Vampire, Interrupted (18 page)

“Why the long face?” Julius asked by her ear, his arms slipping around her waist from behind.

“Good morning,” Marguerite said, her lips curving up into a smile as she leaned back into his embrace.

Julius caught her chin in his hand and brought her face around and up for a kiss that may have started as a gentle brushing of lips, but didn’t end that way. Moaning as his tongue invaded, Marguerite turned in his arms to make the angle less awkward and then gasped in surprise when he immediately lifted her to sit on the counter.

“Julius,” she laughed, breaking the kiss and trying to push him away. “Someone could come in.”

“Tiny’s in the shower and everyone else is still sleeping,” he growled, his hands urging her knees apart so he could step between her legs.

“Yes, but—Oh,” she breathed. He’d tugged her blouse from her skirt, raised it up to uncover the red lace bra she’d donned after her bath and immediately began to run his tongue along the flesh at the edge of the lace.

“But?” he asked against her skin.

“But,” Marguerite agreed on a sigh, one hand sliding into his hair and the other moving over the smooth skin of his back. He wore only his jeans, leaving his chest and back bare for her to touch unhampered.

Julius chuckled and tugged one cup of the bra aside so that he could latch onto the excited nipple beneath and Marguerite groaned and unconsciously shifted her hips forward, groaning again as the core of her pressed lightly against his erection. Julius immediately let go of her blouse, letting it drop over his head as his hands reached for her hips and tugged her more firmly forward so that they ground against each other through their clothes. They both groaned then and he withdrew his head from beneath her blouse, abandoning her breast to kiss her again.

Marguerite kissed him back frantically, her hand slipping between them to find that while he’d donned the jeans, he hadn’t bothered to fasten the button, simply pulling up the zipper. There was no need for fiddling with fasteners, she simply slid her hand inside and found him hard and eager.

Julius thrust against the caress, his own hands finding her skirt and beginning to lift it up and out of the way. It was the buzz of the coffeemaker announcing that it was done brewing and the coffee ready that brought her to her senses. Blinking her eyes open, she peered around the kitchen and immediately broke the kiss and caught at his hands to stop him as they slid between her legs.

“We can’t,” she gasped.

“We can,” Julius assured her, running his lips down her throat as he brushed his fingers against her through her panties.

“Oh, noooo,” Marguerite moaned and then shook her head firmly and redoubled her efforts to catch his hands, this time digging her nails into his skin. When
he lifted his head to look at her, she said, “Tiny or one of the others will find us half dressed and unconscious on the kitchen floor.”

“Oh, right.” Julius sighed, dropping his head on her shoulder and letting her skirt fall back into place. Then he lifted his head abruptly and suggested, “We could go back to bed.”

Marguerite smiled at his hopeful expression, but shook her head. “Work. I have work to do.”

“Did I hear someone say work?” Tiny asked as he entered the kitchen and then his eyes found them and rounded. “That doesn’t look like work.”

Grimacing, Marguerite pushed Julius away and slid off the counter. “Good morning.”

“Good morning, again,” Tiny said with amusement, reminding her that they’d already met once that morning.

“Right,” she murmured, then, hoping to distract him, said, “The coffee just finished.”

The moment Tiny turned to glance at the coffeepot, she quickly reached under her blouse to readjust her bra, slipping her breast back inside. While her blouse had hidden the fact, she’d been uncomfortably aware that it was still out under there. Catching Julius’s amused grin, she made a face and moved to collect cups, asking him, “Do you want coffee?”

“Not yet,” he answered. “I think I’ll go take a shower.”

“Marcus was heading in next and Christian has already called dibs on following him,” Tiny announced as he retrieved milk and cream for the coffee.

“Then I guess I’m having coffee,” Julius muttered.

Marguerite smiled with amusement at his disgruntled tone as she collected three cups and moved to the coffeepot.

“So, did you call Martine? When are we going to see her?” Tiny asked as he joined her by the coffeepot.

“Yes, I called her, but there’s a problem,” Marguerite said on a sigh as she poured the coffees. “She isn’t home.”

Tiny looked as disappointed at this news as she’d been. “Where is she?”

“In London if you can believe it,” she admitted dryly. “It seems while we were on the train here, she was on another train heading to London for a weekend with her daughters.”

