Min's Vampire (52 page)

Excellent,
Lucy thought.
I’ve still
got it.
Then she thought,
Pig…

A doorman ushered her through the
front doors, and standing there in a freshly pressed black linen
suit stood Frank Luvici. Not only was the suit tailored and wrinkle
free, but his shoes shone and his hair was neatly slicked back.
“Nice driving. I can smell the burnt rubber from here.”

Lucy smiled. Only a few weeks ago
Luvici had made her ill. But since then he’d grown on her like some
sort of likable mold. She gave him a wide eyed once
over.

“
Who knew you could clean
up?” She winked at him. “Who’d you borrow the suit
from?”

Luvici gave her a lopsided grin then
offered her his arm. “Funny.” He led her past what could only be
described as three human Rottweilers. They were all in matching
tuxedoes, and they had the same body types—muscular to the point
they had no necks.

The muscle in the middle moved to open
another set of doors.

“
Everybody’s been waiting
for you,” Luvici said. “The family’s been practically drooling with
anticipation.”

“
I heard.” Lucy smiled at
the way both Gabe and Luvici had described the family’s
anticipation. Lucy looked up at Luvici. “So what are you doing
here, looking all dapper?”

“
Dapper, really?”

Lucy nodded. “You look
fantastic.”

“
Well, I couldn’t miss you
meeting the family. It’s just one of those things, like train
wrecks and reality television.”

Lucy rolled her eyes at him. “Very
funny.”

“
And I kind of have to be
here. You can’t get out of a family event.” He nodded toward the
doors as they opened to an immense ballroom. “Especially not
ours.”

“
Oh,” Lucy said, her eyes
widening for real this time. But her attention was torn away from
Luvici a moment later.

The ballroom was decorated with wild
flowers, roses, orchids, and lilies. Candlelight made the room
sparkle and glow. Huge crystal chandeliers hung from the vaulted
gold inlayed ceiling, and the walls echoed the same theme, gold
encrusted walls and long, elegant inset mirrors. Carved vines and
flowers and angels shimmered from the gold.

The parquet floor was deep mahogany
and polished to a dazzling sheen. But no sooner did Lucy take in
the grandeur of the place than she realized that the three hundred
or so elegantly dressed partygoers were all suddenly staring right
at her.

She gulped.

“
The natives look hungry.”
Luvici dove right on into the crowd of Gabe’s family, pulling her
along, introducing her to a couple dozen aunts and uncles, nephews,
nieces, great aunts, great uncles (one an older, more distinguished
version of Luvici: his father.) Lucy felt as if she were being
twirled around in an ever quickening dance. Before she knew it
everything turned into a blur. She didn’t even notice when Luvici
was replaced by Dante.

Dante looked, if possible, even more
regal and handsome than before. She’d seen him a few times when
she’d gone to see Gabe at Enoch Industries, and they’d talked often
on the phone. He’d filled in some of the gaps in Gabe’s
history.

But even with Gabe and Dante hand
feeding her facts and crucial events from Gabe’s past, she still
felt there was something huge missing. Something that just made the
picture they had painted not quite mesh. If Gabe’s life had been a
jigsaw puzzle Lucy knew she would never be able to finish
it.

Too many pieces
missing.

Fun…

Abruptly Lucy found herself standing
before Gabe and the most elegant, beautiful middle-aged couple she
had ever seen. The man was a larger, broad shouldered version on
Gabe, with long graying hair swept back from his face in thick
waves, just long enough to touch his collar. The woman had long
golden blonde hair pilled in exquisite curls on the top of her
head. Her dress was vintage Dior, silver silk, and hugged her
rather lithe body to perfection. She was stunning.

The parents,
Lucy thought with a mental gasp. If Dante had
looked like royalty, these two were certainly the King and Queen.
Lucy felt underdressed, outclassed and yearning to have a few
months more time to prepare herself… or reinvent
herself.

But that wasn’t happening. You didn’t
get do-overs in real life. So she took a deep breath and offered
her hand to Mr. and Mrs. Enoch.

