Let Them Eat Cake Read online

  She raised her eyes to his. “Your father and I have a relationship that does not now, nor has it ever, included getting naked. Relax.” She turned to address Bill. “Does he know what I am? Or about the others?”

  She tried very hard to ignore Justin. He loomed over her, all testosterone and supreme male threat. She could think of better ways to put all those urges to use, and reminded herself to exert some control. Letting her libido rule wouldn’t catch a killer.

  She could appreciate the mass of muscle he hadn’t built in a gym, and she wondered how his messy, shoulder-length blond hair got its curl. She decided it must be natural. This man would not spend time under a hair dryer. He screamed alpha male with every breath he took. She even started to wonder how his hair would feel under her hands. Oh, baby, would I love to play with that hair. Again, she reminded herself to exercise restraint.

  Easier said than done. He was older, experienced. Somewhere in his early forties, she guessed. She wanted to sample the danger and menace oozing from his pores. See if she couldn’t take his mind off the pain she saw in those eyes. The man moved with a sexy confidence, with self-possession and power. She could believe nothing got by him. Those dark blue eyes would see and catalogue everything. Including what turned a woman on. So not the time to be thinking about jumping his bones and making him sweat.

  Although he kept a straight face, Justin reeled as if he’d been prodded with an electric shock stick. He never reacted to women this way. Yes, the woman before him was gorgeous. A small, fragile body frame with skin like pale cream. He couldn’t see freckles or a mark of any kind on her soft flesh. Incredible. Her eyes seemed to glow a misty shade of gray-blue. Black as deep night, her hair fell past her shoulders in a shiny, sleek mass. Her face could only be described as regal. Definite cheekbones, cute pointy nose and a high forehead with perfect, arched dark eyebrows, the result blended together to make him feel as if he’d met somebody. Somebody who’d been born and bred to be waited on hand and foot—not the kind of woman who normally turned him on. So why did he promise himself the opportunity to see her curvaceous body naked and writhing underneath him? Soon.

  She stood briefly when she rose to shake his hand, and he caught a glimpse of tight, black leather pants that made him want to get a look at her butt. She wore a black cotton T-shirt with a deep vee at the neck. The woman looked like she carried full handfuls of boobs on her chest. And the attraction didn’t stop with the temptation of her curves. If it had, he could have ignored it.

  The steel in her backbone and the strength in her grip forced him to look for more. And he found it in her eyes. He captured her gaze and held it. Saw an old soul buried deep. Saw someone he wanted to get to know better. He hoped those eyes didn’t see his body’s reaction to her slight touch. Thank God his dad hadn’t seen her naked, because he sure as hell planned to.

  “He doesn’t know. I figured we’d tell him together and he would just have to live through some of it to believe. I know it took me a while after the initial shock wore off to really understand the implications,” Bill said, as the men took a seat in front of her.

  Justin watched Maria check him out. Watched the heat flare in her eyes as he waited silently for them to clue him in. He let only a hint of the questions he had show in his eyes. He saw her get sidetracked as she looked at his mouth. Her tongue darted out to dampen the top of her very sexy pink lip. Evidently she liked his dark blond mustache and neatly trimmed goatee. Good. He planned on using them to tease every sensitive spot on her body. He watched her struggle with her attraction as she seemed to physically pull back.

  Maria motioned for the two of them to order. She waited for a few moments while the waiter brought their coffees, appearing to Justin as if she were deep in thought. When she started talking he found out he was right.

  “I am not sure this is the best time to train someone new, Bill. What I saw tonight is something beyond even my experience. And it scares the crap out of me. But you are right about one thing. I have a bad feeling my strength and abilities won’t be enough. I definitely don’t want you on the streets with me this time. I don’t want you or even junior here tracking…whatever. I just need help at the site. I’ll take it from there.”

  “The site.” It wasn’t a question but an affirmation of sorts from his father.

