Min's Vampire (58 page)

He’d wanted to follow her home, to
grab her and hold her and kiss her beautiful, pouty lips. But he
hadn’t. He’d gone home and tried his best to get some sleep. But
what he’d dreamed of fitfully was all Lucy, and he’d woken more
than once hungering for her to be beside him, to be in his
arms.

Laurel’s voice sang over the intercom.
“Your fiancée, line one.”

Gabriel snatched the receiver up so
fast he almost dropped it. All his thoughts of trying to distance
himself from Lucy until he’d figured things out flew out the window
as he said, breathlessly, “Lucy? What can I do for you?”

~*~

To Lucy’s utter amazement Gabriel not
only sounded happy to hear from her, he jumped at the chance to
come to her grandmother’s for dinner. Lucy had a confusing moment
where she envisioned Gabe as a cute little puppy, wagging its
little puppy tail, and then said puppy morphed into a huge, fur and
fang and claws and bulging muscles werewolf. The image was as
unsettling as it was exciting.

And then Lucy broke the news that her
grandmother knew about him being a werewolf. “And I kind of told
her about Delia… and our little arrangement.”

She heard Gabe’s breath hiss through
the connection. “You told her!”

“
She kind of could smell you
and Delia on my clothes.”

“
She could smell
us?”

“
Yeah, and she knew right
off what you were, so since the… since the wolf was out of the bag,
I sort of just spilled my guts.”

“
How was she able to smell
us? And how did she know?”

“
Long story.” She still
wondered about that herself. Would she be able to do that little
trick someday? “It’s a thing. So can you still come? I don’t think
she’ll take a no on this.”

Lucy couldn’t believe it, but Gabriel
laughed. “I wouldn’t miss it. Your grandmother sounds intriguing…
and I…” His sudden silence wasn’t very long, but it did have Lucy
straining to hear what he said next. “And I’ve been thinking about
you.”

Okay… sound the alarms! This
wasn’t good.
Even though Lucy had been
thinking about him all day too, the fact that he was returning the
favor made Lucy feel like the earth was shaking beneath her feet.
Her heart was thumping fast, and she had a delightful tingling
running its way up and down her spine. Yet the feeling that she was
stealing something, another woman’s love, it filled her with a
clash of guilt.

“
Well…” Lucy found herself
speechless, even with all the things swirling in her head, things
that she wanted to say, things she should say, things that if she
had a conscience at all she would say—that he still had a
girlfriend.

Still…

Just having that word in that thought
made Lucy feel even worse.

“
Well Gram will be anxious
to meet you. I told you six o’clock, right?”

Gabriel paused before he answered.
“You did.”

“
Okay then, I’ll see you
then.” And Lucy hit the end button on her phone.
That wasn’t a bit awkward. Not a bit.

~*~

Lucy knew she shouldn’t be so happy
that Gabriel was driving all the way to Four Corners just to see
her, but she couldn’t deny the thrill that thought evoked in her.
Also she couldn’t deny that there was a big goofy smile plastered
on her face the entire time she spent getting ready. The effort she
put into choosing the right outfit, shoes, makeup and what earrings
she’d where—the same pair she had on last night… the same perfume
too—said she was way too eager to see him again.

Guilt splashed cold water on her face
every time thoughts of Gabe made her a little too happy. She kept
trying to remind herself that only a day ago she hadn’t liked
Gabriel at all. The thought that she would actually be feeling
something warm and gushy for him twenty-four hours later would’ve
made her laugh.

But that was yesterday. Unfortunately,
Lucy hadn’t felt this sinking, overwhelming guilt yesterday either.
Two new, nearly equally matched intense emotions thundered in her
head, her chest, and belly, and roiled just under her flesh. It
wasn’t funny.

Lucy found herself sitting out on the
front porch, trying to inhale enough fresh air to drown out her
conflicting emotions. It wasn’t working. She checked her watch: it
was twenty minutes after six—He’s late, she thought with more than
a little annoyance.

