"Flo's been a busy girl, hasn't she?" Flo and I were going to have a little chat as soon as I saw her. She was out tonight with Kenneth Collins. Not a date. Way too soon for that. But Kenny was lonely and Flo is good company when she's not being a blabbermouth.
I got into the driver's side and adjusted the seat. I did love this car and the cool fall night was perfect for the top to be down. The drive lasted less than ten minutes, darn it. I'd found this seamstress through Miranda, my technical expert and picker. She'd come in to spend her coupon and hung around long enough to get a feel for what I wanted for the shop.
I pulled up in front of the small wood frame house. Now that we were here, I wondered if this was a good idea. Blade had been quiet during our drive, watching my hair blow in the breeze. I could still feel his gaze. Warm. Sexy thoughts. What would he think when he saw me in the bra?
"Let's go in." He got out and walked around to open my door. "And I've seen you with and without a bra. I prefer without."
I took his hand and let him pull me up. Definitely sexy thoughts. "I told Kim that I needed this bra because when I'm not running the shop I work with a knife thrower in the circus. That's you. And that he misses. Obviously not you."
Blade leaned down and pulled a knife from his boot. "Good idea. Maybe we can test this Kevlar."
"Not on me you don't." I grabbed his arm and pulled him up the walk. "But maybe we can get a piece of extra material, put it on one of my mannequins and see how it works."
"Good idea." He put the knife back. He was still going with the jeans and western shirt look. Had Flo told him my cowboy fantasy? He looked up and winked. Of course she had.
I rang the doorbell and the door opened immediately.
Kim was a stay-at-home mom who did sewing to supplement her husband's income as a teaching assistant. He worked with Miranda at the university. A baby cried and Kim looked frazzled. A two year old clung to her leg.
"Hi, Glory. Come in. It's ready." She smiled at Blade. "Are you her partner?"
He put his arm around me. "When she lets me be. I'm Jeremy Blade."
"Oh, good name for a knife thrower." She darted a glance toward the back of the house where cries had turned into screams. "It's right here on the couch, Glory. Try it on in the bathroom. I've got to deal with the baby."
"Sure, go ahead." Kim hurried off, the two year old stuck to her like a burr. I picked up the Kevlar bra. We'd decided a sports bra style would work best with Velcro down the front. Cute, it wasn't, but not horrible.
Kim had lined it with cotton since Kevlar doesn't breathe. If we really were the walking dead, that wouldn't be a problem. But vamps do breathe, slowly, but with real lung action. So Kevlar wasn't exactly comfy to wear.
"Try it on, Glory." Blade sat on the couch and crossed his leg over his knee. "Let me see."
No point arguing. It was what I was here for, after all. I stepped into the bathroom, pulled off my sweater and bra and set them on the closed toilet lid. I slipped my arms into the bra and adjusted it until it fit snugly before closing the Velcro. Forget the mirror on the back of the door, my bra and skirt showed, I didn't.
I looked down. The bra fit tight enough that a slice of cleavage showed. Not totally sexless. But was my heart protected? I stepped outside.
Blade stood and walked around me. "The back's good. High enough to keep you safe. But the front…" He traced the edge of my bra. "Wrong angle and you're staked." He dipped his finger between my breasts and pulled. He was thinking like a warrior, obviously.
"Sturdy. I'd like to test this fabric with that piece of arrow Diana's got. Just to make sure it can't penetrate." His finger still rested in that vee.
"Flo won't wear one. She's not into ugly."
He finally let me go. "Not ugly. Though, like I said, I like you best without a bra. The color is odd and I don't know how it will look under your clothes."
I looked down again. "Maybe if I added lace…" I headed to the bathroom. "I'll put my sweater on over it. See how it looks."
In the bathroom, Kim's two-year-old looked up from washing my sweater and bra in the open toilet.
"Oh, no! Stop that!"
"Mommy!" He dropped them into the water and ran out of the bathroom.
I just stared at my soggy clothes. Blade came up behind me and put his hand on my shoulder.
"Oops."
We stepped into the hall as Kim came running. "Noah! What have you done?" She grabbed a toilet brush and fished out the sweater, tossing it into the tub. The bra was trickier, but it finally landed with a plop.
