Chapter 10
10
I did a double take when I pulled up in front of the address Marlena had given me. I crosschecked the information on my appointment card against the sleek metal numbers posted on the side of the structure, imagining it all couldn’t be a single house. Sure enough, I was at the right place.
Robert Bramson’s home, which easily could have doubled for a small college campus, was designed in my favorite architectural style, mid-century modern. It was positioned far off the street, literally built into a cliff that overlooked the ocean, its stark white paint contrasting brilliantly with the coffee-colored earth it nestled against. Its placement looked precarious, as if nothing stronger than a gust of wind could send it crashing down into the sea below. Not particularly relishing that thought, I was relieved to note the dozens of steel beams that supported the foundation. Most of the walls of the house were made of glass. Through them, I could just make out a tall form gazing out from behind gossamer drapes.
As I tucked my keys into my handbag, I reflected on the absurdity of wearing a gown that had cost more than the vehicle I’d arrived in. As far as I was concerned, it was worth the expense for as fine as it made me feel, though it was easy to be cavalier about the cost of designer couture when I wasn’t the one footing the bill. It was dark out, so I had to be careful not to trip over the train of the dress.
I shuffled my way down the bleached concrete path toward the house, trying to appear graceful in precarious three-inch heels. It wasn’t easy. I raised my hand to press the doorbell, but like what had happened when I’d first gone to Dignitary, the door opened before I had a chance to ring it. Maybe it was a vampire thing.
I’d expected a housekeeper, but an exquisite specimen of manhood in a satiny tuxedo stood in front of me instead. I rocked back on my heels, the wind knocked from my lungs. I could not recall a single time in my entire life when I’d ever laid eyes on a human this good-looking. Not in any film or magazine, and certainly not in real life.
He was built as solidly, towering nearly a foot above me. His complexion was the same color as Marlena’s, but impossibly smoother, like liquefied silk. His intelligent eyes were a deep blue-grey color that I’d never seen on any mortal creature, the irises bordered with a thin circle of silver. His glossy dark hair was combed to one side in a formal style, still damp from the shower. He smelled faintly of soap, expensive aftershave, and . . .
Oh no.
He was scowling.
This beautiful immortal didn’t like me.
“Robert?” I squeaked.
“Come in,” he sighed. At least he held the door open for me. I half expected him to slam it in my face.
Though Erika had warned me about Robert’s moroseness, his scornful gaze knocked my confidence down about ten thousand pegs. I did my best to smile as I stepped into the bright light that flooded his home, fighting against the bizarre nervous spasm pulsating in my cheek. I bit down on the inside of my mouth, desperate to maintain a modicum of professionalism. I was getting paid for my efforts, after all, even if the guy was a complete jerkwad.
I acted as if I wasn’t remotely unsettled that my back was to a predator. I cursed Michael and Marlena for not providing me with a handbook on vampires. It would have been nice to read up on them prior to my date—no, decoy assignment. If he sunk his teeth into my neck, how long would it take to drain me? Was there anyone else in the house, or was I on my own with the gorgeous bloodsucker, parading around like a snack in heels? Could he smell the garlic I’d eaten last night? So many questions.
Robert shut the door and I turned around to face him. My heart raced. He was almost painful to look at, like the sun. But unlike the sun, I couldn’t tear my eyes from him, even if he hated me.
His stare traveled over me, from toes to head. It wasn’t a violating gaze—the kind a creeper at the gym will give you when he doesn’t think you can see him in the mirror—but more one of . . . what? Curiosity, maybe. Disdain? He was hard to read.
I started when he spoke.
“You’re different than I expected.” His voice was calm, even, deep. The epitome of masculinity.
“If you’re not happy, I’m sure Dignitary could send somebody else,” I responded tartly.
His eyes widened. “No. I only meant to say that you are different. I did not expect somebody so . . .”
I raised my eyebrows.
He clasped his hands, composing himself. His expression remained guarded. “All I wished to say is that you are lovely.”
“Oh,” I said, momentarily stunned by his comment.
“Can I offer you a drink?” he asked, Mr. Manners now. “We have a few minutes before we must leave.”
“Um, sure. That would be nice.”
He extended a hand toward the living room. “Please, make yourself comfortable. I’ll be right in.”
He busied himself at a built-in bar as I sashayed toward the living room. Normally, I wasn’t one to sashay, but I couldn’t help it in a formfitting silk dress with a train. I still couldn’t believe I was wearing Seraphim Blythe!
My suggestive gait was not overlooked by my companion. He’d stopped toiling and was standing motionless, observing me with his tranquil grey eyes. “You’re stunning. The dress, it suits you,” he said matter-of-factly, a statement rather than a compliment. Then, unrelatedly, “I must fetch some champagne. I’m sorry, I didn’t realize I was out.”
