Immortal Moon (8 page)

I stood in the
pub’s kitchen, my hands braced on the counter top, trying to catch
my breath. My heart was racing, and excitement and nervousness
bubbled up inside me. It was odd. Flirting had never affected me
quite this way. Flirting with the patrons was part of my job. And
like Pinky, I was good at my job because it came second nature to
me. Flirting was harmless and meaningless, but fun and made people
feel good.

Of course I was good at the meaningful
flirting as well. The seductive little games that lead to hot and
sweaty horizontal games were also fun and exciting, but they never
made my heart race like it did when I was playing them with
Jarrett. When he had been here before, I had chalked the extra zing
to the danger. After all, we had spent so much time together
because he was protecting me from a deranged serial killer
targeting people my sister loved.

But now, I was starting to think the danger
came from the man himself. Jarrett Campbell intrigued me more than
any other man ever had, and that in itself was dangerous.

“Do you know what you are doing?”

I gasped and jumped, grabbing a wine bottle
like a club as I spun. I lowered it when I saw the intruder. “Shit,
Pinky. You scared the crap out of me.”

“Sorry,” he said, but his tone and grin said
he wasn’t even a little sorry.

I put the wine bottle down. “What did you
say?”

Pinky walked over and lazily leaned against
one of the counters. “I asked if you know what you are doing.”

“I’m putting dirty glasses in the sink,” I
said, confused.

Pinky rolled his eyes. “Not with the
glasses, with Jarrett Campbell.”

My head rolled back on my shoulders as I
looked up at the ceiling.

“Damn vampire hearing,” I muttered.

I took a deep breath and looked at my
father. “No, I probably don’t have a clue what I’m doing.”

Pinky smiled. “Okay, I just wanted to make
sure you were aware of that fact.”

I stared at him blankly. Pinky had never
said anything to me about who I flirted, dated, or slept with. When
my sisters and I were teens, Pinky had sat each of us down to talk
about sex and responsibility. He’d always been open with us and
given us the freedom to make our own choices. He never judged us
when those choices turned out to be mistakes. He usually only
stepped in if we were doing something that would hurt ourselves or
each other.

“Am I going to get a lecture about hooking
up with my sister’s friend?” I asked.

He grinned. “Seems to me that if I were
going to give you that lecture, I’m about six months too late.”

My jaw dropped. “You know about that?
How?”

Pinky gave me his best ‘Dad’ look. “You
know, the sound proofing spells on this place might keep people
upstairs from hearing what’s happening down in the bar, but they
have no effect on my keen sense of smell.”

I felt my entire body flush crimson. “Crap
on a cracker.”

Pinky laughed. “Oh, don’t be embarrassed.
Really, you and your sisters keep a lot less from me than you
think.”

Which wasn’t a hell of a lot, considering we
pretty much told him everything.

“If it makes you feel any better,” he
continued, “Fiona and Ian had sex in the rooftop garden one night
while you, Jarrett, and I were playing cards down here.”

I laughed. “Yeah, I actually knew that.
River found her underwear tossed in the pumpkin patch.” I took a
deep breath and looked Pinky in the eye. “Okay, so you know Jarrett
and I were together before. I’m sorry I tried to hide it.”

Pinky came over and put his arm around my
shoulder. “There’s nothing for you to be sorry for. You are
entitled to your privacy, and I strive to give you as much as
possible. I only brought it up because I wanted to make sure you
were aware that you were venturing into territory you’ve never been
in before.”

“You mean because Jarrett is a vampire? Or
because he is Fiona’s best friend?” I asked, leaning my head on his
shoulder.

“Both. Plus the fact that I’ve never known
you to hook up with someone again after an affair has ended.”

“You think I have some sort of emotional
attachment to Jarrett?” I asked.

Pinky stepped back so he could meet my eyes.
“I don’t know one way or the other. What do you think?”

“I think Jarrett is a nice guy. We had a lot
of good talks when he was here. I also think he is sexy and
exciting, and the sex was phenomenal. I wouldn’t mind doing that
again. And the passage of time between encounters has to do with
nothing more than the fact that he just happened to come back to
town and I have nothing else to do. That’s all there is to it.”

“Okay.”

“Okay? That’s all? You just wanted to make
sure I wasn’t being all stupid and getting my heart involved?” I
shook my head, not understanding this conversation at all.

“There is nothing stupid about getting your
heart involved in a relationship. The fact that you think there is
concerns me a little. I just wanted to make sure you were aware
your heart could get involved, and it might not have the results
you would expect.”

“So you think that because we are friendly,
and because I’ve been with him before, if I hook up with Jarrett I
might be sad when he leaves again. Or that I might feel weird when
I see him again, as I’m likely to do because he and Fiona are
friends.”

Pinky nodded. “It could happen. How do you
think you’ll deal with it if it does?”

I shrugged. “I’m not the type to feel weird
about guys I’ve slept with, and I have never felt sad about a guy.
But, I suppose it
could
happen. If it does, I’ll get over
it.”

Pinky laughed and bent to drop a light kiss
on my forehead. “That’s my pragmatic girl.”

He stepped over, took a tray of glasses I’d
just washed, and put them on a shelf before turning back to me.
“That group of women just left in a huff after each of them
propositioned Jarrett and were turned down. They started towards
Luca, but I guess he didn’t like being second best, because he took
his drink and went back to play poker.”

I laughed. “Poor drunk bitches. I had a
feeling they’d do something like that.”

“It’s beyond dead in there. I think Farrah
and I can handle the rest of the night if you want to head out a
little early.”

“You came back here to question me about my
sex life, then let me off work early so I can go have sex?”

“Yep.”

I shook my head in exasperation. “You are
the weirdest father on the planet.”

He flashed a grin. “I’ll take that as a
compliment.”

