Shaking her head and hiding her face in her hands, Anna choked out, “It’s not you, it’s me.” She turned her back on him and faced the front doors. Rick came up behind her, and placed a tentative hand on her shoulder.
“That’s what everyone says when they’re leaving a partner who doesn’t meet their needs. So Cupcake, either you’ve got to explain to me what you’re feeling, or our relationship is going to die.”
“You know, the other night when I met Cat, all I could think of was what a great mate she would make for you. I was relieved as hell when I saw the ring on her finger. But that could change too, right? You have your own kind all over the world. What’s my sell by date, Fitz?”
“What’s your… Cupcake, are you saying you’re feeling insecure?”
“You may be a vampire, but the longer I know you, the more mortal you behave.” Anna drew in a deep, calming breath and shook her head.
“Well, what does that mean?”
“It means, you big dummy, you’re the world’s greatest lover, okay? Every time you kiss me, I come. But good God, you’re thick. I told you, it’s not you, it’s me!”
Rick dropped to his, knees, fists clenched in front of him. “What does that mean?”
“It means, I’m afraid you’ll leave me. Because you’re out of my league. And if I can’t even feed you…”
Rick dropped back on his heels, “C’mere.” He waved her down. “C’mere.” She crawled into his lap, his arms comforted her as he whispered. “You are all I want.” He turned her face to his. “We each need things from other people. We aren’t foolish enough to think we can live in a bubble.” He pressed his cheek to hers and then drew her chin back. “At the beginning of my night and at the end of my dawns, I only want to be with you.”
Anna looked up through tear-laced lashes. “You do?”
He kissed her pink nose. “Yes, I do. But Cupcake, I can tell you that daily. Until you believe the truth of our love, you won’t feel its security.” He stood and drew her with him. “Let’s go for a walk on the beach. I wanna tell you a story...”
He drew the cashmere throw from the back of the sofa and lovingly wrapped it around her. Player darted out the door ahead of them, and they walked close, his arm around her, their steps in synchronicity. Anna continued to sniff back the last of her tears.
“When I was a young Duke, I met a woman named Tsura…”
* * * *
The dawn was beginning to break when they headed inside. Anna was floored at his revelations. “Two hundred and twenty-five years with the same person? I can’t imagine that!” She sank into the sofa.
“No, I can’t expect you do. You have to remember that everyone lives in the now. We may have had two hundred years of experiences together, but we didn’t carry every one of those days with us.”
“The only comparison I can see is my parents together for twenty-six years. Only they’ve aged and slowed down.”
“True, mortality does that. Immortality is a whole ’nother deck of cards.”
“How do our two worlds mesh?”
Rick shook his head as he activated the shades. The house dimmed considerably. “Mesh is an optimistic term, Cupcake. Sometimes, those worlds collide.”
He waited at the bottom of the stairs. Anna’s thoughts were eating at her. She didn’t move from the sofa. Does she need me, or does she need space?
Anna ran her hands through her hair and hugged herself. “It’s all about the immortality.”
* * * *
Adam snorted into the phone when he realized what she wanted. “You want me to have four donors eat boxes of our best dark chocolate, right?”
“Uh huh.”
“Then, we draw their blood, and send it to catering?”
“Uh huh.”
“And you want blood crafted petit fours?
“Uh huh.”
“We haven’t done that in decades. And you probably want it by sundown, right?”
Anna winced. “Uh…maybe…midnight?”
Adam capitulated. “That’s completely different.”
“And delivered to the beach house…”
“But, of course. Whatever Madame desires,” he teased.
“We really should give the volunteers a nice reward for indulging me. After all, they don’t get a bite this way…”
“Well, a gift certificate might take the edge off.”
“Perfect! Would you arrange that, please, Adam?”
“What can we send for you?”
Anna hesitated. “Is any of the Stilton left that Rick flew in from Harrods? I could enjoy the rest of that.”
Adam barked a laugh. “The rest of it?”
