Chapter 3
The dress, that’s what she was calling it, the dress fit her like a glove. And even though she had plucked it off the rack herself, someone would think that it had been made especially for her slim body. The pretty sequins all over the dress made her sparkle and shine. Her shoes, black again, had the tiniest red bow on them, and the shawl that had come with the dress covered her from head to toe like she was some kind of creature of the dark. The dress made her feel like she’d never felt before. Pretty. Sexy.
“Are you ready, my love?” She told him that she just needed a moment and that she’d be out. “I do hope you’re not getting cold feet again. I have it on good authority that the dress will fit you well and that people will be wondering where I got such a lovely wife. Which reminds me. I have something for you finally. I’ve been waiting for it to come back from the cleaners.”
She stepped out of the room with her cape over her dress. He said that he had wanted to be surprised like the others at the ballroom would be. She would have thought that he’d want to see how she was dressed before they left so that she’d have time to change. Into what? She didn’t have a clue as this was the only dress that she’d gotten today.
Taking her hand into his much larger one, she was startled when he kissed her hand and slipped what she could only assume was a ring onto her finger. Lifting it up in the bright light, it sparkled around the room much like her dress had.
“It’s beautiful, Brew.” And it was. The diamond in the middle of the ring was a brilliant white. The prisms that danced from it made up all the colors of the rainbow. The row of blue and red gems surrounding it just made the large diamond sparkle more. It was as if she’d been given the buttons to push on fireworks, and they were lighting the evening splendor of the room. All she needed to hear was the booms, and she’d swear that she was at a Fourth of July party and she’d been right under the lights.
“Come on now before I convince you that we need not go and the two of us get to know one another in a more personal way.” Before she could figure out what he was saying, she was in a large black limo, and it was speeding down the road from the hotel they were in. “How have you liked New York so far? I remember when it was nothing more than shanty houses along the banks and lovely flowers blooming all around it. Such an odd time of my life. I never cared for the larger cities. Too many people around. But Ohio? Well, it’s been my home for the last few centuries, and I can’t imagine living anywhere else. Especially with you by my side.”
“I’ve been to New York City before. I was only a kid. I remember thinking that people were faster here. They seemed to have more purpose in their steps but had nowhere to be. I was just a kid then, but it all seemed to be something out of a science fiction book that I used to read.” She laughed and told him that she’d been a very strange kid. “I love to read. That’s why I can’t wait to get back home and read every book in your library. Landon told me that you also like to read and that you have a lot of first editions in your home. What was it like meeting all those famous authors before they were…well, famous?”
“Some were already famous, as you might have guessed, but there were a few that I enjoyed an easy conversation with when they were in a pub or somewhere that I happened to be. Ah, here we are now.”
The building was magnificent and brightly lit up. As she was handed out of the limo, her leg slid out onto the pavement like she’d practiced all afternoon. Standing up, she looked into Brew’s eyes when he didn’t move and saw something there that she’d never seen on a man’s face when he was looking at her. Lust. Need and something that she couldn’t put her finger on. Love perhaps? She didn’t know but continued to stare at the man she just then realized that she loved.
“Brew?” They were whisked into the building, and he held onto her like she was his lifeline. Or he was hers. Calla didn’t know, but she knew too in those few moments before entering the massive building that she could never tell Brew in words how much she dearly loved him. When he suddenly stopped moving, reaching for her cape, she leaned up to his face and kissed him on the cheek. “I love you so much.”
“Christ, your timing couldn’t be worse. But this will be fun, I think. I shall make you suffer for this. In a wonderfully sexual way.” He turned her around and took off the cape. When his lips touched her ear, she leaned into him and laid her head on his chest. “I could find us a dark corner or make us one if you keep this up. My goodness, this is going to be a hard, very hard night.” He rolled his hips, and she could feel his cock as it touched off every cell in her body. His laughter had her giggling. His curt “ behave” had her laughing harder. Then he turned her around and looked at her.
