Love Me Forever. Rosemary Laurey

fine.”

      He wasn’t the only one lying. They were even. No! They’d never be. He’d darn well better get out of here while his resolve held. “Hope the costume works for Sam.”

      “It will.”

      He nearly ran a massive, hexagonal, red stop sign, and that gave him the jolt he needed. He had to get his mind straight. He parked, making sure he wasn’t in one of the complicated parking zones, and strode down to the park. Gathering a handful of pebbles, he sat down by the pond and skimmed them across the water, but stopped when he realized that was no way to stay unobtrusive. The first two skipped several times and embedded themselves deep in the opposite bank.

      He dropped the rest of his stones and looked up at the clear October sky. He was burning with need. Feeding should have eased his appetite; instead it woke yearnings. Dangerous yearnings for far more than a taste of her sweet blood. He was a fool! Feeding in daylight! What vampire in his right mind did that? If one of those hobbledehoys in the alley had seen! He’d endangered Kit and Dixie with his mindless lust and taken unpardonable advantage of a defenseless woman.

      He had to get himself in hand. Tonight he’d ask Kit to take him hunting. He had to have blood, and plenty of it, before he saw Stella again.

      Justin closed his eyes, trying to fathom what had happened. He needed, wanted Stella—had from the minute she walked into that little shop two days ago. Two days! He was going bonkers! No other explanation. Maybe his need for native earth was deeper than he anticipated. Maybe the time change played merry hell with his reason. Maybe he needed a woman!

      Why not? He’d enjoyed plenty of liaisons over the centuries, exchanging sexual rapture for their blood. He’d always been discreet, careful. Not one of them had ever guessed his true nature. If they ever got close, he ended the affair. But he didn’t want a brief fling with Stella. He wanted what Kit and Dixie shared. A union of souls and spirits.

      He had rocks for brains as well as balls!

      Impossible! To join their blood union, she’d have to die. As if he’d wish that on any mortal. As if he could. Stella was as unobtainable as her namesakes in the night sky and he’d better face facts.

      He needed to return to Kit and Dixie’s and arrange his meeting with Vlad. Now that would yank him back to reality without any trouble. Giving a dry laugh, Justin shot a last stone across the lake with such force it embedded ten inches into the mud on the other side.

      “I think you’re beating your head against a metaphorical wall,” Dixie said, watching Justin with her arms folded on her chest, “and quite unnecessarily, too!”

      He glared at her but she just shrugged. “You’re not listening.” Maybe she didn’t understand, she was a woman after all. “I used her!”

      “Oh, for heaven’s sake, Justin! You fed off her…Okay, tasted.” She’d caught his frown had she? Good. “How many times have you and Christopher exhorted me to feed regularly?”

      “Dixie,” Kit broke in, “I think you’re missing the point.” Justin turned to his old friend in relief. At least he understood. “Justin fed in daylight. We don’t do that.” Kit’s smile at his companion caused a knot in Justin’s heart. “Remember?”

      “Yes, dear.”

      Justin wanted to shout his frustration to the skies. Kit hadn’t understood either! “Kit, that wasn’t my worst concern,” Justin said. That got their attention. He glanced up at the window moldings as he braced himself for the admission. “I wanted more than blood from her…In fact, I doubt if blood will ever be enough.”

      Kit let out a slow whistle—or the closest a vampire managed with no breath to draw on. Dixie reached over and squeezed Justin’s hand. The unexpected and so human gesture shook Justin.

      “It’ll work out, Justin,” she said.

      “Dixie, it’s not that easy. Stella’s mortal, for God’s sake!” Kit said in an exasperated voice.

      Dixie turned on him. “For crying out loud, Christopher! Do you think I don’t know that? I didn’t lose my memory when you transformed me.” She gave Justin’s hand another squeeze. “So you’ve fallen for her in a big way have you?”

      “She’s magnificent. I want to take her and build her a palace on a mountaintop and protect her from all harm and dress her in silk and jewels.”

      “Yes, well. She might have something to say about that. Stella does have a job to hold down and a kid to support.”

      That reminder struck like a cold iron. “And I used that!”

      “Justin, will you please stop maundering!”

      He looked up. She was nose to nose with him and frowning. “You don’t understand…” he began.

      “Believe me, I do. I had firsthand experience of your taboos about relationships with mortals.”

      That he wouldn’t deny, or her cavalier attitude towards the same taboos. “They happen to be your taboos, now.”

      She ignored that reminder. “Justin, listen to me a minute. I’m not suggesting you flout some immutable vampire law. I just think you should stop beating your breast about it. And to be honest, if the earth moved for you when you fed off Stella, do you imagine she just walked away afterwards and got on with the ironing as if nothing had happened?”

      That was supposed to make him feel better? “I put a glamour on her!”

      Dixie nodded and gave a wry smile. “Yup, I think Christopher tried that a few times with me.”

      “Look here, Dixie,” Kit began.

      Dixie neither looked nor paused. “Justin,” she went on, “okay, Stella is mortal and taboo as far as a long-term relationship but heck, why not enjoy her company for the three weeks you’re here? Most women would give their right arm and their favorite mascara for a man like you. I don’t recommend trying to incarcerate her on a mountaintop, but take her out a few times, feed off her when you need, and treat her well. And when you go back to England, we’ll look out for her. Christopher can include her street in his nightly sweeps.”

      As if he wanted anyone—even his get—including his woman in the nightly sweeps! Except Stella wasn’t and would never be his. Justin wanted to rear his head back and howl like the wolves that once roamed the dank hills of Britain, but that would bring attention to them all! He settled for gritting his teeth.

      Dixie stood up and kissed him on the forehead.

      Twice.

      Justin stared. First at her and then at Kit. Far from being affronted, Kit was amused.

      “It’ll work out,” Dixie said. “My Gran always used to say, if it was meant to be there will be a way.” She gave him a quick hug and walked out.

      Kit sat there grinning like an intoxicated hyena. “Do you always smile like that when your woman goes around kissing other men?”

      Kit shrugged. “First time she’s done it. If it gets to be a habit, I’ll say something.”

      How could Kit be so complacent? Because he is so sure of Dixie. Justin shook his head. Hell, if he didn’t have to meet Vlad in a couple of days he’d do best to hie back to England. No. He wasn’t leaving a day before he had to. “You think I’ve got my brains in a twist, don’t you?”

      Kit nodded. “I do know what you’re going through, you know.”

      “Things worked out for you and Dixie.”

      “Yes, but the events in between were a bit off for Dixie.”

      Justin ran his hands through his hair. How could he wish harm, much less death, to Stella?

      “Thought you’d see my point.”

      “What the hell am I supposed to do?”

      “I