  “You know,” Justin drawled, figuring it time to get them to talk to him instead of around him. “I might have more input here if I knew what the hell you both are talking about. So far I’ve learned you’ve never seen my dad naked, and you think something bad happened you can’t handle alone. Which I have to say doesn’t surprise me given your small stature. Yet you don’t want any real assistance, and there are others involved. You also have some sort of a crime scene. Correct so far?” He stopped for a moment, waiting while Maria nodded in confirmation, and then added, “And there is something you think I should know about you.”

  Before Maria could open her mouth to comment, the bell above the door jingled like crazy. He watched her glance over and then do a double-take. She looked shocked, upset. At her frown, he turned to follow her gaze.

  Justin started to stand and block the two leather-clad men rushing in Maria’s direction, but stopped when his father put his hand on his arm in restraint. “Relax,” Bill murmured quietly. “They’re hers.”

  Hers? Justin raised his eyebrows. I don’t think so, he thought, as he turned to watch the two men closely as they pounced on Maria.

  The tall blond slid to a stop in front of Maria and pulled her to her feet, hugging her tightly. “You’re okay. I don’t see any blood or gaping wounds.” He pushed her back and spun her around. “No rips in the clothing, no partially healed gashes. Good. We got here in time.”

  Maria glared at him, then turned her gaze to the man with black hair. “I told you both to stay home. What are you doing here?”

  “Babycakes, you know better than to think we would listen to you when you need us,” the second man mumbled as he pulled her into his arms for a hug. “We couldn’t leave you all defenseless and afraid. You scared us, hon. Sweetie and I needed to see for ourselves you were unhurt, and we wanted to bring you a death pack. We packed the Uzi and your stakes and drove the tank to your rescue. After all, it’s what good human servants are supposed to do.”

  Uzi? Stakes? Human servants? Justin decided to skip right over death pack. He’d learned the most important thing. He wouldn’t have to worry about these two standing in his way when he had the opportunity to fuck Maria. He looked questioningly at his father, who just waved and mouthed, “Later.”

  “No!” she bit out, “good little human servants would do what I told them to do. You never mind me. I think it’s time to change you two in for new models,” she threatened the two men, who just smiled at her serenely. It was obvious they’d heard this threat before.

  “You couldn’t live without us. Hey, Bill, sugar. Long time no see. And helloooo! Who’s the stud muffin?” the blond asked.

  Maria threw her hands in the air and sat down. “Oh, please…join us, you two flaming baboons. And this is Justin, Bill’s son. I will go out on a limb here and say he is solidly hetero, so you can look but don’t touch.” She moved so each of the two men could sit to one side of her.

  “We never touch anyway. You know the saying, ‘It doesn’t matter where you get your appetite as long as you eat at home’…well, Justin can think of himself as the appetizer.” The dark-haired man fluttered his eyelashes at Justin and smiled when he just shook his head.

  Maria rolled her eyes. Good thing it looked like Justin was comfortable with his sexuality. People didn’t last long around her if they couldn’t put up with her bookends. “Okay, introductions. Justin, the dark evil one is Brian, the blond bimbo is Matt. They exist to make my life a living hell.”

  Justin nodded and shook the boys’ hands.

  “Well, I want to get my sheep home.” She paused as Matt punched her on the arm. “You deserved that. Anyway. Bill, I don’t think this is
the place for a discussion of Twilight Zone proportions. I think we should have the ‘show’ part of show and tell, and then meet at the penthouse for the rest of the story. Do you have time to discuss this later tonight?”

  “Justin and I will make time,” he said with a tired air. “Do you want to tell us where to meet you or can we walk from here?”

  Maria sighed and closed her eyes in pain as she thought of what awaited them. She missed the look of protectiveness and hunger flashing for a moment across Justin’s face. “We can walk. Matt and Brian, you will have to come with us. You can drive me home once we are done. I want you in my sight at all times.”

  The clock struck 2:00 in the morning as the silent and morose group assembled in Maria’s living room. She glanced around the cozy room, thankful she could give them all the needed feeling of warmth and safety. She watched as they settled around the fire’s glow. The flickers of flame, combined with the deep tones of dark red and chocolate brown on her walls and the comfort of plush chenille on the furniture, worked to help calm their nerves. It might be a false sense of security, but one she desperately craved after the last few hours.

