by Ever Coming
“Says the dead guy who wants my blood.” Flirty me seemed to have jumped back into play and I cringed hoping he didn’t think it was because of his money and fancy car. Then again, why should I care what he thought about my intentions? I wasn’t fooling myself. I cared far too much. He was my boss, or at least a liaison to my boss. He knew I was all about the money although in this, though I actually wasn’t. Not really.
“Who said I want your blood?”
The rejection hit me much harder than it should. A rational woman wouldn’t want someone who only wanted them for their blood. A rational woman wouldn’t want someone who wanted their blood…period.
“I was trying to break the tension. I didn’t—” His finger was once again against my lips and this time, my knees nearly gave way. It wasn’t as cold as before, probably because I was getting used to it, and the smile on his face was enough to have panties dropping across the county. It was the first time I allowed my eyes to meet his. They were a cerulean blue and sparkled with mischief. Pairing them with his dimples was a deadly combination.
“Fear not little one, I do and so will many others.” The way he said others could best be described as disgust, but he kept talking so I didn’t have time to ponder what that might mean. “But first, I need to get you out of here so we can get started on your training.”
“Shouldn’t I fill out paperwork first?” Victoria mentioned paperwork. Her secretary had mentioned paperwork. The gosh darn website mentioned paperwork. There was going to be a ton of it before I could make a penny, and I needed to make a truck full of those.
“And that is where she and I differ.” He opened the car door for me, and I halted. “Come on. I’ll only bite if you ask me to.” Darn man winked at me just as my clutch started to vibrate. I looked to the clutch and willed it to stop. I never thought to turn it off when I came in. At least I lucked out and it didn’t go off during the interview. “You should probably answer that.”
“It’s not my phone.” He looked to the clutch as if I was delirious. “Yes, it is the phone in here, I meant I borrowed the phone.”
“The call is for you. Answer it.” He was no longer asking, he was commanding, and the change in his voice did something to my insides. Something amazing.
“How do you know…” He pointed to the bag. “Never mind.” I fished out the phone and was thankful it was still vibrating. Calling back a number I didn’t know to find out why they called, most likely not for me, wouldn’t have been fun. “Hello?”
“Hey love, how are you?” It was Arabella. I let out a slow breath. I assumed it was for her and hadn’t yet hatched a plan of how to explain me having her phone.
“Fine?” It came out as more of a question than it should have. I was fine. Ish. I was fine-ish.
“You sound unsure. Are you with Jameson?”
“I am.”
“Then you are fine. Trust him.” Trust. Trust was such weird thing for me and here I was trusting someone I just met as to who I could trust. “Remember when I told you why I was helping you.”
“Yes.” Because someone did it for me and I wouldn’t be here to help you if it wasn’t for them.
“Well, Jameson is the one who helped me. You can trust him with your life. I trust him with mine.” I just stared at the back of Jameson’s head. He was feigning privacy. I knew he could easily hear both ends of this conversation, but the gesture was nice. “Besides, have you seen his derriere? Yumm.” And now I wanted to die a little. Not that she was wrong. If anything, she was underestimating its gloriousness.
“I don’t even know how to respond to that.” Because, you know, pinching it would be wrong.
“Because he’s right there and you know he can hear my words?’
“What? No…” She burst into laughter. “Yes… ugggg just… goodbye.”
I looked up to see Jameson still being ever the gentleman. He had his hand out and the car door open, poised to help me into the car. I accepted his gesture and hoped the red in my cheeks from Arabella’s highly inappropriate yet spot on remarks wasn’t overly noticeable. He shut the door behind me and was in his seat faster than humanly possible. Not that he was human, but usually vampires tried to blend in. At least in my neck of the woods they do, maybe in the city it was a bit different.
He started the engine and it purred. When I read things like that I thought it was people exaggerating or taking creative license, but this thing purred.
“Nice car.” I was mostly being polite. It was nice and the leather was soft against my lower thigh, but that was the extent of opinion I had on it.
“Thank you.” He pulled out of the spot and started meandering down toward what I assumed was the exit. “I like it.”
“I don’t mean to be rude, but why are so many of the vampires here sporting the mom mobiles?”
He barked out a laugh. I wasn’t wrong, it was mom mobile central. “This is actually the employee lot, not the customer lot. I would venture a guess that it has never been described as anything mom related.”
“So you’re an employee.”
We pulled out of the garage and turned in the opposite direction from Arabella’s. It was dusk, and while I knew certain vampires could handle some sunlight or possibly more than some, it still went against all of my vampire novels that we were traveling out while the sun was still partially in the sky.
“Disappointed?”
“Curious more than anything.” Why would I be disappointed? And then I thought back to the car. Was he used to women who wanted him for his money? I was, after all, the ideal candidate for money stealing freak. I was dirt poor and desperate.
“I’m more of an investor.”
He didn’t elaborate so I dropped it and just watched as he wove through the city traffic. I never had a car and if I lived here, I sure wouldn’t want one. The traffic was pretty intense and people seemed to think their indicators were only for when they felt like it. “Where are we going?”
