Safe Hex With a Vampire (20 page)

Tempest had been so involved in her own book
that she had forgotten Drew was there. “I’m surprised that you’re
enjoying it,” she said. The book was pretty cheesy with very little
plot and a lot of sex. She was guessing that it could have
qualified as erotica.

“It’s like watching, only in my own head,
and this girl sounds totally hot!” he said with great
enthusiasm.

Tempest made the mistake of looking at
Drew’s shorts and sure enough he was
really
enjoying the
book. It surprised her that Drew found the main character so
attractive. She was described as a full figured woman who wore
a size eighteen. Drew struck her as the shallow type that would
consider a woman in a size eight overweight.

He looked at Tempest and seemed
uncomfortable. “I mean you’re beautiful, but you’d look even more
beautiful if you put on a little weight.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Really?”

He nodded enthusiastically. “Another forty
pounds would really round things out in all the right places. A
woman shouldn’t be all bony. I don’t mind watching the really
skinny ones. I mean it’s hard to get porn with really hot
women.”

Tempest wondered idly if Drew had any sort
of internal filter at all.

“I’m getting even harder just thinking about
how great your ass would look with that extra forty pounds,” Drew
said.

Nope, he did not have an internal
filter.

“Oookay,” she said as she started reading
again.

“Did you want me to get you something to
eat? I could pick up a pizza or maybe some ice cream?” he
offered.

“I’m not really hungry,” she said, “but
thank you.”

“That’s the problem,” he said. “You just
don’t eat enough.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,’ she said.

He shrugged and read for another fifteen
minutes before he started talking again. “I should write books like
this.”

That was enough to make her put her Kindle
down. “You want to write romance novels?”

He nodded. “My dad says I need to start
doing something. I think I’d like writing books like this.”

“It’s not easy to write a book,” Tempest
said, not sure why she was giving him advice.

“It would give me an excuse for thinking
about sex most of the time,” he said.

“I think all men your age think about sex
most of the time,” she assured him.

“I don’t always think about sex,” he
continued. “Sometimes I think about killing people. I could use
that in the books too.”

“How often do you think about killing
people?” Tempest asked cautiously.

“Maybe three or four times a day,” he said
after some thought. “I’d never do it on purpose, but I still think
about it. My mom likes to kill people. It’s like a hobby. She tried
to talk me into becoming a professional killer, but I don’t really
like doing the clean up or getting rid of bodies. That’s why I just
think about it.”

Tempest stared at him with her mouth open,
wondering how many bodies he had cleaned up after.

Drew didn’t seem to notice her distress. “I
could write those romances with vampires in them. People like those
kinds of stories and people are supposed to get killed in those
books. I could pick a different name to write under. Probably a
girl name would be best.”

“That sounds like a good idea,” Tempest
said. “I’m going to see if Aiden is done working now.”

“He’s still on the call,” Justin said as he
walked into the room. “I came to make sure Drew wasn’t annoying you
too much.”

“We were reading,” Drew said.

“I didn’t know you could read,” Justin said.
“So did the book inspire you to try green eggs and ham? Or were the
words too big for you?”

Drew flipped him off and then said, “I’m
going to become a writer. Tempest thinks I should write romance
novels with vampires in them.”

Justin looked at Tempest and she shook her
head.

“What do you think of the pen name Candy
Bright?” he asked.

Justin laughed. “That’s stripper name, not a
pen name. No one is going to buy books written by someone named
Candy Bright.”

“I’ll come up with something,” Drew said
irritably.

“How about Annemarie Drake?” Tempest
suggested, not sure why she was encouraging him.

Drew thought for a moment. “That’s good. I’m
going to start my book now.” With that he swaggered out of the
room.

“Sorry that you got stuck with him for so
long,” Justin said. “I had to run out to see a patient and Isaiah
got an email offering him a contract so he went down to talk to the
company. I’m guessing that Aiden thought one of us was here to keep
Drew away from you.”

“It’s okay,” Tempest assured him. “Most of
the time he was quiet. Do you know that he thinks about killing
people a few times a day?”

