Page 37 of Best Served Cold

Demetri licked his lips. “Very spicy.”

Tina shook her head and excused herself. When she was gone, Demetri lowered his head to her ear. “Very spicy and incredibly tempting, if you ask me.”

When Tina returned, her friend chuckled. “See, I knew all those red peppers would get to you.”

Stacy had felt hot, all right. But the heat flowing through her body had nothing to do with the dried hot peppers.

Pulling herself out of the memory, Stacy rechecked her calendar. She was trying to figure out how much time she had to learn more about her clients before her next mediation session. Though this time, she’d be better prepared.

Over the weekend, Tina had taken her back to the bookstore and, by her request left her. Stacy insisted that she’d have to start doing these things on her own. She’d wandered the rows and looked at the informative books. It had taken nearly a half hour for one of the employees to come to her as she browsed the selection. Tina had already explained that the real collection was in the back. But the only way back there was if an employee allowed you behind the curtain. They had some sort of mystical protection mojo going on back there.

When she introduced herself, the woman barely blinked at her. When the clerk asked what she could help her find, Stacy whispered that she was looking for books about werewolves. The woman had simply stared at her, then showed her to the paranormal portion of the fiction aisle. It was like she didn’t believe her. Saturday she hadn’t been shown anything but the regular selection. And just to prove she was serious, she had made sure to smile as she made her purchase of books on Wolves and, to Tina’s delight, Fairy Tales.

On Sunday, she’d gone back and after about an hour, the same woman approached. When she asked what she could help her find, Stacy smile

d. She took a deep breath and asked once again for the books on werewolves. Once again she’d been taken to the fiction section. This time Stacy smiled and asked for the nonfiction section.

When the woman insisted that there was no nonfiction section, Stacy nodded. She told the woman that she understood. Perhaps she’d heard wrong when she heard they sold books that could be of use to her. Then she opened her cell phone and mumbled, “Where did I put Demetri’s number?”

Those words had an instant reaction. She was ushered into the back section with an apology. The clerk explained about how they had so many gothic wannabes come into the store that they’d had to start screening their customers first. She lamented that the surge came from all the authors who seemed to be writing steamy romances about vampires and shape shifters. Of course the fact the employee complained about those steamy romances didn’t stop the store from stocking them. She’d noticed a particularly large display of them just before she walked through the back door to the private selection.

After more than an hour in the back, Stacy’s checkbook was groaning, but she had some books. She had carefully arranged the small start of her library. She’d even separated her shelves. One was set up for her research and history books, and another would eventually be filled with her recreational reading.

She’d even started a notebook for things she wanted to remember. Going over one of her books Sunday night, she’d found details about the war between Randal’s Vampire Clan and Demetri’s Werewolf Pack. As she read, she couldn’t help being incredibly thankful she hadn’t had any knowledge of the history between the two groups during her first mediation.

After a particularly gory accounting of the last peace talks two decades ago, she’d put the book down. The only reason they’d agreed to attempt a peace was there had been a massacre. It hadn’t made the news, mainly because most of the dead had been vampires or werewolves. Few mortals had died that time. Unfortunately, the same couldn’t be said about the war a hundred years prior to that.

Sitting at her desk, she scrolled through her appointments. She’d made sure to ask Tina where she could get any possible prescriptions filled, including the one for birth control. Inside the pharmacy, she had stumbled and stuttered as people watched her. She had not been so embarrassed about getting a birth control prescription filled since she was seventeen. But there was something about the way the woman with purple eyes had looked at her. As though she knew what was going on in Stacy’s life.

Unfortunately, as with regular pills, she couldn’t start taking them until she got her period. The first Sunday after the first day of her period. And with all the stress she’d been under—and those encounters with Demetri—she didn’t see that happening anytime soon.

Stacy was jerked out of her thoughts when the phone beside her rang. Picking it up, she automatically answered “BSC, this is Stacy, how may we help you?” She was nervous, but hoped that her voice hid it.

“May I speak to Ms. Jones, please?”

“This is she,” she said wondering who could be calling her at work. Who had the number? Was it her doctor’s office? Was there something wrong with her? Did the tests come back with bad news? Had her asshole ex given her something, courtesy of his whore?

“Ms. Jones, it’s Marie from Mr. Edwards’s office. Would you hold for Mr. Edwards?”

Before she could accept or reject the idea, she heard the easy listening music that played as she was placed on hold.

“Great, my lawyer has someone else call me to put me on hold. He can’t even call me when he has a free moment himself.” Inside, Stacy knew she was really sulking because she didn’t want to admit how much she wanted to hear his voice. She was trying to ignore the sadness she’d felt because he hadn’t called her all weekend like she hoped he would.

“Or maybe he was trying to resist your charms,” Demetri said, startling her so badly she jumped. Looking up, she wondered, When did he enter the office? Do I need to put a bell around his neck?

Demetri continued, “Sadly, he seems to unable to help himself.”

“Why are you constantly sneaking up on me?” She wondered if her annoyance helped to hide just how happy she was to see him.

“I like catching you by surprise. I get to hear the most amazing things.”

Before she could respond, the secretary was on the line once again. “I’m so sorry, Ms. Jones. It seems Mr. Edwards has stepped out of the office. I’ll be sure to have him call you when he returns.” Stacy was dismissed as though she’d called the other woman rather than the other way around.

Hanging up the phone, she looked at the sexy werewolf in front of her. “Shouldn’t you let your office know before you disappear? It was quite rude of you to leave me on hold like that.”

He grinned. “I’ll be sure to make it up to you. You are, after all, a very important client.”

“I’m sure you say that to all your clients.”

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