A Bite to Remember by Lynsay Sands Page A

him. He was like a drug and she a junkie who couldn’t get enough.
    Her father soon learned she was seeing Cassius behindhis back. How could he not? While she was lying and sneaking out, their dates were always in public and someone eventually mentioned it to him. Jackie came home from what would be their last date to be confronted by her father. They had a terrible row, ending with Jackie yelling that she hated him and would see Cassius if she wanted and there was nothing he could do about it. She’d then run out and taken a taxi straight to Cassius’s apartment. She’d buzzed his apartment and the door was immediately released for her, but when she’d reached the apartment she’d found it full of strangers. Cassius was having a party, anyone could have buzzed her in, he probably didn’t even know she was there.
    Forcing a smile, she’d greeted everyone as if she’d known about the party and been invited as she wound her way through the crowded rooms, looking for Cassius. His office was the last place Jackie looked, and it too had appeared empty at first. Confused and desperate to find him, she was backing out when a laugh made her pause and glance back. It was only then Jackie noticed that the door leading onto the balcony was cracked open. Realizing he must be there, she’d crossed the room to the door, then paused when she saw he wasn’t alone. Jackie hadn’t recognized the two men with him, but the shine of their eyes in the night told her they were immortals like Cassius.
    Jackie had reached for the door to slide it further open to let him know she was there, but one of the men had said something that made her pause.
    “You seem to be seeing a lot of that little Jackie.”
    “Hmm. I was,” Cassius had allowed, then shrugged. “ButI’m growing bored. She’s too unsophisticated. Her adoration was amusing at first, but is becoming annoying.” He smiled faintly. “I do like making her do things she doesn’t want to do though. Her mind is as malleable as clay and so easily controlled. I barely have to exert myself to get into her thoughts and convince her that yes, she really does want me to screw her in my theatre box where anyone might see.”
    “You surprise me, Cassius,” one of the men had commented. “From what you were telling me you had grown tired of sex and—”
    “This isn’t about sex,” he’d said impatiently. “Although it’s a lot more interesting when you know you’re making her do things that are against her morals.” He’d shrugged. “But I’m growing bored with the game and am thinking to end it soon. I just need to decide how I want to end it. Something magnificent. Perhaps bursting in on one of Ted Morrissey’s business meetings and screwing her on the boardroom table in front of important clients. Imagine his humiliation as she squeals like a bitch in heat.”
    “Jesus, Cassius, I knew you didn’t like Ted, but this is just—”
    “He doesn’t show me the proper respect,” Cassius snapped, displaying an anger Jackie had never witnessed from him. “He acts as though he’s as good as us and he isn’t. None of them are. They’re all simple-minded children that we feed from and can control as we wish and he needs to understand that.”
    Numb with shock, and suddenly terribly, terribly frightened of being discovered there, Jackie had eased away from the door and hurried out of the room. She’d glanced anxiously over her shoulder every half second as she’d made herescape, knowing that if Cassius saw her before she got out, there would be trouble. He’d read her mind and know she’d heard everything…He wouldn’t have let Jackie leave, knowing what she knew. He would have taken control of her mind, as he’d apparently been doing, and kept her with him until he’d made her do something that would publicly humiliate herself and her father.
    Jackie’s fear had eased once she was in a taxi on the way home, but it hadn’t gone completely. Cassius had been