Her dress fit her differently than it had in their hotel room. It was as if her body had shifted around. Her breasts were larger, and her nipples seemed to have taken a mind of their own. The slit up the side seemed to be exposing every part of her. Her back, bare to his touch now, felt like he was pressing her against something hard and hot. She knew that it was only his hand but it too felt different touching her. Her body, it seemed, was on fire for this man, and she didn’t care who knew it.
“Mr. Cunningham, thank you for inviting us to your lovely party. I don’t think you’ve met my wife, Calla Lily Smith.” He kissed her hand, and she heard Brew growl deep in his throat. She had to shift around, her pussy feeling soaked right now from the man talking. “We’ve only been here for the last few hours, and people have been so welcoming.”
“And they should. You’re a good man, Brewster. A good man to have around, too.” He looked at her, then away, like he’d been caught with his hand in the cookie jar. “Very lovely. You have a very lovely wife, too.”
He hurried away, and she looked at Brew. “You scared him. Or something. What did you do to that poor man?” He told her. “You’re going to have every male in his place running from me by showing them what you’re going to do to them if they look too hard at me. You need to behave.”
“Had I even looked at this dress at the hotel, we wouldn’t have left the bedroom for a decade. I plan on making you pay for your beauty tonight by teasing you every minute that I can. I shan’t let you out of my sight either. you need a keeper, young lady.” She told him that every woman in the place was younger than him, and he kissed her quickly on the mouth.
Calla had to acknowledge that she was having fun as well. He would whisper how he’d met the people coming to them, and she would be hard-pressed to keep a straight face. Some of his stories were outrageous enough that he had to be making them up. Others she just found humorous. Like their hostess.
“Ms. Taylor, before becoming Mrs. Cunningham, was quite the flirt. Also, the dancer. I remember once going to a club that featured women dancers, and there she was up on the stage doing the can-can. She could lift that leg of hers up to a man’s chin. I remember that very well, too.” She just stared at him. “You don’t think me to be a virgin after living as long as I have, did you?”
“No, I guess not, but you don’t have to brag about it.” He told her that he was sincerely sorry. “It’s all right. I just…I’m insecure enough, I think.”
“You’ve no reason to be. The women in this room cannot hold a candle to your beauty. All the men and some of the women are jealous of me having you by my side.” She looked around again. Before, she thought they were staring at him, but now she could see that Brew was right. They were staring at her. “You’re so fresh to all of this that I fear they’ll try to get you to join some clubs or some such nonsense and tear you away from me.”
“Never.” He turned her to him and stared at her. Calla let him look all he wanted to. She wanted him to know that she not only loved him but trusted him as well. “I love you, Brew.”
“And I do you, my heart.” The rest of the evening was spent going from one couple to the next. He knew everyone at the party and told her bits and pieces about their lives and what they did for a living. It was so much information, but she had no trouble remembering it all. Brew even knew bits and pieces about the staff as well.
On their way back to the hotel, she slipped her heels off. Her feet were a little sore, but with one touch from Brew, they felt like she’d been barefooted all evening. Curling up next to him on the drive, she fell asleep in seconds. His scent seemed to lure her into a deep sleep.
Waking up the next morning, she was alone in the big bed—and not just any bed but the one at their home. It looked as if she’d been alone in the bed all night and got up disappointed. After getting out of bed and into the shower, she was glad that she’d slept alone. Her body was sore from the tips of her toes to the top of her hair. As soon as she was able to get out of the hot spray and wash the pens out of her hair, she did feel marginally better.
“Good morning, miss. My name is Hattie. I’m the new cook.” She said she was glad to meet her. “Your husband said to tell you that he’d be back this afternoon and that something had come up, and he couldn’t get out of it.” She laughed like it was the funniest thing in the world to have him gone. Then she explained. “I understand now why he told me to have you eat a hardy breakfast and lunch. The wind could carry you away, I think.”
“I’m a bit on the tiny side.” She was handed a cup of tea and pushed it aside. Tea, especially hot, wasn’t anything that she went out of her way for. She could drink it, but she didn’t care for it all that much.”
“How about cold tea? Do you like it? Sweet or unsweet?” Again, she told her that she could drink it but preferred very cold water with ice. “That’s easy enough to fix. I take it you don’t drink coffee either, then?”