Rich or werewolf or
amazingly hot... where does he get off making me wait?

The annoyed feeling was so
nostalgically welcome that Lucy embraced it with open arms, and
reveled in how it made her feel. A bit of the old Lucy…the entitled
Lucy.

And then a really expensive looking
car rolled down the block toward Lucy’s house: a midnight blue
Jaguar XP. It swung into the vacant space at the front of the
house. Lucy wasn’t surprised to see Gabriel climb out of the
driver’s seat. What did surprise her was how her annoyance with him
vanished in the blink of an eye, replaced instead with an intense,
rather enjoyable tingling that played up her spine, settled in the
back of her neck, and then started to give off heat.

She stood and watched Gabriel throw on
his sport jacket, and walk up the sidewalk to the porch steps. The
look in his eyes as he looked up at Lucy didn’t help at all. There
was definite heat, and hunger in those dark, melted chocolate eyes.
And he was very happy to see her. She knew the look well, and would
never have thought Gabriel would ever be beaming it at her. But she
also wouldn’t have imagined that that look would make her skin turn
hot enough to make her yearn for a bucket of ice.

Wonder if he’d rub some ice
over my skin?
Lucy found Gabriel smiling up
at her, and she suddenly wanted to be the one rubbing ice
over
his
flesh.
Or maybe my tongue…

“
Am I late?” he finally
asked.

Lucy shook her head, feeling a little
dizzy as she stared into his eyes. “Gram just put the rolls in the
oven, so you’re… good.”

He licked his lips, unconsciously, but
it made Lucy’s knees shake. She wanted to taste those lips again,
and the look on his face said he was thinking the same thing. She
was in trouble and sinking fast.

And then an annoying thought crossed
her mind. Sure, they had that one really hot kiss, and it was just
last night… and he’d risked his rather pretty hide to save her from
his homicidal girlfriend—but how could he be looking at her the way
he was, after what he’d said to Delia? They weren’t just words, but
a declaration of love.

At least they should have been. They
had sounded so sincere. They had felt so true when he’d said them
to Delia. So true and so real that Lucy had felt the sting of
jealousy. And yet there he was, looking at Lucy with just as much
affection—maybe more?—and she found herself wondering what kind of
guy could… could… the mere act of trying to identify the lecherous
way he was behaving towards both of them was pissing her
off.

What kind of ass is this
guy? What kind of man could profess his love to one girl and the
next day be giving another girl the eye? What kind of man is
he?

She turned in a huff and
walked back into the house, leaving him standing there at the
bottom of the porch stairs. She hoped that he couldn’t enter the
house without an invitation, even if he wasn’t a vampire, and she
really didn’t know if that bit of
Buffy
folklore was true, but she hoped
it was.

“
He’s here, Gram!” she
hollered toward the kitchen, heading up the stairs. She was no
longer in the mood to look pretty for Gabriel Enoch. She yanked and
pulled her dress off and then slid into the pair of jeans she’d
been wearing earlier and slipped on a pair of flip-flops. Maybe the
slapping sound they made when she walked would piss
Gabriel
off!

Then Lucy rummaged through
her closet until she found what she was looking for: her
Team Edward
T-shirt.
Pulling it on over her head she smiled naughtily at the
implication, checking out the effect appraisingly in her full
length mirror. She pulled her hair back into a casual
ponytail.

There
, she looked at herself in the mirror.
Let him get all excited about this.

~*~

Lucy padded down the stairs, her
flip-flops making their most spectacularly irritating sounds. She
was certain if Gabriel was in the house, he’d probably be in the
living room. That’s where guys like him lounged. And that’s where
her sainted grandmother would insist on him relaxing while she
finished preparing dinner. So, Lucy headed straight for the
kitchen. Maybe she could still talk her grandmother into fixing
sloppy-joes.

