Page 39 of Damian’s Conquest

When he noticed her cheeks flush prettily, he grinned. She was receptive to his charm, and tonight, he’d have to use every ounce of it to convince her that being loved by a vampire was what she needed.

Back in his Porsche, he looked at the dashboard clock. It was already well past 2 a.m., and the people he wanted to speak to at Scanguards would already have left for Ryder and Scarlet’s housewarming party.

“I have to stop by a friend’s place in Pacific Heights quickly,” he said to Naomi. “My uncle will be there, and he’ll be the one trying to get information off of Mick’s phone.”

“Your uncle is the IT guy you were talking about?” she asked with interest.

“Yes, Eddie and his husband, Thomas, run the IT department at Scanguards. They can get into pretty much any system they set their minds to. If there’s anything on Mick’s phone that might help us figure out where he disappeared to, they’ll find it.”

“I’m impressed. But isn’t that illegal? I mean, hacking?”

He cast her a sideways look and shrugged. “Whatever works to rescue Mick.”

“So you don’t think that he just disappeared voluntarily. You think he was taken.”

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure about it. He’s a reliable guy. And I’m not aware of him and his girlfriend having any relationship issues, so he wouldn’t just leave without telling her where he was going. Somebody kidnapped him.”

Or killed him, though he hoped that the former was the case. Mick wouldn’t be the first kidnap victim Scanguards had rescued. However, the question was: why would somebody want to kidnap a bartender?

“Still, there has to be a reason why somebody would kidnap him,” Naomi mused.

“We’ll figure it out.”

Damian stopped the car outside the garage to the brand-new Victorian that Scarlet and Ryder had rebuilt after it had become victim to arson. He blocked the entrance to the garage.

“I’ll only be twenty minutes.”

“I can come with you,” Naomi said and already undid her seatbelt.

Damian put his hand on her forearm. “I think it’s best if you stay. If I go in there and introduce you as my girlfriend, they’ll bombard you with questions, and we’ll never get outta there tonight. And we really need to be alone to talk.”

Naomi’s blue eyes sparkled. “Did you say girlfriend?”

He leaned over to her. “Well, isn’t that what you are? My girlfriend? Or would you rather I tell everybody you’re just a woman I have sex with? ‘Cause that would be a lie.”

Her lips parted and she moved closer. “How about a girlfriend you have lots of sex with?”

“Exclusively?” he teased.

“Yes, exclusively.”

“That works for me.” Damian put his lips on hers and kissed her. Naomi immediately melted into his arms, and if he didn’t stop this now, they’d be steaming up the windows of his Porsche in no time.

He ripped his lips from hers and took a deep breath. “Make that fifteen minutes,” he promised. He snatched the plastic bag with the broken bottle and vial from behind his seat and got out of the car.

The door to the house was unlocked, and Damian let himself in. He’d been to the house many times during construction and had helped Ryder and Scarlet move in a month earlier, just like some of the other hybrids had done, even though a Scanguards-approved moving company had done the heavy lifting.

The large living room in the front and the dining room that was connected to it by large pocket doors, which were open, were full of Scanguards personnel and their wives, husbands, and partners. Scarlet was talking to Maya, her mother-in-law, while her hand rested on her belly. Two more months, and she’d make Ryder a father. Who would have thought that the two who’d only met a year earlier would start a family so soon? But there was no denying how happy Ryder was. Damian spotted him talking to Samson and Brandon, Scarlet’s father. Despite the animated conversation the three men were engaged in, Ryder’s gaze drifted to Scarlet every so often, his eyes shimmering golden, a sign that he was thinking of his blood-bonded mate, and not the conversation with Samson and Brandon.

Damian grinned. Yeah, finding one’s mate could do that to a vampire. He tore his gaze from the picture of domestic bliss and let his eyes roam over the crowd, until he spotted his father. Amaury was talking to Blake, a full-blooded vampire, who was holding his two-year-old hybrid son Harry in his arms. As chief of hybrid security, Blake had a special connection to all hybrid vampires born into the Scanguards family.

Damian paved his way through the crowd, greeting his friends and colleagues casually. Before he reached his father, he was rammed from the side and nearly lifted off his feet. He reacted quickly, and snatched the kid who’d plowed into him. It was Dean, John and Savannah’s ten-year-old hybrid son.

“Hey, Dean, what’s going on? You trying to escape, or what?”

Dean looked over his shoulder, then rolled his eyes as if he was double his age. “My sister really can’t take a joke.”

Buffy was already rushing toward them. “Give it back, Dean, or I’m gonna make sure Daddy grounds you.”