I ignored him and went out the door and up
the back steps to the fourth floor apartment I shared with River.
In my bedroom, I quickly stuffed a change of clothes and pair of
sandals into my bag. It might be presuming too much, but there was
little doubt in my mind that ‘take a walk’ was code for ‘have hot
monkey sex’, and I wanted to be prepared. I grabbed a shawl and
headed back downstairs, this time using the front stairs that
emptied directly into the bar area.

Sitting on the stool next to Jarrett, I
grabbed his glass and poured myself a shot from the bottle I’d left
him. “So, you ready to go for that walk?” I asked, pretending the
warmth in the pit of my stomach was only a side-effect of the
liquor.

***

Like the pub, the street outside was nearly
deserted. On a busy night, the sidewalks would be packed with
people shopping or going to the bars and taverns that lined
Broadway. Pinky always said that, with the exception of a few
buildings that had been destroyed, this street was much like it had
been before the Cataclysm. Tonight, there were only a couple dozen
people milling up and down both sides of the wide street. A few
for-hire rickshaws were parked next to the sidewalks, waiting to
take patrons wherever they needed to go.

Jarrett looked down at my feet, and then
motioned towards one of the rickshaws near the pub’s entrance.
“Those don’t look like they were made for walking. Do you want to
take a ride instead?”

I pulled the knitted shawl around my bare
shoulders to block out the cool night air. “I take it you have a
particular destination in mind. Is it far?”

It was my guess that the destination would
be his room at Blade’s Headquarters, which was barely two blocks
away. Or perhaps he’d rented a room at one of the inns on Broadway,
which also wouldn’t be far.

“A few blocks,” he said.

“Then I’ll be fine. It’s a nice night for a
walk,” I said. Both Fiona and River often lamented my habit of
wearing high heels to work, especially since Fiona had borrowed
some of my clothes a few months ago when she’d been undercover.
She’d had a hard time getting used to walking in my shoes. But I
enjoyed heels, they made me feel feminine. The knee-high,
spike-heeled boots I was wearing were a pair of my favorites. “But,
I can go change if you think there will be a problem.”

One side of his mouth quirked up in a
wicked, sexy grin. “Don’t you dare.”

A tiny thrill flitted through me. “Then lead
on.”

Jarrett laced his fingers with mine and we
started walking. We didn’t talk. Instead, we enjoyed a
companionable silence, as if we really were just out for an evening
stroll. Yet, I knew there was a purpose to this walk and giddy
anticipation buzzed through me.

I was surprised when we left the bars and
inns behind us and crossed the street to the docks. The Cumberland
River was a main trade and travel access point in and out of Nash.
It was busy at all hours, day or night. While the area wasn’t as
bustling as it had been that morning, there were still numerous
dock workers, sailors, and fishermen loading and unloading barges
and fishing boats. Solar-crystal lanterns illuminated the docks and
ships with a soft, blue glow.

Wondering what he could possibly want to
show me on the river in the dark, I quietly followed him down the
dock until we stood in front of a sailing ship that looked to be
around fifty feet long. It was well taken care of, but I could tell
it was quite old. Mostly because the design and materials were
nothing like any other boat I’d ever seen on the river. It was
missing the steam-powered paddle-wheel all the wide, flat barges
used to propel themselves up and down the river. Instead, it had a
large pole with an attached sail shooting out of the front, high
into the air, resembling the smaller versions on the fishing boats.
This boat was also about twice their length, and the deck was
nearly even with the top. In the center was a room surrounded with
windows, and there was an area raised about three feet over the
deck. On the side, “The Minnow” was painted in bright red
letters.

“Is this the boat you came in on today?” I
asked.

“It is. Actually it’s my boat. My home.”

I felt my eyes go wide. “Your home? You live
on a boat? That’s kind of cool.”

He laughed. “I don’t disagree. Want a
tour?”

“Absolutely!”

He laughed and helped me aboard. We went
into the windowed room first.

“This is the wheelhouse,” Jarrett said.
“It’s where I steer and run the boat.”

I looked around. Seats lined the sides and
the front wall. To one side was a dashboard with levers, dials, and
a spoked wheel. There were two doors low in the wall on either side
of the room.

Jarrett went through a door and downward. He
peered up at me through the opening. “Be careful on the
stairs.”

I followed him into a room with built-in
cupboards on one side and a table and benches built into the other
side.

“As you can see, this is the dining area.
And this is the galley, or kitchen as you would call it,” he said,
stepping through another doorway. “And through that door is a small
cabin I use for storage.”

I followed him into the narrow room that had
cabinets built on both sides. It had a sink, a small crystal-stove,
and several cabinets overhead. “This is wonderful.” I said, running
my hand over the gleaming, polished wood.

“It’s home,” he said, but his eyes
brightened. I could see he was pleased I liked his space. He
brushed past me and walked back to where we started. I followed him
up the stairs back into the wheelhouse. He pointed at the other
door. “Through there is the head and two more cabins, including
mine, which I’ll show you later,” he said, his voice dropping into
a sultry timbre on the last few words.

“The head?” My curiosity was more powerful
than his seductive ways.

He laughed. “The bathroom.”

My eyes widened. “You have a bathroom on
your boat?”

His eyes twinkled. “It’s kind of a
necessity, even for vampires. It has a working shower too. I’ll
show you how to use it later,” he said, but this time he was
laughing too hard to be seductive.

His laughing was due to my eyes growing even
wider when he’d said “working shower.” I’d never taken an actual
shower before. Pinky had told us about them, but plumbing just
wasn’t what it once was. We didn’t even have running hot water in
the pub. We used a bathhouse a few blocks away, soaking in tubs of
hot water to bathe. I tried to imagine water cascading down my
body.