Page 2 of Bite Me
“Jeanne is attracted to me, but I won’t do anything about it.”
“She’s gorgeous. Must be hard to resist.”
“How would you know?”
“My sparkling gayness doesn’t impair my vision.”
Levi chuckled under his breath. “Jeanne is a great restaurant manager and one of the best sommeliers in the city. I’m not losing my most valuable operative over an ill-advised meal.” He glanced around the lobby and lifted a finger. “Just a second.”
He strode toward the reception and crooked a finger at the uniformed woman behind the desk. He talked to her briefly before she handed him a key card. Which he promptly offered to me.
“Here you go.”
I made no move to take it. “Levi…”
Undeterred, he slipped the card into my jacket pocket. “It’s room 618. You have it until eleven a.m. tomorrow. Now, dinner.”
Then he headed toward the elevators and swiped a key card over the lock by the last one reserved for staff. Inside the spacious car, he faced me with his arms spread.
“What do you think?”
I frowned. “About what?”
“The suit, Russel. You’re such a savage.”
“It looks the same as the last time you bragged about it.”
He groaned. “For fuck’s sake, this is a completely different league! The last one was an Armani, but I got a few blood drops on it at a party. It’s with my cleaners. This one is from the tailor in London I told you about. I was there a month ago for adjustments, and it’s finally arrived.”
Levi flew to London just to have his suit adjusted. I wasn’t surprised anymore. He pivoted, showing me his back.
“So?”
It did look nice, but I wouldn’t be able to tell it apart from all the other charcoal suits he owned. “Very elegant.”
But Levi wasn’t satisfied with my praise. “What do I have a gay best friend for? Did you even check out my ass?” He lifted the hem, and I dutifully looked at his butt in the very well fitted pants.
“You could bounce a quarter off it,” I said.
He spun around to face me, his expression sour. “You’re useless, you know that?”
“And you’re a snob. Is there something more important in your life than suits and wine?”
Levi waggled his eyebrows and licked his teeth. “Food.”
“Strangely, you’re not as picky about that.”
“Behave,” he muttered over his shoulder as we stepped out of the elevator.
Agliowas on the top floor of the high-rise hotel and consisted of three bars and two lounge-style restaurants. Levi built it seven years ago, and it quickly became the city’s most popular dinner club.
The gay bar on the terrace looked packed, with more human guests than blood drinkers. Levi needed to check on something in one of the restaurants, so he instructed the bartender to put my drink on his account and left me to it with a cautionary stare. The bartender was a vampire, quick and professional. He poured me a glass of red with a brisk, “Enjoy, sir,” and moved on to the next customer.
Hiding my nose in my wineglass to block some of the more persistent scents, I turned toward the room. Spray tan, concealer, gallons of antiperspirant and hair product, traces of wax…and lube. Some came prepared.
I wouldn’t tell Levi, but when I had to go out and feed, I preferred the smaller, cheaper clubs downtown.
I searched this crowd for something that would catch my attention, maybe a pair of eyes with a flicker of honesty in them, a knowing smile, a wrinkle on a clever forehead… Sometimes, I got lucky and found a man with more interesting traits than just a penchant for vampire venom.
