Jessica nodded again, feeling exuberant. “I’ll go talk to this guy right away,” she declared, clapping her hands. She gazed toward the front window, where she could see the sky just beginning to turn an orangish-lavender. “Or…maybe in a few minutes,” she amended somberly, “once the sun’s finished going down.”
Chapter Seven
Less than an hour later, Jessica stood in the hallway outside her apartment, facing her neighbor’s doorway. Her pulse was racing with excitement, and her palms were damp. Lucy and Dara had offered to come along with her for moral support, but she’d told them it wasn’t necessary. She wasn’t afraid of her neighbor, and anyway she was worried he might not admit he was a vampire in front of a couple of complete strangers. She worried he might not even admit it to Jessica, even though he already knew that she knew there was something different about him. Something superhuman.
Okay, come on, girl, Jessica coaxed herself, it’s now or never. Just knock!
She took a deep breath and rapped her knuckles against the door. There was no answer. She waited a minute and then did it again. Still nothing. Creeping closer, she pressed her ear to the door and listened. Not a peep came from inside. No rustlings, no footsteps. Apartment 20 was silent as the proverbial tomb.
Disappointment washed over her. No! she thought, clenching her fists. There’s an honest-to-goodness vampire emergency going on out here and the one person I can turn to for help isn’t even home! Gah!
She was about to back away when the door swung open and Jessica, still leaning against it, nearly toppled into the living room. With a surprised squeak, she caught herself on the doorframe. Vampire Man gazed down at her with curiosity, one hand bunching the ends of the towel wrapped around his waist.
Towel, she thought, her brain scrabbling to make sense of the word. Little sheet of terry cloth. It was all he was wearing.
The sharp, clean scents of men’s soap and shampoo hung in the air. She’d caught him getting out of the shower. Beginning his day. Right after sundown. Because he was a freaking vampire!
“Oh, holy cow,” Jessica blurted, staring goggle-eyed at the vampire’s naked, muscle-bound chest. It was all damp and shiny, glistening with water droplets. She couldn’t help noticing that he seemed to be tan all over—at least everywhere that she could see…which, thanks to the skimpiness of the towel, was almost everywhere—and that this seemed unlikely for someone who was undead. Maybe he’d already been that warm, sun-kissed shade before he was turned, she mused? Maybe becoming a vampire locked in the melanin. Or maybe he went to one of those twenty-four-hour tanning salons. Regardless, he looked awfully tawny and healthy standing there, like some bronzed Grecian god or—
“Hello?” the vampire cleared his throat, calling her attention back to his face.
His incredible face. Jessica had never seen anyone more beautiful. She felt she could take a swim in the dark blue ocean of those deep-set eyes, could likely cut diamonds on his cheekbones. And his lips! Don’t even get her started on those. They were sculpted and masculine, set in a hard line, but with a hint of fullness to them she found utterly enticing. Jessica felt her own mouth puckering involuntarily as she imagined what it might be like to press it against his, to feel his tongue parting her lips and sliding inside—
“Ahem,” the vampire cleared his throat again, more aggressively.
Jessica’s spine straightened like a board, and she gave herself a quick mental slap. “Um, h-hi!” she said, and paused to clear her throat, too. She scrambled to force away the nervous quiver in her voice. “Hi,” she tried again, and smiled widely. “I’m Jessica. Jessica Ramos. I live across the hall there?” She waved behind her.
The vampire held her gaze for a second. “I know who you are,” he said.
Jessica’s head jerked back a fraction. “You do?”
He looked her up and down, a glint of disdain in his eyes. “What do you want?”
“Oh. Um, I was just wondering if I could maybe talk to you for a minute? In private?” She glanced past him but couldn’t really see into his apartment. It just looked dark as Hades in there, like the shades were drawn tight and all the lights were off. Which she supposed shouldn’t have surprised her. How else would he get any sleep during the day?
“What is this about?” he asked.
She looked at him again. “Oh, just some stuff that’s been happening around the area lately. Kind of a, you know, neighborhood watch kinda thingy.”
He shifted his weight, pressing his free hand against the wall, and the towel slid down, exposing another half-inch of dark, damp hair curling just below his navel. “We have a neighborhood watch?”
“No,” she said, blinking innocently. “At least I don’t think so.”
He stared at her some more. “It’s not a good time,” he finally told her.
She watched a bead of water slide out of his wet hair and track down the side of his face. It plinked onto his collarbone and started its slow trek down the plane of his pectoral. Toward his nipple. “No, um, obviously not,” she said with a wobbly chuckle. “Maybe I’ll just…I’ll just come back later. Sorry.” She staggered back a step.
The vampire looked her up and down again. Annoyance crossed his face, but he snapped out, “Give me ten minutes. I’ll come over to your place. We’ll talk.”
“What?” Jessica practically shrieked. But he’d already shut the door in her face and disappeared back into his bat cave.
◆◆◆
Good news! Vamp was home. On his way over to my place for a tete-a-tete now. Will let you know what he says, k?
Jessica added a cartoon bat sticker and shot off the text message to Lucy and Dara as soon as she got back to her apartment. The girls responded with a flurry of
