Page 10 of Sassy Embrace

“Okay, you’re crossing a line from annoying to weird,” Leigh said.

She had to let it go. She had far too much to do before even considering feeling something for a damn vampire. It was ludicrous, even for a supernatural.

Leigh continued to work, retrieving her laptop from her car and setting up the extra coffee machine she’d brought over from The Thirsty Wolfe. The air was crisp from the heavy rainfall, but she found it comforting, especially since the construction had been put on hold. She fell into her usual free floating zone of productivity, typing away in a trance as if striking piano keys.

The only sound was the brewing of the coffee machine and the rain that pattered gently. Both were equally soothing.

“Hello?"

Leigh had managed to shoot out emails to both decorators and a few hiring staff when a woman walked through the front door. She stopped mid-sentence and glowered, hovering her fingers over the keyboard as she hunched over what would soon become the jazz room bar.

“Can I help you?” Leigh said bluntly.

As she stood straight, the woman came in, holding an opened, bright coral umbrella. It was an eyesore on such a dreary day, and when the stranger shook it without hesitation, it only irked Leigh more.

“Fancy seeing someone like you here," the woman said. “What is a wolf doing in a vampire club?”

Leigh looked at her sternly. The fresh wet scent wafted in from the opened door, carrying over the distinct, cold stone fragrance that the wolf recognized immediately.

Whoever she was, she was a fucking vampire.

“This is a construction zone,” Leigh barked, making her way around the bar. "It's unsafe for anyone to be here without a permit. I’m asking you kindly to leave.Now."

When the woman was finished shaking out her umbrella, she tossed it aside haphazardly, then shook off her jacket. Blondehair that was pulled taut hummed like static through the air, and eyes, like shards of sapphires, laboriously rose to meet Leigh’s vexed stare.

“You’re Leigh, I guess? The mutt they sent?”

Leigh folded her arms over her chest. It was something she did to keep herself from unraveling like a threaded doll. More so for the other person's sake than her own.

“I am. And who the fuck are you?"

The woman chuckled and stripped off her jacket. She plopped it onto the ground unceremoniously.

"I'm Kim Jezek. My husband used to run this place before he was killed. And the Southern Vampire Coven too.”

Leigh didn't like the way Kim was eyeing the space. She looked like a hungry beast ready to mangle its next meal.

She wasn’t really in the mood for a fight, but Leigh wasn’t the type to back down. She grinded her feet into the floor and flexed her muscles in preparation.

“And what makes you think I care?” she snapped back.

The sapphire eyes landed on her. That cold stone feeling traced up her spine, but Leigh did everything she could not to show it.

“If he were still alive, it would have been my responsibility to re-open Embraced.Not some wolf."

Leigh’s resolve wavered for a moment. She truly did not want to battle the woman. She was rude, but maybe there was something behind that rudeness. She had just lost her husband, after all.

So Leigh became sweeter, not because she was afraid but because she was truly exhausted.You get more flies with sugar than vinegar, right?

She dropped her hands to her sides, then thumbed back at the coffee machine that had just finished brewing.

“Do you want to talk over a mug of coffee? I find that evens things out.”

The snarl that had been growing on Kim's lips faded, and she nodded. For a second, Leigh was relieved and turned her back on the vampire stranger.

It was a mistake that could have proven fatal.

Kim shrieked before she leaped onto Leigh’s back, ensnaring her around the waist with her legs and obstructing her breathing with a cold forearm pressed against her throat. Leigh saw black for a moment, which promptly turned blood red.

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