Honeymoon Bite (Golden Vampire Legacy) (13 page)

“You called Monika last night and woke her up.”

“Robert!” Anne crossed her breasts with her arms and turned away from him to hide her nakedness. He disappeared behind shower curtain after yanking it closed.

“I still live here,” he whined.

“We’re fixing that today.”

“You called for me, over at her place. You needed me.”

“I called her,” Anne shouted over the top of the curtain, “before . . . dinner . . . and told her to confirm you’re coming over here today to begin the move. I didn’t wake her up, Robert. It was the middle of the afternoon.”

“Yeah, well someone called at one A.M. this morning. Someone with heavy breathing.”

“Absolutely
not
me. I was . . .” She couldn’t tell him what she was doing. She felt her cheeks blush. “Maybe it was one of Monika’s boyfriends you don’t know about.”

Robert swore.

“Weren’t you there? With Monika last night?”

“No.”

“So what happened to you? Who did that to your neck?”

“Long story. Gary and I . . .” Robert’s voice trailed off. “We went out and met some girls . . .”

Terrible timing. Now you decide to be a little honest with me. You dog.

“Ah, so that explains your wounds.” The thought pleased her.

“Wounds?”

“Your neck,” Anne said as she turned off the water and took the towel Robert offered her through the curtain. “Thanks.”

She secured the towel around her and pulled back the plastic curtain. Robert’s sad eyes scanned her face and shoulders. “Looks like someone repeatedly stabbed you with a pencil,” she added. “You got any vampire girlfriends I don’t know about? Not that it makes any difference to me.”

He squinted and sucked in air. Then he cursed and left the bathroom, slamming the door shut behind him. Through the wooden slats he yelled, “I’ll talk with you when you’re out. I’ll wait in the living room.”

Anne slipped into her bedroom, dropped the towel, and dressed quickly. The cream-colored terrycloth still smelled like Marcus. She straightened the satin sheets on her bed and got another whiff of him. She missed him already. Her heart flipped.

She found Robert sitting on the living room couch, one knee over the arm.

He sipped from a mug of fresh coffee. “Damn, I sure do miss your coffee.”

Too late. Way too late, Robert.

“I’ll bet. I’ll bet you miss it real hard as you bang my former best friend all over our house.”

“You don’t have to say things like that, Anne. Only makes things worse between us.”

“How could it be worse, Robert? There is no
us
.”

Robert nodded. “Okay. I get how you feel.”

“No, you couldn’t possibly know how I feel.” She heard his heart skip a beat, saw the vein tense at his neck. She held no attraction for him. Just for his blood.

Got to get this over with quickly.

“Forgive me, Robert, if I indulge in a little resentment, seeing as how my best friend was fucking my husband. My husband who should have been enjoying his wedding day with his wife instead of that bimbo.”

He turned and faced her.

“She’s not a bimbo.”

“So, just what is she? She’s your girlfriend, the girlfriend you chose over your own wife?” Anne was getting riled, in spite of her desire for control. Was this anger something she would have to be careful of? She felt the fangs in her mouth extend slightly.
Calm down. He doesn’t understand.

“We decided to end it,” Robert said. “We talked about it this morning.”

“What?” Anne stood there in shock, listening to the sounds of the shower drip. She also heard the lovemaking going on across the orchard, the dog barking on the back porch three streets over, and the bees talking among themselves as they buzzed and hovered in apple trees. She could hear all this, and yet, her world suddenly seemed so small.

“That’s all you can say, ‘What?’ Not exactly a ringing endorsement for my former role as your husband.”

“No, you were never really my husband.”

“And you in there feeling yourself up. Who were you thinking about, hmm? You have a new boyfriend? So soon?”

“Soon? You, the one who said ‘I do’ and then banged my maid of honor? What do you care?”

Anne was confused by Robert’s comments. Monika apparently was smarter than Anne thought. The mere idea of Robert moving in probably had sent her former friend into a panic. She would bet almost anything except Marcus’s life that Monika broke up with Robert, not the other way around. Her admiration for the slut went up a notch.