“
So,” Mr. Enoch said,
smiling broadly. “This is the young lady who has captured my son’s
heart.” He bowed and kissed Lucy’s hand. When he straightened back
up he said, “I am Jonas Enoch, and this is my wife,
Vivian.”

Vivian Enoch smiled as she took Lucy’s
hand and gently shook it. A beautiful warm smile was in place, but
her eyes were cold and searching… questioning. She obviously didn’t
believe her son had eyes for Lucy. That or she simply didn’t think
Lucy was good enough for him.

Either way, the coldness in
Vivian Enoch’s eyes made the annoyed heat ignite in Lucy’s head.
Where only a moment ago Lucy had felt she was over her head, and
drowning in the varied richness and elegance of the Enoch family,
now Vivian Enoch’s chilly gaze filled Lucy with that good old
feeling of
Who does this bitch think she
is?

Nice,
Lucy thought as Mrs. Enoch released her hand and gave her a
flat, cold glare.
She hasn’t said a word
and I’m calling her a bitch…

“
Lacey,” she said
intentionally, rubbing the fingers of the hand Lucy had just shaken
like something sticky had rubbed off. “I’ve been dying to meet
you.” She gave Gabe a rather chilly smile too. “Gabriel has
absolutely refused to bring you to the house. I can’t for the life
of me understand why.” Her gaze returned to Lucy. “You’re just…
stunning.”

Oblivious to his wife’s obvious
dislike for Lucy, Jonas Enoch held out his arm to Lucy, asking,
“May this old man have the first dance?” He was addressing both
Lucy and Gabriel.

“
Of course,” Gabriel said.
He looked at Lucy as he always did. Friendly, yet distant, as if he
expected her to pick her nose, or break out in hillbilly
song.

At least now I know where he
gets it from,
Lucy shuddered.
That cool way of making you feel like you’re below
him, and he’s slumming it just talking to you. Good old
Mom.

“
I’d love to,” Lucy said,
smiling at Jonas with genuine warmth. She didn’t spare a second
glance for Vivian. She would have to ask him someday why he’d
married a woman like her. But for the moment she let herself take
in the thrill of being the object of everyone’s attention as Jonas
Enoch lead her out onto the dance floor.

There was a small orchestra by the
dance floor, and their music just seemed to flow through the room
like water in a stream, as if it had been playing the entire time:
a waltz. Lucy had heard it in a movie once. Mozart or Chopin or
someone dead long before the advent of electricity, or the hair
dryer, or anything else Lucy found instrumental to everyday life.
But the music was beautiful, and Jonas Enoch was an amazingly
graceful dancer, twirling her around the floor, yet never pushing
so fast that she could not keep up.

She suddenly realized that Jonas
Enoch’s hands were hot, just like Gabriel’s and Dante’s
were.

Jonas caught Lucy’s eyes in his gaze
and smiled. “So what are your intentions for my son, young
lady?”

Direct. Maybe he wasn’t as affable as
she’d thought.

“
What do you mean?” Lucy
said, stalling for time, trying to get the more calculating and
clever part of her brain to take over.

“
What I mean is no one has
even heard of you before a couple of weeks ago. Where has he been
hiding you, and what has he been doing with you?”

Okay, now we’re
talking.
Lucy hit Jonas Enoch with her
million dollar smile.
This guy is sharp,
and no amount of guile and complement is going to placate or fool
him.
So Lucy decided to go for the honest
approach… kind of.

“
Well, we haven’t really
known each other much longer than that.” Lucy smiled up at Jonas as
if to say, that’s that, and Jonas gave her the expression of being
unimpressed she was looking for. “Well,” she continued, “Gabe
really wants to go further… if you get the drift, and I told him
flat out that I wasn’t about to sleep with him until there was a
huge rock on my finger and a big old honking checking account at my
disposal.”

For a moment Jonas Enoch looked as if
he were going to turn red as a fire hydrant, and then his handsome
expression relaxed and he chuckled. “You’re good… you really had me
going there.”

