Then he thought about the way she'd looked in those silky pajamas, the way the material clung to her breasts, casting them in a mellow glow. The V of the collar revealing a modest little glimpse of milky skin.
He collapsed into a chair, shaking his head slightly at his body's immediate reaction to the mere memory. The women at the club often wore the equivalent of skimpy lingerie, and he'd never found any of those outfits as exciting as Mina's modest pajamas.
He wanted her. He wanted to follow her into her bedroom, throw her down on the bed and make love to her for hours. But he also knew he couldn't rush Mina. He knew she wasn't ready for too much from him, too fast.
He'd never been a patient man, but he'd be patient for Mina. Right now, he was just pleased that she was sticking with their deal.
A few moments later, Mina rejoined him. Tonight she wore a blue tailored shirt a few shades lighter than her eyes, and a black skirt with blue flowers the exact color of her shirt. She looked prim and proper and Sebastian thought his cock would burst through the seams of his jeans at the sight of her.
Patience, buddy.
His cock leapt in response, the organ as insubordinate as ever. Sebastian ignored it as he stood and ran his palms over the front of his jeans, hoping the action would pull the snug denim away from the rather prominent bulge. He didn't look down to see if his tactic worked, afraid she'd follow his gaze.
Instead he smiled at her and held out his hand. "Are you ready?"
She nibbled her bottom lip, then nodded. She slipped her small, cool hand into his, and his chest tightened as though he'd made the biggest conquest of his life.
"Where are we going?" Mina asked as they slid into the backseat of a taxi.
"To LaGuardia," Sebastian leaned forward to tell the driver.
Mina frowned at him. "The airport?"
He nodded, a mischievous smile on his lips.
"Why?" she asked.
"I really think you should just learn to trust me." His smile remained roguish as he settled back against the vinyl seat.
Trust him. He kept saying that to her as if it was the easiest thing in the world to do. She supposed for some people it was. But trust hadn't been a part of her makeup for so long, she didn't know if she even could. Absolute trust-without any doubts.
Still, she felt herself lean back into the seat. She glanced at Sebastian. He was watching her, and she immediately turned her attention to the window, although she didn't see the city going by. She was still debating trust-and why of all the beings in the world, she wished she could trust this one.
Mina waited on the curb as Sebastian paid the fare. At this time of night, the airport wasn't bustling like it must have been during the day, but there were still plenty of people milling about. Some struggled with heavy suitcases. Others rifled through their bags for tickets and IDs and other misplaced items; and there were those who walked resolutely, eager to be already at their final destination, wheeling small bags with long handles behind them.
"Okay," Sebastian said, appearing at her side. "Ready?"
He held out his hand. She looked at it for just a moment, then slipped her hand into his. Holding hands with this man was becoming almost second nature to her. Almost.
"You're still not going to tell me what we're doing here, are you?"
"Nope."
She walked through the sliding glass doors, to see roped-off sections creating queues in front of the airline desks. People waited there, more luggage and harried expressions. The air seemed to crackle with tension. Excitement, nervousness, irritation.
"It's just as intense, but it feels totally different than the toy store, doesn't it?"
Mina blinked up at him, surprised he was so aware of what she was thinking. "Yes. Not nearly as nice, really."
"Wait," he assured her. They walked down the wide corridor until they reached a bank of hard-looking, molded plastic chairs. Sebastian led her to them and gestured for her to sit.
She frowned, but did. He sat too, his long leg pressed against the side of hers. She glanced down at where their bodies met, surprised at how much she reacted to the innocuous touch. She could feel the contact in every nerve ending, every cell of her body.
Was this what he wanted them to do here?
She moved her gaze from their legs to his face. He didn't seem to notice the touch, his attention turned to the travelers.
Mina smiled slightly to herself. He wouldn't notice something as tame as their legs touching. After all, the first time she'd ever seen him, he'd been running his hands all over a woman on the dance floor. His hands all over her body. She wondered what that would feel like if just the pressure of his leg sent her body into sensory overload.
She glanced at his hands, resting relaxed on his legs. He even had beautiful hands, broad palms, the knuckles slightly pronounced and long, masculine fingers.
He sighed, and her gaze snapped back to his face.
"We might have to wait a little while."
"For what?" she managed to collect her thoughts to ask, but before he could respond, she answered for him. "I know, I know, I'll see."
He laughed, his wonderful laugh tingling over her. Did nothing this man did not affect her?
"You're catching on," he said.
