He turned to her. She waited in a corner of the room, watching him with wide, petrified eyes, although he noticed that she didn't seem to be seeing him. Her blue eyes were distant and dazed like she was looking straight through him.

"Mina," he said softly, afraid of what she might do if he startled her. He rotated his head just imagining.

She blinked, the faraway look disappearing as she met his eyes.

"I-" She shook her head as if she didn't know what to say.

"Did I hurt you?"

She shook her head, but her gaze dropped to the floor.

"What's going on, Mina?"

Mina closed her eyes, trying desperately to squelch the sick feeling inside her. The nausea and overwhelming fear that had blotted out and destroyed the wonderful sensations Sebastian had been creating inside her. And made her react like a crazy person. Not a feeling she wanted to feel, not now. Not with Sebastian.

Now that she was distanced from him, now that she was looking at his face, so beautiful-not cold or cruel, the fear was subsiding. But in its place was frustration and embarrassment.

She stared at him. He watched her with confusion and concern clear in his beautiful eyes.

"Why do you keep doing this?" she asked, not realizing she'd actually said the words out loud until they echoed off the tiled walls.

"Doing what?"

"Being so nice to me."

Sebastian gave her a sad little smile and shook his head. "You should really just accept that I am nice."

She studied him, his mussed hair, his lips reddened from their kisses, his sexy sleepy eyes. He didn't

look nice. He looked sinfully beautiful, he looked dangerous. But she wasn't scared. Not of him.

"Come on, Mina," he said quietly, "talk to me."

She wanted to talk to him. To tell him what scared her. That she'd been sure he was going to bite her.

That she was terrified of being bitten. She really did want to tell him.

Never had she wanted to share her past with anyone. Never. But she wanted to now. With this man.

This vampire. The third most dangerous vampire in New York City. It was crazy. There was that word again. But she couldn't make herself say the words. She'd learned long ago letting anyone inside gave them the power to hurt her. She couldn't do it. She wanted to, but she couldn't. "I-I think I should go home." She started toward the door, but Sebastian blocked her path. Blocked the door. Immediately more panic rose in her. She looked around realizing she was trapped. If Sebastian decided he wanted her to stay in here, she couldn't stop him. He could do... anything. "Sebastian. Please." He shook his head. "You've got to tell me why you are so scared. Why you get scared every time I get too close." She eyed the door, not able to think of anything but getting out of that small room. "Mina." She forced herself to meet his eyes. She saw concern there. Not malice. "Sebastian," she managed to say, her voice sounding reedy to her. "I need you to let me out of here." He looked confused.

"Please."

He frowned at her as if he wanted to object, or at least to say something else. But instead he nodded.

He unlocked the door and stepped back so she could exit, not attempting to touch her as she passed.

He never intended to hurt her, she realized as she looked around the airport corridor. He wasn't going to hurt her.

She glanced at him as they walked down the hall. He wasn't looking at her, but she could tell he was confused by her behavior. And she could hardly blame him. But she couldn't tell him. Not yet. Maybe never. She just didn't know.

They exited out into the warm night air. She pulled in another breath, and waited as Sebastian got them another cab. Soon they were speeding back to the city. Back to her safe little apartment, back to her books and her insulated little world.

Streets and lights and buildings flew past as they got into the city. Soon they were pulling up to her apartment building.

"Will you come tomorrow night?" she asked suddenly realizing she was afraid her strange behavior had driven him away forever. Afraid that he was thinking she was a lost cause.

He looked at her, his eyes vivid gold even in the dim light. "The deal's still on, right?"

She nodded.

"Then I told you, I'll be damned if I'm going to be the one to back out of it." He smiled, tempering his words.

She looked at him, and then smiled too.

"But I won't be able to meet you until after midnight or so," he said.

Because he was meeting someone else, she wanted to ask, but caught herself. What difference did that make? She had no say about his personal life. What they were doing was more like field trips. Educational outings.

She thought of their kiss and her bizarre reaction. This field trip had been a little more educational than either of them had expected. She felt like she'd somehow failed. Failed him. But more than that failed herself.

Sebastian strolled into the club, barely registering the greetings of patrons and employees as he approached the bar. He'd hated to leave Mina tonight. He wanted to understand what the hell had happened in the bathroom. He knew she would require him to go slowly. To give her time to trust him and realize he wasn't everything the Society had painted him to be. But now he thought her fear wasn't just related to the things the Society had told her. She had wanted him, he knew that. And then, in a flash, she'd been frightened. It wasn't just mere wariness. Mina had been absolutely terrified. Why?

"There you are," Nadine greeted him, yelling over a particularly bass-driven song.

"What's up?" he asked. Had something happened in the club that needed his attention?

"I could ask you the same thing. Where have you been?"

Sebastian frowned at her. "What do you mean? You know where I've been. Here."

"You haven't beenhere . And that's causing quite a stir."

Sebastian's frown deepened. "What do you mean? Why would that cause a stir?"

"Because none of us can remember a time when you haven't come by the club for three nights in a row

unless you were out of town, of course. Where have you been?" He stared at his bartender. Was she kidding? Why would anyone be talking about his not being at the club? He didn't go to the club every night. He sometimes... Well, he...

