by Peyton Banks
Kiara arched her perfectly shaped brows, and Amare gave her a bland smile.
“Thank you, William. Any reason the police are visiting?”
William’s already ruddy face went even redder. He fumbled as he tried to load their luggage onto a rolling cart. “Um, there was a little trouble earlier, but I think it’s all good now.”
“Trouble?” He glanced at Kiara. He didn’t want her to worry. This place truly was the haven she was seeking. Usually.
On occasion since they’d opened, a couple of local werewolves, the heirs to the original owner, showed up on the property and hassled some of their guests. They were bitter that Amare and Jackson had taken their land, as they insisted one night when Amare had witnessed their drunken ramblings. He’d pointed out that perhaps they should have followed the rules and paid their taxes, which, not surprisingly, had not gone over well.
Still, this was the first time Amare was aware of that the police had gotten involved.
“Let’s go inside,” he said to Kiara. He wanted to speak to the manager on duty, find out what happened this evening.
They entered the lobby and he allowed himself a few moments to enjoy Kiara’s reaction as she took in the exposed beams, the underlighting, the skylights that could be covered by specially made shades to protect the guests from the sun’s dangerous rays.
The clusters of couches and chairs were dark leather, the tables carved from hickory wood. The carpet and wall hangings and other decorations were red and gold.
The décor had been Jackson’s idea. Amare would have preferred a more modern feel, with clean lines and Zen-like waterfalls built into the walls. After they opened and the reviews started pouring in, the vast majority lauding the warm and cozy lodge feel, he conceded that his friend had certainly had the right idea.
Straight ahead was the heated outdoor pool, which, he noted, was busy this evening.
There was a full-service, five-star restaurant, because many of the vampires who visited brought along human companions. And if they didn’t and wished to have one for the evening or the duration of their stay, that could be arranged.
Money talked, and the older vampires, as a rule, had plenty of it to toss around, all in the name of creating pleasure.
An attendant stood next to a table upon which rested rows of crystal flutes and a bowl filled with ice, where several bottles of champagne were submerged. She greeted them with a cheery smile and asked if they’d like a glass.
“Why don’t you get us each one,” he suggested to Kiara, “while I check us in?”
He mentally kicked himself for not realizing sooner that she needed a break from her lifestyle as sustenance for far too many—in his opinion—vampires from the Detroit area. Five years was far too long for someone not to take a vacation.
He planned to ensure it was not nearly so long before her next one.
“I’ll only be a few minutes,” he assured her, nodding at the attendant, who was smiling warmly.
“Okay.” Kiara finally wandered over and accepted the glass offered to her.
Amare strode to the front desk and was greeted by Penelope, a lovely young woman who was a werewolf, one of the many who appreciated that Amare and Jackson had drastically improved the local economy with their business venture. The heirs’ opinion was certainly in the minority.
“Mr. Conrad,” she greeted him warmly. “Your reservation is for a double.” She glanced over his shoulder. “I assume that was a mistake?”
“It’s not a mistake. Kiara is a friend. No more.” He ground out the words, hating that they were true.
But he wouldn’t do anything to change status quo. Not unless Kiara initiated it.
This was her vacation, after all.
“Oh. Of course. My apologies. Let me get those keys set up. One moment.”
“Can you also call the manager on duty?”
Penelope flushed, just like William had. “She’s, uh, talking to a police officer. They’re in the business center.” She pointed at the hallway.
“Thank you. I’ll be right back for those keys. Or you can give them to my companion, Kiara Jackson.”
“Yes, sir.”
He walked away, a moment later opening the door and stepping into a small room with a handful of computers and printers and several docking stations for guests who brought their own laptops and preferred not to work in their own rooms.
Sasha, a vampire who had only been turned in the previous decade, was tonight’s manager-on-duty. She had ebony skin, wore her hair closely cropped to her head and had a penchant for heavy, gold earrings. She and the uniformed officer stopped talking as soon as Amare walked into their space.
“Mr. Conrad,” Sasha said. “Can I help you with something?”
“Sure. You can tell me why you’re hiding in here with a gentleman from the local police force.”
She cleared her throat. “There was an incident earlier, but it’s been handled. We’re almost done, actually.”
“What sort of incident?”
Her face puckered. He couldn’t determine if she’d just eaten a lemon or if she was trying to figure out how to tell him what was going on.
Finally, she sighed and said, “Someone filled the pool area with garlic.”
Amare blinked rapidly while the cop’s lips twitched. “Excuse me?”
“You heard me correctly. When our guests started waking for the evening and headed out because, you know, it’s been really nice, and everybody wants to drag out summer for as long as possible and—”
“I understand how our guests feel about the weather, Sasha.”
“Right. So anyway, several of them went outside and then immediately rushed back in like they’d been scalded with holy water. Thank goodness it wasn’t that, though. Could you imagine if they’d poured holy water into the pool?”
“Who?”