“No, I don’t. I couldn’t afford it before, so I never acquired a taste for it. I much prefer to have juice in the morning with water for the rest of the meals. Wine, too, but since I don’t drink it often, it tends to make me a little loopy when I do.” They talked for around an hour about the things that she liked and disliked. There wasn’t too much on the latter list, but she didn’t care all that much for heavy meals. Unless, of course, it was for comfort, and that’s all she wanted. Calla told her that any meal that was called comfort food had at least eight items on it, and they were all deep-fried. The two of them laughed at that for the next twenty minutes.
“I love mashed potatoes. They don’t even have to have gravy on them for me to eat them. I like chicken fried steaks with the mentioned potatoes, green beans, peas, corn, and zucchini. Then, there has to be either cornbread or home-baked bread. Apple or cherry pie and plenty of ice-cold water.” Hattie told her that she sure did love fresh butter beans, too, and Calla agreed. “Those have to have a ton of melted butter on them so that they’re overcooked in it. I’ve not had those in years.”
“I’ll tell you what, I’ll make you some up for dinner tonight.” She said that she’d eat that all by herself. “Good. Then I’ll make sure to have plenty on hand.”
When Brew returned home, she could tell that something had happened. As they were seated in his office, he finally told her about his friends who were coming to visit them. He seemed so sad in that moment.
“Sirous is the one that I’m worried about most. We were together in a lot of wars and things that go on with humans. Yosef is another friend of mine that both Rance and Rutger recruited to hang out with us. You’d never know to meet them, but they’re the most shy men that I’ve ever met. Moreso than even you are.” She asked him where they were. “The only one I know for sure is Sirous. He had been visiting his father’s estate the last few months. There were some problems with his will, but he’s gotten it all straightened out now. Kenneth lives overseas. I think he’s more British than American now. I think he runs an art gallery. Most of the work is his, but he doesn’t tell anyone that. I don’t know that he tries very hard to sell any of his things either.”
“Do you have any family left?” He said just his friends. His father was killed one night when it was found out they were vampires, and his mother never came around anymore. “I bet that was a scary time for you all. I know that books make you guys seem like you’re all nice people, but I’m betting that’s not true either.”
“It’s not. There are more of us that are bad, as you called them, than nice ones, but they know better than to try anything with the older vamps.” She asked him about baby vampires. “They have an entirely different set of rules that they must follow. As you can imagine, most of them don’t, and they have to be put down. A great many of them don’t make it the first couple of months, thinking that being a vampire is sexy and full of riches. But it’s nothing like that. If you don’t have a support system or money when you’re turned, you won’t be able to get any until you start investing. I think that’s why baby vampires don’t make it. They think the world owes them something, and they get pissed off when they don’t get it. Sometimes, we older vampires have to go in and clean out a nest of them when they start changing people because they think they can. That’s another rule. They can’t change anyone until they’re ten years old, and it has to be approved.”
“They can’t do it, or they’re not supposed to do it?” He clarified for her. “What keeps them from changing humans? Is it something in their blood?”
“That’s it exactly. Their blood doesn’t hold the properties in it to sustain a change yet. They usually end up killing the human by draining them, or worse yet, they’re only half-changed and go a bit insane when they awaken. By the time you’re ten or so years old, you’ve come to the realization that being a vampire isn’t all that much fun. Especially if you have to be in before the sun rises. That’s the way a great many new ones are killed. Thinking that they can step out into the sun like they used to.” She asked him if he knew his maker. “Yes, my parents were vampires and had me and a sister. She passed away some time ago because her mate was murdered. They had no children, but they loved each other. My sister couldn’t stand to be alive when he was gone from her, so she met the sun.”
“That’s tragic. I wish I could have met her.” He told her that he wished that as well as his parents. “Are they gone as well?”