"Glory, I'm so sorry. I'll buy you new ones."
"Don't be silly. Just wash them and I'll get them when I come back with my friend Diana." I touched my bra straps. "It's perfect, Kim. Diana's going to want one and probably a few more of my friends will too."
Kim looked at Blade standing behind me. "You throw knives at all her friends?"
Okay, this was making us sound like a weird cult or something. The old knife throwing ritual. And of course Blade oozed the kind of charisma that could sweep a woman right into his own personal harem. Was it time for the vamp whammy? I looked down at Noah, still clinging to his mother's leg. I don't believe in doing that to kids. Better to leave town, pick up a new identity…
Blade grinned. "I think her friends watch too much TV. Cop shows. Glory's starting a fad. Bulletproof bras."
Kim laughed. "Oh, I get it. Work out at the gym in one. A guy comes on to you and you shoot him down—'Hey, buddy, you don't want to mess with me, I've got on my bulletproof bra.'"
We all laughed.
Kim looked me over. "Fits good, but should probably be higher in front." She put her finger in the middle just like Blade had. "You want to leave it here? I can add an inch or two on top."
"No, I like it like this. But make me another one and it can be higher." I put my hand across my chest to show her where. I glanced at Blade. "Jerry's not that bad a marksman. But we'd like to take a piece of cloth with us. Just to use as target practice." I held onto Blade's arm. "He doesn't believe he can't throw hard enough to cut through it."
Kim walked into her dining/sewing room combination and picked up a one foot square. "It's easy to cut with scissors, but that's not the same as a stabbing motion. If this stuff stops bullets, it's bound to stop a knife." She gave me a sympathetic look. Like, gee, couldn't you do better than as a knife thrower's assistant? I wouldn't be surprised if she tried career counseling on my next visit if I came without Blade.
"Let me get you something to wear home."
"Good. Thanks."
Blade leaned down to whisper in my ear. "You don't need a blouse."
"It's cool outside. But if you want to put the top up and turn on the heater…"
"Never mind."
Kim came back with a large black T-shirt. The Austin Annual Bat Festival. Austinites love their bats because the bats eat literally tons of mosquitoes. And I'd already learned that, in Texas, almost anything was an excuse for a festival. I'd have to offer to buy the T-shirt from Kim. An early Christmas present for Mara.
"This is Dan's. I didn't think mine…" She flushed.
"Right. You're a size two and I'm… not." I pulled the shirt over my head and got an envelope out of my purse. "Here's what we agreed on. In cash. That okay?"
Kim grinned. "Perfect. And keep the T-shirt if you like it. Dan's got six of them. One for every year we've been in Austin."
"Thanks, it's cool."
"I'm going to experiment with dye on the Kevlar. See if we can't sex it up a bit some way or other."
"Great. You've read my mind." And how nice to know that she really hadn't.
"Call me when you're ready to bring your friends by."
"I will." Blade and I said our good-byes and walked to the car. "How does the bra look under this shirt?"
Blade stopped me and turned me around. "It smashes you. Not flat, of course. But I don't see your usual curve." He opened the car door and helped me in. "Are you in a hurry to get h
ome?"
I took a deep breath of the cool night air. Fresh. Sweet. Nonthreatening. "I could take a ride." I started the car. I loved it. And wasn't going to turn down a chance to drive it a while longer.
"Come home with me. So we can talk. Without others around." He got into the car and slammed the door. His eyes gleamed in the darkness.
"Just talk? Do I look stupid?"
Blade brushed my hair back behind my ear and traced a path down my neck. "Not at all. We'll do what you wish. Talk or…" He kissed the spot behind my ear that he knew drove me wild. "More."
I shivered then groped for sense. "Is Mara living with you?" That could certainly be a deal breaker.
"Yes, but she's not there. She's in Lake Charles. Closing up my house there."
"How helpful." I sounded jealous. No surprise there.
"It helps her to stay busy. She's still grieving, Gloriana."
"How long will she be staying with you?" Not feeling pity for Mara. She didn't invite it with her "screw you" attitude and I wasn't in the giving mood.
"I don't know. She can't live alone. It's too dangerous. I like the security in your building, but Damian says there are no vacancies."
