Min's Vampire (45 page)

“
Tell me about this girl
you’ve found… is she pretty?”

Gabriel chuckled, his chest
expanding and jerking with the effort. She loved the feel of his
body, especially at times like this, when it moved
unexpectedly.
So alive.

“
Jealous?”

Delia stabbed her finger into his
stomach, making him groan.

“
Okay, okay! You’re above
petty things like jealousy… and gratuitous violence.”

“
You think that was
violent?” She looked up into his eyes and fought off the craving
for him, and the yearning to just melt into those fathomlessly deep
brown eyes of his. “See what happens if you say she’s prettier than
me.”

“
Not even close.” He leaned
in and kissed her, tasting warm and alive.

After Delia nestled back into the
muscles of his chest, Gabriel continued. “She seems to possess the
attributes that will impress my family. And she’s shallow,
manipulative, and a complete gold digger.”

“
She will fit in well with
your family.”

Gabriel sighed and pulled her tighter
to him. “I’m going to ignore that one.”

She smiled and inhaled the delicious
aroma of his naked flesh.

“
But she is goal oriented,
and she has prowess when it comes to acting out a part and
manipulation. I truly believe she’ll be able to play her role more
than well enough to fool my family.”

“
Good,” Delia whispered,
though the feeling the thought of someone else being at his side
made her feel anything but.

“
And once she’s in place and
my family is no longer so fixated on finding me a mate, we’ll be
free to be together.”

“
Ironic how you need to get
married to someone else so we can spend more time together.” She
could hear the bitterness in her own words.

Gabriel looped his forefinger under
her chin and pulled her face up to his. “This was your
idea.”

She closed her eyes and pushed back
the sudden wetness and burning. “I know, I know. It’s just…” She
pushed all the crazy thoughts out of her mind. She would do
anything to be with Gabriel. Anything.

She looked deep into his eyes again.
“It’s nothing.” But there was something there. Something new and
uninvited. It was a feeling. That feeling that comes when you just
know things are going all wrong. She pulled herself up on top of
Gabriel, their bare skins sliding with the remnants of the fallen
rain. She straddled him, pushing her hands hard into the muscles of
his smooth chest, making him groan.

She stared into his eyes. If there was
something wrong, wouldn’t she be able to see it in his eyes? But
his eyes were filled with his usual longing for her. But was it
love? She needed more than anything to believe that indeed it was.
For if she didn’t have his love, then what did she have?

~*~

Lucy slept deep and hard that night.
Her dreams were of shopping in boutiques and huge high-class
shopping Meccas, of driving something sleek, expensive, and
midnight blue (a new color for a new life) and receiving acceptance
letters from every university she’d applied to. Even Stanford—that
one had come in a golden envelope and the words glittered magically
as she read them.

She woke the next morning still sore
but filled with purpose. Luvici was to pick her up shortly after
she left for school. He was to park three blocks away so that her
grandmother and mother wouldn’t suspect.

Her mother was still asleep—the late
shift always took it out of her. Lucy’s grandmother made her
breakfast, and Lucy picked at it, only taking a bite or two when
her grandmother was looking. She poured herself a cup of coffee
after discarding the rest of her food in the trash. If she didn’t
eat it, she wouldn’t have to work it off later. She would put off
starting her workout regime until her shoulder had healed, but she
would start dieting in earnest now.

She would miss her grandmother’s
cooking. Her own mother had only been a microwave kind of cook. If
it wasn’t for the full time cook her father had employed year round
Lucy would have never known there was such a thing as place
settings and silverware. Also, having a cook meant that when Lucy
had started eating low-fat, low-carb, the cook simply prepared
something different for her.

But her Gram’s cooking was special.
Though full of fat and sugar and salt, it was also filled with
love.

Lucy grabbed her book bag and gave her
grandmother a kiss as she made to leave.

“
Do you work tonight?” her
grandmother asked, catching her at the door.

“
Oh, ummm… yes. So don’t
wait up for me.” Lucy kissed her grandmother again. She didn’t like
lying to her, however she would be doing things in preparation for
her new job, so she actually wasn’t lying.

Sure you’re not,
Princess.

Five minutes later Lucy
found Luvici parked in a sweet, shiny red convertible. He had on a
pair of shades and was leaning back in the driver’s seat soaking up
some rays. He looked happy
... too damn
happy
. Lucy stood there just staring at
him.
Sure,
he’s
really feeling that financial crunch.

Finally she got into the passenger’s
side seat, wanting nothing more than to slap him good. All that
feeling sorry for him—finding he had layers, like some rumpled
puppy/onion cross breed—was gone. She was going to hold her tongue,
at least until Luvici drove her into San Bernardino, so she could
pick up the car Dante Enoch had waiting for her, and of course the
credit card. She would try not to be too late to school. But she
absolutely wanted to break the card in.

She was wondering what kind of car
Dante would pick out for her. Probably something practical; he
seemed a very practical man. But he was elegant too. Whatever it
was, it would be elegant. That, at least, was a comfort.

Luvici hadn’t moved a
muscle. Was he asleep? Lucy finally took a breath to tell him to
wake up, but ended up saying what was really going through her
head. “I thought you said you were broke?” She looked to him and
saw a smile slide across his face.
Jerk…
“I don’t call having this as a
second car being financially strapped.”

“
What would you call it,
then?” Luvici was looking downright smug behind his
sunglasses.

“
I’d call it a mid-life
crisis. Darla, Kenny… this shiny new penis shaped car. Looks like
someone’s feeling over the hill, trying to regain some of his lost
youth.” Luvici still had that irritating smile on his face. “What
would you call it?”

