THE PERFECT TEN (Boxed Set)

I’ll join you in the kitchen when Eli’s through.”
    She marched toward the kitchen with her head held high, giving no sign that she heard him. He sighed. This waiting hadn’t done her nerves any more favors than it had done his, it would seem.
    Eli emerged from the stairwell, immediately plugging a code into the alarm panel on the wall to prevent it from sounding. “Clean as a new penny,” he declared. “And now, while there’s a few hours of darkness left, I’d better go out, see if I can’t recruit some vampire eyes to help staff security checkpoints tomorrow night.”
    “Good plan. And while you’re at it, you’d better outfit them with uniforms so they can blend in better with the other guards. They’ll have to drop their own glamours for optimal performance, but that will make them stand out like neon in the dark. The uniform will help camouflage them.”
    “You got it, boss.”
    At last, Eli left. Delano headed for the kitchen, where he found Ainsley seated at the small cherry wood pedestal table. His heart squeezed as he took in the line of her back as she sat bent over her cup. She’d pulled all that blond hair to one side, exposing her nape. Was there anything in the world more beautiful? More achingly vulnerable?
    She sat up sharply. “Finally.”
    There was nothing vulnerable or soft about her tone.
    “Is that tea hot?”
    She blinked. “You drink tea?”
    He brushed past her and helped himself to a china mug. “Once in a while I like to remind myself what a steaming beverage feels like sliding down my throat, what the tannins feel like in my mouth.”
    Her face softened momentarily, then the line of her jaw hardened again. “Don’t try to play me. Just sit down and start talking.”
    “I think what I promised was that I’d answer all your questions.” He filled his mug, sat down and inhaled the steam from the pale brew. Peppermint leaves, ginger root, chamomile flowers and something more. Definitely an herbal concoction designed to calm the nerves. Too bad there’d be no uptake of those soothing ingredients as the fragrant liquid made its way through his system. He glanced up at her. “I promise to answer them truthfully.”
    Her eyes narrowed. “Does this mean if I don’t ask the right questions, you’ll withhold information?”
    “I’m confident you’ll have a comprehensive picture of the situation when we’re done.”
    She sat up straighter in her chair. “Okay, we’ll do it your way. Why do you want my blood? He said you were using it for experiments.”
    “I believe your blood holds the key for the vaccine I’ve been trying to develop.”
    “Why? Because I was bitten? Because I’m in transition? Or maybe because I’m not? Did I resist infection, and that’s why you want my blood?”
    “No. It has nothing to do with the fact that you were bitten.”
    “The daily blood samples? Are you still testing them for antibodies?”
    “No.”
    “No? Why not? Has the risk passed?” The furrow in her brow deepened. “And if you’re not testing my blood for the virus, then why bother draw—”
    He held up a hand to stop her. “Listen to me, Ainsley. There never was any risk of infection.”
    Her face paled. “What did you say?”
    “There was never any risk of infection. None whatever.”
    Her mouth opened and closed, opened again, but nothing came out.
    He dropped his gaze to his mug once again.
    “Yes, I lied to you. There it is. I led you to believe you might have been exposed to the virus, when in fact, it was out of the question.” His grip on the mug tightened until he realized he was in danger of crushing it. Carefully, he unclenched his hand.
    “You lied?”
    He heard the scrape of her chair as she pushed it back from the table, but still he didn’t lift his gaze from the steaming amber liquid in the mug before him.
    “Yes, I lied. You see, it’s impossible to contract the virus if a vampire merely feeds from you. The pressure of your arterial blood far outstrips the pressure in his venous system. In order for Edward Webber to have infected you, he would have had to abandon your carotid artery and staunch the bleed with a self-secreted coagulant. He would then have bitten your jugular vein, exerting enough positive pressure to infuse a very small amount of his vampiric blood into yours, after which he would have closed that second wound. You’d have been left with no visible evidence of the attack, but the transition would have started within