The night of masquerade didn’t just approach quickly. It sped forward like a bullet train. I’d found a dress with Kendra’s help. It looked amazing and was form-fitting, which I wasn’t sure I’d like until I tried it on. The dress was light blue with silver beaded accents. It showed off my curves and flared out at the bottom. I think Luke called it a mermaid cut. Whatever the cut, it made me feel like a princess.
I walked to the living room where Jax was waiting for me. He stood with one hand in his pocket and he was looking into the fireplace, back to me. What this guy did for a tuxedo made my girly bits stand and applaud.
I was having unholy thoughts. The naughty, naked kind. I only hoped he wasn’t poking around in my brain because I wanted to go to the ball and not miss it on account of I couldn’t control myself around him.
That was the thought I forced into my mind anyway, just in case he was taking a tiptoe through my mind. But when I cleared my throat and he turned, his eyes flamed with desire. Made the fire beside him look dim by comparison.
“You’re beautiful.” It didn’t sound like a line—although nothing he said to me ever did—and I hoped he meant it, because I felt beautiful. Also exhausted, because feeling beautiful took time and a suitcase full of products that aided in the transformation. But who needed sleep when I had a guy like Jax looking at me like… that.
My phantom pulse had a life of its own and it seemed to be connected by telepathy and every word he said, every touch. That didn’t matter. It was a phantom and a heart attack couldn’t kill me, so I just rolled with the thrill of knowing he had an effect on me.
I smiled. He smiled. I pictured his pants disappearing just as he answered his cell.
“This is Jax.” And my, oh my, it certainly was. “Yes, I see. I’ll be there as soon as I can.” I didn’t like the sound of that. I liked less that his smile had faded. He sighed and hung up the phone. “I have to go to Milan.”
“Tonight?” Since he’d promised me a dance at the ball, I’d been able to think of little else. Not seriously anyway. And I’d practiced. Watched seven episodes of dancing with the stars. I could waltz, cha cha, paso doble, and I was working on my jive. God bless that pretty blond Hough boy.
Jax nodded. “Dominic is sick, and they can’t figure out why. The council wants me to do a blood exchange.” A blood exchange? And a sick vampire?
I furrowed my brow. “I didn’t think we could get sick.”
“We can catch a very few things.” He shrugged as he scrolled through screens on his phone. “Apparently, we’re susceptible to whatever it is that he has.” He looked up at me and smiled sadly. “I can’t not go.” Like it would entice me, he added, “If I go, I might be able to buy us some more time for the mating bond ritual.”
Even though more time wasn’t any longer what I wanted, I hadn’t told him yet. I’d wanted tell him tonight. Might have even convinced the other more resistant parts of me to do it tonight. Alas, it wasn’t to be.
Because it would’ve been wrong to tell him now when he had to do this for Dominic, I smiled, took his phone, and dialed the magic number. “Luci!”
“Hails! Just a minute, sweetheart. I’m on the job.”
And when my new-old pal was silent for a second, I covered the phone and smiled at Jax. “I’m hanging on.” On the job to Luci could’ve meant any number of things. None of which I really wanted to know. He was rather an enigma.
And then, Luci was in the living room with us, zipping up his fly. Annnnnd on the job took on a slightly less savory meaning. “Hello, handsome.” He adjusted Jax’s tie and winked. “I love the new look.” After giving Jax’s tie one more unnecessary adjustment, he turned to look at me. “And you. Dahling, you are divine, if one believes in such nonsense.” He air kissed me, then immediately spun back to Jax. “I heard you need a ride.”
How he’d come across that knowledge, I had no idea. Like I’d asked the question out loud, Luci smiled. “Oh, you sweet naïve beauty, you. Creatures of the night such as yourselves are solely my dominion.” He grinned. “Want to ménage à trois with my dominion?” He turned from me to Jax then back again. His smile faltered when we didn’t bite. “Pity. Another time, then. Allow me to ferry you to Italy, love. Did you want to hop on?” He bent and patted his ass as he looked over his shoulder at Jax. It was hard not to laugh at his antics. I’d worked with him long enough in Milan to be fairly sure he was messing with Jax, but Jax hadn’t really gotten to know him, since he’d been imprisoned the whole time. If we could call being put up in a luxury suite imprisoned.
