Surprised by her lack of distress at the woman's touch, Mina only managed a nod in response.

The woman looked her up and down with a frown. She obviously found Mina's silky, feminine dress and the white cotton shirt tied over the top rather out of place. The woman then glanced at Sebastian, her eyes widening slightly. She looked him up and down too. She smiled. Obviously Sebastian's black t-shirt and faded jeans passed the woman's inspection.

Mina rolled her eyes. Of course, Sebastian could have been wearing a pink tuxedo and the woman wouldn't have been put off.

She noticed the woman stepped closer to him.

"I don't think this is my kind of place," Mina muttered to Sebastian.

He chuckled and pulled her closer to him. She had the feeling he knew the other woman's interest bothered her. Oh well. It did.

"A little too wild for you, huh?" he asked, his lips brushing her ear. "My goody-two-shoes." She felt him smile.

"'You don't bite. Don't shift. What do you do?'"

She didn't recognize the tune to which he sang his comments. And she tried hard to ignore that fact that his singing voice was as rich and sexy as when he spoke, because she got the definite feeling he was making fun of her.

She started to turn in his arms, to tell him she didn't appreciate his teasing, when the crowd swelled up around them in a loud cheer.

She watched as the band, which was composed of rather haggard-looking older men, took the stage.

Some of the band members had long hair, others didn't. All had traces of gray.

"Who is this band?" she asked.

"The Grateful Dead," he said, then laughed at some joke only he got. "No, not really. They are just a cover band that I really like. They play some good rock."

"I like classical music," she said primly.

"I know."

And again, for a split second, she wondered how he knew. Oh right, from his uninvited visit to her apartment. For some reason, that didn't bother her as much as it once had.

"This is classic rock. You'll like it, too," he assured her with a little squeeze. Then the band started to play.

They sang about some boys being back in town. Then they were getting no sugar tonight in their coffee. Or apparently their tea either. And currently they were just going to let it ride. She didn't really understand the lyrics, but she had to admit she did like the beat and the lead singer had a nice voice. Of course, she suspected the solid feeling of Sebastian pressed against her back, holding her, swaying to the music helped her opinion. And she loved the low timbre of his voice as he sang a verse here and there. Much better than the lead singer's, really.

"Like it?" he asked her when the song ended.

She smiled at him over her shoulder. "If I admit I do, will you be smug about it?"

"Absolutely." He leaned forward and stole a quick kiss.

"Okay," he said, his lips again by her ear so she could hear him over the guitar intro to the next song.

"An appreciation for classic rock. One objective down. Now, for the real reason we are here. What do you feel around you?"

She shot him a wry glance as a woman in front of her tossed her hair, the long lock nearly hitting Mina in the face.

"People. Lots of people."

Sebastian raised his eyebrows expectantly as if he waited for her to add something else.

She shrugged.

"What don't you feel?" He rested his chin on her shoulder, waiting, as she again cast a look around the mobbed room.

She didn't feel the humans' emotions, she realized. She looked at the woman, who'd been admiring Sebastian earlier, and focused. She could feel the woman's attraction to Sebastian. She could feel her enjoyment of the band, and a little bit of loneliness. But until she'd thought about it, Mina hadn't noticed any of those things.

"I'm blocking the emotions," Mina said excitedly.

Sebastian smiled back at her. "See, once you learn to look outside of the emotions, it just starts to happen naturally until you have to focus to feel the emotions. Not the other way around."

She couldn't stop smiling as she looked around the room, focusing first on one person, then another. She felt each person's emotions separately, and when she moved on, they weren't there any more bombarding her.

"That's wonderful," she said, with a sigh. She felt almost normal, she realized.

He leaned forward, catching her chin, turning her head so he could kiss her fully, slowly. Then she didn't feel normal at all, she felt like her skin was sizzling, desire snapping through every nerve ending in her body.

Sebastian continued to kiss her a moment longer, his tongue brushing against hers. Then he broke the kiss as they watched the band again, who now, quite appropriately, sang about feeling like making love.