“You look too stunningly gorgeous not to show off.” His hand landed on my knee and I itched to grab it with mine. Not to push it away. No, I liked it there, just fine. I just wanted to feel more of him, which was beyond inappropriate and nothing like me. “So I was thinking dinner.”
“You don’t eat…” And there I was tasting the wonderful soles of my borrowed shoes. Of course he wanted to see if I was worth the training. He was an investor and he wouldn’t want to invest in someone who tasted like mud. “…Oh you mean—”
“No.” His voice was adamant and I wasn’t quite sure what to make of it. “I don’t mean you, I meant a restaurant with food and wine and if we are lucky, live music.”
“You make it sound like a date.” If circumstances were different I would be all over the opportunity to go on a real date, but right now, I needed to land the job or start training or whatever came next. The whole situation had me in a fog and his hand on my thigh didn’t help.
“I meant it to sound that way.” He pulled to the side of the road, somehow scoring a parking spot during the craziness that was the traffic we had been working through.
“But I was there for a job, not a date.” The last word came out like a whisper. It was true, I did go there for a job and that was the number one thing I needed, but that didn’t mean I wanted to say no to this. I had to, though, not that the words would form.
“And if you still want one after our date, you are more than welcome to have one.”
If—there was that word again. If I want the job. There was no if to it. I needed the job.
“I need one,” I confessed in hushed tones.
“Why is that?” He turned my face so I was no longer staring at the bumper in front of me. His eyes held me captive.
“What do you mean?” I swallowed deeply, trying to avoid licking my lips. “Why does anyone need a job?”
“Yes, but not everyone had a full scholarship to college.” That had not been in my application and it wasn’t something I liked to think about. Ever. “And ended up
working two full-time jobs with nothing to show for it instead.” That was where he was wrong. I had something to show for it. My sister was taken care.
“You did some research.” I didn’t want this conversation. Not now, not ever. I had planned on just saying I had debt and calling it good. I assumed Madame Victoria would assume financial debt and brush it off. She would have been half right. The other half of the debt was worse. It was a debt of redemption, and I planned to pay it off in full before Mary left this earth.
“I research all of our potential employees.” He gave a shrug of his shoulder, but it felt forced. Not that I could feel his shrug, yet I did. I felt everything about this man. Maybe the websites were wrong. Maybe vampires did have powers outside of being super human and living for eons and all the typical novel fodder.
“You sounded like… never mind.” Once again, I started to speak too soon. Why was I unable to think before I spoke lately?
“Like what?” He leaned in as he spoke and the heat of his breath hit my ear as all rationality left.
“When you came into the office I thought it was because…”
“Because Bob had just called and I wanted fresh meat.”
“Well… yeah, something like that.” I wouldn’t have called me fresh meat, but since I was technically a meal he wasn’t really off base.
“Bob called me while you were in the shower.”
I wanted to die. Here was this gorgeous man, vamp, whatever, staring me in the eye talking about me all wet and…crap. Then I was imagining him that way. Bad Angelica.
“He didn’t, you know…” I didn’t even know what I was trying to say other than no sex for me. I tried to look down, but his hand cupped my cheek before I could. Using all of my willpower, I didn’t lean into his touch. Not much, anyways.
“You really are a treat.” His thumb caressed my cheek. “He was right. Of course you didn’t.” He leaned in close and whispered conspiratorially, “He was too busy playing dress up his new friend.”
I froze. Had I accidentally given Arabella away? I ran through the words again. No. Nothing that could connect the dot. “Stop your fretting. Of course I know Arabella. But Bob is my friend and has been since I met him years ago.”
“You recruited them.” Not that I would pass judgment. Arabella seemed pretty content with the way things were going, from the glimpses I had seen. Besides, I was there to get the same exact job.
“No.” He pulled back now as if my words burned him. I placed my hand on the one he never let leave my knee. “I saved him from a very bad man.” I saw the moment the discussion was over. His facial expressions went from expressive to news broadcaster. I knew the trick well. “But this is not the time for talking about your new friend. This is a time for you to decide.”
“Decide what?” He had lost me somewhere along the line and I was sure I sounded like the fool.
“Decide if you want to give me a chance.”
“I can’t.”
“Because you need the job.”
I nodded as he got out of the car. I unbuckled and grabbed the clutch. It looked like we were there, wherever there was. He opened the door for me and held out his hand, which I greedily took.
“Walk with me.”
“Yes.” I wanted to do so much more than walk with him, but it would have to do for now. When I raised enough money, maybe we could try this dating thing.
Who was I fooling? He would have a new girl tomorrow if he were so inclined. With his looks and accent, he could flipping have one in thirty seconds.
“You don’t, you know. Need the job, I mean.” He moved his hand from mine to the small of my back, gently guiding me around a pile of trash.
“I really do.” I leaned into his touch. Somehow I had turned into a tease. Offering something I couldn’t give, but my body had decided to take on a will of its own. It wanted more than his hand on my back.