"I don't think I've had a choice."
He laughed again. "Oh, you always have a choice. But I think you like the mystery."
Mina looked at him askance, but had to admit she did rather like the mystery. She never would have guessed that about herself. And the spontaneity. Sebastian was a person who just did what he wanted, because he wanted to. That was exciting, even if it was also a little scary too.
"If you could go anywhere in the world, where would it be?"
Mina blinked at the sudden question. Even the man's conversational skills were spontaneous.
"I–I don't know," she admitted. She'd never really thought about traveling, at least not since she crossed over. She couldn't very well get on a crowded plane or train. Between the people and the twelve hours or more of pesky sunlight, travel just hadn't seemed a possibility.
"Do you travel?" she asked.
"Sure. I was just in West Virginia visiting my brother, Christian, when I got called back because of… " He paused. "Well, you know why."
Mina nodded, not quite able to meet his eyes.
"But," he continued, "I've been to just about every country."
"Really? How?"
"It is a little tricky," he admitted. "Night flights, and you have to pray for no delays or layovers. Sometimes I just travel in my coffin in the cargo holds of ships surrounded by crates of soil from my homeland."
Mina gaped at him.
"A joke. You know, Dracula."
She nodded, looking away so he wouldn't see she actually appreciated his dumb humor.
"Is that why you call me Mina? Because of Dracula?" she asked suddenly.
Sebastian nodded. "In part."
She considered pressing him further, but she wasn't sure she wanted to hear that it was some sort of joke or something. Instead she asked, "Isn't it dangerous-traveling?"
"Sure. But that's part of the fun."
She gave him a dubious look, and he laughed.
"Really. It is."
"I'll take your word for it."
Sebastian shifted in his seat. Mina could seem to feel the ripple of muscles through the denim of his jeans.
"If you did feel like you could travel, where would you want to go?"
He leaned toward her, and she realized he had the amazing ability to make a person feel like their responses were very important. She felt warm for a moment, then she remembered she'd been conned by a similar behavior once before-and the high cost of that con.
"Come on tell me," he encouraged, his gaze still intent.
What would it hurt to answer him? She was wiser now, and this was just harmless conversation. She thought about his question, for the first time in a long time allowing herself to think about the dreams of her childhood.
"Well," she gave him a cautious look, wondering if he'd find her choices rather predictable and dull. "I'd love to go to London and Paris."
Sebastian studied her for a moment, then reached out to cup her cheek, running his thumb along her cheekbone just beneath her glasses' frame.
"Why would you be embarrassed by that?"
Mina's lips parted, finding it hard to concentrate on his question when he was touching her so gently. "Because they aren't as exotic and mysterious as other places."
"Well, you've never seen Soho after dark. Very exotic. Of course, the mystery aspect comes from whether the women on the streets are in fact women or men."
Mina frowned, not quite following what he was saying. But she was growing rather accustomed to that.
"So you've been to London?" she asked.
Sebastian laughed at that. "I'm British. Was British, I guess. I'm not sure how that works if you haven't lived there for over a hundred years."
Mina smiled. "Well, your accent is gone."
"Is it now, mum?" he said, slipping into an exaggerated English accent. "Blimey, I do believe you are right."
He sounded like a bad impression of the Artful Dodger.
Mina laughed, and Sebastian's smile faded.
"You have a lovely laugh." His thumb traced the curve of her smile. "You should do it more often."
Mina's smile faded too, and her gaze dropped to Sebastian's lips.
He leaned forward again, that same intensity in his expression. As though she was very important to him.
As if having a will of their own, her lips parted in expectation. But just as his lips would press to hers, he pulled back, dropping his hand from her cheek.
"Umm." He frowned as if he was trying to remember something he'd forgotten. "So yeah, I grew up in England, mostly on our estate in Derbyshire. But we'd go to London for the season. We had a townhouse there. Still do actually. Not the same one, though."
Mina suppressed the strange unsatisfied feeling swirling low in her belly, intrigued by what he was saying. "You must be old."
He grinned at her question. "Why? Do I look aged?"
A flush heated her normally cool skin, and she looked down to smooth her skirt. "You know you don't."
His grin widened more, and she knew he was pleased with her flustered embarrassment and almost-compliment-after all he was a vampire. She glanced quickly at him. Although he did look better than any vampire she'd ever seen. Of course, he knew that.
"I'm two hundred and ten years old. Born in 1796."
Her eyes widened. "You lived during the Regency in England," she murmured.
