Before I knew it, we were back at my adorably cute, slim home. It was a Victorian townhouse. One of those that wedged right up to its neighbor's, so you could easily walk across all the roofs, if you were so inclined. It had been my grandmother's home and she'd left it to my mom when she'd passed away. Mom had kept it, for the investment and the sentiment, and I rented it from her at an outstandingly good rate. It was blue with cute white shutters and a perfectly charming red door. I'd sort of miss it when I eventually moved in with Teren.
He helped me bring in all my stuff and even ran a load of laundry for me while I put the clean clothes away. As I smiled, listening to him bustle around downstairs in my laundry room, I thought he was a pretty amazing boyfriend and would surely be an equally amazing husband. Feeling content and happy, and not worried for once, I whispered, "I love you, you know."
Just as I was putting away my last pair of just slightly soiled boots, he breezed into my doorway. His cool arms slipped around my waist and a rough chin lightly scraped against my skin, as he rested his head in the crook of my neck. "I love you too, you know."
I grinned, a small laugh escaping me, and twisted in his arms. Looking over his handsome face, a small frown came to my lips. "I'm going to miss you."
He frowned as well, as he tried to understand what I meant. "Miss me? Am I going somewhere?"
A crooked grin came to my mouth, but then I sighed and ran my hands down his shirt. "Yes, you're going home, to get ready to go back to work."
He tilted his head as he processed that. "Yeah, I suppose I should." He lightly shook his head. "You're not coming with me?"
I bit my lip at seeing the clear disappointment on his face. It was deeply endearing how much he obviously wanted me with him. I sighed though and shook my head. "I can't. I should get ready too...and I've got a lot of stuff around here to catch up on."
He looked around my bedroom, his eyes focused beyond the walls. He was probably thinking about all the things he had to catch up on as well, including picking up his pup from my mom's house. Thinking about that, I put a hand to his cheek, bringing his attention back to me. "I could come with you to pick up Spike though? Divert my mom's attention, in case she wants to hug and kiss you to death." I laughed at my joke and grinned as I thought about seeing my mom and sister again. I'd talked to them often, but hadn't actually seen them in awhile.
He grinned and ran a finger down my cheek. "Actually, I talked with your mom before we left." He lightly chuckled and shook his head. "She asked if she could keep Spike until we all got together for dinner on Tuesday. I think she's fallen for him." He winked at me after he said that.
I laughed and then leaned back in his arms as that sank in. "Dinner? Tuesday?" Mom, my sister Ashley, and I, all got together for weekly dinners at a local cafe that we really loved. We'd been doing it for years and once Teren and I had started getting serious, he'd joined the party.
He nodded and tilted his head. "Yeah...she assumed the Tuesday night dinners would continue, once you got back." He narrowed his eyes at me, his brow furrowing a bit while he studied my reaction. "I assumed they would too...was I wrong?"
I shook my head, clearing my expression. "No, no of course we'll start doing that again. I just..." I looked up at him. "What are you going to do?"
He looked down to the floor, his arms around my waist tightening slightly while he considered his options. Finally, he lifted his head and sighed. With a shrug he said, "I guess I'll be running late at work, and join you just after dessert."
I stared at his face for a moment, a sudden sadness hitting me that we couldn't have a normal, happy meal with my family, not if he'd just be sitting there and watching everyone else eat. How would we explain that? I brought a hand up to his face and he closed his eyes at the contact, leaning into the warmth of my skin. "That won't work forever, Teren."
He opened his eyes and sighed. "I know."
He both stared at each for a moment longer and then he leaned in to give me a goodbye kiss. I allowed myself to get lost in it, to forget the downside of dating a vampire and remember that there were advantages too. And Teren made forgetting pretty easy - he was an unbelievable kisser. His mouth and tongue could do things that I was beginning to believe were part of his supernatural ability, for no human I'd ever kissed had made me feel it through every cell in my body. As my fingers were sliding through his thick hair and the backs of my legs were bumping up against my bed, he started chuckling. I broke contact with him, a little surprised to find my heart was racing and my breath was noticeably faster. Like I said, great kisser.
His hands came up to cup my cheeks, gently pushing me back from where I'd been attempting to find those lips again. "I should get going." He chuckled again, his eyes sweeping over my room. "Let, you get to work on your affairs."
My body could have cared less about my affairs and I knew he was completely aware of that. I tried to kiss him again, but he held me back, a smug look on his face. I sighed irritably and pulled away. "Fine." Using all my willpower to step away from him, I gave him a scathing glare. "You don't play fair."
He laughed and reached out for me. I ignored the gesture. Smirking at me, he shook his head and walked over to give me a platonic kiss on the cheek. In my ear he whispered, "You drive me crazy, every second of every day. You have no idea how much I'll be missing you tonight." He stepped into me, his body pressing against my side. I closed my eyes and held my breath. His breath, cool on my ear and neck, gave me delightful shivers. "If I can make you feel, just once, what I feel constantly...well, I think that's very fair."
