piece suit, he could have walked off the cover of some fashion magazine for businessmen. It was impossible to resist doing a long, very complete look-over, from his feet to his head.

With his comment about the law, she guessed he must be a lawyer. “I’m sorry. Did you think I had broken the law?” she asked, raising her voice to make sure she could be heard over the music.

The man smiled and Taryn felt her stomach drop and simultaneously release one million butterflies. Immediately they were all flying madly around her deepest “innards” making her more nervous than she had been before he smiled.

“Not yet.” The handsome man spoke again. “I just overheard you talking to yourself and jumped to some conclusions. May I buy you a drink? You don’t look like you come here often.”

Taryn shook her head vigorously, but stopped quickly to shove the heavy glasses up her nose once more. “No, uh, this is the first time. Someone recommended it to me.”

“I’ve got a table, if you’d care to join me. By the way, my name is Damon.” His smile was white and bright as he spoke once more.

Taryn wondered if he was an actor because his teeth looked so white and perfect. “All right. Oh, and my name is…Jane.”

Almost as soon as she was seated, a waitress appeared to take their order.

“Just a soda, please.” Taryn ordered with a friendly smile to the Goth-looking woman.

“Jane? What’s with the name thing?” Jordan spoke in her earpiece.

“Don’t get funny on us, Taryn,” Pete added, talking louder than Jordan. “I know how you can get sometimes.”

Damon nodded and ordered the same. Once he was seated, he smiled at her once again. “Are you meeting someone here?”

“No, unless I see the friend who recommended the place,” Taryn replied, trying to ignore the voices in her head, literally.

“A male friend?”

“Oh! No, not at all. A woman that I work with.” Suddenly a tap-tap-tap in her earpiece surprised her and she jumped in her seat.

“You aren’t on a date, cuz!” Jordan hissed in her ear.

At the same time, Pete muttered in the background. “Why are you drinking with this guy?”

Taryn acted instinctively, removing the glasses first and then surreptitiously tucking hair behind her ear and removing the microphone/receiver that nestled inside. She had never dated a man regularly, and having her uncle and cousin listening to every word had become distinctly unpleasant. Not that this was a date, but it was rare that she got to sit with an attractive man and flirt. Business could wait for a few seconds. She tucked the earpiece and glasses into the side pocket of her jacket, and then smiled at Damon. “So, do you come here often?”

Damon grinned at the beautiful woman seated across from him. “Yes, actually, I do come here quite a bit. Something of a family thing, I’m afraid.”

The woman looked confused, so Damon hurried on. “I should clarify. I own this place, you see. I inherited it from my father.”

Damon saw the color draining from the woman’s cheeks and stopped speaking. Why his ownership of this club should cause that kind of reaction struck him as strange. Most women, vampire or human, who discovered these tidbits were properly impressed. This slip of a female looked appalled. Before he could say anything else, the purple-haired waitress set the drinks on the table.

“Thank you, Martha.” Damon handed her a generous tip.

“Sure thing, Mr. D. You’re welcome!”

He watched as this woman called “Jane” sipped her soda. For a moment he wondered why such a prim-looking female was in his Club. Looking more like a card-carrying librarian, Damon thought she was better suited to a church visit on Sunday rather his disreputable establishment. Deciding to make something good come of this meeting, he started once again. “If you’re a working girl, what do you work at…during the daytime anyway?” As soon as the words left his mouth, he realized how lousy they sounded. For a man known for his smooth way with words, this was becoming ridiculous! “I’m sorry, Jane, I should have been more circumspect in choosing my language.”

“Oh, that’s all right. I know what you meant. I do a lot of research.” Taryn nodded quickly, meeting his gaze for a few seconds and then she looked away again.

“In old libraries?” Damon added, sipping his cold drink.

“Do you think I look like a librarian?”

Damon met the woman’s clear green-eyed gaze and decided he was drowning and might as well just give up. He’d never had trouble with the light chitchat necessary to pick up a woman before. This word-tripping went beyond odd and atypical. “I apologize, Jane. I really didn’t mean it like that.”

“Oh, it’s all right. The glasses must have given it away.”

Damon wanted to add that the two-piece suit and hair bun didn’t help achieve the illusion of femme fatale—if that’s the look she’d been trying for anyway. But at the rate he was going, he’d probably end up wearing both sodas on his head. “Not at all. Not everybody enjoys wearing leather, spandex and thigh-high boots,” he added a few seconds later, but by now he doubted anything he said would help at this point.

Twenty-four hours later, Blue walked into Club Hell Fire feeling more than a little nervous. She was dressed in a similar outfit from the previous night and had exaggerated her makeup. The circles under her eyes told of the late night she’d spent with Jordan, going over the footage he’d shot. Blue refused to entertain any suggestions that Simon had something to do with the changes that were alarming them.

All day she had wrestled with her conscience over admitting to Jordan or Taryn about her assignation tonight with Simon. She had worked out longer and with a fervor that was noted upon by both Pete and Chey. Telling Pete he was seeing things that didn’t exist, she proceeded to beat him at every exercise.

Blue paused, waiting at the top of Club Hell Fire’s long, marble staircase until she saw Simon standing at the bar. Almost as if Simon sensed her presence, he turned to watch her descend the staircase. She felt flushed, nervous, and extremely self-conscious as she walked towards him. Tonight her hair was down around her shoulders, smooth as silk, thanks to an hour with her straightening tool.

