Insatiable

doesn’t have one. Or maybe it’s just…”

Meena let her voice trail off. She’d been going to say, maybe it was just that her ability

to foretell people’s deaths was fading.

But she knew that wasn’t true. What about baby Weinberg and the weird feeling she had

about her?

She had to tell Leisha. She had to.

But how could she do it without scaring the wits out of her?

“Maybe it’s just what?” Leisha gave her an exasperated look. “What is with you? You

look so weird. Are you sure you’re all right? I think you might have a fever or something. Let

me feel your head.”

Leisha’s fingers felt cool against Meena’s forehead. Meena wished she’d keep them

pressed there forever. Maybe she did have a fever.

“Hmmm,” Leisha said. “You’re definitely running a little hot. What’d this guy do to you,

exactly? Is that the flush of a new love affair? Or did he give you swine flu?”

“Oh, Leish,” Meena said. “He was so great.” She knew she was gushing, but she

couldn’t help it. She could still smell Lucien on her skin from where he’d kissed her good-bye.

“He’s just so…different than other guys I’ve met lately, you know? I mean, he doesn’t even

know what Call of Duty is. And he made me breakfast. He asked how I like my eggs. And he

ran a bath for me. And he was nice to Jack, even though Jack behaved like a total lunatic and

did nothing but growl at him all night long. And…”

“So it was perfect,” Leisha said, finishing for her.

“It was perfect,” Meena said. Then something occurred to her, and she chewed her lower

lip. “Except…”

“What?” Leisha’s dark brows slanted downward. “Don’t tell me. He’s married. He’s got

a wife back in Estonia.”

“Romania,” Meena said, correcting her. “And no, of course not. That’s not it. There’s

just something…okay, don’t laugh. But there’s something… sad about him.”

“ Sad? ” Leisha shook her head so that her long black hair, which she’d straightened with

a hot comb and then curled into a sassy retro flip, skimmed her shoulders. “What do you mean,

sad? Like a loser? Haven’t you had enough of losers after David?”

“No,” Meena said. “Not loser sad. More like something really sad happened to him once.

And he never got it over it.”

“Maybe his wife died in childbirth,” Leisha said. Leisha, unlike Meena, loved movies

with unhappy endings; the sadder the better. Leisha was a huge Nicholas Sparks fan. “Or died

in a tragic car crash just hours before they were supposed to get married! Or was smothered to

death in a Peruvian mudslide while inoculating orphans.”

Meena gave her a sarcastic look.

“Coming back to reality,” Meena said, “I think he had a crappy childhood. He didn’t

seem to want to talk about it. Afterward—you know—I asked him about his family, and he

said both his parents were dead. He said he has a half brother, but they’re not close.”

“Well, so there you go,” Leisha said, looking a little disappointed there wasn’t a dead

wife who could be played by Rachel McAdams in the movie version of the story. “He just

needs the love of a good woman to perk him up. A woman like you…the woman he saved

from a bat attack! It’s so romantic. Except for the part where you boned him on the first date.

That is totally so out of character for you. Let me feel your head again. I want to see if your

fever’s gotten any worse.”

Leisha was reaching out to feel Meena’s forehead again when a young man, his skin

almost as dark as Leisha’s and his black hair clipped into a light fade—a creation of Leisha’s,

Meena didn’t doubt, since it suited his face shape perfectly—appeared in front of Leisha’s

station.

“Oh my God, Meena!” he cried with a huge smile. “And Jack Bauer the Second! I’m so

glad to see you both!” He walked right over to her, lifted Jack Bauer from her lap, and began

coddling him. Jack lapped his face excitedly. “Leisha told me the good news!”

Meena recognized him as Roberto, one of BAO’s stylists-in-training.

But she had no idea what he was talking about.

“Good news?” she echoed as she leaned back in her chair.

“About Insatiable, ” Roberto said as he rubbed Jack Bauer’s ears. “Finally getting some

vampires on it. I’m so excited! It’s about time. I just love that Gregory Bane. I’m glued to the

screen every time he comes on. Him and that other guy, from those vampire movies based on

those books? Oh my God, they’re so hot. I want them to make a vampire sandwich out of me.”

Meena threw an aggrieved look at Leisha.

“Oh,” she said. “Right.”

“Oh, and I took your advice, remember, last time you were in here? I told Felipe no way

was I going to Morocco for our anniversary, like he wanted.” Roberto went on, giving Jack

more ear rubs. “Like you told me to. I said we should go to the Bahamas instead. So we did.

And the weirdest thing happened: The hotel Felipe made a reservation at, the one in Morocco?

The same week we were supposed to be there, some suicide bomber blew it up! Can you

believe that? It was like you knew or something! Felipe can’t get over how lucky we were not

to have been there. We could have been sitting there in the lobby having our breakfast and

freaking died !”

Meena gave Roberto a watery smile. All she could think of, of course, were the people

who had been there having their breakfast and who had freaking died…the ones she hadn’t

saved. Just like Angie Harwood.

“I’m glad you had a nice time in the Bahamas,” Meena said as Leisha mugged at her

owlishly behind Roberto’s back.

“Oh, are you kidding me?” Roberto beamed. “It was the best. Listen, so who’s going to

hook up with the vampire on Insatiable ? Is it going to be Victoria Worthington Stone or

Tabby? Because I really think you guys should let Tabby get some. She’s like the oldest teen

virgin on television—”

“Roberto,” Leisha said, interrupting him. Her patience for her fellow employees had

never been high, but since her pregnancy it had been ebbing lower and lower. “I’m thirsty.

Why don’t you run on back and get Meena and me a couple of seltzers? And a bowl of water

for Jack Bauer.”

“Oh, no problem, sweetie,” Roberto said. With obvious reluctance, he put Jack Bauer

back down on Meena’s lap. “You want some fruit or something?”

“Mango?” Leisha smiled. When Leisha smiled, no one could deny her anything. It had

been that way since she and Meena were kids. “Cut it into the little squares; you know, how

you did last time. That was so good.”

“No problem,” Roberto said. He scurried off to fulfill Leisha’s wish.

Leisha turned her dark, thick-lashed gaze on Meena.

“Okay,” she said. “He’s gone. Sorry about that. Thanks for saving his ass with the

Morocco thing, by the way. I actually would have missed him if he’d have been blown to

smithereens with all those other people. And not just because he brings me freshly sliced

mango. Anyway, back to Lucien. So…irresistibly drawn to the stunningly good-looking

foreign guy with the deep dark secret. Not that you would know anything about having a deep

dark secret. What exactly did he do to you to get you into bed with him in the first place?

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