Sleeping With the Entity (8 page)

“I admit we got off on the wrong foot,” he said. “And I’ve said that I have no objections any longer to your shop. I looked at your business plan. It’s good.”

“I had help with that from my friend Suz, who is an accountant, and my baking mentor Cookie.”

“Cookie?”

“It’s her nickname. I met her when I was working in New York City. She owns a very successful cupcake shop there and was generous enough to share her knowledge with me.”

“I don’t recall you mentioning her before.”

Daniella paused to fold her reusable grocery bag and put it away before saying, “I don’t tell you all my secrets.”

“Why is she a secret?” he immediately asked.

“She’s not. It’s just an expression.”

Nick looked deep into her eyes. “You can tell me your secrets.”

“Really?” she retorted. “Will you tell me yours?”

A small part of Nick wanted to. Luckily it was a
very
small part of him. The huge majority of his vampire brain cells declared war on that stupid and dangerous impulse.

“No?” she said. “I didn’t think so. No worries. So we each have secrets. No big deal, right?”

“Right.” He nodded. “So does this mentor of yours have a last name?”

“Marelli. Why?”

“No reason.” He made a mental note to have Neville check her out.

“Cookie could give you some tips on improving your business,” Daniella said. “She managed several restaurants and bistros before opening her own shop.”

“I don’t need any help.”

“Says the man with the plastic fish on his bar’s wall,” she teased him.

“You seem to have an obsession about that fish,” he said. “Do you have a thing against talking mackerels?”

“As examples of the lunacy of some consumers, no. As a decoration, yes.”

“So you’re saying I shouldn’t get you one as a present for your grand opening?”

“You’re kidding, right?” She eyed him uncertainly.

“Am I?” His lips lifted slightly.

“I can’t tell,” she admitted. “I haven’t experienced you kidding me before.”

“A milestone in our relationship,” he said drily.

“Are you saying we have a relationship?”

“A business relationship.”

“Sure. A business relationship.” She narrowed her eyes at him. “You’re being much too nice to me all of a sudden. Is there something you’re not telling me?”

There was a lot that Nick wasn’t telling her, that he
couldn’t
tell her. Staring into her eyes, it was so tempting to just lean a little closer so his lips touched hers. She was wearing a jean jacket over a white T-shirt and jeans. Nothing fancy. Nothing to make him want her so intensely. Every time he saw her, his desire for her grew.

“There
is
something. I knew it. Tell me,” she said.

“I want to kiss you.”

“Wha … at?” Clearly stunned by his reply, she stumbled over the word.

“You asked me a question. I answered it.”

“You’re kidding, right?”

He swooped in and answered her question with action instead of words. His mouth brushed against her soft lips, coaxing them to part for him. When they did, he rewarded her response by intensifying the kiss.

He could feel her heartbeat, feel the throb of her pulse drawing him in.

“What are you doing?” she whispered as he nuzzled her earlobe.

“Kissing you.”

“But why?”

“Because I want to,” he murmured against her mouth.

“Is this your way of trying to convince me not to open my shop?”

“Forget about your shop.”

“I can’t.” She pushed him away. “Don’t try to make me.”

“I’d never make a woman kiss me against her will.”

“I meant don’t try to distract me with kisses. It won’t work. Any more than my kissing you would distract you.”

Nick wasn’t about to admit that her mouth was capable of making him lose track of everything. Every thought. Every good intention.

“You don’t believe me? I know this doesn’t distract you.” She moved swiftly, placing her mouth over his.

He fed on her. Not her blood but her essence—the essence of her soft lips, the texture of her tongue. Because there was plenty of tongue going on. He doubted she’d intended that to happen when she’d kissed him to make a point. But the fact that it had happened proved how volatile the two of them were together.

At their very first meeting, he’d thought she was playing with fire. Now he was doing that, too. Fire had the power to destroy vampires. But damn, she tasted so fine.

He’d fed earlier so it wasn’t her blood he craved. It was her body. He wanted to take her then and there, up against the wall, with her jeans around her knees and him embedded deep within her.

But the need to protect his secret took priority above all other needs. Pushing her away, he regained control. “Lock your door,” he growled before storming out.

