I looked at him as if he had an extra toe growing out of his ear. 'What planet are you from? In case it escaped your notice, I'm six feet tall and built like a brick oven, as my mother used to say.'
'I happen to think a woman's shape looks better with curves,' he said blithely, looking me up and down. 'Yours look good on you.'
Well, stap my vitals! A man who had enough muscles to haul me around and still managed to say nice things about my overabundance of curves? If only he wasn't the walking dead, I would have proposed marriage on the spot. But the probability was that if I wasn't insane, he was what he shouldn't be, so marriage was out. Which was a shame, really, because the closer I got to him, the better he looked. He was about four inches taller than me, was broad in all those areas that men look good being broad in, had a hard, angular face and dark curly hair, but it was those eyes that snagged and held my attention. Amber, deep amber, pure and clear and flecked with gold and brown. He started up the second flight of stairs.
'Um.'
'Are we back to that again?'
I tried to look down my nose at him, not an easy thing to do when you're being carried. 'I apologize for the lamentable lack of scintillating conversation, sir, but I have recently been unconscious and I find some allowances are going to have to be made.'
'I see.'
'For example, we haven't been introduced.'
He rounded the last landing, looking faintly startled by my words. 'I thought introductions went the way of eight-track tapes and laser disks.'
'They're not entirely extinct,' I answered. 'I'm Joy Randall.'
He hauled me up the last few stairs, stopping at the top to look into my eyes. 'Raphael.'
'Just Raphael?'
He shrugged.
'Most people have two or more names.'
'Do they?'
'Yes.' I waited. He looked at me with those beautiful eyes as if he were memorizing my face. I got tired of waiting for him, and decided to give him a nudge in the right direction. You'd have thought someone who'd lived for centuries would have picked up a few social skills along the way. 'My middle name is Martine. I was named for my grandmother. Joy Martine Randall.'
Abruptly a smile quirked at the corner of his lips. 'I was named for my great-grandfather.'
'Great-grandpa Raphael?'
'Griffin. My name is Raphael Griffin St. John.'
'Nice to meet you, Raphael.' I hazarded a smile before I realized what I was doing. Flirting with a vampire! What was next for me—French kissing a werewolf? Dirty dancing with a zombie? 'For the record, I think your parents did the right thing.'
I loved his eyebrows. I loved the way they zoomed up and down and were so expressive without saying a word. 'Your name,' I told the eyebrow arched in question. 'It's different. I've never known a Raphael before. It's very romantic. Dramatic, too. I like it.'
I mentally groaned to myself as the words left my lips. I was babbling. I was clinging to a man who just possibly might be undead, and I was babbling about how much I liked his name.
'It is a family tradition. All the men in our family are named either Raphael or Griffin.'
'And you got both.'
'Yes.'
'Fun tradition,' I commented. He made a little moue of distaste.
'It's on par with the other family tradition.'
'Really? What's that? It doesn't involve webbed toes, does it? 'Cause if it does, I don't want to know about it.'
His eyebrow arched even higher. 'No webbed toes, thank you for asking. The family tradition to which I am referring is much more disconcerting: A St. John man knows the woman he will marry the first time he meets her.'
I blinked at him. 'Oh. That's a bit different. Men don't usually fall in love at first sight. Still, Raphael is a cool name, so I guess your family traditions aren't all bad.'
'I, on the other hand, dislike the name intensely and would much prefer it if everyone just called me Bob.'
'Bob?' A vampire named Bob? Was that allowed? 'Bob? Why Bob?'
His shoulders moved in an elegant shrug despite the fact that he was still holding me. 'Why not Bob?'
He had me there. 'But Raphael's a nice name. It's exotic. It's unusual. It—'
'Sounds like it belongs to a male prostitute,' he interrupted.
'Well, I think it suits you,' I said as he walked down the short hallway.
He looked at me out of the corner of one of those delicious eyes. 'You think I look like a man who takes money to pleasure women?'
'I think a lot of women would pay you money to give them pleasure,' I said. 'I know I certainly would if I had some spare cash lying around.'
He stopped before my door, giving me a curious look. 'I don't know whether to be flattered or insulted. Are you saying you'd like to have sex with me?'
'Well, it's not written in stone, but I have to admit that right now, with you holding me and all, it's on my list, although I should warn you that I just discovered my mind is pretty much shot, so perhaps I'm not the best judge.'
He carefully set me on my feet, holding on to my waist while I waited to see if the room would stop spinning. It did.
'I believe the best course will be for me to take that statement as a compliment.' His hands were warm on my waist, his fingers doing a little caressing thing that had my knees melting.
'Now I've offended you. I'm sorry. It's just that the women in my family tend to call the shots as they see them. I forget that not everyone is thrilled to hear my opinions.'
His eyes glittered brightly into mine. I wanted to dive into their amber depths and bask in the warmth contained within them. 'On the contrary, I find myself strangely compelled to encourage you to share your opinions.'
If he weren't so damned sexy I'd have been OK, but he stood there positively smoldering with sensuality. I fought the unseemly urge to throw myself into his arms, and stepped back. 'I think you'd better go. I'm liable to launch myself at your head if you don't, and you don't look like the kind of a guy who likes to be rushed into a kiss.'
His eyes deepened into a look so wicked it took my breath away. 'You'd be surprised at what I like.'
Oh man, oh man, oh man! I stared open-mouthed at him. Fortunately, he didn't wait for a reply and took pity on my scattered wits. 'Do you have your room key?' he asked, holding out his hand.
'I have it,' a cheerful voice piped up behind him. 'Boy, these stairs are tough on the toes. Here I come, everyone hold tight. Joy, the hotel owner wants to know if you want him to call a doctor. At least, I think that's what he said. Jeezumcrow!' Roxy stopped on the other side of Raphael and gave me the eye. 'You really have taken a beating today, haven't you? You look awful. Thanks a lot, Raphael, I'll tuck her into bed. You don't mind my calling you Raphael, do you? Will you be at the fair tomorrow?'
A surge of annoyance welled up at the sight of my best friend batting her eyelashes at what was probably the only person in existence who could carry me up three flights of stairs, and still tell me he liked my curves.
I smiled my best shark smile at him, and reached behind Roxy to pinch the back of her arm.
She yelped and jerked her arm away, glaring at me. 'So it's like that, is it?'
'No.'
'Hrmph.' She rubbed her arm as she unlocked my door.
'Thank you, Bob,' I said graciously to Raphael.
'My pleasure,' he replied, his eyes glittering dangerously at me.