“Whoever filled the area with garlic. It was a ton, too. I don’t even know how they got their hands on so much of it. Took hours to clean up. We had to call in a few extra humans and werewolves, since we are heavily staffed with vampires tonight, and I wasn’t about to ask one of our own to clean that up.”
“I’m not sure they even could,” Amare commented. He glanced at the cop. “And how does this concern you?”
The officer waved at Sasha. “She called. While we don’t have any laws about dumping loads of garlic, we do about trespassing.”
“I also called because I had no idea what to do with so much garlic.”
“What did you do with it, out of curiosity?” Amare asked.
“Donated it to a local Italian restaurant.”
Of course. “Do we know who the perpetrators are?” He had his own suspicions.
The cop glanced at the small notepad in his hand. “Nope. We dusted for prints, but that’s such a public area, I doubt we’ll find anything useful.”
“Check to see if any of the prints belong to either a Frederick or Donald Mallard,” Amare suggested.
“The Mallard boys? The wolves whose grandfather used to own this place?”
“That would be the ones.”
“Why’s that?” the cop asked.
“They’ve made it clear on a few occasions that they did not approve of the sale of this property.”
“And why haven’t you mentioned this before?”
Amare lifted one shoulder. “All they did was bluster. No harm was done.” Not to mention, the cop was human. If Amare needed to have more than words with a couple of local werewolves, he wouldn’t bother involving humans, law enforcement or not.
“This may not be at all connected to them. It was merely a suggestion,” Amare said.
The cop scribbled something on his notepad and then flipped the top closed. “I’ll be in touch,” he said. “In the meantime, you let me know if anything else weird happens. Understand?”
“Of course,” Amare said smoothly.
As soon as the officer left, Sasha said, “I’m sorry. I wouldn’t have called them, exc
ept I seriously had no idea what to do with forty pounds of garlic bulbs.”
Amare shuddered. “Forty pounds? That had to have taken some time and manpower.”
“I thought the same thing.”
“Why don’t you discreetly interview the staff who were on duty, see what everyone says. Try not to make it a big deal, though. We don’t want the guests to be any more riled up than this very likely already made them.”
He especially did not want to rile up his lady friend.
She was here to relax and enjoy herself, and he intended to ensure that happened…no matter what.
3
Kiara had finished two glasses of champagne by the time Amare returned from whatever he needed to talk to the manager about. She assumed it had to do with the cop who stormed out shortly before Amare finally made his appearance in the lobby, but he didn’t seem inclined to talk about it.
As they headed up to their room, a fresh glass of champagne dangling from her fingers, she said, “You’re clearly a regular here.”
They stepped off the elevator and walked to the end of the hall, where he used a key card to unlock the door and hold it open for her.
The first thing she saw was their luggage, perched on the floor near the door. Then she noticed the rest of the room.
“Wow.”
She moved into the suite, turning around and around as she took in the massive kitchen, dining, and living area, with sliding glass doors leading to a private balcony overlooking the pool area and the beach and Lake Michigan beyond.
There were open doors on either side of the living area: two bedrooms, each with its own bath and sitting room. Kiara had made a lot of money catering to her vampire clients, and yet she’d never imagined she would be living like this for a day, let alone an entire week.
“Is it to your liking?” Amare sounded hopeful, like he was actually concerned that she might find this place lacking.
She laughed and drained the rest of her champagne, setting the glass on the counter before wandering over to check out each of the bedrooms. “It’s definitely to my liking. It’s going to be awfully hard to go home after spending a week here.”
“Good. Which bedroom do you prefer?”
They were pretty much identical, although one had a better view of the lake than the other. “I don’t know. Which do you like better?”
“Whichever one you do not.”
She laughed again. “What’s with you? I mean, you’ve always been accommodating, but this is over the top.”
“I’m only trying to ensure you do not wait five years to go on a vacation again.”
“Not a chance. I’ll take this one.” She went with the one with the better view. Why not?
Once they’d placed their bags in their respective bedrooms, Amare said, “What would you like to do now? Are you hungry? Tired? Would you like to go shopping?”
She arched her brows. “Shopping? At one o’clock in the morning?”
“This is a vampire resort, remember. There is an entire level below the lobby dedicated to retail therapy 24/7.”
She shook her head, bemused. “How did you find this place?”
“Well, I planned to tell you after you’d seen more of the resort, so I could get an unbiased reaction from you, but…I own it.”
She was pretty certain her jaw dropped to the floor. “Seriously?”
He nodded. “My friend Jackson and I do. Like you, we both craved a place to go outside the city. Since we had difficulty finding such a place, we decided to build our own.”
“You did an amazing job.”
“You’ve hardly seen the place. Come, I’ll give you a tour. Knowing what’s available will help you plan out your vacation.”
She chuckled. “I could probably just sit out there on that balcony for a week and be happy. No, wait, in the pool. Oh, and the hot tub.”
With a laugh, he said, “Let’s go explore.”
He offered his elbow as if they were some sort of Old World couple. It was probably a normal gesture for him. He’d told her once that he was more than 170 years old.
He looked damn good for an old guy.
The first place they visited was the pool area, which smelled faintly of garlic.