Without another word, he left the room.
I floated on, feeling like a million bucks. I knew it was somewhat pathetic (okay, it was pathetic) to let a man shake my confidence to such an extent. Nevertheless, it was a relief to know that Robert didn’t find me hideous, particularly because I categorized his handsomeness at a sex god level. This man—vampire—was the incarnation of every erotic fantasy I’d ever had, wrapped up in a ritzy tuxedo. I no longer questioned if we, immortal and mortal, were physically compatible. I knew we were, just like I knew my underwear needed to be wrung out.
I pinched the inside of my arm, checking myself. Unfortunately, I had Marlena’s rule to follow, so fantasizing what it would be like to have Robert inside me was the most I could do. Pity.
I laughed quietly and shook my head at my presumptuousness. How delusional was I, thinking that it I have a chance with him, anyway? He could have any woman he wanted.
In the living room, I went to sit on the sofa, but then changed my mind when I thought about having to get back up in the constrictive gown. I’d nearly faceplanted trying to get out of the car but had managed to right myself at the last second by flapping my arms at my sides like chicken. I was not eager to execute a repeat performance in front of my sexy date. Client . He was a client. It would serve me well not to forget that, given how much I needed employment that paid as well as Dignitary.
It felt unnatural just standing there, so I had a look around. Not surprising, there wasn’t a single element in the space that didn’t infer wealth. Unexpectedly, though, for every bit as modern as the outside of the house was, the inside was contrastingly antique. The walls were adorned with beautifully detailed tapestries of nude elfin women, cherubs, and demons, most depicting mythical battles between good and evil. Near the back of the room was a tufted bench about as long as a school bus, upholstered in plush black velvet. Its claw legs were carved from mahogany so smooth it could have been chocolate. A shimmering crystal chandelier the size of a sedan took center stage of the ceiling; it was suspended by a myriad of mercury-colored pearls— real pearls, probably from Tahiti or someplace as equally exotic.
My favorite thing in the whole room was an old portrait by the fireplace. The man in the painting wore a top hat, Victorian clothing, and bore an uncanny resemblance to Robert. I squinted at the signature in the corner. It was dated 1855.
Robert suddenly materialized at my side, fast and quiet. I hadn’t realized that he’d come back, and I thanked my lucky stars that I hadn’t been doing something trashy during his approach, like scrubbing lipstick off my teeth or tugging a wedgie out of my butt. He handed me a glass of champagne and I thanked him. I took a whiff. the fizzy liquid smelled expensive and perfumy.
“You aren’t going to have a drink?”
He shot me a peculiar glance. “No, I cannot drink anything but—”
“Blood,” I finished for him, giggling nervously. My voice sounded canned and unsteady, about ten octaves higher than its normal pitch. I felt my neck grow hot and suspected I was sweating visibly. I needed to calm the hell down. “Right, sorry. I forgot.”
“It is a common human mix-up.”
Desperate to change the subject, I said, “This painting is remarkable. Was this a relative of yours—a great, great grandfather, perhaps? He totally looks like you.”
“No. That is me.”
“Right.”
I was making such an ass of myself. Before I could open my mouth and embarrass myself further, I chugged back the entire glass of champagne.
Robert examined me with his composed gaze. “Are you afraid of vampires, Olivia?”
It was the first time he’d spoken my name. His full lips rounded as he drew out the O , making my knees felt weak. Oooooolivia.
“No,” I said too quickly, waving a trembling hand in dismissal. At that precise moment, my old friend, cheek twitch, dropped in for a visit.
Robert seemed skeptical.
I said, “The thing is, I had no clue vampires existed outside of books and movies until a few days ago. This is a lot for me to take in, especially when this is my first date—decoying—for Dignitary.”
“Really? You’ve never been out with a vampire?”
“Never,” I admitted. I could see no point in lying. “Not unless I’ve been in the company of one and didn’t realize it. I haven’t been ‘out’ with any man in a long time, actually. To tell you the truth, I’m more nervous about being on a date than I am about being out with a vampire—not that this a date. Decoying, I mean.”
I broke away from Robert’s stare, embarrassed. I tended to talk too much when I was nervous, a condition that had plagued me since childhood. Tilly used to say that I had an incurable case of diarrhea mouth. I almost shared this with Robert, but my internal filter thought better of it, thankfully.
“I see.” He lifted my chin gently until my eyes met his. I’d noticed this about vampires, that they were touchy-feely, but not in a way that felt violating. Probably so they could hang on to some semblance of their former humanity. It was actually kind of sweet. His skin didn’t feel as cold as Michael and Marlena’s. “If this puts you at ease, Olivia, this is my first social engagement with a human woman in a very long time.”