"You checked?"
Blade put his hand behind my neck and turned me to face him. "Yes, I checked. Mara and I are not a couple." He smiled and kissed me lightly on the lips. "You and I are. I'm just sorry you and Mara don't get along."
Don't get along. That was like saying the American Revolution had been a minor skirmish.
"I get along. Mara's the bitch." I put the car in drive.
"Mara's a bitch because she's in pain. MacTavish was the love of her life."
Great. Now I felt small. Like I was the bitch. "Give me directions. I still don't know Austin."
"Drive until I say turn. It'll be a right. But quite a way from here." He kept his hand on my neck, a warm gesture of possession. I shouldn't allow it. Shouldn't go to his home for what was surely more than talking. I stopped at a red light and glanced at him.
"We're not a couple."
"But we're friends." He gestured. "Turn here, it's in the next block. Just come inside. Maybe we'll watch a DVD."
A DVD. Somehow my relationship with Blade had never included something so mundane, so… ordinary. I liked the concept. Maybe this was just a date. Less than a date. Two friends hanging out.
I pulled up in front of the large stone house where we'd met to mourn Marguerite. He'd left lights on.
"Pull into the driveway. We can go in the back door."
We both went on high alert as we climbed out of the car. Blade punched in a code on the pad by the back door, the alarm beeped and we were inside. We looked at each other and breathed a sigh of relief.
"I hate this." I looked away from his intensity. He wouldn't pull a whammy, but he read me much too easily. "At least you have great security and a nice kitchen. A real waste." It was one of those designer jobs, all granite countertops and stainless steel appliances.
Blade grinned. "The advantages of being vampire. You never had to learn how to cook."
"Neither did you. Modern men share household duties." As if Blade could ever be classified as modern. Metrosexual to him would mean a quickie on a bus.
He grinned, obviously mind reading again. I ran my hand over the cool granite. He didn't say a word, just planted a little picture in my mind of the two of us on a cracked leather seat doing the wild thing between stops. Hoo, boy. That had been him planting the picture, hadn't it? I gave him a searching look. He looked as innocent as a decadent male can manage.
"You didn't get much of a tour last time you were here. Come upstairs." He took my hand and tugged me toward the staircase.
"I think not." I knew exactly what would be on the second floor. I've watched my share of home decorating shows. With a designer kitchen comes a designer master bedroom, make that a suite, with a luxurious bathroom complete with a Jacuzzi tub and steam shower. A girl can resist only so much. I was safer downstairs.
"Come on. The TV and DVD player are in my bedroom. I know you like HBO. Flo told me you have some favorite shows."
"Aren't you two just the best of buds?" Calling myself all kinds of an idiot, I let him lead me up the stairs. I wanted to see his bedroom and safety is highly overrated. He stopped in front of a closed door at the top of the stairs.
"I apologize in advance. I haven't slept in a coffin in centuries."
"You never slept in a coffin." But he did sleep raw and in a king-sized bed. He pushed open the door.
"Maybe we should go back downstairs. We can sit and talk. Drink a Bloody Merry together. Like old friends."
"Are you afraid to be in my bedroom with me?" He gestured toward a plasma TV hung on the wall across from the foot of the bed. "See? I have a TV."
"Sure." In a vamp magic move, Blade had my T-shirt off and eyed my bra.
"I want to study this Kevlar. As a scientist."
"You were never a scientist."
"True. But I love modern technology." He put both hands on the bra. "Velcro." He ripped it open, the sound a bizarre kind of turn-on. "Easy on. Easy off."
I reached for his shirt. "Snaps." I popped them open. "Easy on. Easy off."
We just stared at each other. Had I come here to have sex? Probably. Almost getting killed makes me horny. So I was looking for a little affirmation. I'm alive, almost. I want to feel alive. And maybe I want some of that release Blade had offered. I looked down at my skirt and saw it on the floor around my feet.
"Gloriana!" Blade laughed and pulled me to him. Skin to skin. Nice. "Where did you learn to do that?"
"Flo." I leaned against him for a moment, then pushed back to walk away from him. I wore a bright red thong. I looked over my shoulder. "How do you like these panties?"
