“Fletch I love you but could the record please show that I do not want to visualise my friends doing it so feel free to withhold those kind of details.”
He rolled his eyes. “Prude.” In vampire speed he retrieved a bundle of NSTs from my refrigerator and returned to the sofa. Taking a honey flavoured one from the bundle, he spoke, “So, you were saying...”
“He told me about his consort collection...and then asked me if I’d like to join it.”
Fletcher’s mouth fell open. “No!” As of this moment, he was absorbed in the conversation.
“Yes.”
“The randy bastard. You’d think three was enough. Well don’t keep me in suspense, tell me what you said.”
“I told him I didn’t want to be a consort again, and that I couldn’t sleep with someone who collected women – who all live in the same apartment, by the way.”
“No!”
“Yes.” I didn’t realise until now just how much this had all got to me. “He couldn’t seem to wrap his conceited head around that, and he wouldn’t let it drop. Then we had another kiss. I’d been absorbing some of his energy because I was wiped out from the blood link being broken with my Sire, but I couldn’t get him to let go of me before I took too much of his energy. So the idea of the kiss was to distract him.”
“That’d definitely distract randy ole Jared. I’m guessing from that look on your lovely face that it didn’t end there.”
“Oh no it did. I mean, we didn’t do anything more than kiss. But the kiss had gotten a bit...”
“Tongue-tastic,” he supplied.
“Yeah. So then Jared made his proposition again. I said no again and then we ended up arguing. I don’t even know how it got so bad. I mentioned that his brother didn’t have a consort and he seemed to take that as I liked Evan as well. And when I said he saw women as possessions like my Sire had, he got all pissed off telling me not to ever compare me to either of them again. He said he’d let it all go and I could get on with my ‘celibate lifestyle’.”
Fletcher tilted his head as he considered it all. “So, basically, he’s sulking over a bonk.”
“A bonk that I won’t have with him, yeah.”
He snorted and adjusted his glasses. “Half his problem is he’s too used to getting whatever he wants.”
“Have you noticed that Joy’s been turning up at the office at least once a night?”
“What? Who? Oh you mean that cross between a whippet and a witch. Personally, I don’t know how he can shag something that looks like it’s just escaped from Azkaban.”
I instantly burst into laughter. Thank God Fletcher had turned up. He always had a way of making everything not seem so bad. The truth was that it had it annoyed the hell out of me that Joy had been turning up the past few nights. She and I did the ‘hello’ and ‘bye’ thing but that was all. Once she brought the other two consorts along. Both were Kejas too and almost as gorgeous as Joy. Daniela had a very Mexican look about her and a bust that any woman would envy, which completed compensated for the fact that she was dopey beyond comprehension. Tammy was dark-skinned and very voluptuous but the devious expression that seemed to be fixed on her face kind of negated her beauty. They also hello-ed and goodbye-ed me. Daniela actually seemed sincere about it, as opposed to the other two; their dark grins always made it feel as though they were really saying, ‘We hate you, please die’.
Jared would watch me closely when they were around. No idea why. I took to focusing on whatever documents were in front of me, no matter what they were. I would sooner have left the office altogether but then it would have looked as though their presence bothered me in some way and I was not about to let Jared believe that. Even though it was true. I have to admit to having a lack of rationality where Jared was concerned, though it made no sense. As such, the whip nearly materialized in my hands a few times when Joy gave him them noisy kisses of hers. Whipping her into insensibility would have felt good.
“I wouldn’t let her or him bother you, luv. Spit him out of your mind. What about that Max bloke? He’s alright, and he likes you well enough. Luscious too.”
“Yep, he is,” I admitted. Max had continued his flirting and always on his own time, to his credit. I was actually beginning to think that the wanker wasn’t all that bad. The way he didn’t take life too seriously made him an attractive person to be around. I laughed a lot when he was there.
“Can I ask...I’ve noticed Evan goes to the office a lot these days, who is it he goes to see? I would’ve thought it was Jared, but whenever I pop my head through the door to speak to you he’s perched on your table.”
“I know how it might look, but I swear we’ve never flirted or anything. It’s always to see Jared but then me and Evan always end up laughing about something or other. I think he just finds it easy to talk to me because unlike every other woman in The Hollow I don’t mistake it for flirting and then try it on with him.” For some reason Evan had rejected every girl who showed interest in him, but he always turned them down gently; he was sweet in spite of the cockiness. Quite the opposite of his brother in that respect. One thing that really impressed me about him was that although his twin brother had been made Heir and was highly thought of and involved in absolutely everything, Evan wasn’t a bit jealous. He had told me that all that stuff wasn’t important to him; that he liked being just a Commander and that he thought his brother deserved the attention he received. “You know, I get the feeling that he’s a bit lonely sometimes, but I can’t work out why he seems to prefer it that way.”
“Oooh, maybe he’s secretly gay,” he crooned, excited. Then he suddenly sobered. “Oh luv, please don’t tell Norm about the ‘oooh’, he’ll kill me.”
I giggled. “I’ll take it to the grave.”
“You’re immortal. What grave?” He picked up another of the NSTs, a curry flavoured one, and eyed it suspiciously. “Why is it that this looks more like a burst abscess?”
Again I laughed. And that was pretty much how the evening with Fletcher went. I couldn’t help but absolutely adore the bloke. Every home should have a Fletcher.
Chapter Eight
(Jared)
Although Joy was whispering something in my ear about plans for tonight involving chocolate mousse, handcuffs and a whip, my eyes were on Sam. I guessed that Joy’s loud whispering was for Sam’s benefit. She felt threatened by Sam, I now knew, which was why she persistently appeared at the office, and I had to wonder if Joy’s mention of a whip was just to ensure that she got Sam the whip-queen’s attention. If Joy had succeeded, Sam wasn’t showing it.
She was at her desk staring at the documents in front of her, truly looking completely engrossed in what she was reading. Subconsciously she was twining a stray strand of her hair around her finger, reminding me of the time when I had my fingers in that hair. Her other hand was cupping her neck as she leant her head into it, reminding me of the time when I was leaving a trail of kisses along that neck. She was running her tongue along the inside of her bottom lip, reminding me of how that tongue had knotted with mine and how those lips had felt on mine. She was a greedy kisser, and I’d loved it.
The gentle rise and fall of her chest as she breathed was repeatedly drawing my attention to her cleavage that was already accentuated enough by that low-cut vest. God bless Fletcher and his clothing advice. Every time she twirled her ankle my attention drifted to those legs that had felt so good curled around me.