"You smell good," she purred, and Marco winked at her.
It was nice to have a boyfriend who got along so well with my best friend. She and Marco always teased each other good-naturedly and he snapped at her as he pushed the bag further underneath the seat.
He moved to get in the front seat with me, but this would leave Kat sitting beside Alek and Johnny in the back. Alek was fine, but she and Johnny fought like cats and dogs. To say that putting her beside him was a bad idea would be a gross understatement.
"Whoever sits in the front will have to have someone in their lap," Elijah explained. This earned him a sharp look from Marco and he continued nervously, "Hey, I can't help it; all of the cooking supplies are in the car with Bade. There's nowhere else to sit."
Marco glared at Kat before pushing her over into Alek and taking a seat. This left me to ride in the front in Johnny's lap. He grinned from ear to ear as I situated myself comfortably and put my arm around his neck.
"Don't get too comfortable," I teased, kissing him on the forehead.
Even though we hadn't seen each other in years until recently, Johnny and I had always been close, even if we didn't make a good couple. Of course you'd never know that unless you saw us together. People couldn't believe it when we broke up. Well, everyone except Alfred, who had hated him with a passion. That was the reason we hadn't spoken in years, and I regretted letting Alfred's prejudice influence my decisions for so long. I liked Johnny, even if he was an ass.
Kat had chosen a Monday for our activities because that meant everyone who was invited had the day or night off. Elijah was a cop, but Monday was his scheduled day off. Marco's clubs were closed during the week, so he was free, and so was Bade, who worked at Dracula's club Original Sin. Judas, who worked as a stripper at a place called The Package Store, had arranged to take off work, and Johnny and Alek now worked for me.
"Ooo," Johnny said, putting his hands around my waist, "it's been a long time, sweetheart."
"Hands," Marco demanded from the backseat.
This was Johnny's cue to hold up both hands so Marco knew where they were. And this is how we proceeded to ride for the next hour to the beach. Luther and Bade had the radio blaring some obscene tune behind us to which they were head-banging. Luther's long white blond hair was loose, and flowed freely in the breeze. They both had blond hair, blue eyes, and an impressive display of muscles. He and Bade could have been brothers. Both of them were shirtless. Though Bade was bigger, Luther was still as tall as Marco, and nearly as well muscled. Bade's fair golden skin was only one shade darker than Luther's pale creamy complexion, but they both looked like they belonged in the sun. Bade was like me, he didn't exactly tan, he just turned a healthy looking gold.
Luther was wearing blue sunglasses and eating a cherry lollypop. Bade looked, as usual, like he'd stepped out of a dirty magazine, and Judas was sitting in the back eating some sort of sugary candy in a powder he kept spilling across his face. They looked like a porno on wheels. Beau was the only one wearing a shirt, but that didn't distract from his sexy body. He was also tall and though his blond hair was cut in a shorter shaggy style, he also had blue eyes. It was like an Arian werewolf parade. Judas's dark countenance was the only change in color scheme. His long black hair was also blowing in the wind, and his fair skin looked like it could use a bit of sun, though every visible inch of him was gorgeous. According to Kat, so were the ones who weren't visible.
Kathryn Roberts had been my best friend for about five years now, ever since I rescued her and her ex-boyfriend from some angry werewolves. Elijah's younger sister Mary worked with Kat, and she had taken the day off and left Mary in charge of her shop. Kat is an interior designer and owns a shop in town. She also owns a small café next door known as The Pussy Kat Café. She had recently hired another girl named Katie to help run the café, but I hadn't met her yet.
Kat would normally have been getting her thrill riding between Alek and Marco, that is, if she could stop arguing with Elijah. They got along just fine until you put Elijah behind the wheel and Kat in the same vehicle. They fought like siblings. In fact they had sort of adopted each other. Kat was used to having brothers, and Elijah was used to taking care of his sister, so they fit together pretty well. Her brothers lived out of town, but she had three of them, and I got the feeling they would like Elijah.
So, we proceeded through beach traffic with Kat yelling that Elijah was going to hit someone, Alek rolling his eyes, and Marco constantly demanding, "Hands!"