"Is that what they are?" Blade eyes gleamed. "What else have you learned, Gloriana? Has Flo told you how she pleases her many lovers?"
I turned and put my hands on my hips. So maybe I was posing a little. Judging from the way Blade's jeans bulged, I was having the desired effect.
"Do you think I need lessons in pleasing a man?" I walked slowly up to him and brushed my nipples across his chest. I dipped one finger into his waistband. He sucked in a breath when I popped open the snap there. "Are you complaining about previous performances?"
"Do you take me for a fool?" He pulled me into his arms and kissed me hungrily, as only Blade could. I wrapped my arms around him and saw his jeans and boots in a heap next to the bed. I slid my hands down to cup his bare buttocks. Bingo.
"Gloriana." He picked me up and carried me to the bed. "You're magic."
"And don't you forget it." I pulled him down on top of me and we made love. Not wild monkey sex, but can't-pleasure-you-enough sex. Our timing, our moves were as perfect as centuries of practice could make them.
"Lie back, Gloriana. Let me love you." Jerry held my hands over my head and nuzzled my breasts, suckling first one and then the other until I moved my legs restlessly.
"Does that please you?" He blew on a damp nipple then looked up at me.
"You know it does." I reached for him.
"No. Keep your hands there, above your head. Tell me where to go next."
Next. He knew where I wanted him next, but I smiled and decided two could play the waiting game.
"Kiss my calves, then the back of my knees."
Jerry slid down me, "accidentally" dragging his warm mouth and tongue over my stomach and curls on his way.
"Roll over. I want to do this properly."
I rolled and gripped the brass headboard with both hands. Properly? There was nothing proper about the way Jerry spread my legs and explored my backside while he kissed a heated path where I told him to.
"Taste me, Jerry. You know where." I felt his warm breath on my inner thighs.
"Do I?" His hands were under my hips, lifting me. His tongue flicked across my sensitive flesh. "Am I in the ball park?"
Cute. Maybe Jerry had been watching some TV. "
Lover, you're hitting a home run." I clutched the cool metal until I feared I'd bend it. "Oh… yes!"
He wouldn't stop until I shuddered, unbearably sensitive to his touch, my legs quivering. Finally, he rolled me over and gathered me in his arms.
"Was that to milady's satisfaction?"
I yawned and stretched, rubbing my toes up his hairy leg. " 'Twill do." I looked down to where his erection nudged my hip. "But we seem to have a bit of a problem. My knight's lance is unsheathed."
Jerry grinned and threw his own arms over his head. "Mayhap my lady has a remedy?"
I ran my hands over his hard body, then crawled on top of him. Oh, God, but he could fill me.
"Better?" I moved just enough to take him deeper.
"Getting there." He pulled me down to kiss me, his tongue stroking mine as I began to move. When I finally collapsed on top of him, I was wasted. Inside out and upside down. As a release it had been a dandy. And Jerry had the cat-who-ate-the-canary kind of smile that told its own story.
"Stay with me tonight, Gloriana. Sleep in my arms while the sun's out."
I sat up and looked down at my forever lover. Tender feelings washed over me. The very feelings that scared the hell out of me. Blade picked up my hand and kissed my knuckles.
"Stay, lass."
"Flo and Valdez will freak out if I don't come home."
"Call them. Tell them you're with me." He sat up and reached for me, cupping my breasts and kissing each one in turn. "Don't be afraid of staying. It doesn't mean I own you."
Trust Jerry to cut to the chase. "I'm not afraid." And trust me to rise to his bait. I'd dropped my purse on the floor next to the bedroom door. I saw my cell phone in my hand and it was there.
"What made you decide to learn this now?" Blade shook his head. "You're dazzling me."
"You ain't seen nothin' yet." I hit the speed dial. Flo wasn't home but I left a message which I knew Valdez could hear. I saw the phone into my purse, then lay back. Maybe I should go home, but the bed was comfy and the man seemed inclined to pleasure me again before the sun came up. I was staying put.
I woke suddenly. Jerked awake by the touch of cold steel on my breast. Mara stood over me. She held a knife in her hand. One of Blade's stilettos.
Full-Figured Vampire 1 - Real Vampires Have Curves Page 19