Justin looked thoughtful. “That’s a big
improvement. Of course, he may have just been trying to impress you
with the fact that he’s not a complete psycho.”

“He didn’t seem to think there was anything
wrong with it,” she said. “He did at least say that he wouldn’t
kill people on purpose.”

“Hopefully, it means he’s improving,” Justin
said. “Aiden wanted me to make sure you’ve eaten.”

She nodded. “I had a snack earlier. What
does Isaiah do?”

“He breaks into things,” Justin said. When
she looked confused, he explained. “Companies pay him to test their
security. Most of the time they pay him to either hack into their
systems or break into their facilities and tell them what’s wrong
with their current security. Sometimes they pay him to find out how
someone broke into their systems or find out who did it.”

Tempest was impressed. “I kind of thought he
just did programming or something like that.”

“He does that too,” Justin said.

“So you all have careers?” Tempest asked. “I
don’t mean that to sound like I think you’re all lazy. I think
books have skewed my view of vampires. I pictured you all living a
life of leisure and debauchery.”

“We didn’t always have careers,” Justin
explained. “Roman decided that we would stay out of trouble if we
all had things to occupy our time. Personally, I think he just got
tired of taking care of everyone and trying to fix their messes. I
always wanted to be a doctor so I was already working. For some of
us it was harder. Isaiah didn’t really find his calling until after
the invention of computers. Drew is still young so he has time. If
he becomes a romance writer I might need you to perform CPR on
me.”

“Not gonna happen,” Aiden said as he entered
the room. “There is no way she is putting her mouth on yours.”

“Are you done working?” Tempest asked.

Aiden nodded. “Sorry for leaving you alone
all day.”

“I don’t need someone to entertain me,” she
assured him.

“What are you two planning for the rest of
the day?” Justin asked.

“Nothing that I know of” Aiden replied.

“Caitlin wants to know if we can all go out
tonight,” Justin said. “I still can’t believe she texted me and
wants to go out. Do you know that I gave her my number three years
ago and this is the first time she’s used it?”

“So, this would be your first date?” Tempest
asked.

“Caitlin says it’s not a date. She said that
you wouldn’t want to leave Aiden and she wants to go out in the new
outfits you bought.”

“Sounds like a date to me,” Aiden assured
him. “We can’t tell them no,” he said to Tempest. “Look at poor
Justin. He may never get laid again if we don’t help him.”

Tempest smiled. “I can’t have that on my
conscience.”

It was becoming painfully obvious that there
was a rift between Viktor and myself. I had noticed it before, but
without Claudia it was much more obvious. It did not help that I
was miserable without Claudia.

Excerpt from Roman Draksel’s blog

“Why did I agree to this? This evening can’t
end well. They’ve already sent me to the ATM with you so they can
talk about us,” Justin complained as he walked to the ATM with
Aiden.

Aiden smirked at Justin. “You agreed because
you’re smitten with the lovely, and slightly scary, Caitlin.”

Justin shook his head. “You know that you
sound really old when you use words like smitten, don’t you?”

Aiden entered his pin. “I am old, and you
act much older than I do. Now try to pull that stick out of your
ass or Caitlin may decide you’re too old for her.”

Justin let out a long suffering sigh.
“Yeah, I guess I need to try harder to meet her halfway. The last
time we were at a club together, I tried to drag her out of a mosh
pit.”

“So, how did that turn out for you?” Aiden
asked. Based on what he knew about Caitlin, he couldn’t imagine her
reacting well.

“She gave me a black eye,” Justin replied.
He was smiling at the memory.

“You really are in for a world of trouble
with that one,” Aiden muttered.

“Look who’s talking,” Justin said. “I get
the impression you still haven’t convinced Tempest that you’re the
man for her.

Aiden took his money and frowned. “I’m not
sure that’s what I need to convince her of anymore. It’s more a
matter of convincing her that I won’t get in the way of her
work.”

“You know I always thought that if I ever
found a woman who I wanted to have as my mate that she’d be more
willing,” Justin said as they moved a little away from the ATM so
someone else could use it. “I’ve got money, a good career, and I’m
attractive.”