"I do other things besides hang out here," he stated. Just because he couldn't think of them at the moment, didn't mean he didn't. "Mmm-hmm," she said, shaking her head. "Never. You never miss more than a night here and there." Sebastian shrugged. "Well, I've just been busy." "Who is she?" Nadine grinned. "It's not like that." "It's not a woman?" Sebastian considered lying outright, but couldn't do it. "She's just a friend." Nadine laughed, a husky, rich sound-and utterly grating. She nodded. "Yeah, sure." "Why is that so hard to believe?" "Because you don't spend several nights with a woman just to talk. We all know that." "That's not true." Nadine gave him a disbelieving look. "Okay, name a female that you just talk to." "You." She laughed. "Okay, outside of me." He thought. He knew there had to be someone. He started to say Greta, but he'd slept with her. And frankly, he didn't really like talking to her that much. She wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed.

"Jane," he said, giving Nadine a smug look.

"Well, I should hope she's just a friend," Nadine stated. "Youare a player, but I hope you aren't enough of a player to try and scam on your brother's woman."

She did have a point about that one too. He frowned as he tried to think of women who came to the bar that he just talked with-nothing physical.

"Okay, you keep thinking about that, and I'll get back to you." She pushed away from the bar and left to take a drink order.

Sebastian stared after her. He'd had female friends. Women with whom he enjoyed just conversing without anything physical. Mina wasn't his first.

Of course, he didn't want to just talk to her either. Although he did enjoy her company. A lot. And he wanted her to talk more than she did. She was different. He wanted-everything from her.

That realization made him pause, but he quickly pushed aside the directions of his thoughts. She was different, because he was essentially teaching her how to be a vampire. He hadn't crossed her over, but he was taking the role of initiator. And that was bound to make him feel differently about her. He was like her... father.

He grimaced. Okay, bad,bad analogy. He didn't want to be anything close to a father to her. He wanted...

He was done with this line of thought. Nadine was making more of his time away from the club than it merited. He didn't need to justify or even consider his actions. He was doing what he wanted to-just like he always did. See, further proof he wasn't acting any different.

But he decided he'd better leave before she grilled him more. He turned, but before he could even take a step toward the back exit of the club, a tall, very curvy redhead rushed up to him.

"Sebastian!"

Sebastian stared at the woman, trying to remember her name. He couldn't even come up with a "sounds like," so he just offered her a forced smile. "How are you?"

The redhead stopped just inches from him, and for the first time Sebastian could remember, he had the urge to step back from a gorgeous woman.

"I was sure you'd be here last night," the redhead told him, batting lashes thick with mascara. "I've never been here on a Friday night when you haven't been here."

Good Lord, was everyone making note of his whereabouts?

"Well, I've been rather busy lately."

"Really?" More batting of the lashes. Then she came closer to catch his arm, cuddling against him. Her ample breasts pressed to his upper arm. "With what?"

"Or with whom," Nadine said from behind him, and he nearly groaned. Great, she was back.

Sebastian shot a glare over his shoulder at the bartender.

"Seems Sebastian here has a steady woman in his life," Nadine informed the redhead.

The redhead gasped in disbelief.

Okay, apparently it wasn't believable he could have a female friendor a girlfriend. What did that mean?

He could only have sex with women. He paused, realizing that was what everyone thought. Even the women he slept with. This was great.

Not to mention that three dates with Mina made her his steady. Everyone was a lunatic.

"You have a girlfriend?" More disbelief in the redhead's voice.

"Will you excuse me?" he asked, not waiting to hear the answer. He'd had enough of this conversation.

And he didn't speculate on why, while his libido had been left very unsatisfied tonight, he hadn't told the willing redhead that Nadine was nuts. And that he was very available.

Chapter 16.

"Wil, stop that." Mina stopped midstep and looked at Lizzie. She didn't even need her roommate to clarify whatthat was. She'd been pacing for the last five minutes. Lizzie didn't look up from the notes she was making on her research, but her brow was furrowed, more with concern than annoyance.

"Sorry," Mina murmured. She walked quietly over to the sofa, sitting down and picking up her book. She opened to the bookmark, sighed and started to read. What was Sebastian doing? Was he at the club meeting with one of his many lovely mortals? She sighed again. No, she wasn't going to think like that. She had no reason to care. She and Sebastian had a deal, not a relationship. Although they had kissed. Three times. She sighed again, this time feeling weak at the memory of his lips to hers. Three kisses. That didn't mean anything to a guy like Sebastian. And they only meant something to her because he was the only man she'd wanted to kiss in a hundred years-even though she was still scared. She sighed again.

"Okay," Lizzie said, flipping her notebook closed. "What's wrong?"

Mina gave her friend a startled look. "Nothing. Just-antsy."

"I can tell. So what's bothering you?"

Mina could hardly tell her friend that she was fixating on whether Sebastian, aka Super-Fang, was with a

mortal-and not because she was worried about the poor mortal, but because she was...

Jealous? She considered the sensation tightening her chest and making her feel like she couldn't bear to sit still. It sure felt like jealousy. "I guess I'm just tired of sitting around," she said, deciding she couldn't tell her friend the truth. After all, she'd spent more than a few nights telling Lizzie that vampires like Sebastian had to be stopped. Lizzie had even plotted sabotages with her. She couldn't admit now that she was having doubts. "Want to go to a movie? They are having a film festival in Soho. Old monster movies." Lizzie gave her an expectant look, and for a moment, Mina was reminded so much of Sebastian.

She shook her head slightly. Everything made her think of the man.

"Frankenstein, The Wolfman," Lizzie said. "And Dracula. Something for everybody."

Mina smiled. Sebastian would love those movies.

She paused. When had she started to think about her life in the context of what Sebastian would like?

"I think I'll pass," she said. "The Society is meeting in an hour or so. I think I'll go."