THE PERFECT TEN (Boxed Set)

feel like she was overreacting.
    “Dammit, Delano, why didn’t you tell me?”
    “Because I thought you’d had quite enough rude shocks to cope with.”
    She made no attempt to stifle a snort of disbelief. “Really? So it was my welfare you were concerned about?”
    “Absolutely.”
    “And the fact that I might have declined the job had I known the boss was a blood-sucking vampire didn’t enter into your decision-making process?”
    His face hardened. “I shouldn’t have to explain to you, of all people, that there’s no sucking involved. And to answer your question, yes, that did enter into the equation. But frankly, I don’t think it would have been a deal-breaker, had I told you. You still have that crippling need to feed your bank account, and a decidedly lackluster reference from your employer.”
    “But I deserved to know!”
    “Know?” His face hardened still further, making him look even more remote. “You want to know, Ainsley? Then you shall know.”
    Suddenly, he was beside her. Just like that. One second he was standing twelve feet away, his features perfectly distinguishable. Then, the very next instant, he was there, right there, mere inches away, too close for her to adjust the focus. All she’d seen was a blur of motion.
    “Jesus!” Her hand leapt automatically to the pulse hammering in her throat.
    “Not even close.”
    He drew his lips back in a caricature of a smile, and before her eyes, the two upper cuspids telescoped into pointed fangs more fearsome and lethal looking than those of her attacker. Reflexively, she jerked back, but his hand shot out to grasp her wrist.
    “Don’t go all weak-kneed on me now, Ainsley. You want to know? Then watch and learn.”
    Then he raised what she realized was a unit of blood and sank his teeth into it. Holding her gaze, he squeezed the plastic bag, creating the pressure required to push the blood into his venous system.
    She watched, half revolted, half fascinated.
    It took thirty seconds. Maybe a little longer. When the bag was all but empty, he wrenched it from his mouth. Her eyes dropped to his teeth, to the elongated canines that gleamed red with blood. Then, drawn by motion, her gaze dropped to his chest. Beneath the black cashmere sweater he wore, his chest heaved as though he’d just run a marathon.
    Or as though he was sexually aroused.
    Her gaze jerked back to his face, and she sucked in an audible breath.
    Jesus, Mary and Joseph.
    Pure need had chiseled his features into brutally hard planes and angles. It blazed from his dark eyes and escaped in gusts from his still parted lips.
    And deep in her belly, a dark, matching excitement unfurled.
    Oh, God.
    He’d said it was pleasurable for a woman. Intensely so. She’d doubted it then; nothing about her own experience had been anything but horrifying. Of course, that had been an assault, an act of violence, the equivalent of a rape. This would be different. Her blood thrummed with the certain, inborn knowledge that Delano Bowen could bring her pleasure beyond imagination.
    Her skin tingled. His breath on her flesh was a caress. Beneath the man’s shirt that Eli had procured for her, she felt her nipples tighten and her stomach muscles contract. Oh, God, yes.
    She let her eyelids drift down, let her head fall back, tilting it to the right to expose her neck. Trembling with the force of a raw and unfamiliar need, she waited for the searing kiss of his teeth.
    His grip on her wrist tightened to the point of pain. She gasped. Her eyes flew open, but he’d already released her. Once again, he stood on the other side of his study, this time with his back to her, shoulders tight and tense.
    “Delano?”
    “That was nothing personal.”
    She blinked, watched him dispose of the spent blood bag in a bio-hazard waste disposal unit mounted on the wall. Calmly, he took a paper towel from a dispenser, wiped his mouth, then disposed of it, too.
    “Excuse me?”
    He turned to face her, his face once again composed and controlled, though his voice was slightly thicker than normal. “It’s just the bloodlust. It’s awakened when we feed.”
    She blanched. This happened to all vampires when they fed? “You mean all those males who came to the clinic…?”
    “I’m afraid so.” An apologetic smile curved his lips. “And perhaps more than a few of the females. Which is why we offer them a private, safe environment for their infusions. It takes a few moments to regain complete control