“I want to talk it over, see if we can work things out. Maybe go to counseling.” Robert’s eyes were contrite and pleading.

Oh, God, no. This can’t be happening.
She realized what she had longed for was now beginning to happen—just when she no longer wanted it.

“Sit down, honey.” He patted the area beside him. She sat in the cotton flowered overstuffed chair across the room. Robert shrugged and hung his head. He rubbed his face with both hands, suddenly reached for the ceiling, stretching and letting out a large groan.

How hard could this be, she wondered, finally telling the truth? But she guessed whatever Robert had to say wouldn’t be one hundred percent the truth. Not like Marcus.

Marcus.

The pain in her heart, the need to be enveloped by Marcus, brought tears to her eyes. She wished she were sitting on his lap. She wished she had his strong neck and chest to hold on to. Then perhaps Robert could see he didn’t have a chance. Perhaps he would no longer delude himself that Anne would take him back.

So this is what he’s thinking.

But that wasn’t happening. Marcus had left her alone to clean up the mess that was her marriage. And now the worst possible outcome was in front of her. Robert wanted to apologize and come back. She could read it all over him. She had hoped he would say something that really pissed her off so that she could just get him out of her life quickly.

She wanted to add a couple of puncture wounds to those hickies on his neck, but that would mess up everything.

He stood up and came over to where Anne sat. He kneeled and put his hands on her knees. His eyebrows arched in forced sincerity.

She did not soften to him. He probably didn’t expect her to cave, either. Anne thought his blackberry collar ridiculous and she stifled a laugh.

“Annie, honey, I have been a real fool,” Robert said. “I’ve had the best thing any guy could want, right under my fingers, and I’ve not appreciated it. God, I am so sorry, honey. I love you so much.”

Anne stayed stoic. She was unprepared for this.

“I want to make it work out between us. I want to make it like it was before we got married. Remember that, honey? Remember how we were so much in love? Remember how we found each other, how we just loved being around each other all the time?”

She reached for her memories. Seemed so long ago when the sound of his voice, his laugh, thrilled her. “Yes, I do, Robert. I felt that way at one time. But no more. Something tells me you never did. I don’t think you ever stopped seeing Monika.”

“No, I did. When we went skiing in Canada, and other times too.”

“Damn it, Robert, she was a whole country away!” Anne got up and went into the bathroom, slamming the door and locking it behind her. She was beginning to get hungry and she didn’t want him to see it. She didn’t trust herself.

Robert followed her. He leaned against the wooden door and whined, “Anne, honey. I am a complete idiot. You are always the one I loved. Look, if I could cut my pecker off for you, I would.”

“Go away. I want you to go away. I want you to move out, today.”

“No, honey, I can’t do that. I love you too much. You’ll change your mind. I’m gonna try real hard. You’ll see.”

The thought of Robert trying really hard was almost laughable, if it wasn’t so sad.
She recalled her evening last night with Marcus. She smiled and shook her head. It would be impossible for her ever to forget Marcus.

Help me. Help me out here.

There was no answer.

Chapter 13

Robert sat in the cab of his pickup, staring at the outside of Anne’s little place that had been their love nest. At least, up until the wedding the place had been their love nest. Now it was something else entirely. A fortress. A series of locked doors keeping him from talking to her, smiling at her, reasoning with her.

Anne was so different now. She was unshakable in her resolve. He’d had to work to catch a few shirts and another pair of jeans that she had thrown at him. He had begged her not to throw his cell phone, so she’d lobbed it for the easy save. And when he had asked for the cell phone charger, she’d thrown it, aiming for his head. Her arm was as good as any pitcher he’d ever seen, and he even felt she had held back. God, she was beautiful when she got angry. And so strong, too. Why was it he always loved the girls he could never have? Then when he did get one, like Anne, he’d go and blow it by running around.

His life had gone to shit in just a month. Yesterday he had Miss Monika—and as much of her as he wanted as often as he wanted. And he had the woman who had agreed to be his wife, had agreed to share his life with him, and who made him feel like a better man even though she went on their honeymoon without him and claimed the marriage was null and void.

A minor problem.