We drove down past where anyone else was either walking or lounging, all the way to the end of the public section of the beach. I hadn't been to the beach since last summer, when Elijah and I were dating in Alfred's absence. It was still relatively early and the fresh smell of ocean waves seemed to call to me. As I stood there breathing deeply of the salty air I felt Johnny's hand on my back.
"Why don't we have a dip?" he asked playfully.
If anyone loved the water more than me it was Johnny. He really would have made an excellent pirate.
I turned to face him, taking in his torn jeans, open shirt, and complete lack of shoes.
"But you're not wearing any trunks."
"I'll go in my knickers," he said with a wink, mocking Alek's accent.
"You mean you actually wore some?" I teased.
"Let's see."
With that he took off running toward the surf, and I followed, both of us stripping off as we ran.
?
Chapter Four
As we both paused to wriggle out of our jeans, I noticed Johnny had put his trunks on underneath his pants. He just winked and said, "Caught you looking."
After that, it was a race to see who could shed everything the fastest, and get in the water first. We both plunged headlong into the oncoming waves. The last thing I heard was Kat yelling, "Hey, where do you think you're going?"
His glasses had been left on the sand, and the salt water didn't sting Johnny's eyes. I knew he must have been watching me under the water when I felt his arms around my waist, pulling me up through the waves.
"You've gotten better," he gasped as we broke the surface.
"Why did you stop me?"
"Because you were winning," he laughed.
I knew it wasn't true. I had never been a very strong swimmer, but I loved it just the same. I splashed water in his face and went back under. I forced my eyes open, knowing it would hurt and found myself staring at his ass. His knee length red trunks matched the one piece I had on, and I only paused a moment before snatching them around his knees.
"Now can you catch me?" I taunted as I broke the surface again.
Johnny laughed as he struggled with his trunks. "I see you haven't changed."
"And I see you still can't swim with your pants around your knees."
I beat him back to the beach where everyone had nearly finished setting up the grill, and everything else they'd brought. As I looked back over my shoulder Johnny emerged from the waves. He flung back his hair, leaving a few strands of it clinging to his handsome face, and winked at me as I handed him his glasses.
"Why did you really pull my trunks down?" he whispered.
"Curiosity," I said, smiling shamelessly. "Like you said, it's been a long time."
Marco, who had fortunately missed this exchange, just laughed at us and said, "Now you'll both get sand in your crack if you sit down."
But even as he teased me, Marco was spreading out my big beach towel beside his. Bade put his towel on the other side of mine and set up a large umbrella right over our heads. After a few minutes, everyone stripped down to their trunks or in Kat's case bikini, and left the cooking to Johnny.
In between turning the steaks and hamburgers, Johnny collected our trail of clothes from the sand and put them in a pile behind my head. Some of the guys were playing water volleyball. Kat was on Beau's shoulders and Bade had Judas on his. It was the funniest thing I'd seen since Johnny tried to swim with his shorts down. When the food was almost done, Marco, who had stripped down to his blue trunks, decided to go for a swim. Bade stretched out beside me looking every bit like a Greek sun god.
"I could take a nap," I sighed.
"Is that a sneaky way of saying you'd like to sleep with me?" he teased.
"Honey, we've slept together before."
"Well, maybe this time we could stay awake," he said, rolling to his side to face me.
"Or, maybe you could just hand me the sunscreen."
Bade was in the process of reapplying sunscreen to my back when Johnny yelled, "Lunch is ready!"
Everybody began to drift back toward the smell of food, and as I sat up I caught a glimpse of Alek coming down the beach. The morning had been clear, but the afternoon promised to be overcast. The shade of clouds seemed to follow him as he walked around the corner toward us. I hadn't noticed Alek's absence before, which meant I must have been blind, because he looked wonderful. He was wearing a pair of thin white pants that would probably be see-thru if they got wet, and a long sleeved white shirt of the same material. The shirt hung completely open to reveal his upper body, and I found myself wishing the wizard would take it off. His skin seemed darker against the white, giving him an almost bronzed look like Bade.