Luvici held out a set of keys in
Lucy’s direction without actually looking at her. “I’d call this
penis shaped midlife crisis yours.” He gave them a shake and the
keys jingled merrily, sparkling new in the sunlight.

“
Mine?” Lucy felt tingly all
over. Suddenly she started looking around at the sleek lines of the
car, how the red paint blazed in the sun, at the soft as butter tan
leather seats.

“
All you have to do is drive
me back to my office and you’re free to rack up all the speeding
tickets you want.”

Lucy smiled. “What makes you so sure I
won’t just take off and leave you in the dust?”

“
My unwavering belief in
human decency,” Luvici said.

Lucy snorted.

“
And I have your credit card
in my wallet. And you don’t get that until I’m safely deposited at
my office.”

Lucy reached out and took the keys
form Luvici. “I was just kidding. I’d never just ditch
you.”

“
Sure you wouldn’t.” He
didn’t sound as if he believed her.

Lucy got out of the car and headed
over to the driver’s side. Luvici awkwardly crab walked over the
gearshift and plopped into the passenger seat. Lucy was surprised
the man could move like that. She was sure from his belly that he
hadn’t done exercise of any kind for over a decade. Unless you
counted boffing Darla and Kenny as exercise, then maybe he was
fitter than he looked.

“
Where’s the trust?” Lucy
slid in behind the wheel and turned the engine over with a wicked
roar.

“
Just don’t kill us, okay
Hart?”

Lucy smiled at him calling
her “Hart.” It was funny and made her almost like him.
Almost.

~*~

A credit card through Enoch
Industries, in her name, and a spanking new iPhone came with the
car. And after Lucy left Luvici in a cloud of dust at the curb of
his office building, she decided an impromptu ditch day to break in
the credit card was in order. Every boutique on the main drag of
San Bernardino was calling her name. She chose a store that was
new—since she wasn’t really in the mood to run into one of her
former girlfriends—and the shop really did look promising. Gucci
and Prada adorned the front windows.

Lucy parked the shiny new convertible,
closing the top and locking the doors… something she’d never done
with her own car. She just thought that if anyone actually did
anything to it, Daddy would buy her a new one. Now she knew Daddy
wasn’t buying her anything, anytime soon. And though the car wasn’t
technically hers, it felt like it was. She felt a little swoon of
happiness as she hit the car alarm, admiring her own reflection
coming from the polished-to-perfection paint-job.

Like it was a movie, Lucy
turned dramatically to face the front of the boutique.
Get ready salespeople, I come bearing
platinum!

And as soon as she flashed the
platinum credit card she was suddenly barraged by three
pathologically cheerful salesladies. In no time at all they brought
her a plethora of dresses, shoes, lingerie, silk tops, and designer
jeans. She’d stacked up some promising pieces for reconsideration…
and the sales staff was bringing her more with blurry speed. They
had even offered her champagne—a platinum card must make everyone
look older than they are.

But for no apparent reason Lucy
suddenly felt tired… depressed… like somehow finally getting to
shop was—unbelievably—disappointing. Usually she’d had already
decided on twenty different items and would be effortlessly picking
out more. But she only had five things piled up, and nothing was
looking good to her, even though she knew they were beautiful, and
they’d be even more gorgeous on her.

What the hell is wrong with
me?

And then she saw a couple girls pass
by the front windows of the shop, both laughing, both laden with
shopping bags.

Am I lonely?

The thought was really disturbing. She
hadn’t felt lonely, not even after she’d lost all her friends and
found herself incarcerated in Four Corners. She’d felt betrayed and
angry, but never lonely.

Lucy asked the sales women for a
breather. “I just need to make a phone call. Won’t take but a
minute.”

“
Of course,” the lead
saleswoman said, ushering the other clerks away with a terse clap
of her hands.

Lucy sat there, holding her phone. She
couldn’t call anyone she knew. Her old friends were out of the
question… and her family couldn’t know about what she was up to.
Lucy hit the phonebook option on her new phone and found the
numbers for Dante and Gabriel Enoch, and Enoch Industries already
programmed in. Lucy couldn’t picture Dante or Gabriel standing
around helping her spend their money on a heap of designer
clothes.

Luvici’s number was programmed in too.
And not just his office phone number. It had to be his cell. He’d
been pushy on their one shopping excursion, but he’d been good
company, and he had great fashion instincts. Lucy bit her lip,
weighing her options—but since she had none, the process
accelerated right into her clicking his name and him picking up on
the second ring.

“
Did you burn a hole in the
credit card already?”

“
Funny,” Lucy had to smile.
He
was
really
funny. “I haven’t actually bought anything yet.”

“
What’s up?”

Lucy suddenly felt really stupid. She
should enjoy spending money on herself. This was something she was
really good at. “I’m not having any fun,” she confessed. “I used to
do most of my shopping with my girlfriends… but they’re not my
friends anymore… not that they ever really were.”—What am I saying?
He isn’t my freaking shrink!—“It’s just…” She just couldn’t say it
aloud.

“
You’re lonely?” Luvici
asked.

“
Yeah…” She bit her lip
again, and then asked in a tone far too desperate for comfort, “Can
you come and shop with me?”

“
Me?”

“
Yeah, you... you were great
yesterday, and I feel like I’m sinking here.”

Silence. Then Luvici chuckled. “I’m
swamped right now, but I know the perfect someone to be your
shopping buddy. Where are you?”

Lucy told him her location, and Luvici
told her to sit tight, “She’ll be there in ten minutes.” Then he
hung up.

Lucy suddenly wondered who “she” would
be. She was praying it wouldn’t be Darla. Pretty woman, but she had
a tacky edge that just wouldn’t be conducive to shopping anywhere
other than Victoria’s Secret.