“No. You don’t.” We stopped at the corner, waiting for the light to change. He came up behind me, his front so close to my back I could feel the temperature difference. “I made some calls. I was hoping you would share so we could talk about this in a less awkward fashion, but your sister is taken care of.”
I twirled around faster than intended and landed on my heels wrong and would have gone tumbling to the ground if his arms hadn’t caught me. My anger at his confession fell away as did the sound of the cars driving by. All I could hear, could sense, was him. Touching me. So very close to me. I closed my eyes, trying to break the spell of his unintentional seduction. Or was it intentional? Uggggg.
“What? No. No. No. No. No.” I dove straight into full panic mode as the meaning of his words settled in. What he told me meant he knew too much, and knowing too much was dangerous.
“No what, beautiful? Look at me.”
I squeezed my eyes tightly and shook my head in defiance.
“Look. At. Me.” When I finally opened my eyes, he was looking at me with such compassion, my anxiety dissipated. “When Bob called he said you were in a bad way and came here with no phone and less than a dollar.” That pretty much summed it up. “He was worried you were into something dangerous and asked for my help. I found the articles.”
The articles were all over the net. I knew I couldn’t hide from them. Shit, it hit the national news.
“They lie.”
“They said your mother tried to drown your sister and you saved her.” My eyes filled with tears and I couldn’t see where we were moving, but when my back hit the wall, his intent was obvious. He was giving me privacy.
“No. I. Didn’t.” I could have saved her. I should have saved her, but I had been a selfish preteen brat. “If I had given Mary her bath like Mom asked me to instead of telling her I needed to get my project done and that I wasn’t her slave, Mary would be fine.”
“You were twelve.” He wiped the tears from my cheek.
“And she needed me.” Cognitively I knew He was right, I was twelve. I wasn’t an adult. Yet, that one decision, that one night destroyed Mary’s world. My decision. Mine.
“And you saved her. Don’t put your mother’s actions on you. You saved Mary and then spent the next eleven years doing everything you could to help her.”
I threw my arms around Jameson and held on tight.
All of his words were true, yet believing them was not that easy. My father abandoned us when my mom went to jail, tell me “It is all your fault.” My foster families told me I needed to clean up after her, take care of her, get her to school before they gave up on her and she went to the crap hole of an institution she was in now. Even the kids at school ignored me after what happened. Everyone blamed me except Mary. Not that she really understood or remembered any of it.
“You don’t need to give up everything for your sister anymore. I got her a spot in a special school and rehab for people with brain injuries that has a program for people with oxygen deprivation. It’s in the city.” He spoke very slowly, probably so I could digest his words. I’d found a place for her back home, but they didn’t specialize in anything other than basic life skills. She needed those, but if someplace specialized in her condition, maybe… I didn’t want to get my hopes up. A spot was one thing. Specialty places were for the rich, which no one would ever even jokingly refer to me as.
“Which is even more reason why I need the job. I need to—-”
“You don’t understand.”
I pulled back, sending up a silent prayer that I didn’t leave a wet spot on his shirt.
“It’s already paid for.”
“How?” He rubbed his hands down my arm, sending a shiver up my spine. His touch was so distracting. “You?”
“No, not me.” A handkerchief was in his hand, blotting away my tears. I had no idea they still even made them.
“Don’t give me that look. It isn’t my money.”
I had no idea what look I was giving him, but it seemed to amuse Jameson if the turn of his lip was any indication.
“Fine, it’s bar
ely my money.” That caught my attention. How could it barely be his or anyone else’s money? “I donate a huge sum of money to their endowment every year and in return they’re able to run their facility on only the money granted them by either insurance or disability income. It’s a top notch facility and the only thing I did that could be considered a, quote, ‘favor’ was to let them know I needed the next available bed.”
For the first time since I met him, Jameson seemed less than confident. His words shot out almost faster than I could process them. In most people, rapid speech made me question their honesty, but with him it felt like something else.
“Why would you be so invested in a school like this?” It was so over the top generous, there had to be a reason. It was probably just tax credits or something like that, but I had to know.
“Oh, beautiful, your street smarts have you so distrustful.” He kissed my forehead before leading me from the wall and back to the corner we had tried to cross earlier. At first I thought he was avoiding my question, possibly because I was too nosey to keep my mouth shut, but then he slowly and quietly began to speak as we crossed the street. It was such an odd place for such a private moment. “Why? Because I knew someone whose spouse needed it and was denied a spot because the facility was about to close due to lack of funds.”
“I’m sorry.” There was so much more to this story, but it didn’t feel like his story to tell, so I dropped it.
“It was a long time ago.”
“I was going to send her to the rehab in town.” I tried to move the topic from his friend and what came out first? More about my sister. I wanted to show my gratitude, instead I worried I turned tonight into the all about Angel show. “They promised to get her ready for a group home. I didn’t know there was someplace better.” If I had, I would have been here years ago. How could I not have seen it in my research? How could no one have told me?
“Nor could you have?”