I found that hard to believe. I couldn’t imagine a single straight female on the planet who wouldn’t give up wine and chocolate for the rest of her life to spend a minute alone with this glorious immortal.
“I must say, your home is incredible,” I remarked, sweeping an arm out like a game show spokesmodel gone insane on uppers.
“Thank you.”
“I bet it gets a lot of natural light—not that you would favor such a thing being a vampire,” I prattled idiotically.
“No, I wouldn’t,” he agreed.
“Is it Eichler?”
He looked surprised. “Close. It’s Mason. Do you know a lot about architecture, Olivia?” Oooooolivia.
“Not all architecture,” I confessed. “Mainly mid-century modern, though I do also hold a soft spot in my heart for European Gothic. It’s such a beautifully sinister style. I love the weeping angels, the gargoyles, the scalloped ceilings.”
“Have you done a lot of traveling through Europe?”
“Not at all.” I shook my head, laughing softly at his assumption. “I grew up dirt-poor, so ‘travelling’ for us was going to Orlando for the day. I didn’t have a lot of friends in high school, being as nerdy as I was, so I spent a lot of time in the library. I devoured every book on architecture I could get my hands on—any book, really, whether it was on ancient art, travel, or cooking. Reading was how I got to see the world, have money, fall in love . . . Wow, I’m saying a lot.”
“I like it, your chatter.” He opened his mouth to comment further, but a grandfather clock cut him off with its chiming. He took my champagne flute and set it aside.
“Unfortunately, we must go now.” He didn’t seem happy about the fact.
We walked outside to the driveway, where an older, but still muscular, bald man waited next to a limo. He opened the back door as we approached, and Robert introduced us. “Carl, this is Olivia. Olivia, Carl.”
“Hello, Carl,” I smiled as I slid onto the cool leather seat. Another new experience, my first time in a limo.
Carl peered into the back once we were in. “Hello, Olivia.”
The limo smelled of Robert’s fresh scent and upholstery leather. The snacker in me was excited to see that it was stocked with treats tailored toward the human palate: fancy Norwegian water, various bottles of top-shelf alcohol, some of it on ice, foil-wrapped sweets that looked like pretty little Christmas ornaments. Robert noticed me licking my chops at the bite-sized sticks of Toblerone, my favorite chocolate, and asked if I wanted any. I’d been so nervous about our outing that I’d barely eaten a bite all day, but I didn’t want to start the evening by greedily shoving chunks of chocolate down my gullet. It would be my luck to leave smudges of brown on the dress. “Maybe later,” I said, though I did accept a glass of Veuve Clicquot (Good luck pronouncing that , I thought), just so I’d have something to sip.
“I’ll be sure to send you home with a care package,” he said with a sultry wink. Dear God, he was beautiful. How I wished he was the care package I could unwrap.
Calm your horny self, Olivia. I pressed my knees together to stop my thighs from quaking. I was feeling every one of the fourteen months that had gone by since I’d last had sex.
I cleared my throat. “Is Carl also a vampire?” It still felt strange discussing immortals in casual conversation, like I should have concluded the statement with just kidding !
“Oh, no. Carl is about as human as they come. Right, Carl?”
Carl met my gaze in the rearview mirror. The corners of his eyes crinkled as he grinned. “And Robert is about as vampire as they come. Even after forty-odd years of being at his service, I still catch him ogling my neck. He’s the reason I started wearing collared shirts.”
I laughed. What a joker Carl was.
At least, I hoped he was joking.
“I’ll give you two some privacy,” Carl said, punching a button that raised the center window divider
“He’s funny.” Their banter had relaxed me. The champagne wasn’t hurting, either.
“Yes. He keeps me on my toes.” Robert leaned back in his seat, meeting my eyes. “So, how did a girl like you come to be a vampire decoy?”
“Don’t you already know?”
His eyebrows knitted together. “Why would I be privy to your background?”
“I thought you could maybe read my mind?” I blushed as it dawned on me that he’d have heard a lot more inside my brain than just my background. How many dirty thoughts had I had about him?
He smiled at my assumption. “Unfortunately, I cannot. Vampirism alters everyone differently. Only a small percentage of us can read minds. Many don’t take on any gifts during the changeover, then there are others who receive gifts that are seemingly pointless.”
“A pointless vampire gift?”
“For example, I have a friend in Italy who acquired the ability to wilt flowers just by looking at them. He can wilt nothing else, only flowers. It’s a party trick at best.”
