Page 6 of Brewster

Her dress fit her differently than it had in their hotel room. It was as if her body had shifted around. Her breasts were larger, and her nipples seemed to have taken a mind of their own. The slit up the side seemed to be exposing every part of her. Her back, bare to his touch now, felt like he was pressing her against something hard and hot. She knew that it was only his hand but it too felt different touching her. Her body, it seemed, was on fire for this man, and she didn’t care who knew it.

“Mr. Cunningham, thank you for inviting us to your lovely party. I don’t think you’ve met my wife, Calla Lily Smith.” He kissed her hand, and she heard Brew growl deep in his throat. She had to shift around, her pussy feeling soaked right now from the man talking. “We’ve only been here for the last few hours, and people have been so welcoming.”

“And they should. You’re a good man, Brewster. A good man to have around, too.” He looked at her, then away, like he’d been caught with his hand in the cookie jar. “Very lovely. You have a very lovely wife, too.”

He hurried away, and she looked at Brew. “You scared him. Or something. What did you do to that poor man?” He told her. “You’re going to have every male in his place running from me by showing them what you’re going to do to them if they look too hard at me. You need to behave.”

“Had I even looked at this dress at the hotel, we wouldn’t have left the bedroom for a decade. I plan on making you pay for your beauty tonight by teasing you every minute that I can. I shan’t let you out of my sight either. you need a keeper, young lady.” She told him that every woman in the place was younger than him, and he kissed her quickly on the mouth.

Calla had to acknowledge that she was having fun as well. He would whisper how he’d met the people coming to them, and she would be hard-pressed to keep a straight face. Some of his stories were outrageous enough that he had to be making them up. Others she just found humorous. Like their hostess.

“Ms. Taylor, before becoming Mrs. Cunningham, was quite the flirt. Also, the dancer. I remember once going to a club that featured women dancers, and there she was up on the stage doing the can-can. She could lift that leg of hers up to a man’s chin. I remember that very well, too.” She just stared at him. “You don’t think me to be a virgin after living as long as I have, did you?”

“No, I guess not, but you don’t have to brag about it.” He told her that he was sincerely sorry. “It’s all right. I just…I’m insecure enough, I think.”

“You’ve no reason to be. The women in this room cannot hold a candle to your beauty. All the men and some of the women are jealous of me having you by my side.” She looked around again.Before, she thought they were staring at him, but now she could see that Brew was right. They were staring at her. “You’re so fresh to all of this that I fear they’ll try to get you to join some clubs or some such nonsense and tear you away from me.”

“Never.” He turned her to him and stared at her. Calla let him look all he wanted to. She wanted him to know that she not only loved him but trusted him as well. “I love you, Brew.”

“And I do you, my heart.” The rest of the evening was spent going from one couple to the next. He knew everyone at the party and told her bits and pieces about their lives and what they did for a living. It was so much information, but she had no trouble remembering it all. Brew even knew bits and pieces about the staff as well.

On their way back to the hotel, she slipped her heels off. Her feet were a little sore, but with one touch from Brew, they felt like she’d been barefooted all evening. Curling up next to him on the drive, she fell asleep in seconds. His scent seemed to lure her into a deep sleep.

Waking up the next morning, she was alone in the big bed—and not just any bed but the one at their home. It looked as if she’d been alone in the bed all night and got up disappointed. After getting out of bed and into the shower, she was glad that she’d slept alone. Her body was sore from the tips of her toes to the top of her hair. As soon as she was able to get out of the hot spray and wash the pens out of her hair, she did feel marginally better.

“Good morning, miss. My name is Hattie. I’m the new cook.” She said she was glad to meet her. “Your husband said to tell you that he’d be back this afternoon and that something had come up, and he couldn’t get out of it.” She laughed like it was the funniest thing in the world to have him gone. Then she explained. “I understand now why he told me to have you eat a hardy breakfast and lunch. The wind could carry you away, Ithink.”

“I’m a bit on the tiny side.” She was handed a cup of tea and pushed it aside. Tea, especially hot, wasn’t anything that she went out of her way for. She could drink it, but she didn’t care for it all that much.”

“How about cold tea? Do you like it? Sweet or unsweet?” Again, she told her that she could drink it but preferred very cold water with ice. “That’s easy enough to fix. I take it you don’t drink coffee either, then?”

“No, I don’t. I couldn’t afford it before, so I never acquired a taste for it. I much prefer to have juice in the morning with water for the rest of the meals. Wine, too, but since I don’t drink it often, it tends to make me a little loopy when I do.” They talked for around an hour about the things that she liked and disliked. There wasn’t too much on the latter list, but she didn’t care all that much for heavy meals. Unless, of course, it was for comfort, and that’s all she wanted. Calla told her that any meal that was called comfort food had at least eight items on it, and they were all deep-fried. The two of them laughed at that for the next twenty minutes.

