Page 293 of Dirty Discipline, Vol. 1

“Great. Great.” That was brilliant. Now what? He opted for the sneak out method, and casually drifted off down the other side of the bar, checking inventory and wiping down bottles—a job that Alex had probably already done for the day. It might have been a good method, except that an attractive woman like Kate sitting alone at the bar could not fail to be noticed by more than one troller. It wasn't more than five minutes before she had a guy sitting on each side of her trying to pick her up. One had more game than the other and she ended up angled slightly toward him, answering his questions politely.

She obviously had never mastered the art of the blow-off. Most of the female regulars at his club were quite practiced at it. They could ignore, shrug off, or even be downright rude to get a guy off their back, but not Kate. He'd just fed from her the night before, which meant he could feel her discomfort now. She was trying to make eye contact with him for a rescue. Shit. Reluctantly, he started to walk out from behind the bar and toward Kate.

“Do you want to get some dinner?” the guy was asking her.

“No, I can't,” she stammered. “I have to go over some stuff with Dom,” she improvised as he walked up, her eyes begging him to agree.

“I'm ready now, if you are,” he said.

Kate bounded off her bar stool. “Yep—totally. Nice to meet you,” she said with a genuine smile for the disappointed guy.

“Yeah, you too,” he muttered.

Kate followed Dom toward the stairs. He paused and looked at his watch. 7:30 pm. Which meant the sun had just set. It would still be light out, but he could deal with it. “May I buy you dinner?”

Her face lit up and she nodded, which made his heart simultaneously swell and sink. “Wait here, I just need to grab my sunglasses from the office.”

When he returned, he put a hand on her lower back and held the door for her. “Does Poca Cosa sound good?” It was a Tucson installation—a hip gourmet Mexican restaurant just around the corner, where the menu changed every day. It might be hard to get in tonight, but he could try slipping the greeter a twenty to lube the way. Kate deserved a nice dinner if he was going to shut her down.

“Sounds great.”

He stopped and hissed a little, blinking when they stepped outside, temporarily blinded by the remaining daylight. She took his arm the way you hold a blind man's and just stood there with him until his vision returned. The daylight felt hot on his skin, but hell, the air was hot. It was June and the monsoons hadn't come yet. They walked the two blocks in relative silence and were fortunate enough to be seated right away.

Dom dipped a tortilla chip into the salsa and crunched. “Ask away.”

“What?'

“You have questions for me.”

She blanched and he felt a ripple of embarrassment from her. “How do you know that?”

“I've been around the block a few times.”

“You mean about being a vampire?”

He shrugged. “You tell me.”

She rewarded him with one of her quick smiles. “Okay, so first of all, how do you do that? Can you read minds?”

“A little. I'm better at sensing emotions. Especially if I've had your blood recently.”

“How often do you… take blood?”

“We call it feeding. I'm an old vampire, so I don't need much. I can go a couple of weeks on what I took from you last night. Thank you again, by the way.”

“You're welcome,” she said, looking pleased. “How do you erase memories? Or do the mind control?”

“Well, both are done with hypnosis. There's no difference between what we can do and what a licensed hypnotist does, really, except that the induction happens instantly by looking into our eyes while we have the intent. Then we leave the hypnotic suggestion telepathically. Maybe it's a bit stronger than human hypnosis.”

“Have you done it to me?”

He shook his head. “Never. The fact that you're sitting here quizzing me is proof of that.”

“You mean I shouldn't know?”

“Right.”

“Are you going to scrub my memories?”

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