A feral grin blossomed on his face. “Don’t worry, Miss Shepard, if I tied you down I’d be sure to untie you in the morning.”

She opened her mouth but she was unable to summon even a word to argue with him. She managed a squeak as images ran through her mind, unbidden and most unwelcome. Noah, tying her wrists with something soft. His mouth, trailing its way down her body, leaving flecks of fire behind. Her, writhing against him, unable to seek what she most wanted from him until he chose to give it to her. Her belly clenched with desire.

Crap.

She shook her head rapidly and then yanked her foot from his grasp.

“You will do no such thing, and I’ll thank you to keep your silly flirtations to yourself. We are not anything more than neighbors, and that’s exactly what we’re going to stay.” She pushed up from the bed in a huff, grimacing at a flash of pain from her toe.

“I’m not the one imagining us otherwise.” He got up from the floor and looked at her calmly, but passion still lit his eyes, she could see it. She wasn’t the only one in the room imagining her tied up, she would bet her house on it.

She steeled her spine. Nothing could happen between her and Noah. He might be mad at her for a while, but he’d cool off. And they might at least be able to be civil again. Maybe be friends. That was better than what would undoubtedly happen if they tried to be anything else. Brent had proven that. So had Olivia.

A niggling doubt touched her. Noah was nothing like Brent, maybe she wouldn’t end up hating herself for months if things didn’t work out with him. Unlike her ex, he didn’t have ulterior motives for touching her. Didn’t want anything from her. Did he? She shoved the paranoid thoughts away.

Heck, the man was immortal—or as close to it as a person could get. What could he possibly want to use her for? No. It didn’t matter. Noah wasn’t a risk she could afford to take.

“Besides, I’ve seen a few of your dates the last few years. Even if you were my type, they would be enough to deter me,” she added. She was trying to convince him. Not herself. And if she repeated that three times, maybe she’d believe it.

“Oh really?”

“Yes, really.” Her eyes met his, and the challenge in them goaded her. They were all beautiful. Model-perfect from what she could see. But she couldn’t say that, it would reveal too much. Give him the chance to see through her defenses.

“What’s the problem? They didn’t compete with the likes of Brent?”

She gasped. “They could compete just fine. But not a one of them lasted more than a night or two, did they?”

“I can’t help it if I’m discerning, Miss Shepard.”

Miss Shepard. God, he was such a jerk. “Discerning? With the line of models you’ve had through there? More like scared.”

He raised an eyebrow at her. “Scared?”

“Yes. Of commitment.”

“’Til death do us part is a long time.”

For him, especially, she wanted to say. But she managed to stop herself. “It is,” she murmured, instead.

He took a step toward her, so close now. Their eyes met and her breath caught in her throat. No anger danced behind his gaze and the corner of his mouth turned up. He was baiting her. Enjoying their argument. She should be mad. He’d brought up Brent, after all. But she couldn’t seem to summon any real ire. Her blood rushed through her ears, and she bit her lip.

Fists at his sides, he stopped, and the amusement drained from his expression. Only one step away, but the man might as well have been on the other side of the ship. And it was almost as if she could see his mental debate. His warning bells going off. His decision.

He turned away and reached for his bag. “My personal life isn’t any of your business. Don’t we have a dinner to get to soon?”

He had to get a grip.

Noah ran a brush through his hair and smeared a small dab of some product through it that Charles insisted he use whenever they went somewhere requiring a jacket or tie.

He’d almost kissed her again, deciding the chance to make love to Alice was worth any risk. He’d almost pulled her back into his arms so he could feel her softness pressed against him. Almost said to hell with dinner, to hell with his intentions to keep things businesslike between them, to hell with playing it safe.

Fuck. He couldn’t afford to think like that. This was a one-week cruise. If he couldn’t get through a week without kissing one woman, what did that say about him? Vampires prized control above all else. They had to. It was what kept them safe. What kept the humans around them safe.

He’d be damned if he let Alice break the control he’d spent decades perfecting.

Their dinner in the ship’s Italian-themed restaurant flew by too quickly, because after dinner was the bachelor party. Not to mention the bachelorette party.

“Isn’t a bachelor party traditionally held the night before the wedding?” he asked Alice as she munched on the last bite of a large piece of tiramisu. She finished off her coffee before answering him.

“Sure. But who wants to be hung over for their wedding?”

She had a point.

