Nina was about his age, in fact, now that he thought of it, all the people at the house looked rather young, even the trainers. Even Quinn couldn’t be any older than twenty-five. How had they all gotten to be trainers at such an early age? Well, at least that probably meant that the company wasn’t stodgy, and it was possible to get promoted quickly. Which was just up his alley. The faster he could rise to the top and let other people do the grunt work the better.

“Oh darn,” Nina suddenly cursed.

She shook the wireless controller that allowed her to advance the slides. She pressed the button again and again, but the slide didn’t move.

Blake jumped up from his chair and approached her. “Let me see. Could just be a loose connection.”

He reached for the remote in her hand, moving a step closer than necessary. He was a good head taller than she, and from his vantage point he had a clear view at her cleavage. Her T-shirt stretched over her boobs, and he noticed that she wasn’t wearing a bra.

Beads of sweat suddenly formed on his forehead.

“Here, maybe it’s the battery.” Nina’s voice drifted to him.

Absentmindedly, he took the remote from her hand and turned it over, sliding the back covering off. But his focus was still on her breasts, making his fingers slip.

The batteries fell to the floor, the sound echoing loudly in the small room. Quickly, he crouched down to snatch them up before they had a chance to roll underneath the table.

When he reared up again, he bounced against Nina, his shoulder brushing her breast. The action wedged her between him and the table.

He lashed his practiced grin at her. “Oops, how clumsy of me.”

“I’d advise you to take a step back before you get in trouble,” she said, her eyes narrowing.

“Trouble can be fun sometimes.” He let his eyes travel lower. Oh yeah, a lot of fun.

“Second time I tell you, it’ll hurt.”

He pulled one corner of his mouth up into a smirk. “What is it, some sort of rule that trainees and trainers can’t get friendly? I won’t tell if you won’t.”

“Agreed then.” She smiled sweetly. “Then you won’t tell anybody about this.”

Her hands came up and forcefully pushed him back. Surprised by her sudden movement, he stumbled and fell against one of the chairs, taking it down with him. Before he could get up, the door burst open and like a blur, somebody entered. His eyes couldn’t process the movement fast enough.

Only once the person stopped in front of him and pulled him up by the front of his shirt, did he recognize him: Amaury.

Blake couldn’t move. He could only stare—at the glaring red eyes and the teeth that were protruding from his mouth.

“Shit!”

“Baby, I had it under control,” Nina said calmly from behind him.

Amaury ignored her, his chest heaving, his head leaning in. “You touch her one more time, you’re a dead man. She’s mine!”

Fuck! Why had nobody told him that those two were an item? Not that this was his biggest problem right now.

Nina pushed into view, arms crossed over her chest, scowling at her man. “There was no need for that.”

Amaury tossed her a quick look. “There was need.” His voice sounded more like the growl of an animal than that of a man.

“What are you?” Blake croaked.

Staring at his pointy teeth, he already knew the answer, but couldn’t process it. Vampires didn’t exist. Shit, had he gotten drunk last night and was he now hallucinating?

“What’s going on?” another voice came from the door, before the person came into view: Cain, one of the trainers.

He wore pajama bottoms, and now that Blake looked down at Amaury, he realized that he too was only half dressed. He wore a pair of jeans and nothing else. Amaury’s gaze swung back to his colleague.

“Nothing to worry about.”

Cain, dark hair messy, and clearly still somewhat sleepy, appeared to disagree. “Hate to point it out, but are you aware that your fangs are showing? I thought the kid wasn’t supposed to know.”

“Uh, merde!”Amaury let out. Then he shot Nina a somewhat apologetic look. “Sorry, chérie.”

Nina just shook her head. “You really thought I couldn’t handle a little punk like him? Puh-lease!”

Then Amaury turned back to him, set him on his two feet, which for the first time since Blake could remember, wobbled, and gingerly brushed his disheveled shirt straight as if that would make things better.

Hell, it didn’t change anything about the fact that that man was a vampire!