“That’s wild,” I said. “What are some traits that aren’t pointless?”
“Other than reading minds?”
“Yes, a different talent. Something useful.”
He rubbed his chin. “Well, there’s Michael, who you obviously know. Some say he’s able to see the future.”
“What? That’s insane! That’s way cooler than being able to read minds.”
“He can’t see the future in its entirety, though. Only bits and pieces.” Robert sounded almost jealous.
“Do his visions come true?”
“Sure,” he answered with a nod. “But his prophecies are general. Vague predictions.”
“So, no winning the lottery for Michael, then?”
Robert chuckled. “It doesn’t work that way, unfortunately. I haven’t talked to him about it much. Our gifts aren’t exactly public knowledge.”
“I bet—” I managed to bite my tongue before finishing. I bet Marlena’s vampire strength is being bitchy . To play it off, I coughed. “And you, do you have a gift?”
Slyly, he said, “I should tell you, Olivia, I can hypnotize you with my voice.” He raised his hands and wiggled his fingers at me.
“No! You can?”
He snickered. “Mortals.”
I was confused. While Erika had been accurate describing Robert as “hot with a capital H,” she’d been way off by making him sound like a world-class stick in the mud. Maybe he just didn’t like Erika. But, no, she’d said that he’d been morose with other decoys, too.
“Please, continue,” he smiled. “You were telling me how you came to work for Dignitary.”
“Do you want the hopes and dreams Miss America answer or the honest-to-goodness truth answer?”
“The truth. Always the truth.”
“Right. The quick and dirty version is that I met Michael at a bar while I was out with my roommate, Liz.” I didn’t mention the Wits and Tits contest. No need to be that truthful. “We got to talking and I told him about my huge student loan debt.”
“What did you study at school?”
I was taken aback by his interest in me, having been conditioned to expect Nick’s self-centered behavior. Even now I couldn’t believe that I’d tolerated the idiot for as long as I did. Live and learn, I guess. “Psychology.”
He leaned back against the seat. “Why aren’t you—”
“Counseling humans instead of hanging out with vamps?” I finished for him, raising a brow cheekily.
“I maybe wouldn’t have put it so bluntly, but yes,” he smiled.
“Well, Robert, as I’ve come to learn, having a bachelor’s degree in psychology is about as useful as having a degree in underwater basket weaving, except people actually find a use for baskets,” I said with a dramatic sigh.
He laughed.
“Besides,” I added, taking in the limo, my dress, and his tuxedo, “I’m hardly scraping the bottom of the barrel here, am I right?”
“You have a point. And then, what, Michael hired you on the spot?”
I swallowed a sip of champagne and shook my head. “He invited me over for a meeting at Dignitary. We had a chat, and then I was offered the job. This happened last week.”
“Just like that.”
“Yep, just like that.” I smiled sheepishly. “Well, I did kind of pass out during the interview.”
“Why?”
“Michael had his assistant, Stephano, leap on the ceiling to prove that vampires are real. I didn’t believe him at first.”
“Did you say anything before you passed out?”
“Holy shit.”
Robert threw back his head and laughed.
“I was running for my pepper spray when I hit the deck.”
His laughter intensified. I was pleased that he was amused by my anecdote, even if it was at my expense.
“Michael is a delightful man. I have known him for years. You’ve met Marlena?”
“Yes, she was at the meeting, too.”
He looked at me solemnly. “I’m truly sorry.”
Did nobody like the woman?
“I’ve known Marlena for some time, too,” he finally said, sounding far from thrilled about the fact. He did not elaborate, and I was glad. The less I had to discuss Marlena, the better. The vampy redhead made me uneasy.
“Are you looking forward to tonight?” I asked, keeping the conversation rolling.
“You want me to be honest?”
“The truth,” I said, mimicking his earlier words. “Always the truth.”
“We’re going to get along just fine, Olivia.” Robert reached over to pat my knee and his hand froze midair, as if it occurred to him that his sudden movement might scare me.
As if. I was tempted to grab his hand and put it on my knee for him, though I might have picked something higher and to the center. Dirty girl! What was wrong with me?
“No, I’m not looking forward to this function,” he said. “Not one bit.”
“Oh?”
“These things are always the same: employees trying to impress me, women trying to seduce me, and investors trying to screw me.” I would have liked to do all three to Robert, though maybe not in the same fashion as he was thinking. He let out deflated sigh. “I find it all so tedious.”
“Women trying to seduce you, hmm?” Funny how that was what I’d picked up on most. I wasn’t sure if I’d only had the thought or had vocalized the question. No matter. The car slowed and then came to a stop in front of a colonial-style estate.
“Ah. We have arrived,” he said.