Aaron's Kiss Series Boxed Set (Books 1 - 7) (11 page)

As a now unmated queen, Mel could have no more children. A royal-born queen could only conceive once. This was another reason her talk with Sara needed to be soon. Maybe Sara’s vampire would be the one to help them both. Melody, Mistress of Light, Keeper of All Magic, had a lot to do before her friend came to see her.

~CHAPTER TEN~

“Carlovetti Airways, how may I help you?” the voice at the other end of his phone asked, and Aaron took a deep breath.

Aaron had been both dreading and looking forward to calling Sara all day. Now that he had her on the phone, his mind completely shut down. He glanced down at the index cards full of notes that April had helped him with yesterday. The first card said, “Ask about her health.”

“Hello, Sara, how are you feeling this fine evening?” His hearing was excellent, so when she muttered, “Well, hell, fuck a duck and watch it waddle,” he nearly laughed out loud. He was glad her disposition had not changed at least.

“Mr. MacManus, the Carlovettis are not here yet. I’ll be sure to tell them you called.” He was sure she was about to hang up when he stopped her.

“I called to talk to you, my dear. You didn’t answer my question. How are you feeling? Better, I hope.”

“I’m fine, sir.” Her tone was cool, almost distant. But he knew she was far from indifferent to him.

He caught himself wadding up his notes and stopped. As he was smoothing them out, he flipped to number two.
Very funny
, he thought. “Breathe, and don’t fuck this up,” it said. He would have to tell April how helpful her notes were next time he saw her.

“I need for you to do something for me…well, me and the Carlovettis, that is. I need for you to help me out on Friday night.” Sara did not acknowledge Aaron in any way. He knew she was there; he could hear her breathing. “Sara?”

“Yes, sir?” He had never known anyone, human or vampire, that could convey so much in two little words…frustration, aggravation, irritation.

“Did you hear me?” he asked again. “I need a favor; we need a favor from you.”

“I heard you. Believe it or not, I hear perfectly well. I’m really busy here. You’ve stated your business. I need to go.”

He had been anticipating this since Monday, how to ask for her help by writing notes, practicing, but this was going nothing like he’d planned. Why did she have to be so damned stubborn all the time? April said that Sara wouldn’t say anything unless he asked her a precise, direct question. He would have to resort to his damned notes again.

“I was wondering if you’d be my date this Friday night at the Alliance Dinner at six-thirty? It’s here at the mansion.” He wondered if he sounded rushed and didn’t think so.

“No.”

Nope, not going well at all. She was not supposed to flat out refuse. Notes, he had to keep with his notes. He felt like he was in high school kid on his first date and that he had had his big sister write out what to say.

“Let me explain this better for you. The Alliance Dinner is for every vampire in my realm to come here and pledge their fidelity to me. All are required to attend, including the Carlovettis. In addition to them would be the person or people who made the attempt on our lives a few weeks ago. I want you to be there to help keep an eye on everyone dear to us both. So let me ask you again, I was wondering if you’d be my date this Friday night at the Alliance Dinner at six–thirty?”

For a long, tense moment, she did not make a sound. There was such a delay in her response, in fact, that he had thought she had hung up. “I don’t really have a choice, do I?”

Aaron felt like hell now. She could make him madder than all hell one minute, and then make him feel like the worst kind of heel the next.
Damn it
, he thought as he stretched out his shoulders.

“Yes, you do, Sara. You can say no. You’re actually quite good at it. You certainly say it often enough to me. Anyway, just say no and that will be the end of it. Is that what you want?”

“Thank you, Mr. MacManus, but I don’t really. You and I both know that. Is there anything else, sir?”

“No, I’ll work out the details on what I need from you, and then I’ll call you sometime in the morning.”

“Yes, sir,” she said shortly.

“Oh and Sara, it will be important that you call me by my first name if we are going to be seen as a couple. It’s Aaron, not Mr. MacManus.”

“Yes, sir.” Her temper was rising. He could tell by the venom she put into her answer now. He grinned. How he hoped she would put as much passion into making love as she did her answers to him.

