"Are you okay being here?" Janie touched his arm as they got on the elevator headed to the seventeenth floor. "You look like you just swallowed a puppy."
"I wish."
She laughed weakly at that.
He frowned. "This isn't funny, you know."
"Come on. I'll protect you from the mean hunters. Don't worry."
"I may take you up on that offer."
The elevator dinged and the doors opened up. Two large men got on the elevator with them, pressing
Quinn on either side. He tried to pretend that he was invisible. He didn't recognize the men, but they looked like hunters to him. Hunters who had gone a little too long without a shower.
"I think you should give the Eye back to me," Quinn whispered to her.
She raised an eyebrow. "I'm sure you do."
"For safekeeping."
"It's perfectly safe with me."
"I can just take it from you. I don't have to ask."
She gave him a wicked grin and then reached forward to tap one of the hunters on his huge bicep.
"Excuse me—" she said. "Are you here for the convention?"
He looked around at her. "That's right. How'd you know?"
"I can spot a gorgeous vampire hunter from a mile away."
He elbowed his friend. "A groupie."
She fluttered her eyelashes at them. "Maybe I am."
The hunter eyed her from top to bottom, pausing for way too long on the middle part. "You should come to the awards tonight. There's a party afterward, and we can all get to know each other better. I might even let you touch my stake."
Her smiled widened. "Really? That sounds like fun."
The elevator stopped at the fourteenth floor, and the men got off and waved at Janie before the elevator doors closed behind them.
Quinn eyed her. "Let you touch his stake?"
"Vampire hunters love the double entendre."
"So whatwas that?"
"Just me being friendly. And a reminder that if you mess with me to get the Eye, number one, I'd kick your ass. Number two, I can always holler for one of those hairy mammoths to come save me."
"You wouldn't really do that, would you? After all we've been through together?"
She looked away. "Just try me."
The doors opened on the seventeenth floor and they got out and walked down the hall.
Quinn stopped in front of his door, swiped the key card, and turned the knob. "Fine, be that way."
She raised an eyebrow, probably surprised he was giving up so quickly, and brushed past him.
He grabbed the back of her jacket and, before she was able to say a word, pulled her into his room and slammed the door shut.
Quinn stood with his back against the door, aka: her only means of escape.
"We need to talk, Janie."
Her heart pounded hard. No, they didnot need to talk. What they needed to do was have some time apart so she could figure out what she was going to do next. Her Boss's threat never left her mind: kill the vampire or else.
She didn't want to kill Quinn. The thought of him dead made her heart ache.
And yet she wasn't too thrilled with the "or else" part of that threat, either.
"Isn't talking what we've been doing for the past day and a half?" she finally said. "I think we've run out of topics."
He shook his head. "There's a way we can both get what we want."
She clenched the Eye in her right hand. "Get out of my way or I'm going to beat you to a pulp."
His lips twitched.
Great, she thought. He found her amusing. She'd been way too soft on him. He had no concept of how mean and nasty she could get when she had to. She might not look it at first glance, but she was like a dangerous animal cornered—
She glanced around at the room. —cornered in a VIP suite that absolutelyrocked .
It seemed obvious that the El Diablo had a devil theme throughout the hotel. This room was no different.
It was huge and decorated in rich fabrics, shades of red and gold and orange. A blazing fireplace took up the majority of one wall, and paintings of naked or scantily clad women filled the other walls. Instead of looking cheap or cheesy, they added a sensual flavor to the space. Another wall was entirely taken up by a window that looked out and down to the Bellagio Hotel's fountains next door.
Sure as hell beat theSleepytime Inn.
"If you don't let me out of here I'm going to…" She trailed off as another gorgeous element of the room stood out to her. The bed! It was huge. And round! It was also draped in a gauzy red canopy. She was willing to bet it was a million times more comfortable than any of the hard and lumpy motel beds she'd stayed on for way too many weeks to count.
Niiice.
Quinn followed her line of sight.