“My father is. My mother is enjoying her quiet time, she calls it by traveling the world. I think she wanted to do that when we children came along, but the times were just too scary. They could stand the sun, but as children, we couldn’t yet. It would be hard to explain leaving your children to rest when you were out and about. That’s the reason that they didn’t go when we were kids.” Calla told him that was so sad. “It is. My father would have loved you. He would have teased you relentlessly with you being a human with a bit of vampire back in your line.”
“He must have been really old. I mean, even dying like he did, I’m betting that he’s a good deal older than a lot of people I know.” Brew told her that was the way it should have been for him to die a very old man and to live a full life. “I want to live a full life with you. Have children someday. I feel I have a lot to learn about being with a vampire yet.”
“You do. But we’re in no hurry. You won’t age, nor will you gain weight, as I told you. And since you have all this time, you can be whatever you want. I’ve been a doctor and an attorney. I’ve even worked in funeral homes when I needed some extra cash. Usually, our money was tied up in investments, and when you needed some cash, it wasn’t always easy to get to. So taking on an odd job was the thing to do.” She asked him if he worked still. “I do. Like you, I think that I’d be bored when I just sat around. With my friends coming to meet you, it will be easy to fall back into the life we had as a kiss, a group of vampires that have no blood relations. I’m looking forward to showing you off.”
“I don’t want them to feel like they have to treat me with kid gloves, you know. I want to have fun with them as well.” She got up off the couch and sat near to him. “I only know what I’ve read in books about your kind. Is there a book on—a true book of your kind that I can read? I would love to have some insight on it before your friends arrive.
“I have one here.” He got up and looked through the tall shelves of books that were in the library. As he pulled down a couple of books, he handed them to her. “You should read all of these. And if I’m not around, Landon can answer questions about anything you need as well. He’s been around about as long as Rutger had, another friend of mine.”
Opening one of the books he’d handed her, she started reading it. Calla knew immediately that he had written the book. He started quoting lines from it while she read. Opening the book for him when he asked, he stared at her.
“You can read this?” She said that she could. What was the big deal? “You said you didn’t speak any languages. I forgot this one was in French. One of the other books is in Dutch. Can you read it as well?”
They had fun finding books for her to read. She could apparently even read vampire. It was a language that she had never heard of before, and it was quite fun impressing Brew with her abilities.
~*~
Brew enjoyed watching Calla Lily sleep. He would sit with her until she was resting and then stare at her for hours afterwards. The fact that she was his and he was hers made him feel like he’d been in this world just for her. He fully believed that she had been born just for him. And he loved everything about her.
Getting up just as the moon was going behind some clouds, he made his way to her window and stared out. Long ago, he had made friends with the wolf pack nearby, and just tonight, he’d set up a meeting with their alpha. Conri was their alpha leader, which was suitable because his name meant King of the Hounds. Willing himself to the land where he was to meet him, he entered the deepest part of the forest to meet up with the great man.
“You have the scent of a newly found mate on you. It’s great that you have someone in your life, old man.” He thought that Conri was the same age as he was but had never asked. He had a large family of male wolves, and they were about the best family he’d ever met. “My mate is long gone. It’s been too many years since I have even thought of what the flesh of a female of my own feels like.”
“That doesn’t mean that you’re forgoing female flesh altogether, does it? Even if you told me you were, I’d not believe you. Someone must be making your pack very happy, and I know you well enough that you’ve been out and about in other homes as well.” They both laughed, and he asked his friend how his family was. “None of them have mates either, do they?”
“None. My mother believes me to be cursed. She thinks that she’ll never hold a child of ours before she is ready to go as well. Father, as you know, was killed some time ago, and we’re a better pack because of it.” He knew there had been problems with the male elder. Macky had been trouble for decades before he’d been put to death. “What is it you have a wish for me to help you with? Your mate?”
“Yes. She has an uncle much like your father in thinking that he has no worth unless he’s taking her money and slapping her around a bit. The last time he’d put her in the hospital, and that didn’t sit well with me.” Conri said he didn’t think that it would have. “He’s currently in jail, but they can only hold him for a few more days before he’ll be out again. I don’t know that he’s killed anyone yet, but I’m having the bodies of his parents reexamined. Calla Lily, my wife, is terrified of him, and with good reason. The bank is on my list as well as they were allowing him to get into her money without his name on the account. There are a few officers as well that I’ve had a long talk with. I don’t believe they’ll be doing anything off the books or against the law again. I didn’t realize how lax I’d become about the people running my house, either. She fired them all but for Landon.”