“I love mashed potatoes. They don’t even have to have gravy on them for me to eat them. I like chicken fried steaks with the mentioned potatoes, green beans, peas, corn, and zucchini. Then, there has to be either cornbread or home-baked bread. Apple or cherry pie and plenty of ice-cold water.” Hattie told her that she sure did love fresh butter beans, too, and Calla agreed. “Those have to have a ton of melted butter on them so that they’re overcooked in it. I’ve not had those in years.”

“I’ll tell you what, I’ll make you some up for dinner tonight.” She said that she’d eat that all by herself. “Good. Then I’ll make sure to have plenty on hand.”

When Brew returned home, she could tell that something had happened. As they were seated in his office, he finally told herabout his friends who were coming to visit them. He seemed so sad in that moment.

“Sirous is the one that I’m worried about most. We were together in a lot of wars and things that go on with humans. Yosef is another friend of mine that both Rance and Rutger recruited to hang out with us. You’d never know to meet them, but they’re the most shy men that I’ve ever met. Moreso than even you are.” She asked him where they were. “The only one I know for sure is Sirous. He had been visiting his father’s estate the last few months. There were some problems with his will, but he’s gotten it all straightened out now. Kenneth lives overseas. I think he’s more British than American now. I think he runs an art gallery. Most of the work is his, but he doesn’t tell anyone that. I don’t know that he tries very hard to sell any of his things either.”

“Do you have any family left?” He said just his friends. His father was killed one night when it was found out they were vampires, and his mother never came around anymore. “I bet that was a scary time for you all. I know that books make you guys seem like you’re all nice people, but I’m betting that’s not true either.”

“It’s not. There are more of us that are bad, as you called them, than nice ones, but they know better than to try anything with the older vamps.” She asked him about baby vampires. “They have an entirely different set of rules that they must follow. As you can imagine, most of them don’t, and they have to be put down. A great many of them don’t make it the first couple of months, thinking that being a vampire is sexy and full of riches. But it’s nothing like that. If you don’t have a support system or money when you’re turned, you won’t be able to get any until you start investing. I think that’s why baby vampires don’t make it. They think the world owes them something, and they get pissed off when they don’t get it. Sometimes, we oldervampires have to go in and clean out a nest of them when they start changing people because they think they can. That’s another rule. They can’t change anyone until they’re ten years old, and it has to be approved.”

“They can’t do it, or they’re not supposed to do it?” He clarified for her. “What keeps them from changing humans? Is it something in their blood?”

“That’s it exactly. Their blood doesn’t hold the properties in it to sustain a change yet. They usually end up killing the human by draining them, or worse yet, they’re only half-changed and go a bit insane when they awaken. By the time you’re ten or so years old, you’ve come to the realization that being a vampire isn’t all that much fun. Especially if you have to be in before the sun rises. That’s the way a great many new ones are killed. Thinking that they can step out into the sun like they used to.” She asked him if he knew his maker. “Yes, my parents were vampires and had me and a sister. She passed away some time ago because her mate was murdered. They had no children, but they loved each other. My sister couldn’t stand to be alive when he was gone from her, so she met the sun.”

“That’s tragic. I wish I could have met her.” He told her that he wished that as well as his parents. “Are they gone as well?”

“My father is. My mother is enjoying her quiet time, she calls it by traveling the world. I think she wanted to do that when we children came along, but the times were just too scary. They could stand the sun, but as children, we couldn’t yet. It would be hard to explain leaving your children to rest when you were out and about. That’s the reason that they didn’t go when we were kids.” Calla told him that was so sad. “It is. My father would have loved you. He would have teased you relentlessly with you being a human with a bit of vampire back in your line.”

“He must have been really old. I mean, even dying like he did, I’m betting that he’s a good deal older than a lot of peopleI know.” Brew told her that was the way it should have been for him to die a very old man and to live a full life. “I want to live a full life with you. Have children someday. I feel I have a lot to learn about being with a vampire yet.”

“You do. But we’re in no hurry. You won’t age, nor will you gain weight, as I told you. And since you have all this time, you can be whatever you want. I’ve been a doctor and an attorney. I’ve even worked in funeral homes when I needed some extra cash. Usually, our money was tied up in investments, and when you needed some cash, it wasn’t always easy to get to. So taking on an odd job was the thing to do.” She asked him if he worked still. “I do. Like you, I think that I’d be bored when I just sat around. With my friends coming to meet you, it will be easy to fall back into the life we had as a kiss, a group of vampires that have no blood relations. I’m looking forward to showing you off.”

“I don’t want them to feel like they have to treat me with kid gloves, you know. I want to have fun with them as well.” She got up off the couch and sat near to him. “I only know what I’ve read in books about your kind. Is there a book on—a true book of your kind that I can read? I would love to have some insight on it before your friends arrive.

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