  Bill nursed a scotch as he sat in one of her overstuffed chairs, looking distracted. Justin declined hard liquor and held a beer as he sat on the floor in front of the fire. They all needed a minute to regroup. Matt handed her an opaque glass of blood-wine. His own take on a family sangria recipe, it contained more blood than wine, along with a few secret spices. Then he disappeared with Brian, saying they needed to check on the meeting acceptances and make additional calls to those who hadn’t responded. Tonight’s discoveries shook them all.

  After she’d taken them to the alley and shown them the body, Justin took pictures and canvassed the scene while Bill called Marcus. The coroner showed up with a forensic team to take their own pictures and gather the too-small pieces into a black body bag. Marcus promised to share whatever information he could get from the remains at the Council meeting.

  Maria sat staring with unseeing eyes at the fire in front of her. Where to start? Everyone remained silent, focused on his or her inner thoughts. Maybe she should just leave it for tonight. She didn’t think Justin would deal well with life’s little reality check. She shivered as he ran a finger down the length of the ice-cold beer bottle. Damn, it figured she would have to share most of her secrets with the first man who turned her on in eons. She literally had not had sex in decades.

  Bill’s voice startled her.

  “I met Maria for the first time over forty years ago.” Bill started the discussion for her.

  Justin glanced at his father with a question in his eyes. “She was an infant?”

  Bill laughed. “No. No, she looked pretty much like she does now. Except,” he cocked his head and looked at her, “your hair color has changed. It was red then, wasn’t it?”

  She smiled in humor. “Yeah, I think I like the black better. Thank God for hair color. It has to be one of the best inventions of the modern world. I always hated my dishwater blonde—”

  “But what you are saying is impossible, Maria isn’t…” She could hear Justin’s irritation as he spoke. Knew he wondered what kind of crap they fed him.

  “Maria isn’t a lot of things. You’re going to have to listen, son. It won’t be an easy thing to believe, but let me tell you this story and then you can ask your questions in a minute.” Bill looked at his son and waited for him to nod. “At the time I was a beat cop, and bit off more than I could chew when I decided to chase a man I knew had been running drugs. He cornered me in an alley and opened fire with an automatic pistol. Maria seemed to fall from the sky. All of a sudden she appeared right in front of me and she got hit with, what, six bullets that night?” He looked to her for confirmation.

  Justin glared at his father and snorted.

  She nodded and sighed. She knew this wouldn’t go well. Justin looked as if he wanted to leave them all to their little fairy tale. Well, the only fairy tails she knew happened to be in the other room making phone calls.

  “I don’t understand.” Justin said, looking from his father to her in apparent confusion and growing irritation. She could see his hold on the beer bottle tighten.

  Maria smiled. She had no easy way to do this. “Justin. I think we were remiss with the introductions tonight. My full name is Maria Antonia Josepha Johanna Antoinette. My French husband didn’t like Maria, so he called me Marie.”

  “Are you trying to tell me you think you’re Marie Antoinette?” Justin looked at her in disbelief and the dawning of concern. “You have got to be kidding, right?” he laughed.

  When she and Bill just looked at him with no hint of humor in their eyes, he became very serious. “I’ve seen this before when people are confronted with a violent and horrible death,” he said with serious intent. “I am sure the crime scene tonight upset you. Maybe you should both lie down. Matt! Brian! Bring me some blankets. I think Maria and my father are going into shock,” his raised his voice enough to carry into the other room. “It’s okay, I can handle this,” he reassured them.

  Before Maria could comment, Matt and Brian came running into the room. “What? What’s happening? Don’t get your man-marbles in a twist. Maria, are you alright? What do you need?”

  “I just told him my full name and he thinks I’m in shock or in need of a straightjacket. Or both. Everything’s okay.”

  “Oh! Can we stay and watch? I love this part when people realize—”

  “Brian, hush. You can stay—just sit and be quiet.”