*   *   *

“Are you ready for your grand opening in four days?” Suz asked Daniella as the two of them sat in the back work area of the shop where Daniella was still tweaking some of her specialty frosting recipes.

“Sure,” Daniella replied. “I can’t wait!”

“You’re lying,” Suz said.

Daniella made a face. “What gave me away?”

“The way your right eyelid is twitching.”

Daniella put a hand up to her face.

“Now you’ve got frosting on your forehead,” Suz said.

“Great,” Daniella muttered.

“How nervous are you on a scale of one to ten?”

“I don’t think in terms of numbers,” Daniella said. “That’s your thing, not mine.”

Suz nibbled on the remnants of what once was a naked chocolate cupcake. “You’re avoiding the question.”

“Because I want to focus on the positive. The shop looks wonderful. The specialty Halloween cupcake flavors are ready to go.”

Suz said, “I love the names. Devil’s Feud. Whipped Scream Delight. Ghostess Twinkies.”

Daniella grinned. “Phil the embalmer at the funeral home is incredible with stuff like that.”

“With embalming?”

“Yes. But also with coming up with brilliant puns. As for the cupcakes themselves, our test runs in the kitchen have gone smoothly for the most part.”

“You know they say that in the theater it’s bad luck to have a smooth dress rehearsal.”

“This isn’t the theater.” Daniella piped frosting in a swirl design on top of a spice cupcake.

“You’ve had enough drama to make it theatrical.”

“Not really.” Daniella added little fondant fangs to her evil masterpiece.

“What do you call that harassment?”

“By Nick?”

“I thought he rescued you from those guys hassling you?”

“Right. He did. It was no big deal.”

“Yeah, it was,” Suz said. “A very big deal. I would be totally freaking out if I found a group of gang bangers hanging around outside my workplace.”

“I refuse to let them win by scaring me. Plus I have a kick-ass security alarm system.”

“And a kick-ass protector in Nick, right?”

“He’s been supportive of me opening my business.”

“Right. Anything else?”

“Like what?”

“Like anything seductive going on?” Suz asked.

Daniella recalled that kiss they’d shared upstairs in her apartment. Nick had initiated the first kiss, but when she’d kissed him, he’d taken off as if his feet were on fire. She hadn’t seen him alone since then. Was he afraid she was going to jump him or something? He didn’t seem like the kind of man who feared anything.

Besides, she’d only kissed him to prove a point. She no longer could recall exactly what that point was but she’d had a reason, a logical reason, at the time. Something about distracting him the way he had distracted her.

Suz pounced on her silence. “Aha, so there
is
something. I knew it! Wait. Where are you going with that bowl?”

“To wash it.” She nodded her head toward the three-bin stainless-steel sink.

“No way. Hand it over.”

“Why?”

“There’s still some frosting in there.” She eagerly grabbed the bowl from Daniella. “Waste not, want not.”

“This is why you could never work here. You’d eat everything.”

Suz swiped the edge of the bowl with her index finger. “You said you did find two people to work with you.”

Daniella nodded, relieved that she’d distracted Suz from asking her more about Nick. “Lois and Xandra.”

“Which one did the awesome job on the website and social network stuff?”

“That’s Xandra. She worked in cupcake shops in Vail and Lake Tahoe.”

“Then what is she doing in this neighborhood? I know you grew up here, but after you’ve seen Vail and Lake Tahoe I can’t imagine coming back to Chicago.”

“Why not?” Daniella said.

“It’s so flat, for one thing.”

“Yeah, Xandra does say that. But she didn’t come here for the scenery. She had to come back for economic reasons. She’s living at home with her parents.”

“Times are tough,” Suz said.

“I know. And to belatedly answer your question, I am nervous about the grand opening for that reason. But cupcakes aren’t expensive and they are comfort food. In tough times, people need comfort. My brother placed a standing order for several dozen for every funeral package he has scheduled. I made sure they are for the more somber cupcakes.”

“Somber cupcakes?” Suz said. “Is there such a thing?”

“I for sure don’t want to send over the funfetti-decorated ones. So I’m going with the more traditional vanilla or chocolate.”

“See, stuff like that would never occur to me,” Suz said.

