Vacation with a Vampire & Other Immortals by Maureen Child, MAGGIE SHAYNE Read Free Book Online

watch it come up over the ocean. Can we?”
    “Sadly, no. I have…I have a severe sensitivity to sunlight, Anna. That’s the condition that has forced me to become…nocturnal, as you put it earlier. And I need to retire soon.”
    She blinked, opened her mouth, then closed it again. “I suppose you’ve heard all the vampire jokes you care to by now.”
    He felt his eyes widen a little but schooled his expression at once. “More than I care to, in fact.”
    “Don’t let me keep you, then,” she said softly.
    He nodded. “I don’t think you’re in any condition to walk to the beach to watch that sunrise. Not today, at least. Perhaps tomorrow morning?”
    She nodded. “You’re probably right. If I find myself too weak to walk back, I most likely won’t be able to rouse you. If you sleep soundly, that is.” She tilted her head. “Do you? Sleep soundly, I mean?”
    “Like the dead.” He said it with a straight face, saw her expressionless reaction last for an expanded moment, and then she smiled.
    “I get it. Vampire joke.”
    He returned the smile with a wink. “Make yourself comfortable here, Anna. While you were asleep, I stocked the house with fruit and spring water. There are fresh fish in the kitchen if you need more sustenance than that. I caught them for you earlier. Enjoy the day. I’ll see you this evening.”
    She frowned at him, but nodded. “All right. Good night, then.” She rolled her eyes. “Good day, I mean. I guess.”
    “Just say ‘good rest.’”
    “Okay, that, then.”
    “Do you want me to help you back inside before I go?”
    She seemed to think about it, this involved thrusting her lower lip out just a little, a habit he was already finding he enjoyed. “No,” she said at length. “I’ll stay outside a bit longer. I think I can manage to limp back into the house when I’m ready.”
    “Be careful. Take your time.”
    “I will.”
    He nodded, sensing that she would not listen to him, anyway, and walked away, wondering if his secrets were safe. He’d taken every precaution he could think of to ensure they would be.
    He’d done much the same when Cassandra had shown up here, only to learn later that her innocence had been an act, and that she had known what he was from the very start and set out on a mission to seduce him, to use him, to get what she wanted from him and then walk away forever.
    And that was precisely what she had done.
    It was not going to happen to him again. Not ever.
    Not even with Anna Seville.

Chapter 6
     
    A nna wasn’t afraid of him. That might seem very odd to anyone else, she supposed. Maybe it ought to seem odd to her. Or foolish, even. Here she was, alone, on an apparently deserted tropical island, with the strangest man she had ever met. What did he mean, he’d stocked the house with fruit and water and fresh fish for her? What did he eat?
    He might be strange, but he was also beautiful. She had rarely chosen that word to describe a man, but she could think of no more suitable one. The liquid brown of his eyes and those impossibly thick lashes. The slenderness of his face and the angular jawline. Skin so smooth it seemed unreal.
    All alone, yes, but perhaps not lonely. A genius, of sorts. He must be, to have built what he had here. The fairy-tale house, the natural sources of power, the entire layout, that was so very Zen-like with its beautiful landscaping. He’d created a paradise for himself. And no one else.
    He was a solitary, ingenious artist who lived his life by night. And whose voice and face were familiar to her. Even his name, Diego, was exactly what she had known it would be. In fact, the only thing about him that seemed strange to her was that he was human and not the guardian angel she’d been expecting.
    Maybe she really was dead. Maybe this was heaven.
    She looked down at her legs, stretched out in front of her as she relaxed in the low tree-trunk chair, that was surprisingly comfortable. The firelight gave her a better look