But when she walked into her
grandmother’s warm, well-worn kitchen she found Gabriel at the
kitchen sink, his sport coat hanging on the back of a kitchen
chair, the sleeves of his hundred dollar silk dress-shirt
rolled-up, doing dishes. He was chatting with her grandmother about
some bizarre historical fact about the town of Four Corners, while
Lilly was mixing up her homemade gravy.

Lucy noticed how really
happy they seemed, just standing there talking. She then noticed
the stunning arrangement of daisies, columbine, and tiger lilies
sitting in the center of her grandmother’s table, in her best
crystal vase. Lucy hadn’t noticed he was holding flowers. They
couldn’t have been for
her
—he would’ve given them to her as
soon as he saw her standing there.

Now, looking at the arrangement, she
had a good feeling that he’d bought them precisely for her
grandmother. Wild flowers were her favorite, especially those three
kinds. So he’d come with gifts to placate her grandmother. And, to
Lucy’s horror, it seemed to be working.

Lucy gave herself a mental head slap
and tried to shake off her animosity. She really shouldn’t be
trying to make her grandmother dislike Gabriel. No matter how she
felt about him—and truthfully, those feelings were changing every
time she turned around. She’d practically fallen over into his arms
when he walked up to the porch, and then not twenty seconds later
she’d wanted to slug him… or maybe key his car. But now, looking at
how great he was being with her grandmother, she was starting to
feel all warm and tingly about him again.

She even thought about turning around
and going back upstairs to change back into her previous ensemble.
Yet just then her grandmother turned around and saw her standing
there and said, “Well, there you are! I had to…” She took a good
look at Lucy’s clothes, and her words came out in slow erratic
bursts as she looked Lucy over. “Well, I… had to let… Mr. Enoch
here in… but I could have sworn you were waiting for him on the
porch.”

“
I was,” Lucy said in a flat
tone. Gabriel turned his head enough to flash Lucy a quizzical
smile, and there was some heat in his gaze.

“
Oh,” Gram said as she shook
her head. Obviously trying to figure out why Lucy had changed her
clothes was more than she was up for. She turned and beamed a wide,
brilliant smile at Gabriel.

“
Now stop washing those
dishes. Dinner’s ready to be served.” She strained the gravy she’d
been mixing into a gravy boat and held it out to Gabriel. “If you
want to help, take this out for me and place it on the dining room
table. There are hot pads already down. Just put it on top of
one.”

Gabriel dried his hands on a dishtowel
then took the gravy boat out of Lillian’s hands, walking off to the
dining room.

“
What a nice young man.”
Lucy stood there in stunned silence as she watched her grandmother
fan herself with a small cutting board. She was flushed and looked
about ten years younger.

“
Oh my god…
Gram!”

“
What?” Lillian said, giving
Lucy a surprised glance at her outburst, then turning her
attentions back in the direction Gabriel had taken.

“
You’re not seriously
drooling over my… my…”—well, what exactly was he?—“my fake
fiancé?”

Gram scoffed, but she was still
fanning herself. “I’m old, not dead.”

“
This evening could not be
more disturbing.” Lucy took a glass from the cupboard then poured
herself some pink lemonade from the fridge.

“
So you’re disturbed by
him.” It wasn’t a question. “Is it him, or
what
he is?”

“
You’re not helping.” Lucy
put the cold glass to her forehead and breathed. She just needed a
minute to think.

“
I could send him to the
store two blocks over for some milk. That would take him at least
five, ten minutes.” She was just a little too pleased with
herself.

Lucy shot her a scathing look. “I’m
fine. He can stay. And you can quit with the
interrogation.”

Gram just grinned. That grin said way
too many things, in Lucy’s opinion.

Dinner was great. Gram had outdone
herself: braised beef roast, glazed carrots, string beans, garlic
mashed potatoes made from scratch, and fresh baked rolls. Lucy
noticed that Gabriel had two helpings of everything. She could tell
from her grandmother’s expression that that pleased her
plenty.