Under a Vampire Moon (10 page)

“Brent,” Christian murmured the man’s name as he stepped back to give them both a little space. He couldn’t resist catching her hand in his as he urged her to walk again, but it was better to keep moving. There was less temptation to kiss her if he wasn’t looking at her. “Brent is the friend Gia was telling me about?”

“Yes.” He felt some of her tension slip away. Whether it was because they were walking again, or just because she was thinking of her friend he wasn’t sure.

“Tell me about him,” he urged.

“Well, he’s my age,” she said slowly.

“What’s he like?”

A fond smile came to her lips and—despite himself—Christian felt jealousy slither through him. He didn’t like the fact that someone else was the recipient of an affection he couldn’t yet lay claim to.

“Well, you’d probably like him actually,” Carolyn said, her smile widening. “He’s smart, funny, and certainly not lacking in looks. He’s about as tall as you, with dark hair and a nice smile too.” Carolyn grinned and then teased, “If he were still single I’d call and suggest he fly out so I could introduce the two of you. He likes redheads.”

“I’m not a redhead,” Christian muttered, trying not to show his horror at the thought that his life mate, a woman he’d waited more than five hundred years for, wanted to set him up with her gay school chum. Dear God! He hadn’t expected this when he’d gotten the call that Marguerite wanted him in St. Lucia.

“You do have red in your hair,” Carolyn said, drawing his attention again. “It’s a lovely dark chestnut with red highlights. Dark auburn I guess.”

Christian grunted. It was hair. He’d never thought much about it other than the fact that he’d obviously inherited it from his mother. Most Nottes had black hair, unless they dyed it like Gia.

“Anyway, Brent and I were both majoring in business when we met, but both wanted business law. We had a couple of classes together, found we had a lot in common, and started hanging out.” She shrugged. “We became best friends.”

“Gia said you were his beard?” Christian asked curiously, wondering how that had come about.

“Yes. That just kind of happened. As I said, he was good-looking and not effeminate at all, so naturally drew a lot of attention from girls at uni. But when we started studying and hanging around together, they backed off.” Carolyn smiled wryly. “It took us a while, but then we realized that because we were always together, people assumed we were a couple. Then when we moved into an apartment together in our second year, they
really
thought we were a couple,” she said with amusement. “Which worked out nicely. It kept the she-wolves away.”

“It would have kept the men away from you too, though.”

Carolyn shrugged. “I didn’t have time for them anyway. I was on a scholarship. I had to keep my grades up.”

“Your parents couldn’t afford to put you through school?”

“Parent,” Carolyn corrected quietly. “My mother was the only family I ever had, and as a single parent she worked two jobs to make ends meet. There was always lots of love, but not much money. I knew quite young that I’d have to earn a scholarship to go to university, so worked hard through high school. I was a complete geek,” she admitted wryly. “Always studying, always working for extra credit. But Mom was proud of me for that.”

“And where is your mother now?” Christian asked, worry sliding through him. If there had just been the two of them, they were probably very close. He could easily see that she loved her mother dearly. Carolyn might resist turning to avoid leaving her mother behind.

Carolyn blew her breath out, sadness sliding across her face. “She worked herself sick to raise me, and then died just before I graduated.”

Christian was silent for a moment, considering everything he’d learned. It sounded like—thanks to all her studying and hard work in high school and university—she’d missed out on a lot of the sexual experimentation mortals now indulged in during their late teens and early twenties.

“So you spent your university years working hard and hanging out with Brent?” he asked finally, trying to figure out just how much she’d missed out on and what made her tick.

Carolyn smiled faintly. “And Genie and Bethany. We were all housemates.”

“And you’re still friends with all of them,” Christian murmured, somewhat surprised. From what he understood, university friends tended to drift apart as life took them down different paths, but Carolyn nodded.

“Genie’s major was travel and tourism, and after graduation she got a job at a resort in Puerto Vallarta. But she and I were pretty close and kept in touch through letters and e-mails. We’ve kept writing all this time as she’s moved from job to job.”

“And Bethany?” he asked.

“Bethany and I kind of drifted apart after graduation. We only reconnected three years ago when my husband and I sold one house for another. She’s a realtor now,” Carolyn explained. “And when I started to search for one and saw her name, I called her on impulse. We had coffee a time or two then, but Robert—well, he discouraged my having outside friends,” she admitted with discomfort and rushed on, “but when we split and put the house up for sale for the divorce, she handled that one as well and she was a rock, very supportive. We’ve grown close again since then.”

Christian was silent as he absorbed her words. That little bit told him a lot about her marriage. The only kind of man who discouraged outside friends was an abusive one. They liked to isolate their victims so they had no support and were less likely to leave. Letting it go for now, he asked, “And Brent?”

“Oh, so you
are
interested in him,” she teased.

Christian forced a smile, but didn’t comment. He was interested, but not in the way she meant. If Genie and Bethany and her mother were all gone by the end of university, then Carolyn had been on her own except for Brent.

“Brent and I both got jobs in the city. Junior positions, of course, both underpaid and overworked to start. But we pooled our money and took an apartment together.” Carolyn chuckled. “It’s amazing how much fun you can have on little money. It helped that both our companies were big on family gatherings and had numerous dinners and parties where a date or a spouse was encouraged to attend. I’d go as his date and we’d stuff ourselves and—”

“Still his beard?” Christian asked with a frown.

“The law firm he got a position with was kind of conservative,” she explained. “He was worried about getting a partnership if they knew he was gay. It was just easier to take me.” She shrugged. “I didn’t mind though, because it meant he had to be my date for my firm’s functions. It worked out well.”

“And neither your boyfriends nor his minded?”

