Min's Vampire (46 page)

Ten minutes turned to twenty, and Lucy
was about to just buy the meager pile of clothing she’d picked and
call it a day. Even sitting in class wouldn’t be so grueling. At
least there she was used to being ignored… though that might change
now that she was getting back her mojo… and her looks.

Suddenly a gorgeous young woman in her
early twenties breezed through the doors of the boutique, shot the
nervous looking saleswomen with a commanding, brilliant smile, and
then turned that smile on Lucy.

“
I hear you need someone to
help you spend the Enoch family fortune?”

Lucy smiled back. “Some of it, at
least.”

“
As long as you spend enough
to make Dante’s head explode, I’m in.” Her expression was
priceless. She was wicked and funny, and Lucy liked her
immediately.

“
I take it you don’t like
Dante?”

“
Oh, I love the old goat…
don’t tell him, he’d never let me live it down…”

Lucy suddenly felt a blush running up
to her face. “You love Dante?” The thought of Dante as a sugar
daddy to this very young beauty was enough to make Lucy
gag.

“
Yeah, I kind of have to…
he’s my father.”

Oh… that’s better. So I’m
going to spend Enoch money with a member of the family.

“
I’m Elaina, by the way.
Elaina Enoch.” She brushed her stunning ebony tresses over her
shoulder and extended her hand to Lucy.

“
Lucy Hart.” They shook
hands. Elaina’s manicure was gorgeous, as were the rings on her
fingers and the bracelets dangling from her wrists.

“
I know,” she said, then
turned to the saleswomen, “We’ll see everything again, and I’d kill
for a Bloody Mary.” Turning her attention back to Lucy she said,
“Everyone in the family has heard about you.”

“
Really?” Lucy tired not to
let her surprise show. They’d only worked out the deal the day
before, and already there was press going through the family about
it.

“
Of course. You can’t have
the Al—” Elaina coughed, “the next head of the company marrying
just any Lolita he sinks his teeth into… no offense. There will be
plenty of scrutiny on you, and not all of it will be as pleasant as
our little shopping date here will be.”

Lucy suddenly realized that she should
be acting the part of Gabriel’s moon-eyed fiancée. Had she already
blown it?

“
Well, I know it’s kind of
fast, but… but I’m really in love with Gabe… I mean Gabriel. He’s
just so…”

Elaina was looking at her like she was
telling the most hilarious joke. “First thing you have to do is
come up with a plausible, if not absolutely sickeningly romantic
story to float with the family. I’m surprised daddy didn’t already
give you one.”

Lucy just stared slack
jawed.

“
But, it’ll be better if you
come up with the details yourself. Dante has no imagination, and
he’s so unromantic. I’m surprised my mother hasn’t divorced him
yet.”

Just then a salesclerk brought Elaina
the Bloody Mary she’d ordered, and Lucy could see a legion of
saleswomen lined up with at least two items a piece in their hands.
They were practically salivating.

“
Anytime you’re ready, Miss
Enoch.” The lady practically bowed to Elaina.

Lucy was impressed.
This chick must shop like a maniac!

“
Give us another sixty
seconds, then bring over the first wave… and keep them coming.” She
turned back to Lucy. “Just remember to tell the story the same,
over and over… details are important, and the more romantic and
gushy the better. The Enoch family have weak stomachs when it comes
to sticky sweet love shit.” She took a healthy chug off her Bloody
Mary before she sat down beside Lucy on the leather
loveseat.

“
And don’t forget to tell
Gabriel… I mean, Gabe—that’s so cute!—all the details. It might
make him want to throw up, but his story is going to have to match
up with yours.”

“
You’re really good at all
this, aren’t you?” Lucy said as the first fleet of designer dresses
flew in for their inspection.

Elaina pointed at a stunning blue silk
number with intricate bead work on the hem and neck line. It
practically screamed Valentino. “I love that. It would drape
beautifully with your knock-out shoulders.”