“Her daughters live in London?” Tiny asked with a frown.

“No. They’re at university at Oxford. They were catching the train into London to meet up with her.”

Tiny raised his eyebrows. “Impressive.”

“Juliana and Victoria are both very bright,” Marguerite said proudly.

Tiny nodded, but then shook his head with a wry expression. “So we headed up here from London to talk to her and she’s gone down to London.”

“Hmm,” Marguerite murmured and then shook her own head and said, “You’ll never guess where they’re staying.”

Tiny raised his eyebrows. “Claridge’s?”

Marguerite shook her head. “The Dorchester.”

He gave a short laugh at that, and then sighed and glanced from Marguerite to Julius before asking, “So…do we hop on the train and head back?”

“No,” Julius spoke before Marguerite could voice an opinion. “Martine is only gone for the weekend, she’ll be back tomorrow or the next night. I rented this place for a week, and besides with our luck, something would come up and she’d be heading back this way as we went down and we’d pass each other again.”

Tiny nodded and then glanced to Marguerite. “You could call her.”

“I’d rather talk to her in person,” she said.

“Then maybe we should check the archives again while we’re waiting,” Tiny suggested. “We may have just missed—”

“You didn’t miss anything,” Julius said quietly. “Christian’s birth was not recorded anywhere.”

“Right. Good to know we wasted all that time,” Tiny muttered, and then said impatiently, “You know it would make things a hell of a lot easier if you just told us her name.”

Marguerite waited for Julius to tell the detective that he “couldn’t” as he had her, but he merely smiled and said, “Where would the fun be in that?”

When Tiny scowled at him, he slapped his back on the way to the coffeepot to pour himself another cup and said, “Cheer up. It means you have at least two days to tour York before you have to get back to work. And it’s on Christian.”

“Leave it to you to find the silver lining, Father,” Christian said dryly from the doorway.

“Good morning, son,” Julius said with a grin. “Your hair’s wet. Does this mean you’ve had your shower and it’s now free?”

Christian shook his head. “Marcus is in there.”

“I thought Marcus was showering after me,” Tiny said with a frown.

Christian grinned. “So did he, but I’m younger and faster.”

Julius shook his head mournfully. “The youth today, Marguerite. They have no respect for their elders.”

Tiny snorted at the words as he moved to the refrigerator. “Five hundred and something isn’t a youth, Julius.”

“He’s right,” Marguerite said with amusement. “Tiny’s the baby in the group.”

“Yeah, and at thirty-five I look the oldest,” he said with disgust as he removed bacon and eggs from the mini-fridge and set them on the counter.

“Are you planning to cook something, Tiny?” Julius asked with interest and then frowned as he moved forward and caught a glimpse of the contents of the small appliance. “Where is the blood?”

“Yes, I’m planning to cook. I’ll cook enough for the three of us. And the blood is in the mini-fridge in the living room. There was no plug in here for it,” he added to explain why it was in the living room and not the kitchen.

“You did manage to get another refrigerator, then?” Marguerite asked with surprise. “Where?”

“You don’t want to know,” Tiny said dryly, and then sighed when Marguerite raised an eyebrow in question and said, “None of the stores were open, of course. So, the guys ‘convinced’ the neighbor to sell us his.”

“Oh, dear,” Marguerite breathed.

“We paid him twice what it was worth and gave
him money to replace the groceries in it as well,” Christian assured her quickly.

“Needs must, Marguerite,” Julius said quietly when she merely shook her head.

“I hear Marcus on the stairs,” Tiny announced. “Go shower, Julius, or your breakfast will be done and cold before you get back.”

Julius didn’t need any more prompting than that. Nodding, he kissed Marguerite on the cheek and headed out of the room with his coffee.

Marguerite watched him go with a smile, then started to turn to Tiny to ask if there was anything she could do to help, but paused when she saw Christian grinning at her.

“What?” she asked, grimacing when she felt the blush riding up her cheeks.

“Does this mean you’ll be my mother?” Christian teased lightly.

Marguerite’s embarrassment fled at once, her expression becoming serious, she said slowly, “I would be more than proud to claim you as a son, Christian.”