“I thought vampires hate garlic.”
“We do.” Amare wrinkled his nose. “Someone played a trick earlier. I’m going to ask Penelope to get housekeeping to scrub the stones until the smell has dissipated.”
“At least it doesn’t seem to be deterring the other guests,” she pointed out, nodding at the clusters of people in the pool and hot tub. To be fair, few were actually hanging out on the stone patio, which was where the smell was strongest.
“It’s kind of cool that vampires like to do the same thing humans do when we’re on vacation.”
Amare lifted one shoulder and let it drop. “We were all human once.”
“Does it bother you to do human activities as a vampire?”
He smiled. “I imagine it’s much like being an immigrant. You crave situations, sensations that remind you of home, while at the same time reveling in your newfound…freedom, I suppose is the right word.”
She canted her head. “That totally makes sense.”
"That’s me, Mr. Sensible,” he said with a smirk.
She laughed. “I honestly had no idea what to expect on this little excursion. Discovering what a funny guy you are is a nice bonus.”
“You may change your mind when I start telling my favorite dad jokes. Come, let’s check out the shops. And the spa.”
She bought a new dress along with a matching bag and heels while they perused the shops. And they made an appointment to visit the spa the next night. A couples treatment, because that had made the most sense since they wanted to do all the same things.
They wandered down to the lake, and Kiara dipped her toes even though the temperature had dropped cool enough that she needed a light jacket. Then they stopped in the restaurant and ordered a cheese tray and a bottle of wine to go, and retreated back to their suite, where they sat on the balcony and shared the wine while Kiara munched on the various cheeses and fruits.
“This is perfect, Amare. Thank you for bringing me here.”
It was so dark that she could not see his eyes, but she could tell he was looking at her.
He lifted his glass in toast. “I’m glad we are both here. Together.”
She shivered. She, admittedly, was too, which was a problem. Not in the moment, of course, but in the grand scheme of life. Her life.
She wanted the freedom to be able to do this any time she had the desire to take a break. Yes, Amare had made other arrangements for her clients this week, but that wasn’t something she could do regularly and expect them to keep coming back. She didn’t kid herself that she was anything special; she was human so therefore contained blood in her veins. Just like every other human out there.
Telling Amare about her decision was going to be one of the hardest conversations she’d ever had. He’d relied on her blood as sustenance for more than five years now. He was going to have to find a new donor.
She knew it was necessary; he needed blood to survive. And there were plenty of other humans out there who did the same thing she did; made a lucrative living out of feeding vampires.
While she could accept the idea of him drinking from someone else, she couldn’t contain the shudder at the image of him having sex with another woman. Hypocritical of her? Hell, yes.
But that didn’t change her stance.
By 4:00 a.m. she was dozing off in her chair, and Amare suggested she retire for the day. She did as he recommended, but she was awake by noon, lying in a massive bed all by herself, acutely aware of the fact that Amare was asleep in his own bed, on the other side of the living room.
She was tempted to sneak over there and slip under the sheets with him.
It was weird to feel like such an act was forbidden when they’ve been sleeping together for years now. Well, not sleeping. He drank her
blood, they had sex, and she left.
The first time they had a sleepover, it was in separate rooms.
What would he say if she suggested they could sleep together while on this little vacation? It’s been a long time since she’d had sex for anything other than work purposes. Considering the client load she carried, she simply didn’t have time to seek out a relationship. And besides, what guy would be okay with dating her, knowing what she did for a living?
Okay, time to stop lying in bed thinking about sex. She had at least seven hours before Amare woke. What would she do with that time?
First, she took a bath in the giant whirlpool tub. Then she dressed and headed down to the restaurant and ordered chicken. It was nice to not have to choose menu items high in iron. This week, she could do whatever the heck she wanted.
Why in the world had she waited five years to go on vacation?
After lunch, she took a walk down to the lake, curious to see it during daylight hours. Much to her delight, as she wandered along the beach, she found a Petoskey stone, which she decided was a lucky sign.
Not that she would get lucky but that she’d have good luck.
The beach was quiet; it was a Tuesday in September and the weather had cooled significantly since yesterday. She wished she’d grabbed a sweatshirt before heading down here.
Splashing sounds piqued her curiosity and she wandered farther down the beach to check out who the heck would be swimming in this temperature.
It was Penelope, the girl who had been working the front desk last night. And she was naked.
With a guy, who was equally nude.
Kiara quickly turned away but not fast enough.
“Oh, hey, Miss Jackson,” Penelope called out. Kiara winced. It always sounded weird when people said that, like she was the famous Janet.
It didn’t help that Penelope stood in the hip-deep water, her pale body on display, no swimsuit in sight, as if this were perfectly normal behavior. The guy by her side at least had the wherewithal to keep his lower half underwater.
“Hi, Penelope,” she responded with a small wave. “It’s just Kiera.”
The guy said something, and Penelope gasped and then wrapped her arms around herself, covering her boobs. “Oh, this is probably weird, isn’t it?”