Kindling Flames—Gathering Tinder (8 page)

Vicky sighed. “No, Beth, he’s not a vampire. We work during the day. What kind of fiction do you read, anyway?”

The others picked up this train of thought and ran with it. By the time Darien finally showed up, the girls had reinvented Vicky’s boss as a master vampire. Vicky had been given the role of the fair maiden who was seduced into being his courtesan and food.

When Vicky spotted the familiar Aston Martin pulling up to the curb, she shushed them, but the women didn’t need any encouragement to be quiet. All three stood with their mouths open in awe at the little, black sports car. They were even more taken aback when Darien stepped from the car in a black dress shirt and slacks. He looked over at his assistant standing on the sidewalk in front of the club.

“He can bite me any day of the week,” Vanessa whispered, just loud enough for the girls to hear. She was rewarded with a string of giggles from her friends and a stern look from Vicky.

“He doesn’t have fangs. Now cut it out!” she hissed at her friends, trying to get them to be more serious. This was her boss they were talking about.

Darien smiled as he ran his tongue over the tip of one of his canines. If she only knew how pointy those teeth could get when he wanted them to. He’d heard everything the girls had said from the moment he had stepped out of the car. His hearing was exceptionally good.

“Good evening, Mr. Ritter.” Vicky addressed him as professionally as possible, under the circumstances. She heard more giggles from her teasing friends and swore she was going to beat them as soon as her boss left.

“Good evening, Miss Westernly.” Darien tried not to smile at her annoyance. “I’m sorry that I pulled you away from your fun, but I need something from inside that bag.” He pointed to the black messenger bag.

“It’s no problem.” She pulled it off and handed it over to her boss.

Darien took it to the back of his car, and Vicky grimaced when he plopped it down, unceremoniously, on the expensive car.

Maggie leaned forward and whispered into Vicky’s ear. “That’s not Darien Ritter?”

Vicky nodded her head, confirming the theory.

Maggie whistled her amazement. “How the hell did you get that job?” This was one of the most powerful men in Brenton, and Vicky was nobody.

“Temp agency,” Vicky admitted.

Maggie nearly passed out. No one scored a job like this from a temp agency.

Darien muttered to himself as he dug into the bag, looking for something.

“Miss Westernly…”

His call drew Vicky’s attention away from her awed friends.

“Can you come hold this for me?” He held out the leather books from inside the bag without looking up.

Vicky quickly stepped up to relieve him of the items.

“Thank you. They kept trying to slip off the back of the car.”

She looked at the sloped back window and the short lip of the trunk and smiled. The back of an Aston Martin was definitely not a good place to empty out a bag.

Vicky was confused by her boss’s actions. Darien had emptied most of the items out of the satchel, but he was still rummaging around, looking for something. She startled when he let out a sudden “Aha!” upon finding what he wanted deep in the folds. Looking on in surprise, she watched as he pulled out a rather worn, leather pouch she had never seen before.

Darien opened the pouch and dumped out a handful of colorful rocks. He picked out two large, green ones before sliding the rest back in. Tossing the small bag back into the satchel, he pocketed the stones before holding his hand out for Vicky to return the books she was holding. She gave them over, and he stuck them back into the bag and flipped the top over. Darien turned to face his assistant and handed the bag back to her. She eyed it warily before taking it and pulling the strap over her shoulder.

“It’s dangerous out at night,” Darien looked over the four women standing on the sidewalk. Turning his attention back to Vicky, he asked, “How are you getting home?”

Vicky opened her mouth to answer him.

“She’s going to walk,” Vanessa cut her off.

A tiny spark of annoyance lit his face as he pinned Vicky to the sidewalk with slightly narrowed eyes.

Turning her head, she yelled at her friend. “Not in these heels!” She looked back to her boss. “I was going to call a cab when we’re done.”

Darien nodded his approval. A cab would be better than walking or driving. He could smell the alcohol on her.

“But, we’re already done here,” Beth lied.

Vicky stared at her with wide eyes as Maggie and Vanessa both snickered.

“Yeah, I’m going to take these two home now,” Vanessa informed him. “So, Vicky’ll have to wait here for her cab by herself.”

A devious grin curled the edges of Darien’s lips. It was easy to see that these women were trying their best to get him to take Vicky home. He had a good idea what they were hoping would happen, but he decided giving her a lift would be better than leaving his assistant in the care of her drunken friends.

Walking over to his passenger door, Darien popped it open. “Get in.” He spoke with a commanding tone that wouldn’t allow Vicky to argue with him.

Looking from the open car door to her smiling friends, Vicky huffed before stomping over to the car. As Darien shut the door, she glared at the three girls waving from the sidewalk. She shook her finger at them, angrily letting them know she would get them for this later.

The girls laughed at her plight and turned to go back into the bar where their guys were waiting for them.

Vicky hung her head and shook it in exasperation as Darien slipped into the driver’s seat. “I’m sorry about this, Mr. Ritter,” she sighed. “I really don’t know what’s gotten into my friends tonight.” She looked over at Darien’s profile. “It’s no problem for me to get a cab.”

Just as she reached for the door handle, he clicked the electronic lock, cutting off any more argument from his passenger.