When she reached his side, he took her hand immediately. “Let’s go upstairs,” he told her quickly. “We can talk in peace up there.”

Surprised at his immediately suggesting being alone, Blue walked beside him up to the large apartment overlooking the club. Inside the large, open-style living space, she noticed the huge bank of windows and walked towards them. “This is impressive. Do you know the owner?” she asked.

Behind her came the pop of a cork. Turning, she saw Simon pouring from a bottle of champagne.

When he crossed to her, he spoke softly, “You could say I know the owner. My son Damon now owns this club.”

Accepting the glass he held out to her, her sip coincided with his revelation. Blue couldn’t help it. In shocked surprise at his words, she spat out some champagne. Son! No one had ever said a word about Simon being married and having children! “I didn’t know you’d ever been married,” Blue spoke, unable to keep the surprise from her voice. “Let alone that you had a child.”

Simon smiled and shrugged nonchalantly. “I’ve never been married, and I have two children.” He paused as he withdrew a white handkerchief from his pocket and delicately wiped drips of champagne from her chin. His hand hovered above her breast, which showed some wetness.

Blue held her hand out, meeting his gaze.

Simon shrugged before reluctantly passing the cloth. He continued speaking. “Damon and Darien, twin boys. Damon lives here and has been managing this place for the last twenty or so years. Darien prefers Europe, and he travels a great deal.”

Blue nodded, absorbing this knowledge slowly. Sons! He had sons older than she was. As if she needed something to further point out how impossible a relationship between them could be. Finishing the mopping up, she handed back Simon’s handkerchief. Changing the subject would be wisest at this point. “I imagine you’re aware of the changes in the length of the nights. It is completely atypical.” She watched as Simon sipped his champagne.

“I got the letters from your father,” Simon answered without revealing much more than what the simple words alone said.

Knowing it was stupid and not the place, she pleaded earnestly. “So, why didn’t you answer him? You certainly didn’t hold back when you wrote to me.”

“What should I say, Blue? I was stupid, coarse and uncaring. Out of everyone in your family, besides Fauster, you were the only one who accepted me. Each time I came to visit, there you were with your sweet, angelic smile. But after you turned sixteen, I knew that I had to stop visiting.”

Blue wished she could read his midnight dark gaze. “You frightened me when we met in Vienna.”

“Seeing you for the first time in five years, and how much of a woman you had become was too heady for me to handle safely. Suddenly you were before me, at that party. You should have been halfway around the world, and still safely clad in your school uniform. That was how I forced myself to remember you. Instead, I see everything I had wanted for so many years that I’ve forgotten how long.”

Simon reached out to lightly caress the side of her face. “I saw a woman whose beauty far exceeded the promise she’d presented with her pretty face and bright eyes. Before me is my ‘Circe’. I am ready to be engulfed, enslaved and overwhelmed by you, Blue.”

His hand slowly dropped to his side. “But I could smell your fear, and it was stronger than your desires. For a second time in my life, I stepped away from something I wanted because taking it would have been wrong.”

Blue wanted to believe him. Her heart told her that his words were true. All her life, she’d heard her father and uncle tell that of all the vampires, Simon was the one to be wary of. They told her because his bloodlust was so strong, it directed all of his life’s decisions. Forcing herself to turn away, she looked out the one-way glass.

Trying to keep her voice cool and controlled, she spoke, “So that’s why you called me foolish and naïve when you wrote me.” She waited nervously for his answer, wanting him to say the letter had been the third time he had turned away. That was something she felt she could accept. Suddenly a flash of something on the floor below caught her gaze. It was difficult to tell from this distance but she’d caught the distinct sense of a vampire on the prowl. For her, it had always seemed that the bloodlust vampires felt was a tangible thing, which she could sense and even smell at times. The only person who could do this better was Taryn.

Before she could react to the warning, Simon lightly caressed her hair. He’d moved to stand behind her and she felt him pull the hair on the left side of her neck, exposing the tender skin below her ear. Desire for him surged through her body once again. She wondered what his touch would feel like. If his hands caressed her flesh, would she be appalled or so aroused that she’d let him do almost anything?

“So easy,” Simon murmured just before he lightly kissed the side of her neck. His hands tilted her head sideways and back slightly, exposing the vulnerable artery. “If I were to bite your neck, your world as you know it would cease to exist.”

“You’re assuming that I’d let you.” Blue took in a short, sharp breath. Was she warning him, or reminding herself?

“The only way to know is for me to do it.” Simon kissed her warm flesh again, working his way up to her earlobe.

“What if I won? You would lose it all, including your sons. Is that what you want? Are you ready to cross over to whatever fate awaits you?” She waited tensely for him to reply.

A minute passed, and then Simon slowly released her shoulders. “What the hell is it with the women in your family? Are they vampire magnets?” Simon spoke angrily from just behind her.

Blue turned quickly to look at him. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?” She copied his speech, frustrated as her unquenched desire raged inside her.

“Unless I’m mistaken, Fauster’s granddaughter is dancing with one right now. Come on, Blue. We better rescue her before I have to explain how that innocent child got those funny bite marks, damn it!” Simon grabbed Blue’s hand and dragged her behind him.