“If you’re planning to hire staff, I have a few good people who would love to work for a man such as yourself.” He said so far, all he had was a cook named Hattie and his man Landon—though he had to confess that he liked Calla Lily more than he did him. “That’s the way it should be. He will keep her safe. Is that what you need from my pack? Someone to keep her safe?”
“I can’t be at home all the time. And since finding her, it seems like I’ve only just realized how badly I’ve been monitoring my funds. She found that I was paying an employee who wasn’t working for me at all and another one who has been dead for a decade or more.” Conri shook his head, saying that he wished someone would help him with his books. “She’s bored with vampire life. Perhaps you can persuade her to keep an eye on them for you. But don’t come to me when she busts your chops a bit.”
“I shan’t. I can have a group traveling your land for you, no problem. But you need to tell your wife. I would hate to hear that she’s had to shoot at a couple of them because she didn’t understand why they were there. I can almost see this beautiful woman because she would be for you, standing on the front deck holding the fort down while you slumber in your bed.”
He laughed and told him that he had no doubt that she’d do it, too. Conri threw back his head and laughed, drawing the attention of most of his pack. Waving them off, he continued teasing him.
“I will send them out this night to keep an eye on things. If you need anything else, just let me know. You’ve done so much for this pack of mine that I cannot refuse you anything.” He said that they were even. “Doubtful either of us feel that we’re even. I know that I owe you my life thrice over. And I believe you’ve been in my healing hut for a while off and on for a while now.”
“Yes, we both owe so much to each other that knowing that I’d be able to come to you would make my lovely wife safe so much easier.” After a while, the two of them shared a bottle of wine. Brew could drink wine, but it would never satisfy him. Even food sometimes would be something that he’d partake of, but again, without blood, he’d die. Parting ways with his good friend, he made his way home through the darkened woods.
That’s when he saw the man lingering through the woods to his right. Not taking his eyes off him, he knew that he’d kill him simply because he was wandering around on his land. The pack land was his as well, but he had been letting the pack stay on it for as long as they wished. It was another thing that he owed the other man for. Saving his ass countless times.
The man moved to the next tree. Just as he was going to leap at the man and tear his throat out, the pack moved as one and leapt on him. There wasn’t a sound made, and there was no barking or yipping from the group. As one, they did the job that he really didn’t want to do, and it was taken care of. Once the man was dead, there would be nothing left of him, and there wouldn’t be a sole to find his body either. The other creatures of their kind and other nonhumans would smell the person, but they’d never tell since it was on his land. Brew was known for being a very fair man and one who could be counted on to hold a grudge, too.
He was just stepping into the kitchen when Hattie showed up in the kitchen. She talked to him for a time about ordering for the household and to tell him that if he needed her, she would willingly give him subsistence to help him. His wife, as well.
“She’s a good woman. Loves you too.” He told the tiger that he loved her as well. “Good. You’ve needed someone in your life for some time now, and I’m glad that you’ve found each other. However, she’s afraid. Did you know that?”
“Her uncle?” Hattie nodded. “Yes, I knew. I’ve made arrangements for the pack to wander through the land to keep an eye on things. Remember that if you were go to out in the night, all right?”
“I’ll tell my man too. He said that he saw that the pack took care of a snooper. Some newspaper man trying to get the story on you and your new missus.” He told her that he wasn’t going to be bothering them again. “Good to know. I like that about you, Brew. You can be counted on to keep someone safe, and you don’t suffer fools well. Yes, I very much like that about you.”
Calla Lily joined them, too, and Hattie put a large glass of ice water in front of her. She nearly drank it down; he was happy to see and sat down to tell her about the pack. He didn’t want any of them hurt either and was glad that she was happy about having them around. He also said that he wanted her to meet Conri. It turned out that she knew him as well.