She shivered as he held her with a penetrating gaze. It was amazing how his eyes shimmered in the light from the car’s console.

“Safety is important, especially late at night.” Darien turned back to the road and eased the car away from the curb. “I really don’t mind making sure you get home.”

She folded her hands in her lap. “Thank you, but I don’t want to keep you from what you were doing.”

“Don’t worry about it,” he replied. “That old codger has been waiting for this prize a long time. It won’t kill him to wait a little bit longer.” Something else passed across Darien’s face as he spoke, “But
I
will, if I find out he was cheating.”

She shuddered at the cold note in her boss’s voice, and they rode for the rest of the trip in silence.

***

Darien pulled up in front of Vicky’s apartment and turned to look at her. Relaxed against the seat, Vicky had nodded off during the trip home. Her head tilted over so her face was turned away from him, leaving the long line of her neck exposed. Darien felt the sharp points of his fangs against his lip as he thought about how tempting the soft skin over her pulse point was. He couldn’t help thinking about how defenseless she was in that position. After considering it for a moment, he shook the thought away. It would be a bad idea to mix work with pleasure. He’d gone through a lot of trouble trying to find someone so well suited to his needs. It wasn’t worth the risk of having to go through that hell again just for a little blood.

“We’re here.” Darien touched his assistant’s shoulder to wake her up.

Vicky shook her head to clear her mind of the sleep that had overtaken it. She yawned into the back of her hand, breathing deeply as she stretched the sleep from her. Embarrassed, she realized she had fallen asleep. . “I’m so sorry, Mr. Ritter. Thank you for taking me home.”

He smiled warmly at her. “You’re quite welcome, Miss Westernly. Now, go get some rest.”

Unable to get her eyes to focus properly on her boss’s face, Vicky blinked several times before thanking him again and getting out of the car.

Darien waited around until she was safely inside before heading back to the game of chance he’d left to retrieve the two uncut emeralds from the depths of Vicky’s bag.

***

Vicky dropped the mysterious bag on the couch as she headed to the bathroom to wash her face. Once clean, she changed out of her dress and crawled into her covers.

Studying the patterns on the kimono, she tried to sort out what had caused her to do a double take on the face of the handsome man that dropped her off. Vicky was sure it was just her sleep-addled mind and the stupid shenanigans of her friends that caused her to see things that weren’t real. There was no way she had seen fangs poking out of the corners of her boss’s mouth. Vicky closed her eyes and let herself slip back into dreams filled with thick, foreign accents, vampires, and brilliant, green eyes.

The keys on Vicky’s computer clicked as she entered the data from the files piled on her desk. She had finally emptied out both of the boxes that Darien had left for her to organize. Between keeping her boss on time and running his random errands, it had taken her the better part of the week just to get the papers in something that resembled order. Now that they were sorted out, all she had to do was input the information into the spreadsheet she’d created. Once finished, she would have a clear and precise account of all the finances of the small company Darien was interested in picking up. It should only take another week of constant work for her to finish the job.

Her attention was pulled away from the figures when the door to the outer office swung open, and a large man walked in. Dressed in dark jeans and a red T-shirt under a black leather biker’s jacket, the man stood a full head taller than Vicky did. His hair was dark brown and would have looked rather nice if he had combed it properly. As it was, he looked as if he had just run his fingers through his hair roughly. The stranger’s heavy boots carried him with intent towards Darien’s office.

Vicky stood to greet the man before he could interrupt her boss’s conference call. “Good afternoon, sir,” she began. “Is there something I can do for you?”

The man ignored her and continued towards her boss’s door.

Vicky quickly put herself between him and the door.

He stared at her, surprised. “I’m here to see Darien. Move,” he growled.

She took a step back but didn’t shift out of his way. “Mr. Ritter is busy at the moment,” she informed the man glaring at her. “If you would like to make an appointment, I’d be happy to help you.”

He growled at her again and took another step towards the inner office. “I’ll see him now.”

Vicky took another step back, so she was almost against the door. She raised her hands and placed them on the man’s chest to stop his forward momentum. “I told you, he’s busy now. Please don’t make me have to call security.”

Before she knew what was happening, the man grabbed her by the throat, lifted her up to his eye level, and pressed her into the wooden door. “I will see him
now
,” he snarled into her face.

Vicky clawed at his hand as she gasped for air. She kicked at him, trying to get free. Dark spots filled her vision as pain radiated from where he was crushing the life from her. She tried to scream for help, but nothing would come out past the hurt being caused her. The last thought that passed through her mind before darkness engulfed her was that the stack of paperwork next to her desk would never get entered into the spreadsheets.

***

Darien opened his office door and caught the unconscious form of his assistant as she fell from his unannounced visitor’s hand. He quickly gathered the un-breathing woman into his arms and transported her to his leather couch, knowing he would need to do something fast to save her life.

“Damn it, Rupert!” Darien cursed. “Why the hell did you go and do that?” He checked Vicky’s pulse and found it thready.

“She’s human?” Rupert said, slightly shocked, as he stepped into the room and shut the door. “With the way she was acting, I didn’t realize she was. You can fix it, right?”

“Yes, but I’d rather not have to,” he growled at his visitor before turning his mind to the girl who desperately needed his help.

Darien’s unwelcome guest watched him work.