“At least a pound or two. A girl’s got to keep her stamina up.”
“I think there’s a pound left. You want crackers with that, or just death by cheese?”
* * * *
Anna and Rick enjoyed a convivial evening with Matt and Cat. They savored fine drinks, conversation and present exchange. Santa and his elves were generous to each of them tonight, and they were replete with Christmas cheer. The men repaired to the upstairs covered lanai, where Rick and Matt traded chuckles as they lit their cigars and sipped their blood-laced vintage Armagnac. They stood, and held their silence puffing. Anna and Cat sat below on the deck, each enjoying her own version of dessert.
Rick winked at Matt and spoke in subtones. “Don’t you love to hear them moan?”
Matt shook his head. “Now…when she moans on my cock…I can feel it right there. That’s what I like.” He grabbed himself and drew hard on the cigar.
Rick elbowed him. “You, Sir, have a lot to learn about romance.”
Matt shrugged.
Anna raised the pitcher of Margaritas to Cat. “More?”
Cat nodded. “You really like Tequila!”
Anna giggled. “It’s good for you. It’s probiotic.”
Cat skeptically looked down at the fancy glass. “O…kay…”
Once the third round of drinks were begun, the subject of S - E - X came up, vampire sex. “When you and ah, ah Matt are ah, you know done…is he, ah, I mean, do you . . . cuddle? I mean, do vampires cuddle with other vampires?” Her hiccup twisted to a giggle and a stifled second deep hiccup.
Cat launched into the stats on how often Matt ‘wowed’ her and copped his post-coital cuddling versus the ‘fantastic fuck and run.’
Anna leaned close, hanging on every word. Rick heard lots of ‘a-huhs’ and ‘yeahs’ while Matt made crowing facial expressions of pride, until Cat made the ‘fuck and run’ comment. Rick spun on his heel as Matt made one of his ‘I have no idea what she means’ looks.
“I mean, right now it’s all well and good,” Cat said and giggled at Anna’s hiccups.
Rick choked on Cat’s comment, “it’s all well and good?” Was Matt just “well and good” in the sack? Didn’t he just talk about her moaning on his cock? What the hell? Rick shook his head.
Matt leaned over the railing. “Well and good? This has to be out of context, I can’t see her face. What does she mean, well and good?”
Rick stifled his laughter. He shook his head, wagged a finger at Matt and pantomimed shock.
Anna’s voice rose to the second story. “Rick is all arms and spider legs while we’re, you know, in the act. He’s on top, he’s on bottom, we’re on our sides, and he has a…”
Rick caused a loud clatter from above, halting her comments. He pumped his fist and nodded to Matt.
Matt grinned vengefully. “Spider legs? Spider legs? Ewe. Top, bottom, side, aren’t you the gymnast?”
The conversation ended in giggling, and girlish titters when Rick leaned over the railing to the two tipsy ladies. “Don’t you just adore it when love sucks?”
The girls looked upward and toasted him with their drinks.
* * * *
Veronique sorted through the information from Flask Brothers Investigations. Matt and the dishwater blonde he’d mated were fairly insulated. Even though she wa
s a fledgling, Catherine Brenner was a much harder mark than Anna Curley. The mortal was young and naïve and the only way to her was through layers of Rick’s good intentions. There was no way to take her head on, but with a little ingenuity, she would wreak just as much havoc through the back door. She studied the last picture, Rick and the mortal walking the beach at twilight with a big black dog. This was something she could work with.
* * * *
Player danced at Anna’s feet, anxious for his morning run. They enjoyed something of a routine now. He ran, she walked, and by the time they got back to the house after sunrise, she was ready to climb into bed with Rick, pleasantly tired and ready for sleep. Today, was windy, the ocean waves crashed onto the beach, signaling a storm ahead. It was hours away yet, but cool and windy enough to make a cup of hot chocolate a goal at the pier coffee shop. Once they’d warmed up a little, they’d head back home.
