Bliss (The Custos) (12 page)

              "Preacher said he gave you your memories back, I'm glad."

              I nodded and played with the label on my bottle of bud.

              "I’m sorry I took them. With Infatuation it was best to not remind you of that night at my house."

              And the memories flooded in, his kiss his touch and I wanted that again, only more I wanted to finish it. "Did you know who I was at the bar or were you really in it because you were interested?" I had to know, even if the answer sucked I had to know, needed to.

              Before he spoke the Jukebox started playing The Stones 'Beast of Burden' and I was shocked to my core when Cash lent his hand to me and said "Come on."

              His dance was neither seductive nor sexy, but it was scratching me. He held me close and spun in me around at all the appropriate spots and it did its job. I was paying attention.

              We danced throughout the night, and he took the lead each time. On breaks from the small dance floor we sat in our booth and talked and drank and it was fun. The rude stares and snide comments were no longer with us, we had connected, but it wasn’t just a sexual tension thing. He answered questions about his past. He was from England but moved to Greece shortly after the death of his son. His barely there accent had faded from his years of life.

              We were side by side laughing at a tasteless joke about a Vampire, a werewolf and a witch when I laughed and knocked over my shot of whiskey spilling it on his shirt. He stood and lifted the shirt to wring out the whiskey and flashed me his abs, for a brief second and I lost all thought. He was cut and I saw enough that the smooth plains of his stomach made a perfect path of muscle leading to his groin and over that soft skin was a tattoo, a cross it seemed in the brief glimpse I had, and it was smoking or on fire.

              "So much for my Rainy day smell you love so much." I laughed but he was right and I had told him every time we danced.

              "I’m sorry." I said laughing. I wasn’t drunk but I was buzzed and I felt good.

              His eyes were filled with heat as I stood from the booth to get a towel but stopped when his gaze fell on me. "Don’t be it’ll wash." The words were not sexy or promising but his stare was. I was compelled to touch him, I had to and as I stepped forward the waitress came by for last call.

Put it all on my tab." He said his eyes still on mine as he handed her his card.

             
"I have money, you didn’t need to pay for me."

              "Say Thank you Princess."

              "Thank you Princess." I said and smiled before leaning in and kissing his cheek. "I'll be right back." I went to the ladies room and freshened up and tried to reign in my nerves. I knew that when I went back out there that the night would go on, same as it had been and that we would end up in bed. There were no more secrets and we both wanted it. I was smiling when I walked out.

              Cash was waiting for me his jacket on and reached for my hand. "Let’s go."

              I held his hand comfortably as we walked to the van. On the driver’s door we saw a note from Preacher. He went home with the waitress and asked that we pick him up at a park a few miles from here.

              "Good thing I flirted a few beers from the waitress." He said and winked, showing me the beers on the inside pocket of his jacket. "When was the last time someone pushed you on the swings Princess?"

              It had been too long to remember and my smile showed him how much I liked the idea. As we drove I couldn’t help but wonder about tomorrow. What if they couldn’t find this Conlin guy? The idea of being turned over to a killer freaked me out.

              "I can smell your fear Princess, what’s wrong?" He reached for my hand and I let him glad for the comfort.

              “I thought you couldn’t breathe? How can you smell my fear?”

              “Its more like I know it I guess. We don’t breathe but when emotions run high we pick up on it and fear smells like rain, not me.” He smiled and winked at me. “You smell a lot like a rainstorm Princess, what’s up?”

              "What if you can’t find this Conlin guy?"

              "Then we keep looking till we do. There is nothing to fear."

              I said nothing more and hoped he was right. By the time we made it to the park I looked at my watch. It was almost three AM and we were meeting Preacher at four. A lot could happen in an hour.

              There were no swings at the park, only a few benches and some picnic tables so we opted to sit on the back bumper with the doors open. Our beers were in brown bags courtesy of the waitress at Cally's. Cash handed me mine and we made a toast mine was to the Gods of designer clothes and his was to the waitress for giving us these beers.

              We sat in silence for a while the night air was cool and Cash was close, real close and I could smell the Whiskey I had spilled on him earlier as it mixed with the smoke from the bar, all mixing with the unique rain smell that was Cash. He was clean mixed with dirty, good mixed with evil and I was so desperate for a taste. "Tell me the truth Princess because after what I seen tonight I can’t help but think that yeah maybe I had you pegged wrong."

              I shrugged my shoulders and looked away because he was intoxicating me more than the few drinks I had inside. "Not much to tell Cash. I used to have an hour a week with my Dad when I was younger. He would set aside one hour on Wednesday nights to have dinner with me. He would talk himself blue in the face while I ate silently." I took a swig from my beer, the brown bag rustled as I slid it back from the mouth of the bottle. "See it was never me he talked to it was always, advisers or secretaries or to his next biggest account setting up T times for Saturdays. I would sit silently. When I turned sixteen he gave me my own credit card and I went crazy, anyone would." I stopped and looked at my feet because I feared looking at him.