Sebastian's hands moved on her waist, one sliding under the loose cotton shirt. Nimbly, his fingers plucked open the buttons of her dress, until his fingers could slip inside to touch her bare skin. Throughout the remainder of the song, his hand caressed her stomach, the underside of her breast. She could feel the moisture gathering between her thighs, her arousal somehow more keen with the lack of underwear.

"Is the lesson done?" she asked her voice breathy when the song ended.

He growled low in his throat, the sound thrilling. "Yes, very soon. Because I need to get you alone. And naked."

She nodded, leaning heavily against him, feeling his erection prodding her bottom. She pressed against it, wiggling her hips, feeling him pulse even through their clothes.

"Then let's go now." She wriggled against him again.

He growled again, a low rumble against her ear. She felt his chest expand as he took a deep breath.

"Okay, one more lesson, then we go."

She took a deep breath too. "Okay."

"I'm going to go to the bar and get us drinks," he said, dropping his hands from her body.

She turned and frowned at him. "I don't want a drink. I want you."

He smiled indulgently. "Andyou are going to see if you can handle the crowd with your focal point

gone."

He nodded as if to tell her to get to it and then he headed toward the bar on the other side of the room.

She gaped at him, unable to believe he could behave so calmly. She felt like she was going to implode.

She pulled in a calming breath and tried to do as he asked. Handle the crowd without her focal point.

It wasn't until the crowd shifted back around her, nearly blocking Sebastian from her view, that she realized exactly what he'd said.With your focal point gone . He'd known all along that she'd been using him as her center. She shook her head. That overconfident- "Hey." Mina's thoughts stopped as she looked back from where Sebastian had disappeared to stare directly into a barrel chest clad in white t-shirt and black leather. Her gaze moved upward until she saw that the mountain beside her was the huge, bald man she'd first seen when she entered the bar. "You looked like you were having fun." His gaze dropped pointedly to where Sebastian had been touching her. Her dress was still unbuttoned, though the man couldn't know that since it was hidden under Sebastian's shirt.

"I can show you a good time too, darlin'."

He grinned at her, and even without her focal point, she realized she could center easily on his emotions. They were loud and clear. Lust. Lust and violence. Chapter 22 Sebastian was impressed with Mina. She learned how to handle human vibration very quickly. Far more quickly than he would have thought possible given the fact she'd been a vampire for so long and had never been able to control it before. He'd thought it would be harder for her. But she was a quick study.

Then he thought about the way she had just so provocatively rubbed against him. Mina was a quick learner in many areas.

Once he reached the bar, he glanced at the other patrons who waited for drinks. He guessed it would be a good ten minute wait. And frankly, Sebastian wasn't that thirsty. He definitely had other things he'd rather do than stand here.

The lesson was a success. He knew she was handling the reverberation just fine without him. He forced himself to finish this lesson, because he wanted Mina to be comfortable with herself and with the world around her. That was important to him. But now that the lesson was done and a success, he wanted to teach her things that were far more fun-and involved far fewer clothes.

He weaved through the throng back toward where he'd left her, but he didn't see her. He scanned the crowd. Then he sensed it, a prickling of fear, Mina's fear, an emotion of hers he knew too well. But still he couldn't see her.

Then a humongous man, at least 6'5", in a studded leather jacket, moved, and Sebastian realized the hulk was looming over Mina. Mina stared warily at the man, but what made Sebastian more nervous than her expression was that fear, thick in the air like a giant fogbank swirling all around her.

Sebastian strode toward the man, restraining himself from shoving the giant away from her.

"Excuse me," he said instead.

The hulk turned slowly, eyeing Sebastian with an unimpressed scowl. Despite the man's size, Sebastian was equally unimpressed.

"What do you want, buddy?"

"Leave my woman alone," Sebastian stated.

The man crossed his tree-trunk arms over his massive chest. "I don't see anything on her that says she's yours."

