Chapter 11 #2
“I’m not gentle with everything,” he said with a cheeky smirk, causing my cheeks to warm. “But with needles, aye, I hope so. I watched YouTube videos to learn how to do it, so I wouldn’t hurt you. You humans are so fragile, like glass.”
“That’s . . .” The comment caught me off-guard. The VGO were known for many things, but courtesy wasn’t one of them. “How nice of you.”
“Sit back and relax,” he said. “This will take some time.”
Like I could ever relax in Joseph’s presence. I tilted my head toward the refrigerator. “Since I can’t get up, please feel free to help yourself to more blood.”
“Will do.” Out of nowhere, he said. “It’s funny, isn’t it, how your blood has zero effect on me, yet it still works on other vampires?”
This was something we’d learned at the VGO headquarters.
Joseph, challenging the claim that my blood could turn vampires into humans temporarily, offered to serve as a guinea pig.
I was nearly executed when my blood proved ineffective on him.
Thankfully, my blood did work on another volunteer, a lovely Japanese vamp named Emi, or else I would have been dead on the spot.
“I wonder why that is,” I said offhandedly.
“The VGO are trying to figure that out. Leopold Sorin isn’t the only vampire who can build a lab.” Joseph sounded as if he was as fond of Leopold as I was—which was to say, not at all.
“How is Emi, by the way?”
“She’s great. She had a pleasant human holiday in Majorca. Even got a tan. But she still prefers vampirism.”
“I imagine,” I said. It was promising that the VGO were doing lab tests. If they acquired a way to synthesize my blood, maybe they’d stop taking mine.
Then again, if the VGO no longer needed me . . . What then?
Joseph and I made polite chitchat about his flight (long) and the current weather in Scotland (stormy).
I loved listening to him speak with that gorgeous accent of his.
The first time I’d ever heard his voice was over the phone, and I remember thinking how it sounded like he was singing to me. It was kind of soothing.
And erotic.
He’s a leader of the VGO, I reminded myself. Playing with fire.
“How long are you planning on staying in town?” I asked. “You obviously aren’t heading back tonight.”
He quirked a brow. “Obviously?”
Did he think I was offering him a sleepover, minus the sleep?
I pretended not to notice. “Earlier, you said you’re not taking my blood far.”
“Oh, right.” He ran a hand through his chin-length hair as he looked anywhere but my face.
Over a thousand years old, yet it appeared as if I might have flustered him. Put that in your pipe and smoke it, Robert, I thought smugly. At least Joseph appreciated my feminine prowess.
He said, “I’m staying in town for about a week. I have some business to attend to, and a wedding.”
“Don’t tell me, Jerome Bellamy?”
“Yes, that’s the one.”
“Get out of here! I’m going to that wedding!” I exclaimed. “I was wondering if there’s going to be anyone there I know, or if I’d be hanging out solo. I didn’t realize you were friends with Jerry.”
“I’m not, but when a vampire gets married, especially to a human, the VGO like to have a member present.”
“I haven’t met his human fiancé, but if Jerry’s getting hitched to him, he must be pretty great.”
I did not add how wonderful it had been of Jerry to take out a VGO assassin while Robert and I were in Bali, thus saving our lives. This was need-to-know information, and Joseph certainly did not need to know this. He’d probably been the one who’d deployed the assassin in the first place.
Joseph asked, “How do you know Jerome? Or is it Jerry?”
“It’s both. Jerry to his friends, but he goes by Jerome also.”
“Ah.”
I explained that I used to work as a vampire decoy at Dignitary, and that Jerry and I had formed an immediate bond during our outing to an art show. We had the same weird sense of humor, I said.
My heart sank when Joseph asked, “Shouldn’t I expect to see both you and Robert at the wedding?”
The whole creating a cover story thing on the spot was really starting to be a thorn in my side.
I could commiserate with Liz’s ex David; it did totally suck.
I’d never been a good liar. I was more of a lie by omission kind of girl, which was obviously not going to work in this situation, when he’d asked me a direct question.
A vampire didn’t live to be Joseph’s age by being oblivious.
I tried to sound nonchalant as I answered, “Um, no, he’s just . . . not going with me.”
Then, something horrible occurred to me.
Would Robert have the balls to show his face at the wedding with Serena on his arm?
If he did, it would literally kill me. I would look at the two of them, and my heart would stop beating.
Or I’d simply die of humiliation. Boom, just like that, no more Olivia Taylor.
Or I would kill them.