“C’mon. Leave Daddy’s shoe behind, let’s go for a walk.” Player never required a leash anymore, and she was never concerned that he would run away or start a fight. As far as Anna could tell, and she’d grown up with every kind of animal, he was the perfect dog.
* * * *
Veronique posed behind a sunrise edition of the Times. Her oversized Jackie-O sunglasses masked her suspicious eyes. The beach business was slow this morning, and she was about to shove off when the bounding dog came into view. I hate dogs. The girl behind the dog fought with an impossible length of wild red hair. How far has Rick Hiatt fallen? This is a child dressed in her mother’s clothes.
The redhead padded up to the cashier. “Hi Bobbi. No tea today. How about a medium hot chocolate?”
“Whipped cream or marshmallows?”
Anna patted her pockets. “How much is that?”
“Five forty-nine.”
Anna pulled up a five-dollar bill and frowned. “How much for the small?”
Before Bobbi could void the sale, Veronique slid in front of Anna with her hand up. “Need fifty cents?”
Anna found herself looking back and forth from Bobbi to the stranger. “Oh, I couldn’t. That’s the Universe telling me I don’t need a medium. Bobbi, make it a small.”
Veronique’s eyes fell into slits behind her sunglasses. The Universe should tell you and that beast to curl up and die. “You, my dear, have far more discipline than I.” Veronique could not clamp onto this girl’s attention. She watched Anna as she added chocolate powder and cinnamon to the cup and recapped it. The girl looked scatterbrained. Veronique gazed over the occupied tables. She was lucky to find the last open one, and she laid in wait. “Do you want to have a seat?” She gestured graciously.
“Okay, for a second.” Player growled low in his throat. “Player, be a gentleman. Rick taught you better.”
“What a charming dog.” Player continued his low ominous growl punctuated by a ruff now and then.
“I’m sorry. He usually isn’t like this.”
Veronique waved a dismissive hand and motioned her to sit. “Are you a pro?”
“Excuse me?”
“Dog walker? I’ve been trying to get a gig like that on this beach for weeks.”
“Ohhh. No. No, Player is Rick’s dog.”
“Oh. Rick is your husband?”
Anna looked at her left hand and dropped it in her lap. “No.”
“My name’s Vivi, by the way. Do you want part of the newspaper?”
Anna shook her head, vainly trying to control her whip of titian hair in the gusty wind. “Too windy.”
Veronique nodded and folded the paper expertly in two crisp movements. “You staying around here somewhere?”
“A little way up the beach.” She nodded in the general direction. “In fact, Player and I need to get home. He’s not himself.”
Veronique bit in frustration. She hoped to gain better footing today, but her inner bitch just hadn’t let up. She could be more agreeable tomorrow and win Anna over with a grand apology. Weren’t girls suckers for apologies? Besides, she had an idea for a foolproof icebreaker.
* * * *
Rick had a business meeting tonight, leaving Anna on her own with the howling storm and a howling dog. She dutifully tried to stay on Rick’s schedule, and spent the evening working the remote up and down the channels, only to flip off the set and browse online through Irish antiquities. Her ass went to sleep and she opted to distract Player from his restlessness. When she got the behemoth focused on a knot of maritime rope, she returned to the movie channel. It had to be better than procedural TV.
The last thing she remembered was Captain Renault calling for “the usual suspects.” She woke to a commercial for the next film series and decided to stumble up to bed. Player yawned and followed her.
Anna fell into the bed clothed and pulled the covers over her. At three in the morning she felt a jolt. She raised her head and listened for Rick’s car or the garage doors. Nothing. Her head hit the pillow and she prayed for more than an hour’s sleep.
* * * *
Ceiling fans turned lazily casting shadows across the dinner club patrons. The pianist played seamlessly from song to song. Rick paced the room, hand in his white dinner jacket pocket. From behind her, the door opened bringing a cacophony of uniformed men, only one advanced to her table. He sported a severe mustache and officious Nazi uniform.