As I approached him I asked, "Don't you like to swim?"
"Only at night with naked women," he teased in his sultry voice.
Alek was referencing the night he had caught me skinny dipping with Julius in the small pond near The Council Tower on planet Terra. Of course, I never knew I had been watched that night until he told me a few months ago. But I knew it to be one of his fondest memories. Swimming that night with Julius was one of my fondest memories also. But knowing Alek had been watching us did a little something for me too.
"Thou shalt not tempt The Seducer," I breathed as I ran one finger down his chest.
Alek gasped in response to the power I had just unleashed with that slight touch. My great, great grandfather Mathias Alexander had been known as The Seducer, and since I had inherited his powers, I was now The Seducer, though very few people knew that, and I had never before used his title.
The magic I had just used on Alek was known as the voice of seduction, and it had been Mathias's greatest power. He could touch places with his voice his hands had never been, and so could Dracula. There was a time when Mathias was unsure he would ever have an heir to pass down his legacy, and in this time he had trained the vampire to be his successor.
"You use his title now?" Alek said, taking a deep breath.
"Only just now."
"Then I am at the right place, at the right time."
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"Remember when I first showed up I told you I was keeping a promise I had made to Mathias?"
"Yes."
"I promised that when The Seducer was once again made known, I would protect her," he said softly and his words warmed my heart.
I looked down and saw a book in his hand.
"And do you find a book more interesting than me?" I asked.
"Only a slight distraction," he said, smiling.
I stood on tip toe and kissed his cheek before we returned to the group.
Late that evening, we were all still on the beach. We had built a bonfire and were debating what to eat for supper. No one really wanted to go home yet, but we would have to soon. Kat had to open the shop early, Beau had band practice, and I had an early afternoon rehearsal with Dracula. Marco would be leaving tomorrow afternoon for another weekly meeting with my great, great uncle Aldan Medwin. Aldan was the eldest member of the wizard council, one of the governing bodies of planet Terra. They had been meeting regularly since the enactment of the werewolf code to discuss how things were going. Aldan valued his opinion, and Marco was thrilled to be asked. It was an honor if the wizard council even acknowledged you had an opinion, let alone asked for it.
"Let's get pizza," Kat said. "They deliver to the beach."
"What kind?" Judas asked.
"What about the twelve inch deluxe?" Kat suggested.
Bade, who was sitting to my right put an arm around me and said suggestively, "I think they're looking for The Red Light Special."
That's what he was known as at Original Sin. Bade offered a sample of his alpha werewolf blood to some of the lucky vampires present. He was actually on the menu as The Red Light Special.
"Don't push your luck." I laughed, poking him in the ribs.
Marco snapped at his arm around me and he quickly removed it. I snuggled against Marco's side while everyone argued over what to eat. They finally did order pizza. Several pizzas to be exact, and when we were done I helped pack everything up.
"It's not fair," Judas said to me.
"What?"
He motioned toward Johnny who was now fully dressed again and smoking a cigar.
"The man could smoke five hundred cigarettes, roll straight out of bed, and still look better than me."
While I laughed, Alek put an arm around the were-leopard and said comfortingly, "Don't feel bad. As a matter of fact, Johnny did smoke five hundred cigarettes this morning, roll right out of bed to come down here, and he looks better than me too."
I was still snickering over Alek's comment when I put my bag in the jeep and caught Kat flirting with Beau.
"I see the leg healed nicely," she said, giving his thigh a pinch.
Beau and some other pack members had a run-in with a were-lizard last summer, and his leg had been torn off at the hip. Fortunately for Beau, he's a werewolf, and the limb had regenerated.
"Not in front of Judas," Marco scolded. "Have some tact."
"Actually, mate, she's just had some rum," Bade pointed out with a smile.
"I told you not to get Kat drunk," Marco growled.
"Oh, not me," Bade said, holding up his hands as if to show he was unarmed. "It was Johnny."
Marco looked over his shoulder at Johnny who was just placing the nearly empty bottle of rum back underneath his seat.