Joseph scratched the bridge of his strong nose. “Why is that?” I nearly yelped when his cool fingertips tapped my left hand. “And, while we’re on the subject, why aren’t you wearing an engagement ring?”
All very valid questions. A trifle personal, but valid. He had just stuck a needle in my arm, so maybe he felt we were cool like that.
The strange thing was, though Joseph was technically “the enemy” because of his affiliation with the VGO, I was charmed by him.
This wasn’t purely because he was sexy as hell, though that didn’t hurt.
There was something about the vamp that brought me an odd sort of comfort.
If he were human, I thought, I’d love to go out with him for beers and pizza.
I could easily see myself hanging out with him for hours, chatting.
“The truth is . . .”
My brain was screaming. Don’t you dare say it! If you know what’s good for you, you will not get personal with this vampire! He’s VGO!
I swallowed.
“I’m not asking you to explain the meaning of life, Olivia,” he teased.
I laughed hollowly. Stalling. Off the top of my head, I thought of three excuses I could give about the wedding.
One: Robert will be out of town.
Two: Robert doesn’t like Jerry’s soon-to-be husband.
Three: Robert needs to work.
None of them sounded particularly convincing, and they all could be easily disproved, especially if Robert did appear with Serena at the reception.
I could always tell Joseph to mind his own damn business, I supposed, though I would absolutely phrase it differently.
However, the way his earnest, chocolatey eyes were taking me in compelled me to spare him bullshit.
Before I had a chance to firmly clamp my teeth down on my tongue, I was telling the vamp, “Actually, Robert and I are sort of taking a break right now. From each other.”
Startled, he looked around the room. “But you’re still living here?”
“It’s weird. I get that. It’s very fresh.” As in last night kind of fresh. A loaf of bread would have taken longer to mold.
It took all that I had not to ask Joseph if he’d heard any gossip about Robert and Serena—or if he’d known, or even suspected, that the two of them had been fooling around behind my back.
I wanted the information so desperately it was almost painful to stay quiet, but to ask such questions would have made me look pitiful.
Joseph would have probably laughed at my presumptuousness, too, since humans did not get to quiz VGO leaders about their members.
I steeled myself for a barrage of meddlesome questions I was certain Joseph was going to ask the way a human would.
People can be so nosey when it comes to the breakups of others.
Far as I’m concerned, unless a person’s name is prefixed with “my best friend,” they should keep their questions to themselves.
He startled me by asking, “Would you like to be my date for the wedding?”
I was sure it wasn’t the most attractive look, the way my mouth dropped open.
He held up a hand. “Before you answer, I don’t mean ‘date’ in the traditional sense. I only mean that it would be practical if you and I went together. Think of it like one of your Dignitary outings.”
“Like business?” I was disappointed. I shouldn’t have been—did I seriously want to become romantically entangled with another vampire?
Forget the vampire part, I thought. What about the fact that he was a VGO leader?
Could I even say no, though? Was I allowed to turn him down?
Funny thing was, I really didn’t want to.
My face must have revealed a lot about my indecision, because an amused smirk was playing at the corners of his mouth. Again, I was wondering if he might be reading my mind. Maybe I’m just that transparent.
He further explained, “I imagine there won’t be too many vampires I know at the wedding. And if they do know who I am, they’ll avoid me like a leper. Nothing puts a vampire on edge quite like a member of the VGO lurking in the room.”
I had to chuckle at that. “I can imagine.”
“Of course, you’re free to tell me no. There’s no part of your agreement that states you must accompany our members to weddings.”
“Has anyone ever turned you down for a date?” I blurted, sounding as if I couldn’t imagine something so implausible.
His smirk widened. “Not in a really long time.”
“Centuries, I imagine,” I said dryly.
He laughed. “I won’t lie and say I don’t find you attractive. I think we both know that I do. I am a man, Olivia,” he said, sheepish. “However, let me assure you that I won’t ‘put the moves on you,’ as humans say.”
He ran his fingers through his thick hair. I wondered what it would feel like to clutch it in my hands as his naked body pressed down into mine.
Focus!
“It would also bolster my ego tenfold, having such a beautiful woman on my arm,” he said.
I knew it would be a shrewd move to say yes, as being in the good graces of the VGO was never a bad idea.
Deep down, though, I knew that I genuinely wanted to be Joseph’s date.
Whether it was because I was still stinging from Robert’s rejection or I just plum wanted to be by his side, I didn’t dare consider.
Whatever my reason, I found myself beaming as I said, “Pick me up at eight?”