What a damned Neanderthal. Sebastian wanted to just punch the idiot and be done with the situation. But then he looked at Mina's wide, frightened eyes and decided against it, afraid violence would be too much for her.

"Well, despite the fact that I have indeed neglected to scrawl my name all over her, she is mine," he said with a small polite smile. "So I'd advise you to leave now."

The man raised an eyebrow, then reached out and snagged Mina's wrist. She gasped, and Sebastian felt her fear spike.

"If I go, I'm taking her with me." The giant eyed him as if to say that there was no way in hell a man an inch or two shorter and a good seventy-five pounds lighter was going to stop him.

Mina made a small noise, and Sebastian acted purely on instinct, lunging at the guy. He easily knocked the giant away from Mina and landed a punch before the jerk even saw the blow coming.

Sebastian couldn't help smiling with satisfaction as the giant's hand flew up to his nose, pressing his fingers to the flow of blood that ran from both nostrils.

Broken, Sebastian thought smugly. Definitely broken.

Unfortunately, Sebastian's satisfaction was short-lived. Distracted both by his smugness and Mina, he didn't sense the other humans behind him until they had grabbed his arms. The hulk, surprisingly fast for his huge size-and broken nose-punched Sebastian square in the face. The blow didn't hurt, but Sebastian did hear a crunch.

His nose. Figures.

Highly irritated by his lack of awareness, Sebastian threw off the two men restraining him with a little more strength than necessary. Both men flew through the air, smashing against the wall over ten feet away. They crumpled to the ground, dazed and with the wind knocked out of them. Sebastian spun back toward the Neanderthal.

The man's expression was no longer indifferent. Now it was almost comically alarmed as he gaped from Sebastian to his fallen friends and back to Sebastian, unable to believe what he'd just seen.

Well, it would have been comical if Sebastian's actions hadn't drawn the attention of most of the bar. A crowd had formed around them, and Sebastian could tell from the other patrons' expressions that they too had found Sebastian's fighting skills to be more than a little unusual.

Damn. It was never wise to draw that kind of attention. But he hadn't been thinking about appearing normal. He'd only been thinking to protect Mina.

Surprisingly, however, it was Mina who seemed to gather her wits first. She hurried to his side, tugging at him.

"Let's just go."

He looked down at the two men, still huddled on the ground. They would be okay. They'd be hurting for a while, but they'd survive.

Sebastian glared at the hulk. He was the only one Sebastian had really wanted to injure. Mina tugged Sebastian's hand again, and he allowed her to pull him away from the growing crowd of onlookers. But Sebastian couldn't resist taking a step toward the huge man as he passed. The giant jumped back like Sebastian was a poisonous snake about to strike.

Sebastian snorted. Ha, that ass would think twice before he touched someone else's woman. Sebastian grinned to himself, which quickly turned to a grimace as he tasted the blood trickling from his nose. He wiped the droplets away with the back of his hand, and then let Mina lead him outside.

Mina didn't release him, as she hurriedly tugged him away from the bar, not looking at him, just hell-bent on getting them away from the place.

"Mina, stop." Sebastian dug in his heels.

She stumbled to a stop, but she didn't look at him.

"What's wrong?" he asked, leaning forward, trying to see her face.

Finally she looked up at him and he could see tears in her eyes, making them glitter like polished sapphires.

"You were right," Mina said, barely able to look at his battered face.

"Well, I often am," he said with a slight smile. "But I'm not actually sure what I'm right about at the moment." Somehow he managed to look cocky, even with a broken nose. The realization didn't make her feel any better, however.

"I panicked and you got hurt," she told him.

He frowned at her. "You think that was your fault back there?"

"I shouldn't have panicked," she said miserably. "I should have handled it."

"You could have," he agreed. "You are a vampire and that makes you physically strong enough to deal with a jerk like that."

He stepped closer to her, touching her cheek, brushing a wisp of her black hair back from her face. She fought the urge to nuzzle her cheek against his large palm.

"But you didn't have to," he said quietly. "I wanted to protect you. That guy was a damned Neanderthal."