Jax chuckled. “Let’s save that for another time.” He kissed me softly. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.” I nodded, because he had to go and I couldn’t, wouldn’t, say anything that would deter him from this trip. He sighed as if he knew what I was going to answer before he asked. “If I asked you to stay home tonight?”
I shook my head. There were a lot of things I would do for him. That wasn’t one of them.
He sighed a sigh of the resigned. “Okay, then please say I don’t have to tell you to be careful.”
“I’ll be careful.” I didn’t want him to worry. “I have my tracker and my hundred or so vampire protectors. Just hurry back.” I didn’t tell him to make sure the council didn’t have its way with him and our mating bond agreement, but I couldn’t because this time when he kissed me, he went all in. Hands in my hair, hips aligned, tongue stroking mine—all in.
When he pulled back, I was dizzy. Heck, I was still off-kilter when I walked out to the limo with Kendra. I’d barely caught my breath—it was a phantom breath but still hard to catch—when I slid into the backseat of the limo beside Grim, who sat beside Nash.
Kendra was in a black dress with a lot of layers underneath. It took up a lot of space in the car, but she was lovely in a way that made me happy for her. She spent hours and days and weeks working on spells that helped others. Doing things that made our business better. Finding skips. She’s even started making love potions she sold in an online store and had about a thousand five-star reviews already in only a thousand sales. If anyone deserved to look this good it was her.
“That dress is…”
She smiled as she fluffed the skirt and it smacked Nash in the chin. He pushed it down. “It’s jeweled and, best part? It has pockets!”
“Well, it’s gorgeous. And you look amazing.”
Grim agreed with a smile.
Nash grumbled next to her and patted the skirt again, but it seemed to be expanding the closer we get to the event. “Kendra, is this an enchanted garment?” he asked.
She nodded and smiled, adjusting the sweetheart neckline so she didn’t bust out—and I suspected the dress wasn’t the only thing she’d enchanted for this evening’s event.
Since Ransom and Paige were already at the gallery helping Luke set up, which mostly meant reminding him to breathe and fanning him when his nerves got bad and he forgot how, we stopped to pick up Cleo.
She walked out of her building’s foyer on the arm of a mesmerized door man. Not undeservedly either. Her hair was swept up into a delicate chignon with tendrils curling around her face, and her crimson mask was feathered on one side. She held it up by the attached stick as she made a kissy face at Grim who would’ve flushed if not for the lack of blood flow.
Her dress was deep crimson and showed off her long expanse of leg which looked longer in her four-inch heels and the diamond sparkles on her bag could’ve been real for all I knew.
She’d been hunting skips for a long time and had a rumored fortune amassed, according to the whispers I’d gotten from Jordan. She certainly looked like a million bucks.
A slightly smaller, equally bedazzled gay man the size of an eight-year-old with the combover of a man much older followed her. “You didn’t really think I would let you push me out of an opportunity like this one, now did you?” He looked at Kendra. “And my witchy-woman.” He purred. “Stone cold fox is more like it.”
But it was Grim who captured Jordan’s full attention.
It was Nash’s lap, though, that he fell into. Face first. He lifted his head without the slightest hint of embarrassment. “Oh my. Big boy you really are.”
Nash pushed Jordan away and he moved to stand between my knee and Grim’s. “Slide over, soul sister.”
I moved as far left as I could, and Jordan climbed in. “Now, tell me, Mr. Grim. Is there room on your dance card for a Rumba?” He drew the word out and added a snap of his fingers.
Grim nodded. “Maybe, little dude. Maybe.”
It was a fine start to a fine night. Even if Jax couldn’t be there.