Long after he hung up, he thought about what he had done to her. He realized he really had made it so that she had no choice in the matter; he knew that when he had worded it the way he had. But damn it, he wanted to see her, needed to see her. If this was what it was like to have a mate, then to hell with it, he thought. It was not worth the damn problems she always seemed to cause. Then he smiled. He was going to get to see her again soon.

~~~

Now, she thought, I need to get a dress. Not just any dress either, a classy one. She knew that this was a formal affair because she had heard April telling her husband about the dress she had picked out. The alterations alone cost more than Sara made in a week. How she was going to afford a dress to this thing was beyond her.

Sara wasn’t used to asking for help, so it did not occur to her to ask for it now. In the end, she found herself at the mall looking for a suitable, affordable dress at every boutique and store there. She was not having any luck. She was sitting in her van at the mall, eating a chicken sandwich, when she spied Duncan coming out with his arms loaded.

She reached out and found out that he was there to pick up the tuxes for him, Colin, and Mr. MacManus. They had been altered by a specialty shop inside one of the shops that she had just been in. She jumped from her vehicle and followed him. Certainly a person who knew about tuxes knew where one could buy a stupid dress for this thing, wouldn’t they?

“Mr. Duncan?” He turned quickly at her greeting, startling her.

“Goodness, Miss Sara, I did not see you coming. How are you, dear? Fine, I hope.” His smile was just what she needed to bolster her feelings.

“Fine, I’m fine. I was wondering if you had a minute or two you could spare me, please? It’s about this dinner thingy with Blood...Mr. MacManus. First, I was wondering about the dinner part. I’m not...you know, part of the dinner, am I? I mean, they’re calling it a dinner and all. So...?” She shuddered a little. Maybe if she was part of his dinner it wouldn’t be so very bad. Damn it. More and more thoughts like that kept popping up, and she was gonna seek professional help, she thought.

“Oh no, miss. It is nothing like that at all. It is called a dinner because a great many of our kind have humans working for them who are not aware of what they are. It is just a courtesy for them. Understand?” She nodded, relieved. “Good, what else may I endeavor to assist you with?”

Okay, endeavor? He needed to get out more and meet more people, she thought, but then she decided that she liked him very much the way he was, eccentric or not.

“Mr. MacManus wants me to be his guard Friday night. I…I mean, do you know where I can find a suitable dress? I don’t know a flippin’ thing about fashion, even less about shoes and stuff. I really don’t have a great deal of money to spend, just about eight hundred dollars, I guess.”

Sara really didn’t know fashion, and wasn’t sure if what she had to spend was a little or a lot. Mrs. Carlovetti had spent over two thousand on her dress alone, and another three hundred on shoes.

“I do know a couple of reputable places we can look. There are also a couple more that are second-hand shops. Which would you prefer?” he asked as he opened his car door.

“If you don’t mind, just give me the address to both places, please? I can go and look to see what I can get for my money. I’m sure they’ll have something I can use.”

Second-hand sounded okay to her. The dresses would be much cheaper now that someone had already worn them. She hoped so anyway…even with the added cost of dry-cleaning, the price difference would make it well worth going to the second-hand shops first.

“One of the places is owned and operated by one of our kind, so maybe we could manage a discount from them. We will see what we can work out, shall we? There are two places that deal in antique dresses that I think might suit you. We should go to those first, I think.”

“Oh, no, Mr. Duncan. No, you don’t have to go. I can manage by myself. I’m sure you have plenty to do for this shindig. I wouldn’t want to take you from your job.”

Oh no,
she thought,
he can’t mean to go.
She was nervous enough as it was being a guard again. Plus, she needed to do this on her own as she did all things.

“Nonsense, come along. Now, I just need to put these suits in my car. You can either ride with me, or follow. Which would you prefer?”

Sara saw by the look on his face that he was not going to be deterred. She knew how to buy clothes. Just go in, get what you want, pay, then leave. Walmart always had what she needed, but somehow, she didn’t think this was going to be quite so easy.

Sara had watched women in the couple of shops she had been in. It was mind boggling how much crap went with a simple dress. She looked at him again. Surely after all this time, he would be better at this business than she would be.

“If you don’t mind, I’ll follow you. That way, if you need to go, or get called away, you won’t have to worry about me. Mr. Duncan, are you sure you won’t get into hot water with the big guy? He can be sorta...well, he is very bossy, as I’m sure you know.” She could only hope that he was called away, and then he would not need to explain why he was helping her out again to his master.

“No, miss. He’ll be happy that I was able to assist you once again. And I believe I will enjoy this excursion as well. Shall we?”

They loaded the garment bags into this monster Hummer and went to get her van. He drove her over to it and then off they went to Vintage Wears in downtown Zanesville, a beautiful shop that dealt in antique dresses and apparel.