He wondered why it was that way, how some women seemed to bring out the best in a man and some others, well, they brought out something else.

When they first met, Anne had been everything he looked for in a woman: smart, sexy, and delighted in making him happy. She was always helping out kids at some teen center or at the home for battered women where she volunteered. He had done a little free work for some of these women, replacing windows and doors destroyed by abusive boyfriends or husbands. He kind of loved being a good guy. He had no trouble staying away from those poor women. After all, he wasn’t a complete rat.

It was almost like there were two parts of him, the good part, and then the bad part. Anne always fed the good part of him.

He had to admit, he wasn’t ready to give up that part of his life—the good Robert. That’s why he hoped Anne would change her mind, would come around, like she had before their wedding. He thought she knew about some of his dalliances. But she had been occupied with planning the wedding those past few weeks before the Big Fiasco, and hadn’t seemed to notice anything. So Robert had taken the opportunity to roam. And the more he did it, the more the other side of him seemed to pull him harder. He thought one of these days he would change; he’d wanted to keep to the good side permanently. But he sure as hell wasn’t there yet. He really was not to be trusted. He just wished Anne wouldn’t dismiss him and would give him a second chance.

In the last thirty-plus days, he had gone from having both women to now having none. And how the hell was he supposed to get female companionship when it looked like his last date had been with a gorilla? A gorilla that liked to bite? His neck hurt like hell, too. He could barely turn his head.

How he wished Anne would open that front door and take him back, wearing something black and sexy, like what that woman or last night. How could he have been so dumb?

And Monika was acting funny too, with all her toys and experimental things she wanted to try all the time. He was beginning to think maybe she didn’t like his taste anymore. He always had to put something on that smelled like some tropical fruit.

Am I losing my touch? Am I that boring in bed now?

He started the truck and drove off, but not before checking in his rear view mirror, hoping for the sight of Anne running down the street to stop him from leaving. Damn, she’d looked good, healthy and flushed in the cheeks, bright red lipstick that looked way better on her than Monika.

No, the street was empty. No Anne. No second chances this time. He’d try to call her later. Maybe she would change her mind.

He was not sure where he would be spending the night. He decided to keep trying to call both women. Hopefully, one of them would let him in. And then he could do the grateful sex. He was good at it, had lots of practice.

But more than likely, judging from Monika’s demeanor on the phone this morning, he would be bedding down at Gary’s. He dialed his best friend. When Gary answered, he wheedled, “Ah, Gary, I might need a place to stay tonight. Neither woman is speaking to me. Can I bunk with you if I can’t get through to either of them?”

There was silence.

“Gary, you there?”

“Holy crap, Robert. What the hell happened?”

“I don’t want to go into it. It kinda hurts.” This was true.

“How’d you manage to get them both mad at you, Rob?”

“Incredibly bad timing. Look, I’ve got a full day, but I’ll buy dinner or drinks if I can stay there tonight.”

“You’re on. I had no plans, not that I didn’t try. Hey Robert, Anne divorcing you?”

Great. Just great.

“Not that I blame her, no offense,” Gary added.

“You asshole. Shut up, Gary.”

“Look, I’m single. You’re the one that went off and got married.”

“Her brother says we’re not even legally married.”

 “What’s Monika’s beef? She never seemed to mind before . . .”

“It’s a long story. What do you care?”

“I don’t. I was just wondering.”

“Gary, you piece of shit. If you touch either of them, I’ll come over there and go caveman on you with my baseball bat.” Except that his bat was at the house he couldn’t go into, but the threat sounded good.

“No worries. Who do you take me for?”

“Gary, let’s face it. You’re just like me.”

Robert walked into his construction office. His doting secretary, Elena, took one look at his neck and dropped her coffee cup.

“Oh, Jesus, Mister Robert.” She made the sign of the cross. “You have had a fight. Very unfair. He bite you. Very unfair fight, Mr. Robert.”

“No, Elena, there was no fight. Don’t worry. I’m fine.”

She made the sign of the cross again just for good measure. She waddled down the hall, mumbling, then went into the bathroom and closed the door.