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them?”
    â€œFooled them, huh?”
    Sean smiled at her. “You have your moments.” The sweetness of that downturned mouth, when it crooked up in a smile, was incredible.
    â€œYou knock my socks off, Sean,” she said honestly. She was unable to stop herself from smiling back. He looked very strange in his costume: the flowered loincloth, ankle bracelets made of shells and the short black wig. Thompson was the only one who looked remotely natural in the getup, and he was gloating about it.
    â€œWhat does that mean?”
    She shook her head, still smiling, and was a little relieved when Denny knocked on the door to indicate that Jeri, the party planner, had signaled that it was time for their appearance. Karl lined the dancers up and looked them over, making a last-minute adjustment here and there. “Stomach looks good,” he said briefly, and Rue glanced down.
    â€œJulie and Megan did a good job,” she admitted. She knew the scar was there, but if she hadn’t been looking for it, she would have thought her own stomach was smooth and unmarred.
    After Karl’s last minute adjustment of the bright costumes and the black wigs, the six barefoot dancers padded down the carpeted hall to the patio door, and out across the marble terrace into the torch-lit backyard of the Jaslow estate. Rick and Phil loped past them on their way inside, burdened with the things they’d used in their act. “Went great,” Rick said. “That backyard’s huge.”
    â€œIt’s probably called the garden, not the backyard,” Thompson muttered.
    Karl said, “Sean, is this the sort of place you grew up in?”
    Sean snorted, and Rue couldn’t tell if he was deriding his former affluence, or indicating what he’d had had been much better.
    Since Rue was shorter than Julie, she was in the middle when the three women stepped out across the marble terrace and onto the grass to begin their routine. Smiling, they posed for the opening bars of the drum music. Julie looked like a different person with the black wig on. Rue had a second to wonder if Julie’s own mother would recognize her before the drums began. The routine began with a lot of hulalike hip twitching, the three women gradually rotating in circles. The intense pelvic motion actually felt good. The hand movements were simple, and they’d practiced and practiced doing them in unison. Rue caught a glimpse of Megan turning too fast and hoped the torchlight was obscuring Megan’s haste. In her sideways glance, Rue caught a glimpse of a face she’d hoped she’d never see again.
    All the years of training she’d had in composure paid off. She kept her smile pasted on her face, she kept up with the dance, and she blanked her mind out. The only thought she permitted herself was a reminder—she’d thought even Julie’s family wouldn’t recognize her, in the costume and the wig. Neither would her own.
    Maybe Carver Hutton IV wouldn’t, either.

Chapter 4
    The music was mostly drums, and the beat was fast and demanding. While Megan, Julie and Rue held their positions, the men leaped out, and the crowd gave the expected “Oooooh” at how high the vampires could jump. Sean, Karl and Thompson began their wild dance around the women. It was a good opportunity for her to catch her breath. Without moving her head from its position, she looked over at the spot where she’d seen him standing. Now there was no one there who reminded her of Carver. Maybe it had just been an illusion. Relief swept through her like sweet, cool water through a thirsty throat.
    When Sean came to lift her above his head, she gave him a brilliant smile. As he circled, stomping his feet to the beat, she held her pose perfectly, and when he let her fall into his waiting arms, she arched her neck back willingly for the bite. She was ready to feel better, to have that lingering fear erased.
    He seemed to sense