“What’re the poems for?” whispered a voice from the silent, staring students.
“To clean your minds out while your hands—your gloveless hands—clean out the urinals,” Jenny said sweetly. She turned around and, to a chorus of gagging sounds from the students, grinned at Summer. “Let’s go, shall we?” Jenny sashayed from the bus, leading the way into the gallery with Summer and the well-disciplined students following close behind her.
Summer thought entering the gallery was like leaving one world for another. Inside the spacious building it was cool and dark. Even from the foyer she could see that instead of the usual plain white expanse of gallery walls, Dark Shadows had been painted in unyielding black, broken only by spotlights trained on each painting so that the entire exhibit gave the impression of floating dreams poised on the surface of a dark, sleeping sea.
“Wow, it’s been years since I’ve been here, and I’d forgotten how dramatic the black walls make this place,” Summer told Jenny in a hushed voice.
“Yeah, Barnabas told me that he hadn’t planned the effect. He’d painted everything black only because it’s easier on his vampire senses. The weirdness of it was just a happy by-product.”
“Well, vampires gross me out with their definitely non-vegan diet, but there’s something about this place that I like, even if it is a little creepy and—”
“Ladies, how may I help you?”
At the sound of the deep voice, Summer jumped guiltily and looked up . . . and up . . . and up into the face of a god of a man. He was standing just inside the shadowy entrance of the gallery, and even though it was dark and cool within, he was wearing mirrored sunglasses. As she blinked at her own reflection in those glasses, the man slowly reached up and removed them, revealing eyes so dark they looked black. His gaze locked with hers. Gorgeous, dark, dangerous were the descriptive words that flitted through her mind. “You’re not Barnabas,” she said abruptly.
One black brow lifted. “Astute observation, ma’am.”
“Oooh, you must be Colin, Barnabas’s older brother. Tell me I’m right, handsome,” Jenny demanded, flipping her hair coquettishly.
“You’re right.” His eyes sparkled playfully when he turned to Jenny. “And you must be a Certified Discipline Nymph.”
“Smart and handsome—my second-favorite combination,” Jenny said.
“Your first favorite?” Colin asked with a sexy smile.
“Smart, handsome, and bound by the wrists,” Jenny said.
Summer felt the urge to roll her eyes. Instead, she cleared her throat and said, “High school field trip—students—right behind us. Remember?”
Jenny shrugged, barely glancing at the wide-eyed students. “I’m just being friendly. But you’re right. We should get down to business.” The purr in her voice said that she’d rather go down on Colin than get down to any other business.
Summer frowned at Jenny and then stuck her hand out to Colin. “Hello, I’m Miss Smith. I sent the e-mail several days ago reserving the gallery for the field trip this morning. I’m assuming that’s still okay, even though your brother isn’t here?”
Colin took her hand in his, and Summer had to force herself not to gasp. His grip was strong, but she’d expected that. He was, after all, a very big man who had very big hands. It was the temperature of his skin that shocked her. Being touched by him was like being touched by an awakened statue. His hand was smooth, hard, and cool. Their eyes met again, and Summer was jolted by the dark intensity with which he was studying her—as if she was, at that moment, the most important thing in his universe. She’d only known of one species of Mysteria’s creatures who could spear someone with such intensity and whose skin felt like molded marble . . .
“You’re a vampire!” she blurted, pulling her hand free of his firm grip.
His smile was slow and knowing, not in the least bit ruffled by her statement. “I am. Both of my brothers and I are vampires. It runs in the family, you know,” he said smoothly.
“Does it?” Summer made herself not wipe her tingling palm down the side of her slacks.
“It does when you’re all bitten by the same master vampire,” he said.
Summer noticed that when he spoke to her, the playful sparkle that Jenny seemed to automatically evoke in his eyes changed . . . darkened, and even though he was no longer touching her, he was still studying her with that uncomfortable intensity. Feeling weirdly light-headed, Summer spoke more briskly than she’d intended. “That’s interesting. Maybe we can talk about it later. Right now I think we should start our field trip. If that’s okay with you—or your brother. Is Barnabas really not here?”
Colin cocked his head and looked down at her, a small curve of amusement shadowing his full lips. “Barnabas is in Paris drowning himself in wine and young Frenchmen so that he can forget being jilted by Hunter Knight.” The vampire shrugged one of his broad shoulders. “Foolish of him to become so obsessed with a straight guy. I tried to tell Barnabas that Hunter’s as gay as I am.”
“Which is to say not at all,” Jenny chimed in.
Colin’s grin was almost a leer. He answered Jenny, but his eyes stayed on Summer. “Yes, ma’am. You’re right about that.”
“So, does that mean the field trip is off?” Summer said, wondering why Jenny’s flirting with Colin should annoy her.
“Not at all. The reason I moved to town temporarily from my ranch is because Barnabas asked me to babysit this special exhibit. The field trip is definitely on. Besides, you just got here, Miss Smith. I’d hate for you to leave until we’ve gotten to know each other better.” Colin’s dark eyes trapped her gaze, and she felt her breathing deepen.
Is he making me dizzy? Is he working a vampire mojo on me? Summer mentally shook herself. She was being ridiculous. Magic didn’t work on her. Or if it did, it went way wrong. Her overactive imagination and hormones were the only things working on her. What was probably happening was she was displacing her excitement about the impending dream date with Ken. No way was she interested in this vampire! He definitely didn’t fit in with her well-thought-out plan for her future. “Excellent. Let’s get started. The students have really been looking forward to this field trip,” she lied.
“I hadn’t been thinking much about this field trip at all.” Colin lowered his voice so that it seemed to brush against Summer’s skin. “At least not until I saw who was leading it. Now I do believe it’s going to be a very interesting experience. It is good to meet you, Miss Smith.” He tipped an imaginary hat to her in a cowboylike move that appeared to be second nature to him. Then he raised his voice so that the waiting students could hear. “Come on in and check out the art. And, yes, there are some nudes.”
There were spontaneous high fives given in response as the students filed into the gallery.
“Ladies, if you’ll follow me, I’ll give you a more personal tour,” Colin said. Though he spoke to both women, his eyes rested on Summer’s face hungrily. He strode into the main gallery, giving Summer plenty of time to take in the faded jeans that snuggled his firm ass and the broad shoulders that strained the fabric of the black, long-sleeved shirt he wore. And were those cowboy boots? On a vampire? Sweet Goddess, gay Barnabas’s brother was a sexy cowboy vampire!
“Damn, Summer! Are you secreting some kind of come-fuck-me! hormone? Tall, dark, and vampire is clearly hitting on you.”
Summer pulled her eyes from Colin’s muscular body and managed to scoff. “Oh, please. I’m so not interested in him.”