Carolyn shifted uncomfortably. “His didn’t mind.”

“And yours?” Christian asked, eyes narrowing as her discomfort grew.

Finally, she admitted, “I didn’t date much. We both worked long hours and when we did have spare time there wasn’t much money. We might go to a bar for a drink once in a while, sometimes a gay bar, sometimes straight, but . . .” She looked uncomfortable. “There aren’t a lot of straight men in gay bars, and in straight bars people thought we were together. Not that I’d have picked up a guy from a bar anyway,” Carolyn added wryly. “I guess I’m old-fashioned.”

They were both silent, and then she admitted quietly, “Or maybe it’s more that I’m socially backward or something. I’m not all that comfortable around new people most of the time, at least not in social situations. I’m a whiz at dealing with people at work, but put me in a social situation and I turn into this brainless twit. I lose the ability to speak with any kind of intelligence and— Frankly, I often start to feel like I’m drowning.”

“You didn’t get much chance to practice,” he said gently when she fell silent. “You were busy earning your scholarship when most kids learn to socialize.”

Carolyn bobbed her head, but didn’t comment and Christian watched her silently. She’d eschewed any kind of social life in high school and worked her butt off to get her scholarship, then had continued to avoid social entanglements in university to keep it. No doubt with her mother, Genie, and Bethany gone after graduation, she’d clung to Brent as her only friend, and probably the closest thing to family she had. But it had hampered any chance of a social life for her.

“How long did the two of you share an apartment?” he asked abruptly.

She raised her head and peered along the beach, her eyes narrowing. “Let’s see, it was four years to get my undergrad degree, then three for the law degree, so we moved into the apartment when I was twenty-five and he moved out west when I was thirty-one, so six years I guess.”

“He moved out west?” Christian asked, thinking that would have left her completely alone.

Carolyn nodded. “He got offered a position with the promise of a junior partnership in two years if it worked out so he moved out to British Columbia. It all turned out for the best though. The head of the firm there was openly gay, which made things easier for him, and he eventually met Stanley there. They got married and have been together for . . . wow, it’s ten years now,” she said with surprise and then muttered, “Time flies when you’re busy.”

“And what did you do when he left?” Christian asked quietly, imagining her alone in the big city.

“Well, fortunately, by that time I was making more money and could afford the rent on our apartment on my own, so I just stayed there.”

“I meant socially,” Christian said patiently. “It sounds like Brent was both family and friend to you until then. How did you cope with losing him?”

“Oh.” Carolyn shifted uncomfortably. “Well, I missed him, of course.”

That was undoubtedly the understatement of the century, Christian thought grimly.

“My phone bills were crazy huge the first year and so were his . . . But then he met Stanley and I met Robert and . . .” She shook her head and said wryly, “Marriage is not an antidote for loneliness.”

Christian turned to look up the beach. He suspected her husband had been her only lover, or at least one of a very few . . . and apparently he hadn’t been her lover long. If she was thirty-two when they met, was forty-two now and hadn’t had sex for seven years—and the sex wouldn’t have stopped abruptly, but would have slowed to a trickle and then dribbles—good lord, he thought, it was no wonder she was horrified by the prospect of an affair with what she thought was a younger man. The idea of an affair at all probably gave her palpitations with the little bit of experience she’d had.

Gia’s plan probably
had
been the only way for him to get to know her, he realized. Now he just had to try to keep his hands to himself, he thought grimly. Which definitely wasn’t going to be easy. Life mates weren’t known to have a lot of control around each other, but he suspected it was vital to keep them out of the bedroom for a while if he wanted to earn her trust and win her.

Sighing, he said, “Tell me about your husband.”

“No.” The word was sharp and Christian glanced over to see that her expression was closed. He felt as if a door had just shut in his face, and was more disappointed than surprised when she stopped walking and said, “We should go back. We’ve walked quite a distance and they’ll be wondering where we are.”

Carolyn turned back without waiting to see if he would follow, and wasn’t very responsive to his comments and questions after that even though he avoided the subject of her marriage. Obviously, it was a subject to stay away from in future if he wished to spend time with her.

Five

G
enie was missing from the table when Carolyn led Christian back. She peered to Marguerite questioningly as she took her shoes from Christian and settled in her seat. “Where’s Genie?”

Marguerite smiled. “She said she had to get up early for work, but that she’d talk to you at breakfast.”

“Oh.” Carolyn concentrated on putting her sandals back on, and then glanced at her margarita. It had melted while she was gone, she noted, and then stiffened when Christian rested his arm along her chair back, his hand cupping her shoulder. His skin was warm on hers, sending out little currents of electricity that made her skin tingle.

It had been hard to handle his closeness before their walk on the beach, but she simply couldn’t bear it now. Carolyn wasn’t sure if it had been his nuzzling her on the beach, or all she’d revealed while talking to him . . . or perhaps she was just too tired to deal with her attraction to him, but she couldn’t handle it now.

“I guess I’d better go to bed too if I want to get up to have breakfast with her,” Carolyn said, standing abruptly.

She caught the surprise on Christian’s face out of the corner of her eye, but he immediately stood too. “I’ll see you back to your villa.”

“Don’t be silly.” She scooted out from in front of her chair. “Stay with your family. I’ll be fine.”

“I’m a bit tired myself,” Marguerite said.

“Then I guess we’ll join you for the ride back,” Julius announced, ushering Marguerite to her feet.

“And us,” Gia announced.

Carolyn frowned as the whole table rose. She glanced to the drinks on the table. Marguerite’s and Julius’s glasses were the only ones that were empty. Everyone else’s still looked full, and she said desperately, “But you haven’t finished your drinks.”