~~~

“Sire, it’s Duncan.”

Aaron smiled. He had expected this call since he had found the note Duncan had left him in the kitchen telling him that he’d gone to the mall to get the “tuxedos and finery.” Duncan rarely drove and he had taken the Hummer to the mall. A deadly combination if there ever was one.

“Yes, Duncan, having trouble with the Hummer again? I told you to practice more before going to the mall; it’s a nightmarish place for even a good driver.”

“No, sir, I’ve met up with Miss Sara, and she has asked for my help. It seems that she is in need of my help knowing where to find a dress suitable enough to be your guard at the dinner Friday. She also seemed to be under the misconception that she was to be a part of the menu, if not the whole menu. I have explained that part to her to both your satisfactions, I believe. We are out shopping for a dress as we speak. She thought that I should inform you, as I will be later than the time I allotted myself to be back to the mansion.”

“My guard, huh? Where is she?”

He wasn’t going to think about her and menus; about sinking his teeth into her creamy neck as his aperitif. Nor about how taking her as his main course, all of her body spread before him on his bed. Damn, he really was in bad shape here, he thought, as he adjusted himself for perhaps the hundredth time today.

“She is following me in her van,” Duncan said. “She is just behind me.”

“I never thought about her clothing when I asked her.” Aaron had a horrible thought. “Christ, she is not going to buy a t-shirt and cut-offs is she? Duncan, please, make sure that she wears a dress. I will of course pay for anything she needs. You have my credit cards; make sure that I get the bill, Duncan.”

“Sir, I do not think that would be a good idea. I believe Miss Sara has a great deal of pride and would…how should I say this...ah, yes, bristle at the idea of you buying her clothing. We are on our way to a little shop I know in order to purchase me a little time to speak to you.”

“Bristle?” Aaron snorted at that. “That would be an understatement, I believe. What’s really going on, Duncan? Because I’m sure you didn’t call me to make me feel guilty about this. I know that she doesn’t have any money for this, so just what do you have in mind?” Bristle. He would be lucky if she didn’t stake him while he slept.

“I do not believe my paying for her purchases will be wise for either of us, sire. She would most definitely have a fit of major proportions, I think.”
Duncan couldn’t be more right,
Aaron thought. “No, it would be very beneficial for all concerned if you were to make a phone call to a place called Other Worldly Creations and see if the proprietor would be willing to cut the new master a favor, so to speak. I’m sure you can handle the details of the transaction, can you not?”

There was a tone there, but Aaron wasn’t about to point it out to the man. He was doing him a favor by letting him know about her financial situation. He was still trying to track down who she was providing for in Nevada.

“Yes, I think I can handle it. You are a wily one, Duncan. However did I miss that?” he asked sarcastically, though it usually went over Duncan’s head.

“I believe I’m getting better with age, sir. You can only expect more in the ensuing years. Do be quick about the call, sir. We are nearly at our first adventure. We should be at the shop in less than an hour.”

Aaron disconnected the call and went to find the phone numbers he had seen just recently. He had found the file cabinet with all the names of the proprietors of every vampire-owned business in his realm just yesterday. He had been hiding from Sara and thought to clean up the desk when he came across it.