His lips had just closed around my ear lobe when I groaned and turned my head to find him. But he wasn't there. Feeling like my head and body were in some weird, semi-drugged state, I blinked and looked around my empty bedroom. Faintly, I could hear laughing coming from downstairs and then my front door opening.
"Jerk!" I yelled through the open door where my honey had just blurred away, leaving me all riled up and alone. Only soft chuckling answered me as my front door closed.
I sighed and shook my head as I heard the electric hum of his car pulling away. Sighing yet again, I decided forgoing all the things on my to-do list and doing the one thing my body really wanted now. I took a bath.
Monday morning began with me fighting the urge to throw my alarm clock across the room. It had been a long time since I'd needed to use one. While Teren's and my time on the ranch wasn't exactly Club Med, it had been a true vacation in the sense that we hadn't needed to be awake at a certain hour. We'd usually woken at breakfast time, so I could partake in Alanna's wonderful cooking, but it had been a leisurely, relaxing wakeup. Not the jarring, forced-from-sleep annoyance that was an alarm going off by my ear.
Grunting some sort of nonverbal objection, I turned it off and stood up to get ready for the day. I dusted off and got into my work clothes, a nice formfitting pantsuit with an adorably fitted jacket, and curled my wavy hair, leaving it loose around my shoulders. With a nice pair of heels and my jacket open, showing off my deep cut, lacy top (which was about as sexy as I could dress at work, without getting a warning from the HR department), I grabbed a quick breakfast and hopped into my cute little yellow VW bug. I smiled as I drove it to work; I'd missed my cheery little car.
I started feeling a little less cheery as I pulled into the parking lot and my stomach started questioning my meal choice. I sat in my car, breathing slowly and carefully through my mouth. I prayed for my stomach to settle down and accept the food I'd given it. Seriously...we needed to work together on this, or this pregnancy was going to be a long one.
Finally, my body agreed with my head and the nausea passed. With one last quick exhale, I slapped on my professional face and headed for the doors. I was assaulted long before I ever got to my cubicle. A striking blonde squealed and wrapped her arms around me. The sudden movement jarred me back a step and my stomach firmly objected the quick shift in direction.
As my face surely went through several shades of green, I hugged the woman hugging me for dear life, praying yet again, not to lose it. The beautiful woman pulled away from me, a happy glow on her pixyish face. "Emma! God, we've missed you. How was your vacation?"
I breathed as nonchalantly as I could through my mouth, as I quickly threw on a bright smile. "It was great, Tracey. How were things here?"
She tossed her hand out in a casual manner. "Oh, the same." We continued down the aisle way to my office, my stomach relaxing into normalcy as we walked and Tracey subtly pointing at various people that we worked with. "Stressed over a bad investment. Wife had a baby last week. Bitchy...just 'cuz. Having an affair..." she pointed at a petite brunette and then looked around until she spotted a middle-aged man near the break room, "with him." She turned back to me and barely contained a giggle. "I totally heard them going at it in the supply closet last week."
I quickly looked away from the woman as she met eyes with me, shaking my head at Tracey and her stream of gossip. As we reached my home away from home, she leaned against my wall. "How is Teren's dad?" Her face turned down into a perfect frown.
I turned into my office here at Sampson, Neilson and Peterson, and opened the bottom drawer of my desk to shove my still pretty full purse in it. I hadn't gotten any better at not carrying my life around with me. I smiled at Tracey's question, as I straightened and turned back to her. Teren's dad falling ill was the excuse we'd given everybody for our extended time away. It had worked pretty well as a reason for Teren to be gone for such a long time. I mean, it wasn't like we could tell everyone that Teren was dying and reanimating, and he'd needed to be away from innocent people when he did it.
"He's...as good as new." I shrugged my shoulders as Tracey smiled. "You'd never even know that anything had ever been wrong with him." I started to giggle a little, as I thought of Teren and not his dad. You really wouldn't know he'd passed away, at least, not by looking at him. Tracey cocked her head at my seemingly inappropriate laugh, but didn't say anything. I had a habit of laughing at odd times and my friends were just used to that about me.
"That's great, Emma. Tell Teren I'm glad his dad is alright."
A loud throat clearing behind Tracey shifted both of our attentions that way. Behind her was a large, dowdy looking woman who always reminded me of an unpleasant version of a fifties sitcom wife. She always dressed in long skirts and shapeless blouses and even had a large string of pearls around her plump neck. Her brown hair, that had mostly turned gray ages ago, was always pulled into a tight, unforgiving bun that complimented her general attitude. She tended to have a perpetual scowl, and seemed to look at everyone as if they were doing something inappropriate.
Clarice. She was unfortunately my boss, and was currently looking at Tracey with undisguised malice. She was not Tracey's boss. "Don't you have somewhere to be?" she grumbled to her.
Tracey grinned back at me. "Have fun. Glad your back." She smirked at Clarice and then left me alone with the sour woman.