Lucy beamed her best smile up at Jonas
then felt something warm slide up inside her chest, something that
made her heart start to thump in her chest. And suddenly she just
started talking. Not really to Jonas, not really to anybody, maybe
just to herself.

“
There’s just something
about him… Gabe, you know?”

Jonas nodded and took a breath to say
something, but Lucy just kept talking.

“
It’s like, most of the time
he drives me crazy. He’s so freaking bossy and anal, and he’s just
such a jerk sometimes… but then sometimes when we’re alone, and
he’s talking, telling some stupid, pointless story about college,
or boating, or whatever… I just can’t take my eyes off
him.”

“
Love is strange sometimes.”
Jonas looked a little confused. Obviously he hadn’t expected his
future daughter in law to bad mouth her betrothed at the engagement
party. “Truth be told, I spent most of my youth hating my
wife.”

Lucy looked up at him with shocked
eyes. Was he really saying this?

“
Vivian was my best friend’s
little sister. A real snob, even though we were both from wealthy
families, both going back…” He coughed, and then smiled at Lucy as
if he were just remembering she was there. “Let’s just say, she had
no place looking down her pretty little nose at me… but that didn’t
stop her. And then one night, at the party for her brother’s
graduation, we just started talking… mostly about her brother…” The
look on his face was as if he were remembering the most wonderful
night ever. “And then right before I left she pulled me aside, onto
a balcony overlooking the King… er, I mean a garden, and right
there and then she kissed me.”

“
Oh…” Lucy whispered. She
felt like she was melting inside. “That’s so romantic.”

“
Yes, it was very romantic.
And then she slapped me and wouldn’t talk to me for three
weeks.”

“
How did you get her back?”
She felt her breath coming more and more rapidly. She just had to
know.

“
Well, she waited for a
hunter’s moon, and when our two families were in the forest, she
lured me onto a mountain and, well…” Jonas’ face blushed
beautifully. “She jumped me.”

Lucy laughed as her own face
flushed hot just thinking about it.
Cold as
ice Vivian jumping big old Jonas’ bones.

“
That’s our little secret,”
he said tensely. “If Vivian ever even suspected I told
you—”

“
She’d jump your ass, but
not in a good way?”

“
Exactly.”

Suddenly a large, gorgeous young man
deftly lifted Lucy’s hand from Jonas’ and spun her around and out
of her dance partner’s arms.

“
Micah!” Jonas said,
chuckling again. Jonas had a great laugh. “Be careful with your
brother’s fiancée.”

Lucy’s eyes snapped wide open with
surprise. Looking up at the tall, handsome man who was spinning her
around the dance floor with blurry speed, she could see a little
resemblance to Gabe…something about the eyes and the set of the
mouth, but truthfully he was a taller, broader version of his
father.

Where did these huge beautiful men
come from? Lucy was used to maybe six foot tall quarterbacks, the
occasional six three basketball player. But Jonas and Micah were
enormous.

“
I’ve been dying to meet
Gabe’s brother.” Lucy started to feel a little dizzy as Micah
twirled them a path through the crush of dancers.

Suddenly Micah spun her around and
deposited Lucy, dizzy and breathing heavily, onto a marble bench on
a veranda. The view of the city was beautiful. She looked up at
Micah and saw the most mischievous smile.

Crap!
Lucy was flashing back to Jonas’ story: the balcony, the kiss.
What the hell was going on? Was she going to have to defend herself
from a big meaty Viking of a future brother-in-law? She would’ve
worn something more athletic if she’d known.

Micah plopped down on the bench beside
her, throwing one of his muscular, tuxedo clad arms over her
shoulder. He smelled like a forest… no, a wild garden? And she
could see, even though his suit was very expensive and stylish, he
was wearing it completely rumpled, as if he’d been partying in it
for days. Even his longish dark blond hair was tucked haphazardly
behind his ears.

“
I’m surprised he mentioned
me. We don’t see eye to eye on most things. He’s more business
minded, and I’m the…” he stopped, staring out into the night,
searching for the right word.