              "He stopped the dinners after I got the credit cards, and then came cars and then my trust kicked in when I turned twenty. He said he would pay for college as long as I lived at home where he could keep me under his thumb, so I did. I let him pay for my education and when I decided to further my true dream in culinary arts, you know what he said to me?"

              Cash looked at me then and if I didn’t know better I would have sworn he looked like he was sad, for me maybe? "What Princess?"

              "He said that no daughter of his would waste away in some filthy kitchen serving ungrateful people slop. I have spent every day for the last four years wasting his money every chance I get."

              I couldn’t look at him or I would crack. I was so bare to him right now and I was scared of what he thought, like everyone did: that I was money hungry and irresponsible.

              "It makes sense." He finally said. "I figured the guy was an asshole for putting a hit on his daughter but to insult your dreams...." He shrugged his shoulders. "It makes him a douche."

              I laughed and leaned into his side. He wrapped and arm around me and pulled me closer.

              "So what you gave up wanting to be a Chef?"

              I shook my head no before looking at him. "I cook every Sunday at the Homeless Shelter. I cook a mean seven course meal with all the trimmings and I charge it all to my Father and sit back and smile when I see grateful people enjoy my cuisine."

              "I wish I could eat because I would love to taste your food."

              I looked at him then and I wanted to kiss him, I wanted to feel his arms around me and see those sapphire eyes close behind his lids in passion. "I could season a bag of blood for you." I teased.

              He started laughing, that same deep gut laugh that he did in the bar and his smile was so refreshing, exposing perfect strait white teeth, not the fangs he used to hiss at me with. "I could." I laughed with him. "I could throw a bag of O Neg in the Crockpot and let it simmer all day."

              We laughed for what felt like hours when a breeze picked up and tousled my hair. Before I could tuck it behind my ears I felt the cool palm of his hand on my cheek as he slipped strands of my hair behind my ear. He didn’t move his hand after he just cupped the back of my neck and looked at me. I don’t know if it was the alcohol or the fact that I cared for my Father as much as he did but in that moment I could feel him looking at me and actually seeing me. London not London Chase heiress of the Chase fortune, I was Princess and from him...I don’t know why but it was right. I didn’t move all I could do was look at him with the same intent, his alabaster skin so pale against the black of night. I could feel the power of every corded tendon and muscle in his arms as he raised his other hand to my neck. Now holding me in his hands literally I had two choices. One I could lean back, or two lean forward.

              I leaned forward.

*

Chap
te
r
Ten

London

His kiss was so soft and so sweet I knew that when I looked back on this moment I would say it was when I fell in love with him, but right now I was fighting that. His lips were soft and they felt like satin and I wanted so badly to let go and feel him, feel anyone for once in my life, I had to gasp and make sure I wasn’t suffocating in him.

              He kissed my forehead and then my jaw, just below my ear and I shivered. "Are you cold?" He asked his voice thick and full of need.

              "No." I whispered. "Just the opposite."

              "I feel it to you know." He said as I leaned my back against the jam of the doors so I could face him. He reached for my hand and kissed each fingertip. "How scared you are to let me touch you, I feel the same fear about you."

              "I am a mere mortal, how could I scare you?" I asked playfully, but he was serious when he answered.

              "For that reason. You’re so.... alive. You’re skin blushes when I say things, certain things. And your heart thunders in your chest when I’m near or when I touch you and you gasp, not just breathe but gasp when I kiss you. You did that night and you do now"

              Listening to him describe his effect on me made me want him more, that I was certain I had played it cool. I was a fool, he had senses I couldn’t fathom and my body gave me away every time.

              "It was you that I wanted Princess." His voice was so low and totally meant for me. "I didn’t know you were my mark till that fax." He dropped a few more kisses on my fingertips and smiled.

              He overwhelmed me, I was lost to him and desperate to get free of the cage he was locking me in. It scared me because the cage was all I wanted and he held the key. I said the only thing I could think of."I asked my Father once if there was a time ever in his life that he loved me and wanted me, that I was his." I didn’t need to look up to know he heard me, I could feel his eyes on me. "He asked me how anyone could love a rock in their shoe. I don’t want to be a rock in your shoe; I don’t want to drain you like I did him. I’m baggage dude."

              "Dude?" He asked and raised an eyebrow.

              "You know what I mean."

              "I do and you’re not baggage to me, or to Preacher. I wanted you before I knew who you were, I replayed that moment in my head a dozen times and what I would have done differently, but they all were the same result. I would have met you and wanted you regardless." His words were so strong and powerful just like him.

              "Preacher said I was a pain in the ass."

              He laughed and scooted closer to me. "He's right; you are a pain in the ass. Your full of yourself and a smart ass and you never bite your tongue. I like that about you. I have been around for a long time Princess and I find you refreshing and exciting and you keep me on my toes."