Lucy looked at the dress and had to
admit it was gorgeous. She nodded her agreement.

“
And yes.” Elaina winked.
“I’m very good at keeping the truth from the family. I’m just
surprised Daddy didn’t ask for my help earlier.”

She smiled as Elaina plucked another
dress—Armani—and a lovely pair of silver Prada mules from the
stream of merchandise. “They really should have.”

She and Elaina cut a swath through
four more boutiques, stopping only long enough for a quick lunch at
a restaurant that would never take walk in customers, but the
moment they laid eyes on Elaina they were bumped to the top of the
list and were seated and had drinks within three
minutes.

She felt downright miserly compared
with this chick. Even at her best she only hit two stores a day,
and though many stores catered to her, they practically fell over
themselves trying to please Elaina.

She couldn’t imagine how much money
Elaina spent to deserve such devotion. Elaina, the goddess of the
shopping expedition.

They had just begun to shop in the
fifth boutique when they started talking about Gabriel. Lucy
confided that even with his great looks, his personality was sorely
lacking. Elaina cackled.

“
And I bet he loves you
calling him Gabe!”

“
Probably not, but he
deserves it.”

“
He does, doesn’t he?”
Elaina laughed, but then sighed. “But with a girlfriend like
Delia…” And immediately she looked like she regretted saying the
name.

“
That’s her name,
Delia?”

Rolling her eyes, “Yep, that’s her.
Can’t stand her myself, and I just can’t see what he sees in her…
but love is blind, I guess.”

Lucy leaned in, very interested. “So
what’s the what? Why is he hiding her from his folks?”

Elaina tilted her head and gave Lucy a
long, hard look. “Let’s just say that Delia would never be accepted
into the family.”

Well,
Lucy thought
. Maybe the family is a
bit more bigoted than Gabriel would have me believe.
Lucy decided she wouldn’t say this to
Elaina.

“
Is it a Romeo and Juliet
sort of thing? Feuding families and bad blood?”

Elaina smiled ruefully as she
repeated, “Bad blood…” She seemed to be rolling the words around on
her tongue, trying out the taste of them. Then she smiled.
“Something like that, yes.”

But then her head turned toward the
large front windows and her smile evaporated. “Remember I said you
needed to come up with a better story about you and
Gabriel?”

Lucy smiled nervously as she turned to
see what Elaina was looking at. Two tall, rather curvaceous women
were standing on the sidewalk in front of the boutique, peering in
through the window. They were both dressed in elegant clothes; one
in pants and a dark blue silk button down blouse, the other in a
short, form fitting yellow dress. They stood side by side, both
with their purses in the crook of one arm, the other arm bent with
the hand on their hip. And they both had their heads tilted
slightly, vicious smiles spreading across their faces.

“
Well, get ready for your
first performance,” Elaina whispered as the two women entered the
shop and made a beeline right to where Lucy and Elaina
stood.

“
What a coincidence!” the
one in the pants chirped. “Elaina, we were just talking about how
we haven’t even met Gabriel’s new bride-to-be.” The two women
looked over at Lucy with twin expressions of excitement and
expectancy.

Elaina moved perceptibly closer to
Lucy and beamed a killer smile at the two women. “Of course. Well,
this is Gabriel’s girl: Lucy Hart.” She placed her hands on Lucy’s
shoulders protectively, flashing her dazzling smile at Lucy for a
beat. Lucy was suddenly very glad Elaina was so close. “And these
are my cousins: Sophie and Olivia Enoch.” They nodded as she said
their names—so pants was Sophie, and the dress was Olivia. Elaina
squeezed Lucy’s shoulders. “They’re my Uncle Remy’s children with
his third wife.”

That mustn’t have gone over well with
the two sisters, since their smiles dimmed and more than a hint of
anger flared in their eyes. They were really quite similar, not
only in looks (both having caramel brown hair and dark blue eyes)
but the way they reacted to things.