“I’m sure you wouldn’t send over happy-face cupcakes to a funeral. Unless they were a special order. Some funerals are stranger than others. I’ll never forget one widow requesting the song ‘Up, Up and Away’ by the 5th Dimension be played over and over again.”

“Did they request smiley-faced cupcakes, too?”

“No.”

Suz took the empty bowl to the sink and started cleaning it herself. “Speaking of cupcakes, I’m surprised you use a handheld mixer instead of one of those stand models.”

“The bowls are too small in the stand models.”

“These are mega-sized.”

Daniella nodded. “I call them ‘arms-around size’ because if I make a circle with my arms and have my fingertips touch, it matches the size of the stainless mixing bowls for the batter. It’s true that I’ll need a new handheld mixer every couple of months, but for now it’s worth it.”

“These frosting bowls are a little smaller but not much.”

Daniella cleaned her sticky fingers in the separate hand sink. “Tell me again that there’s no reason for panic.”

“There’s no reason for panic,” Suz obediently said before adding a hug. “Everything will be fine. You’ll see.”

But Daniella did panic when strange noises woke her in the middle of the night. They were coming from the street below. She got out of bed and tiptoed to the living room. Pushing aside the curtain covering the window, she snuck a peek outside. The streetlight on the corner illuminated two people throwing something at her front window.

Chapter Seven

Nick was not amused. “Egging? Come on,” he said in disgust. “That’s pitiful. What has the world come to that vampires are egging a cupcake shop? That kind of juvenile behavior is for wimps, not vamps.”

“They were trying to get Daniella to come outside,” Neville said.

“She didn’t fall for that, did she?”

“No. She called the police, but egging is a minor issue on a busy Chicago police schedule.”

“Was it the same group of vamps that came before?” Nick asked.

Neville shook his head. “No, this is a different bunch.”

“Great. So now we’ve got two groups of outsiders trying to get Daniella. A trio of gangsta vamps and a pair of vampire wimps.”

“I heard that Tanya wasn’t real pleased with Daniella’s visit to her tanning salon. Tanya thinks her human clients will get fat on the cupcakes and not want to wear swimsuits or get tanned.”

“That sounds like a lame excuse to me,” Nick said.

Neville shrugged. “You know Tanya. She likes being the only female business owner in Vamptown.”

“She’s still the only female vampire business owner in Vamptown.”

“You don’t think she has anything to do with these incidents, do you?”

“I’ll check it out,” Nick said.

He left the Vamp Cave and headed for Tanya’s Tanning Salon. She was clearly pleased to see him. “Nick!” She came closer to kiss his cheeks in the European fashion, even though she’d never stepped foot on the Continent. She then planted her mouth directly on his.

She was trying to stake a claim.

Nick didn’t like anything to do with stakes. It was a vamp thing.

Firmly setting her aside, he gave her a hard stare. He wasn’t going to be distracted by sex. “Why the warm welcome?”

“Why not?” Her smile was sultry. “I’m always glad to see you, Nick. You know that.”

“You seem unusually pleased today. Not suffering from a guilty conscience, are you?”

“I’d have to have a conscience in the first place and I don’t.”

Nick could tell the salon was empty at the moment. He sensed no human or vampire presence. So he was direct.

“Egging, Tanya? Really? Come on,” he mocked.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“I’m talking about those lame minions you had egg the cupcake shop last night.”

“Why would I do that?”

“Jealousy.”

“Oh, please.” Tanya drew herself to her full height, which was even higher thanks to the stiletto sandals she wore. “Why would I be jealous of her?”

“Then why egg her place?”

“She doesn’t belong here. You said so yourself.”

“I changed my mind,” Nick said.

“You mean
she
changed your mind. She may be immune to vamp mind compulsion, but are you immune to her?”

“She isn’t a vampire,” he said. “She can’t do mind compulsion.”

“Can’t she? Are you sure about that?” Tanya said.

“Yes, I am sure. And I want you to promise you won’t pull another stupid stunt like this.”

“I swear. Cross my heart and hope to die. Oh wait. That doesn’t work for us since we don’t die.”

“You can die. Fire. Decapitation. Ring a bell?” he said.