She knew many vampires in the Society who were older, much older, but she found it fascinating to meet a person who actually lived through the time period she loved so much.
"Your favorite." He smiled, and she started to ask him how he knew, but then she remembered he'd looked around her apartment. She had so many books from and about that era, and he must have seen them. The idea unnerved her. It was like he'd gotten this deeply personal insight into her, and she had none of him.
"I met Jane Austen once. At a house party in Cheltenham."
Mina gaped at him, the uneasiness instantly forgotten. "Really? What was it like?"
His perfect brow furrowed as he tried to remember. How could he forget something so monumental?
"As I recall, the house party was quite dull. Bad punch."
Before she realized what she was going to do, she smacked his leg. "Not the house party. Jane Austen!"
He laughed, and she realized he'd known what she meant all along. "She was interesting-she was older than I. In her late thirties. A lot more interesting than many of the other women there. Very perceptive and funny. And she did a mean quadrille."
Mina stared at him. She imagined him in a crowded ballroom, twirling the Jane Austen around in his arms, talking and laughing.
Suddenly, she felt envious, and she wasn't sure if it was because he'd met and talked to Jane, or that Jane had gotten to see him in his Regency finery, got to dance with him and enjoy his appreciation.
She looked away from him and studied her skirt again. Had he done more with Jane than dance and talk? Even with the propriety of the time and the differences in their ages, would Jane have been capable of saying no to him? Had she thought she'd met the embodiment of her Mr. Darcy? No, no, her Mr. Wickham-lovely and flirtatious but also dangerous.
"So tell me about you. You're just a baby by our standards."
She frowned. She supposed she was, although she often felt ancient.
"Have you always lived in New York?"
She nodded. "Yes, for the majority of my-life. My father was the founder of Weiss Steel."
Sebastian's golden eyes widened. "Wow-one of the Gilded Age's industrial moguls."
She nodded. The Gilded Age. She always found that rather amusing. Gilded cage maybe. Of course, she should have stayed in her cage, shouldn't she? There were much worse cages than gilded ones. Far, far worse.
"You must have hobnobbed with the rich and famous of your time then."
She shrugged. "No one as interesting as Ms. Austen."
"So how is it that a woman who had to be heir to one of the largest fortunes in the United States is living in a tiny apartment on the East End? Surely you were able to do something to ensure you got some of that money?"
Mina fiddled with her skirt. She didn't want to talk about her family-or why she now lived on a modest sum that she'd inherited when she'd turned twenty-one and managed to maintain through investments. Well, modest when compared to the billions her father's company had earned.
"I'm sorry," he said as soon as he realized she didn't plan to do anything but intently trace the pattern of her skirt. "Maybe we should get back to why we're here."
She nodded, still unsure of why they were here. But anything had to be better than talking about the family who'd betrayed her.
Sebastian cast a gaze around the room and stopped on an older couple, standing not far from them.
He subtly gestured to the couple. "Concentrate on them."
Mina did, focusing on their emotions, feeling excitement, happiness, a little nervousness.
"Can you feel them?"
She nodded. A few travelers passed the older couple and their emotions jumbled, making it hard to focus on anything. In a much smaller scale then in Times Square, but still confusing.
"Focus," Sebastian said with his uncanny ability to sense what she was thinking.
"It's getting confusing," she admitted as a large group spurred on by anxiety and tension rushed past.
"Use your focal point. Center on something else until you can get control again."
She pressed her leg tighter to Sebastian, concentrating on the feeling of him next to her. The jumbled emotions like several necklaces knotted together began to untangle until each emotion was one delicate and fragile chain.
She laughed, a small surprised sound. "It worked."
"Good job," Sebastian said, sounding truly pleased with her. "Now, can you get distinct emotions? Each one separate from the other?"
"Yes," she said, amazed, feeling every emotion crystal clear, strong and distinct from each other. Human emotion always had hit her like too much noise, no sound distinct from another. Even last night, the emotions had been lovely and manageable, but it was like listening to a symphony. Now it was like hearing the violin and then the flute.
"The man is more," she focused, "apprehensive than the woman."
Sebastian gave her a pleased look. "Yeah."
"And the woman is-really excited."
"Yes." Sebastian waited for her to continue.
Mina grinned at him. "How am I doing that?"
Sebastian stared at her, that gorgeous grin as disorienting to him as the emotions had been to Mina. Just the simple curve of a mouth, but truly the most awe-inspiring thing he could recall ever seeing.