The teasing in his expression leeched out of his face and he swallowed thickly, then nodded. “Thank you, Marguerite.”

“Are you all right?”

Marguerite grimaced as Julius paused and caught her arm to keep her on her feet when she stumbled. Shaking her head at her own clumsiness, she laughed and said, “I’m fine. I shouldn’t have worn these heels, though. I didn’t even consider the cobblestone walks when I dressed tonight. It’s uneven and they slip on the smooth stone.”

“They look good, though,” he complimented, his hand releasing her arm to slip around her waist. Letting it rest rather low on her hip, he squeezed gently as he peered down at the high-heeled silver shoes she wore.

Marguerite peered down at them herself, noting that they did look good, and they went well with the silver cocktail dress she’d donned for the show and dinner Julius had planned. Raising her head, she grinned at the interest in his eyes and ran a hand lightly across his chest.

“Mmm.” Eyes beginning to glow as the silver flared in their depths, he turned her into his arms, his head lowering to kiss her, but Marguerite laughed and put a hand to his chest to hold him off.

“Behave. We are on a public street,” she reminded him.

“We are,” he agreed solemnly. “But as I recall there is a snickleway not far up the road. We could duck in there and—”

“Ruin our clothes when we both pass out afterward and probably be mugged while in a dead faint and helpless into the bargain?” she suggested dryly, then pulled free of his embrace and caught his hand to urge him to follow as she continued up the walk. “Besides, you promised me food.”

“Food.” He sighed with mock despair, but started to walk again, even as he muttered, “Passed up for a burger.”

“Who said anything about a burger?” Marguerite asked with amusement. “When you said restaurant I thought you meant proper cuisine.”

“That was the plan,” Julius agreed. “But a burger
joint would be so much faster, and then we could go home and—” He paused when she turned and arched one eyebrow at him. A slow smile curving his lips, he murmured, “You look so cute when you get that look on your face. It just makes me want to—”

“Everything makes you just want to,” Marguerite said on a laugh.

He raised an eyebrow himself now. “And you don’t want to?”

“No,” she assured him solemnly as she walked back the few feet now separating them. Placing a hand to his chest, she leaned up to kiss him apologetically on the lips and then whispered, “And the fact that my panties are wet right now is because it was so hot in that theater, not because I only have to look at you to want you.”

Marguerite watched Julius’s eyes widen, but the moment his hands reached for her, she whirled away with a laugh and started walking again, saying over her shoulder, “Feed me. Woman cannot live on love alone.”

“You’re a hard woman, Marguerite Argeneau,” Julius growled, catching up to her quickly and taking her hand in his.

“Yes, I am,” she agreed with a grin. “And I’m looking forward to trying the moules mariniere that Tiny mentioned he had last night when he, Christian, and Marcus stopped there.”

“Hmm,” he scowled. “That probably takes forever to make. We will be there hours.”

“The anticipation will do us good,” Marguerite assured him with amusement.

“You can go off a person, you know,” Julius
warned, but squeezed her hand to let her know he was teasing.

Laughing, she paused at the door to the restaurant and reached for the handle, letting her hand drop away when he reached past her and opened it for her. She stepped inside, her gaze sliding over the busy restaurant with interest. The lighting was dim, romantic music played softly in the background, and the tables were arranged so that each had enough privacy not to feel intruded on by neighboring tables. They were met at the door, whisked to their table, and their waiter arrived at once, bearing two glasses of champagne to accompany their menus.

“So, did you enjoy the play?” Julius asked once they’d placed their orders.

“Very much.” Marguerite smiled. It had been a modern comedy that had had her laughing from the start, even distracting her from the heat in the theater. Unfortunately, mind control didn’t work over the phone and Julius had been forced to make do with what tickets were available. Their seats had been high in the back, nearly in the rafters. It hadn’t been a problem, with their exceptional hearing and vision they’d seen and heard everything just fine, but it was a warm evening and the theater had been full, heat rising off the bodies and leaving them sweltering in the upper seats. It wasn’t until the play was over that she’d realized just how hot. It had been worth it, though, but now that she’d been reminded of the free sauna they’d enjoyed, Marguerite thought a trip to the ladies’ room to give her face a splash and check her hair might be in order.