A Bite to Remember by Lynsay Sands

might wait for her father. Blushing and smiling and chattering away, she’d seated him in the living room, then excused herself to make tea, too nervous and overset to recall that vampires didn’t drink tea. Something she’d known since she was eighteen and had started to work in her father’s company.
    Ted Morrissey had been excited and eager when he’d got the first call from Bastien Argeneau with a job he wanted looked after. His company had been small then and the referral from another client to the head of such a large multinational company had been like winning the lottery. However, it was soon after that her father had stopped talking about his cases, at least ones involving the Argeneaus or anyoneconnected to them. Jackie hadn’t understood why until her first day of work for her father when he’d taken her into his office, sat her down, and said what he was about to tell her could never be revealed to anyone…Vampires did exist.
    Young and eager to believe in the unbelievable, she’d gotten over the shock quickly, and then had spent the first couple weeks of her apprenticeship going through every file her father had on each of the immortals. By the time she was nineteen and faced with the handsome Cassius, she’d considered herself something of an expert on the immortals.
    Oh, the arrogance of youth, Jackie thought sadly. She’d been fussing over the tea tray in the kitchen when Cassius had joined her there. He’d told her she shouldn’t trouble herself, then had pressed a hand gently to her cheek and stared into her eyes. Jackie’s breath had caught in the back of her throat at the action, her mouth suddenly dry. She could still recall the trembling that had started in her body, leaving her shaky and weak so she’d had to lean back against the kitchen counter to stay on her feet.
    When he’d kissed her, her mind had filled with passions she’d never dreamed of; a wave of want and need that had seemed to consume her. Jackie had been lost.
    Cassius had broken the kiss when they heard the front door open. By the time her father found them in the kitchen, Jackie was nervously finishing with the tea tray, and Cassius was seated at the table, but Ted Morrisey had eyed them both with a concern that told her he suspected something had been going on. He didn’t say anything, however, not right then. He told Jackie to forget about the tea and ushered Cassius into his office.

    Jackie had sagged against the counter once alone, her hand pressed to her heart. It had felt like it would beat its way right out of her chest. She was sure she’d met the man of her dreams and had been horrified when he left and her father came to her and said she was to stay away from Cassius. It was for her own good.
    Jackie’s obedience had ended there. When Cassius called to invite her out, she lied and snuck about to see him, resenting her father for not understanding young love. Somehow, the lies and sneaking just made it all that bit more exciting, if it were possible.
    Cassius had taken her to fine restaurants and plays. Jackie had felt terribly sophisticated on his arm, and while she’d at first been nervous and anxious when he’d started to make love to her in the limo on the way home, that had soon given way to mindless passion. By the time she’d gotten out of that limo, Jackie was sure she was in love.
    Cassius had appeared equally enamored of her. Seeming unable to keep his hands off her, he’d started things in the most inappropriate places; kissing her and running his hands up under her skirt in restaurants with only the table to hide what he was doing, pulling her into alleys and making love to her against the wall of the building with only the cover night offered, and finally making love to her in his private box at the theatre where anyone might look over and see. Jackie was always reticent when he first initiated these encounters, but soon found herself overwhelmed by passion and eager to do whatever pleased