“And modest,” Aiden added.

Justin shrugged. “Screw modesty. I can also
give her eternal life, and vampires are all the rage in books and
movies. Caitlin’s roommate, Trish, told me that Caitlin loves to
read those vampire romances. I mean I can give her romance and she
can call me a vampire if she wants to. I’ve still got fangs.”

“You do?” Aiden asked in surprise.

“I’m the one that does the surgery to remove
them. Who do you think was going to take mine out?’

“Good point,” Aiden said. “I would like to
point out that until recently, Caitlin wasn’t even aware of your
intentions. Before that, you were mostly just stalking her. Maybe
she just needs some time to get used to you being more than her
stalker.”

Justin shrugged.

“It couldn’t hurt if you tried to have more
fun,” Aiden suggested. “Tonight, just try to act young and maybe a
little immature. Show her a different side of yourself.”

Justin nodded. “I wish I had advice to give
you about Tempest. I really think she’ll come around. She looks
happy when she’s with you.”

“I hope you’re right,” Aiden said as he
headed back to where Tempest and Caitlin were waiting for them.
Tempest was wearing an outfit that she had purchased when she was
out with Caitlin. It consisted of black skinny jeans and a black
corset top with red lacing up the front. She’d completed the outfit
with black and red shoes that added about four inches to her
height. Caitlin was wearing a red corset dress with black lacing,
and the same shoes as Tempest. They had definitely coordinated
outfits for the evening. They were both talking in low voices. Then
they both burst into laughter. Caitlin quickly recovered and put
her bored mask back in place.

“Can you spare a little change?” asked a
scrawny looking man on Aiden’s left. “I haven’t eaten in days.”

Aiden handed him some money. When he looked
up, Tempest was scowling at him.

“I just do it so they don’t harass me,” he
explained. “I really hate this city.”

Justin snorted.

After Aiden had given money to four other
people on the way to the club, Tempest stopped.

“Give me your wallet,” she said with a hand
out.

“Why?” he asked.

“You cannot give a twenty to everyone who
asks you for money,” she said with exasperation. “Seriously, if I
had known you were such a pushover I would have gotten you a stack
of dollar bills before we got here.”

“People can’t buy a meal with a dollar
bill,” Aiden argued.

“I’m not saying that everyone you have given
money to was scamming you,” she paused and shook her head. “Yes, I
am. The people in this part of the city are scamming you. This is
their job.”

“She’s right,” Caitlin agreed. “You are a
total sucker.”

“I am not,” Aiden insisted. “I don’t really
care if they eat. I just want them to stop asking me for money so I
give it to them. It’s easier that way.”

“Then we will get you those dollar bills
next time,” Tempest said as she stuck his wallet into her purse.
“They’ll leave you alone if you give them a dollar.”

“You make it sound like you’re sending him
to a strip club,” Justin said.

“I bring fives to a strip club,” Aiden said
and then flushed slightly when he looked over at Tempest and
Caitlin.

Tempest shrugged. “It doesn’t bother me if
you want to look at strippers.”

“I’d go with you,” Caitlin added, and Aiden
was sure Justin might swallow his own tongue.

“You would go to watch women take off their
clothes?” Justin sputtered.

Caitlin gave him a frustrated look.

Aiden knew she was starting to think about
what a stick in the mud Justin was so he decided to try to help
out. “Don’t you think it would be hot if she got up on stage and
started dancing with one of the strippers? She seems like the type
that would do it. I would pay good money to see Tempest get a lap
dance from a hot stripper.”

Aiden watched as Justin’s face went from
horrified to thoughtful and finally settled on intrigued.

Caitlin saw the transformation too and
reached out to grab Justin’s hand as she leaned in close. “Wanna go
see strippers?”

Justin nodded enthusiastically.

“I’m not sure I do,” Tempest said. “Sorry,
Aiden, but you’ll just have to see strippers on your own.”

“We already have tickets for the show
anyway,” Caitlin said and then she shocked everyone by leaning in
to kiss Justin. “I just really liked seeing Justin getting a little
hot thinking about something so scandalous.”