  Maria watched in silence as Justin looked at his father in obvious concern. Bill sat calmly drinking his scotch, and then he looked up at her and winked.

  “It takes some getting used to, the thought of Maria as Marie Antoinette—the legendary Queen of France. Look at her neck. She still has a faint scar from the guillotine,” Bill said smugly. She could tell he got some perverse pleasure out of their revelations.

  She winced.

  Justin rolled his eyes but obediently got up to look at Maria’s neck. A lightning bolt of lust hit her as he placed his hands on her shoulder. Tipping her head back slightly, her gaze caught his and held. He felt it too. Great to know they shared this mad impulse to shut out the rest of the world and lock themselves in a room so they could have at each other. She wanted him naked and moaning in pleasure. Not looking at old scars.

  She knew he saw a thin line running straight across her neck. Allowing him to bend her head forward, she shuddered as his fingers skimmed the back of her neck as he lifted her hair out of the way. She loved the feel of his hands on her skin, the rough slide of heat as he traced his fingers over her flesh. She wanted to concentrate on the forgotten pleasure. Not on the fact that he could see the thin scar as it continued all the way around her neck.

  Justin dropped the silky mane of her hair and stepped back. What the scar could be from he didn’t know. He’d seen people beheaded, or at least seen the aftermath while in the Mid-East as part of a special anti-terrorist force. What the scar from a beheading would look like he couldn’t imagine. It seemed beyond his scope of understanding. But how could you explain…

  “They did me a wonderful favor when they buried me with my head in perfect alignment with my body in the casket. The revolutionaries wanted a pretty viewing. Vampires can regenerate the blood, bone and muscle connections if you put the pieces back where they belong,” she answered his unasked question.

  “Vampires.” Justin just shook his head. A quick glance at his father made him wonder how long it had been since his old man had seen a doctor. Maybe he was suffering from dementia. Or brainwashing could be one answer here. He just couldn’t understand why Maria would want his father to believe this fantasy. He’d seen some very unexplainable things in his life. But vampires?

  “Do the roof thing,” Brian’s excited voice broke into his thoughts as the man practically jumped up and down with excitement. “If anything other than donating blood will convince him, that should do it.”
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br />   “The roof thing?” Justin asked politely. Thinking maybe he should humor them all and get his father out of here.

  “Oh, yes!” Bill said in noticeable relish as he got to his feet. “A trick I’ve always enjoyed seeing you perform.”

  Maria shook her head, and Justin wondered at the glimpse of amusement he’d seen in her eyes as she traipsed behind the group out the patio door and onto the roof.

  “Guys, I am not sure this is a good idea. We could push Justin into a full-blown hissy fit, or scare the crap out of him.”

  “So your choice is to sink fang into his neck. You know, sweetie, alpha males very rarely enjoy being used for a late night snack. Well…that kind of snack. Wouldn’t want you to kill the sparks—”

  “Enough chitchat Brian. We don’t need to review all the options,” she hissed.

  Justin realized that at least one of the other men had noticed his fascinated interest in Maria. Well, it didn’t matter. Right now he frowned as Maria moved to climb up on the wall enclosing her patio. Her penthouse took up the entire twentieth floor above ground level. What did she think she was doing? He moved to hold onto her and then cried out in horror as she dove off into the night. Justin lunged to the brick wall, too slow to catch her. He looked over the side with dread.

  He saw her drifting there, floating in the air as she called up to him, “I’m okay, I do this a lot. It’s one of the perks of being a—”

  “A vampire,” he finished for her. “Get back on the roof!” he demanded. He lost what little sense of humor he possessed about this whole thing. He was furious. The adrenaline rush he’d experienced when she took a nosedive off the roof and his fear for her life pushed him over the edge. In all the years he spent fighting terrorists, he never once felt the pure terror of helplessness and sorrow he’d experienced in the split second she hung in the air just out of his reach. No one mattered enough to him for that kind of panic. Not even he, himself. Up to this point in his life, he’d fought against any meaningful ties other than the ones he shared with his parents.