“I take it you’ll be tossing dollar bills at some muscle bound idiot this evening?” Not that he cared. Had he sounded like he cared? Shit.

“We’ll see,” she said, expression far too innocent.

The idea of her watching men strut around all night didn’t bother him nearly as much as the possibility they’d enjoy dancing around her. It was silly, really. A night of harmless fun, even if there were strippers.

Hell, maybe strippers would be good for him. Take his mind off of Alice. He shook his head. Who was he kidding? No stripper was going to replace lovely, enticing Alice in his thoughts.

He followed the Robert—who, for a man entering his bachelor party, didn’t seem at all nervous—and the far-too-young Jake, to a medium-sized banquet hall. The brightness of the room surprised him, as did the lack of stripper poles. The room was empty save for a dozen or so men Noah recognized from other family events—wedding guests, then. Not a cruise ship-run strip club. A private party?

But instead of scantily clad women, the room had several poker tables set up.

He glanced at Robert, and the groom shrugged. “Didn’t really feel comfortable getting strippers with Cindy only a few rooms over. So instead, we have poker and some pretty cocktail waitresses. Also,” he grinned, “cigars.”

Brent walked in and Noah would have bristled at him if he’d had fur. Instead, he watched the other man with a suspicious eye. Brent, surprisingly, kept his gaze firmly away from Noah. And the few times he did glance in Noah’s direction, he slid his gaze over him, as if he didn’t exist.

Should he be insulted at Brent’s disinterest, or happy the other man was ignoring him? Maybe Brent had realized the battle for Alice was one he couldn’t win. Noah shook himself mentally. Battle for Alice? There was no battle. She was a prize he could never claim.

He narrowed his eyes as Brent outlined the plan for the night. Noah might not be able to take Alice for his own, but he’d be damned if he’d let an asshole like Brent have her either.

Shit. He had to stop thinking about her.

He found himself sitting at a table between Jake and Robert, and directly across from Brent. He grimaced. What? The man couldn’t beat him at volleyball so he was determined to take him down playing poker?

Brent had a hell of a lot to learn.

A couple of other men sat at the table with them, but Noah missed their names. Alice’s uncle, he thought he recalled. And one of her cousins.

A cocktail waitress, in a dress so tiny she might as well have been a stripper, came by for their drink orders.

“Johnnie Walker Blue, straight up,” Noah said.

“Sounds good,” Robert agreed, a smile on his face for the waitress. “But make mine on the rocks.” The groom’s eyes actually managed to stay out of the waitress’s cleavage while he ordered. Good man.

Shockingly, Brent’s gaze also remained on the woman’s eyes as he ordered a Coke. But Jake didn’t even bother to conceal his interest. Noah doubted he’d even be able to say the color of the woman’s eyes if questioned with a gun to his head.

The dealer, also scantily clad, dealt the first hand.

“So, Jake,” Noah said once the waitress had disappeared to retrieve their drinks. “How long have you been seeing Edna?”

Jake dragged his gaze away from where the waitress had disappeared, eyes a touch glassy. “Oh, Edna and I have been seeing each other causally for two years now.”

Noah frowned. Defending Alice’s mother was hardly his job, but she was a good woman, and Jake’s lack of control annoyed him. “And do you drool over other women around her, too?”

Someone snickered, and Jake looked flummoxed, his eyes wide and mouth open.

“Well it’s not like Edna and I are exactly exclusive, Noah,” Jake said.

“Edna’s always got at least three guys on speed dial,” Robert explained, tossing two cards toward the dealer.

“Three, huh? She must be slowing down,” Brent added.

Noah wasn’t sure what to say to that, so he frowned at Jake. But Jake didn’t seem to be bothered by Brent and Robert’s observations. If anything, the man grinned a bit.

“You gotta understand, Noah,” another man said. Alice’s uncle, maybe. Then Edna’s own brother? “Edna’s quite a woman. But she won’t ever commit to a man again. Not after her husband. He was her very own Prince Charming. And she’ll tell you the same, if you ask her.”

“No one’s quite measured up to the kids’ father,” Jake agreed, not seeming insulted by the comparison. “Mostly, she keeps guys like me around for entertainment.”

“And you don’t mind?” Noah asked. Cigar smoke swirled around them, almost unseen, but the smell was strong enough to be distracting. A good smell, one that threatened to drag him into the past. How many nights had he spent in a club so like this, with glasses clinking and smoke filling the air? But that was a long time ago.