“
A pretty name for a pretty
girl,” Olivia said, extending her hand for Lucy to shake. Her grip
was firm, for a moment, and then she let go and frowned.

“
Gabriel is a lucky man,”
Sophie said, her smile and eyes dismissive as they took Lucy in.
“She’s so…” Lucy could’ve sworn she’d sniffed the air.
“Tender.”

“
Well,” Elaina interjected,
“I’m afraid I have a pressing appointment and Lucy here is going to
be late for a date with her fiancé. So you will excuse us.” She
then looked around and wrinkled her nose at the merchandise hanging
on racks throughout the boutique.

“
This place really didn’t
have anything to offer us anyway. Just some leftovers from last
season, and a slew of prostitute wear.” She beamed her stunning
smile at the sisters and shrugged. “So we’ll leave you two to
it.”

As Sophie and Olivia’s expressions
fell and turned rather pissy, Elaina steered Lucy around the two
and out the front door of the shop. Twenty very speedy strides
later Elaina burst into peals of laughter, giving Lucy a big hug as
they moved down the street.

“
Now that was
fun!”

Chapter 8

ALONE in his office at Enoch
Industries, Gabriel answered an e-mail to a computer component
supplier in Malaysia: they would need to double their previous
order for this quarter. When he proofread the message, then hit
send, he checked his inbox, found nothing new, so he closed his
laptop. Looking around his desk, all he saw was a crystal pen
holder, his phone, and the brilliant shine of his black enamel
desk.

This had always been the best part of
his day. Even in high school and college, once he’d gotten every
last bit of work done, he felt an immense sense of peace. Nothing
orbiting on the periphery of his thoughts—that was how he liked
everything, which explained the Spartan furnishings he’d chosen for
his office. Gabriel didn’t like distractions of any kind. Single
minded was what he knew people thought of him, but he knew that to
keep track of such a large company as Enoch Industries you needed a
clear mind. Otherwise things could get ugly fast.

But it would be nice to have
a photograph of
her
on his desk.

The thought left him momentarily
breathless. Honestly, he knew that could never happen. Even if he
tried to… Delia was renowned, as was her family, quite notoriously
so. It would start a war, and though he would gladly give up
anything to be with her… war would be unthinkable.

He was about to hit the intercom
button and tell his assistant, Laurel, that she could go home. He’d
wrap things up before heading off to the gym and then home. But
just as he was about to touch the button Laurel’s cheery little
voice sang through the intercom and announced that his uncle Dante
wanted a word.

“
Send him in,” Gabriel said
as he got up out of his chair and moved in front of his desk to
greet the older man.

Dante was swift and almost beat him to
the front of the desk.

“
So, how did things go?”
Gabriel invited Dante to sit with a wave of his hand, and then took
a seat on the edge of his desk. “I presume you worked out the
details.”

“
Well, someone had to.”
Dante’s voice wasn’t unkind, but he did seem a little put
out.

“
Uncle, I’ve been swamped
here all week. And I knew I could trust you to negotiate the most
efficient deal.” Gabriel felt uneasy at the look his uncle had on
his face. “What kind of deal
did
you work out, uncle?”

“
Let’s just say,” Dante
spread his hands out, a gesture Gabriel knew meant Dante was
confounded, “from the way the girl negotiates for herself, she
should be well worth the trouble.”

Trouble?
“You mean she didn’t let Luvici do the talking?”

“
Not once money came into
the conversation. She obviously thought Francis was under
appreciating her worth.” He smiled wryly as he shook his elegant
head. “It really was good to see such… gumption in someone of her
generation.”

“
If you can equate gold
digging with gumption,” Gabriel scoffed, “then sure, she’s a
catch.”

“
I’m just saying, if she’s
that persuasive and convincing, then she should be in her element
when it comes to fooling your parents… and your Uncle Remy.” Dante
scowled as he checked his watch. “He’d love nothing more than to
discredit you… and you father. He is second in line.”