Much Ado About Vampires

once, and then he brushed my arm when I walked by him. I’m not dense, you know! I can tell when a man wants me! So I came up here to wait for him, because it’s clear he thinks I’m steaming hot.”

Harry closed her eyes for a moment, then took Cyndi by the arms, fighting to keep from shaking her. “I don’t even know where to start, Cyndi.”

“Start with what? I’m not the one who’s wrong here. Theo is!” Cyndi answered with yet another righteous sniff.

“I thought so. This wouldn’t be the first time some enterprising young lady has tried to, shall we say, benefit financially from Theo’s lack of common sense,” the irritating man said.

“Bullshit!” Harry snapped, releasing Cyndi to march over to the man. His eyebrows rose at the obscenity. She couldn’t remember what his name was—it was one of those long names with a seeming abundance of vowels—but she vaguely remembered hearing Jill mention something about him being on some world’s-most-eligiblebachelor list. If his appearance was anything to go by, she could certainly believe that. “I’m willing to admit that Cyndi has shown a huge lack of intelligence this evening—”

Cyndi gasped, outraged.

“But neither of us is trying to blackmail your precious brother. It was just a case of a young girl—a very young girl who is just barely legal, I might point out—obviously being dazzled by the situation and making some bad judgment calls.”

“I’m not dazzled,” Cyndi protested. “I’m hurt! I’m bleeding all over!”

The man made a disgusted noise and looked like he wanted to roll his eyes.

“There’s no actual blood, Cyndi,” Harry pointed out. “Although I will admit that your playmate was far too rough with you. And although that’s not a crime, it’s certainly not a pleasant little roll in the sack!”

“No crime has been committed, other than that of poor judgment,” the man snapped at her implication, his scowl shifting for a moment to one of surprise as Harry poked him in the chest when she spoke.

“She’s got marks all over her upper chest! Just look at her! What sort of a man does that?”

Iakovos Papaioannou couldn’t believe the Amazon in front of him had had the nerve to poke him in the chest, just as if she had the right to chastise him. For a moment, he was speechless at her utter and complete disregard for his consequence as she continued to lambaste him, throwing the most absurd accusations at his head.

He allowed her to continue just for the pleasure of watching her, admitting to himself that although his preference for women seldom extended to anything but slim, elegant, cool blondes, this woman, this earth goddess, with her abundant curves and wild brown hair spilling down her back, stirred something deep inside him. Something primal, some urge woke and demanded that he claim her in the most fundamental way a man could claim a woman.

His gaze dropped to her mouth, watching with fascination as her lips moved while she continued to lecture him. A faint scent caught his attention, and he breathed deeper, hoping to catch it again, and when he did, the analytical side of his mind noted that it was just the scent of a sun-warmed woman, as if she had been out lying on the beach. It was nothing extraordinary, nothing unusual, and yet it seemed to go straight to his groin, firing his desire as the most costly perfume had never done.

“—and you’re not even listening to me!” the goddess yelled, drawing his attention from his contemplation of laying her down on his bed and burying himself in her glorious body. She gave him a particularly hard jab in the chest, and he captured her hand without thinking, idly rubbing his thumb over her fingers.

“Of course I’m not,” he said, dismissively. “There’s nothing further to discuss. The woman pursued Theo, not the other way around. She is not injured, despite her claims to the contrary.”

She stared at him with stunned surprise for a moment or two, thick black lashes blinking over eyes he had first thought were gray, but now he could see were more hazel, the irises seeming to darken slightly as she looked at his hand. “What are you doing?”

“Trying to point out the obvious,” he responded, his eyes on her lips, wondering if she tasted of the sea. She certainly looked like some goddess who had risen from the sea in vengeance, a tempest in human form.

“No, your hand. Your thumb. It’s . . .”

Her gaze lifted to his, and he watched with primal satisfaction as her pupils dilated in sudden awareness of him as a man. How easy it would be to arouse her, this tempest. “What is your name?”

“Harry,” she said, suddenly giving a little shiver as she pulled her fingers from his.

He frowned. That was not at all fitting for a goddess from the sea. “You have a man’s name?”

“It’s a nickname, actually,” she said with a rueful smile.

His gaze moved instantly to her lips, a drawing in his groin warning that if he continued contemplation of her mouth, what he’d like to do to it, and what he’d like it to do to him, he would end up carrying her off to his bed. While that idea seemed just fine to him, there were other things to attend to . . . at least while Elena’s party was under way.

“My name is actually Eglantine, but no one but my mother calls me that. It’s just such a mouthful that everyone calls me Harry. What’s your name?”

“Iakovos Panagiotis Okeanos Papaioannou,” he said with a slight frown, as if he was surprised she didn’t know it.

That floored her. She grabbed onto the first part. “Yackydos? ”

“Iakovos. It’s Greek for ‘Jacob.’ ” When she gawked at him, he continued. “My name is quite a bit more than a mouthful, yes. I would suggest that since you are this young woman’s manager, you escort her back to her proper lodgings. I will attend to my brother.”

“I’m hurt! I want to go to the hospital!” Cyndi cried.

“Don’t be ridiculous. You don’t need a doctor’s care,” Iakovos told her.

“I’m their acting manager, and if she wants to go to the hospital, then I’ll take her to the hospital.” Harry poked him in the chest again, not, she told herself, because she wanted to feel his fingers on hers again. Oh, sure, he was the walking epitome of sex on two legs, your standard gorgeous hunk, but he was also an extremely obtuse hunk—one who had a very large surprise coming if he thought he could just brush away Cyndi’s (albeit minor) injuries.

“May I remind you that you are in my house,” Iakovos said, his voice low and incredibly arousing. “On my private island.”

Harry never really thought of voices as being sinfully sexy before, but the way this man’s rumbled around in his chest made the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. It was like he was a god, a Greek god come to life, standing right there in front of her, doing all sorts of things to personal, intimate parts of her that she didn’t want to think about. He was a drunkard’s brother, for heaven’s sake! How could she find his voice arousing? “Look, Yacky —”

“Iakovos!”

“We may be in your house on your precious island, but we’re also in a country that I’m willing to bet doesn’t tolerate abuse to women, especially to American citizens, and double especially when the American citizen in question is just barely eighteen.” Harry took a deep breath and leveled the Greek god a look that should have felled him. “I’m assuming that since we had to take a boat to get out to Smut Island, we’re going to need one to get Cyndi to the hospital on the mainland. And since I also assume you own all the boats here, I’d appreciate if you could have one of your lackies fire one up for us.”

“And if I don’t?” Iakovos asked, his black eyes damn near spitting fire at her.

“You’re going to be one sad little panda,” she snarled.

“Are you threatening me?” He looked completely outraged at such a thing.

“You bet your incredibly attractive and probably hardenough-to-bounce-a-quarter-off-of ass!” she snapped back.

An indescribable look flitted across his face. “You are the most irreverent woman I’ve ever met.”

“And you’re the handsomest man I’ve ever seen in my life, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to lick you!” she yelled.

He stared at her in outright surprise.

“Sorry. That came out wrong.” Color warmed her face as she mentally damned that odd twist in her mind that led her to speak without thinking. “Sometimes, the dialogue I write in my head comes out of my mouth instead of staying where it belongs.”