Page 52 of Resurrecting His Soul
“Seriously, though,” Lisandra said. “I know you need your own space, and I know you’re more capable of taking care of yourself now. Just try to remember you don’t have to do everything on your own.”
“Don’t worry. I plan on aggravating the two of you on a regular basis. And just so you know, I still plan to steal from your blood supply, so don’t think me moving out will rid you of that little problem.” Allison leaned back in her chair and took a big drink through her straw, then flashed the biggest Cheshire grin at them Ricardo had ever seen.
Lisandra and Allison both started laughing at the same time, and Ricardo just watched them. Happiness was still such a strange concept for him. Something he had not expected to feel after his previous fiancé turned away from him centuries earlier. Getting to be with Lisandra made him happy he had never married Emily. What he’d had with her had not been real love. That was something he only shared with Lisandra, and he was the luckiest man who’d ever lived because she loved him just as much.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Lisandra
Allison moved out a lot sooner than Lisandra had expected. Apparently when you had the money to purchase a home in full with cash, the process moved fast. It only took a week and Allison was moved into the house next door. Well, next door was a loose description. Both their home and Allison’s sat on massive plots of land. So while she was their closest neighbor, between the acres of land they each had, and the beautiful trees surrounding each property, they could not see or hear each other from their homes. A fact that Allison pointed out made them the perfect neighbors, particularly the not being able to hear each other part. They could, however, run to each other’s homes in a couple minutes, and that was what had been important to Lisandra.
It was the first night Ricardo and she had been alone together in their home, and she was surprised that he had been unusually evasive. She expected them to jump right in bed and make love all day and night, or maybe on the couch, or kitchen table since the two of them no longer had any roommates. It really didn’t matter where they were together, just that they were together. Instead, Ricardo had insisted he needed to run some errands. Saying he wanted to make sure they had plenty of blood with two newbie vampires around, and that he wanted to pick up a few other things. When she had attempted to go with him, saying she wouldn’t mind a little retail therapy, he’d insisted she should stay home and take the time to settle in and relax after everything they had been through recently.
When he left, she decided to run over to visit Allison. They had been practicing trying to sneak up on each other because they wanted to be prepared if they ever needed to fight for their lives again, plus it was fun messing with each other. So far, she had not had much success surprising Allison. She liked to blame it on the fact that Allison still hadn’t learned to tune out all the sounds that surrounded her on a regular basis, but the truth was figuring out how to be quiet enough not to be heard when approaching another vampire was damn hard. Didn’t help they knew each other’s scents and could smell the other approaching.
She was surprised when she made it to the back door of Allison’s house without being pounced on. Allison liked to pull a reverse on her and tried to catch her from above nearly every time she came over. But she managed to get the back door opened without so much as a peep. She ran around Allison’s house and found absolutely nothing. Allison wasn’t home.
Grabbing her phone from her pocket, she called Allison, who didn’t answer until the fourth ring.
“Where are you?” she asked.
“I went to get a coffee,” Allison said.
She chuckled, remembering how awful human food had tasted to her the first time she tried to take in something other than blood.
“What’s so funny?” Allison asked.
“How was your coffee?” she asked through a snicker.
“It was good. You know I love mocha. I’m heading home in a minute. Will you still be there?”
Something was up, Lisandra just wasn’t sure what it was. She knew there was no way Allison would have enjoyed a cup of coffee if she’d actually tasted it. There was also the fact that Allison almost always invited her when she went out for coffee, and given her newly turned vampire friend had not been around humans yet, it didn’t seem likely she would take on that task on her own when she knew how badly the same had gone for Lisandra in the past.
She heard a voice in the background. It was quiet, but she would know his voice anywhere. “Why is Ricardo with you?”
Allison didn’t answer right away, and she pulled the phone from her ear to look at it and make sure she hadn’t lost signal and dropped the call. Nope. She was still connected. “Hello, Allison. Can you hear me?”
“Uh, yeah. Sorry,” Allison finally responded. “I was paying the barista. Yeah. He’d mentioned he was going out. I thought it was a good opportunity for me to test the waters around people. You know, to see how I would deal.”
It didn’t make sense. Why would Ricardo tell her to stay behind, but not Allison? If either of them had been through more when they were kidnapped it was Allison. They were up to something, she just didn’t know what. She trusted them both with her life, though, so she knew they would reveal their shenanigans whenever they were ready.
****
WhenRicardo’s car pulled back up in their driveway an hour later Lisandra walked out to the porch to greet him. It was crazy how much she missed him in the short time he was gone. Plus, she was still curious about why he hadn’t mentioned taking Allison along on his trip out to town. But when the car door opened, it was Allison who stepped out instead of Ricardo.
“Where’s Ricardo?”
Allison was smiling so hard she imagined her cheeks had to be feeling a bit strained. “We’re going to meet him. You just have to change first.”
She scrunched her face. “Change? What the hell have the two of you been up to?”
Allison walked around the side of the car carrying a garment bag. “I had to help pick this out for you. Now, come on. You need to get dressed. Your man is waiting.” Allison winked at her when she walked by into the house, and she just rolled her eyes and followed her in.
She followed Allison to her bedroom and watched while she opened the garment bag and pulled out the most beautiful dress she had ever seen. It was royal blue, and the material appeared to be something like satin, only more polished. It dipped low in the front, but not too low. Just enough to show off the slightest cleavage. It was floor length, and the back was just a tad longer than the front so that it draped over the floor behind her by just a few inches. It hugged her curves perfectly, and paired with the silver, jewel encrusted heels and the diamond necklace and earrings Allison produced from inside the bag. She looked like she was ready to walk the red carpet.
Allison took her hands and held them out in front of her and gave her a final look over. “You look gorgeous. Ricardo is a very lucky man.”
“Thanks. Any chance you’re going to tell me what he’s had you dress me up like this for?”