She accused him. “You weren’t on a cruise as you’d said.”
Sterling’s voice emitted from the Nazi’s thin lips. “A fifty-year-old crone, straight from the slammer. Too young for social security and too tainted to work in bars. Poor little Annie.”
Sterling whipped the Fitzjarrald dirk out of his gun holster and grabbed her gloved hand. She slipped from his grip as Rick bounded between them. “So pretty boy,” Sterling jeered inching around the table, thrusting the blade toward Rick. “Gutless? Afraid I’ll mess up that pretty face?”
The piano music rose in volume as the club’s occupants left in droves, the room’s light narrowed to a cone focused in front of her. Rick and Sterling thrust and parried at each other, as she screamed for them to stop. Darkness and light strobed, creating a macabre silent film. When sound returned, Rick’s dinner jacket bloomed with broad flowers of blood, his bow tie hanging askance.
He held his bloody decaying hands out to her. “Don’t come any closer. Toss the blood to me.”
* * * *
Anna felt his hands on her. “I don’t have any blood…” she shrieked. Rick flipped on the bedside lamp.
“Anna, Cupcake, are you having a nightmare?” He sat on the bed and gathered her into his lap, smoothing her wild hair.
Anna sighed with relief, she scrutinized his jacket. It was his charcoal suit. There was no blood anywhere. He wore a navy silk necktie with a gold clip. “The Nazi was trying to stab you.”
Rick chuckled. “Well, they haven’t tried that in a while.”
“How can you laugh about that? It was real.” Anna buried her face.
“No more World War II movies for you. Besides, they tried, but they just couldn’t kill me.”
Anna giggled. “Do you have war stories? Did you fight in the war?”
They spread out on the bed. Rick loosened his tie and grinned. “Have I got war stories for you!”
* * * *
Much to Player’s displeasure, Anna had him on a retractable leash today. It unnerved her to hear him growl at someone, even if it was a rare occurrence. She supposed she should pay attention when she met someone the dog was wary of. They set off, leash extended to its ultimate, allowing the dog to chase the skittering water birds along the path. Anna walked the rain-purified shore and wondered idly if she might be losing her mind. She’d heard that phase “pretty boy” in the pool and the apartment, nothing less than hearing voices. She’d had those awful dreams about Sterling. What was going on? She was afraid to mention it to Rick. He would think she was crazy. Even talking with Cat was a bad idea. But what would she tell a counselor? Would they commit her?
In her isolating haze
, she didn’t see the dog bounding toward her until Player was involved in getting acquainted. Anna was amused. This had to be a female, she was a smaller, and more delicately-boned Rottweiler. Player is a chip off the old block, fully engaged in Rottie romance. Anna retracted the leash closer and the female followed. While she walked in circles keeping a careful eye on the strange dog, she didn’t notice the woman jogging toward her. It was the coffee shop lady—Vicky?—Vivi? The woman stopped and posed a few feet away from the canoodling canines.
“Oh, my gosh! I need to get in better shape! I can’t believe Ricci took off on me!” The woman bent over catching her breath, making a show of it.
Anna smiled tolerantly. “Ricky? She’s a bitch isn’t she?”
Veronique stood flabbergasted and then her face registered understanding. “Ricci. R-I-C-C-I. Not like your boyfriend.”
“Did you get the dog-walking gig you wanted?”
“Right after I met you yesterday, I got a call at home and I’ll be walking Ricci for the next week. Its owner had foot surgery…”
Anna let her words flow over her head like the breeze. “Which way are you headed?”
“Well, before it saw your dog, I was headed the other way. There’s a large dog park just past the pier.”
“Oh. Okay.” Anna tugged at Player and he fell into step.
* * * *
Veronique snapped to attention as her quarry strode on. She attached the leash on this bitch of a beast and trotted to catch up. “Why don’t we take them together? When we get to the pier you take Ricci and I’ll pick up coffees for us. Okay?”
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