His room was messy in typical guy fashion. His clothes hamper was overflowing with laundry. The bed was covered with dark plaid blankets, tossed into a ball. Pillows were strewn all over the mattress, and magazines lay scattered in a nearby chair. I picked one up. Science magazine. The one underneath it was about cars, and the one below that was travel. Okay, that told me nothing about the man. I glanced over at his dresser. A few photos were stuck along the edge of the mirror, and a scatter of small objects decorated the surface.
I gravitated to the photos, mostly a montage of shots of Josh and his brothers on vacation. There was a photo of Beau, much younger, hanging off Josh’s shoulders, both of them in swim trunks. And there was an older man who resembled Josh—his father? I’d heard Beau mention once that his father was deceased. Poor Josh. I knew what it was like to lose a parent.
An answering-machine light flickered, and I checked the display, curious. Thirty-one messages. Good Lord. If his messages were anything like the ones he got at the dating agency, they were all from women. My fingers hovered over the playback button, and I fought the urge to listen to them. That would be a major invasion of privacy.
“Whatcha doing?”
I whirled around, my face hot, to face one of the twins. I didn’t know if it was Everett or Ellis. They looked exactly alike to me. “Um, hi.”
He took a bite out of an apple, giving me an interested look. “Checking things out?”
“Um, no. I was just, uh, looking around. Josh is getting a toolbox.” I stepped away from the answering machine, feeling guilty. “We’re about to head back out.”
“Mmmhmm.” He took another bite of apple, still watching me. After a moment, he said, “He keeps it full on purpose.”
“Huh?”
“The answering machine.” He nodded at it. “Keeps it full on purpose. If it’s full, no one can leave him a message. He prefers that. The girls don’t leave him alone otherwise.”
Oh. That was interesting. “I see.”
“You were wondering about it, admit it.”
I would admit no such thing. “You know, they might leave him alone if he’d actually pick up the phone. It’s what normal people would do.”
He snorted, as if I’d said something funny.
“You tellin’ all my secrets, Ellis?” Josh appeared, clapping his cousin on the shoulder. “Maybe you should learn to keep your mouth shut.”
Oh, hell. Now I was really caught red-handed.
“Eh,” Ellis said, unafraid. He took another leisurely bite of apple. “I figured if you let her up in your bedroom unattended, she’s probably pretty special.”
“Probably,” Josh agreed with a drawl.
“So he doesn’t normally let women hang around in his bedroom?” I asked Ellis, unable to stop myself.
He only grinned, and I felt silly for asking.
“Come on, Marie.” Josh nodded at the door. “We need to get a move on if we’re going to fix Lula’s toilet for her. We have to be done by five.”
“Why?” I was curious despite myself. “What happens at five?”
“We have to leave for our date.”
“Date?” I sputtered. “Are we going on a date?”
“We’re going on a double date,” he told me with a grin. “A pair of newly turned vampires. I figured you’d want to ask them some questions.”
Ellis gave me a speculative look. “What kind of questions?”
Excitement flared through me. “None of your business. Josh, do you mean it?”
He nodded at me, looking pleased with himself.
I sucked in a breath in excitement. “You’re the best, you know that?”
“Yeah,” he said with a grin. “I know.”
• • •
My palms were sweaty with excitement. I slid them up and down the legs of my jeans to dry them and tried not to look overeager.
Josh, meanwhile, sat next to me in the booth, his legs sprawled under the table as if he’d had not a care in the world. His beer was coated with condensation, however, and the large plate of food in front of him sat untouched, a sure sign that Josh wasn’t nearly as relaxed as his manner suggested.
The restaurant was crowded despite the late hour, but dimly lit. Josh and I occupied a booth near the back, close enough to the bathroom that I looked up every time someone came near our table.
Here I was, dying to date a vampire—no pun intended—and I couldn’t get them to go out with me. Yet all Josh had to do was snap his fingers and they’d come running to do him a favor.
I’d have resented it if I hadn’t been so utterly thankful that he’d set this up. “You’re the best, Josh,” I told him again.
“I know,” he replied, not looking at me. His gaze was rooted to the door. “You can thank me later.”
I lightly smacked his arm, just imagining what that thanking would involve. “So they know about . . . me?”
He shot me a look at that, and I nearly melted at the heat in his gaze. God, Josh was sexy when he was riled up, and he was definitely riled up at the moment. “They know what I told them.”
“Which is . . . ”
“That you’re dating a vampire, so you want to know what vampire society is like from reliable, unbiased sources.”
That sounded about right. What surprised me was Josh’s reluctance about the meeting.
I nudged him with my elbow. “You okay?”
“Fine,” he said in a flat voice.
“You don’t sound fine. You sound grumpy.”
He glanced over at me, his mouth pulled into an unhappy line, arms crossed over his chest. “You know I’m not a big fan of all this vampire business.”
“I know you’re not. I appreciate the effort, though.”
His gaze softened and he leaned in closer to me, as if he was about to kiss me. I tilted my face up toward his.
Josh’s nostrils flared and he sniffed the air, then slid back into his seat again, moving away from me. “They’re here.”
My heart leapt in my chest. I immediately craned my neck, trying to see around Josh to the restaurant floor. “I don’t see anyone.”
“You’ll recognize them when you see them,” Josh said, placing a hand on my shoulder as I leaned over his lap. “Sit down.”
I did, forcing myself to be patient. I could have contacted a vampire or two myself through the agency, but they tended to be suspicious and, because I was human, reluctant to open up. The fact that two were willing to come and sit down with me and talk was flat-out amazing . . . and I owed it all to Josh.
I squeezed his arm happily at the sight of the couple approaching the table. I recognized the tall, lanky man with the wild tuft of hair and the short, curvy woman at his side. “Valjean! Ruby! Hi there!”
Valjean had been my client for about a half a minute before he’d shacked up with Ruby, and he’d been on my dating list for vampires. Ruby had only used the agency a few times herself, but I was familiar with her, since her sister, Jayde, was one of our more notorious clients.
I glanced over at Josh. “You didn’t tell me it was going to be them.”
“They’re both fairly new to the vampire world,” he said with an easy shrug of his shoulders, leaning forward. “Thought it might be good for you to get their perspective.”
“Pleasure to see the two of you again,” Valjean said in a courteous voice, smoothing a hand down the front of his coat. He gestured for Ruby to slide into the booth and she did, her glittering gaze focused on me in a look that wasn’t exactly friendly.
Oh, dear. Was she feeling territorial? I knew from dealing with her sister that were-jaguars tended to be a
