We said our goodbyes to Denise and Randy an hour later and headed off to my mother’s temporary residence. It had been a pleasant drive through the country, very relaxing—until suddenly Bones cocked his head to the side as if concentrating, and then stomped on the gas pedal.
“What’s wrong?”
He’d said moments ago that we were almost there. Alarmed, I strained my ears, but my range wasn’t as far as his. All I could hear were the sounds from various families as we whizzed by their homes.
“Don’t bleedin’ believe it,” Bones chuckled.
“What!”
He continued to streak through the streets at a high rate of speed. “Oh, you’ll see. And you’ll need that bottle Denise gave you.”
I figured there wasn’t a bloodbath going on, because he still grinned with maniacal humor. Hopefully the sound of my mother being axed to death wouldn’t make him so gleeful. When we pulled up in the driveway of what I assumed had to be Rodney’s house, all I heard was her fumbling around and muttering curses. What was unusual about that?
Bones darted out of the car without even turning the engine off and pounded on the door hard enough to rattle the windows.
“Open up, Justina, or I’ll break down this door!”
The front door flung open as I approached at a slower rate than Bones had. Someone had to turn the car off, after all.
Bones went right past my mother, ignoring her demands to stay out. He gave her a wicked rake of the eyes, and his lips twitched uncontrollably.
“Well. As I don’t live and breathe. Justina, hair’s a bit disheveled, luv, been cleaning house? No? And your face…if I didn’t know better, I’d say it was flushed. Back when I was a degenerate whore, as you like to say, I’d see women look like you do all the time. After they were shagging.”
My mouth dropped and I took in her appearance. She was wearing only a robe, her brown hair was indeed going every which way, her face was distinctly colored, and holy shit, was that a hickey on her neck?
“You filthy animal, get out of here,” she commanded Bones.
He laughed so hard it bent him double. “Really, that’s a bit of the pot calling the kettle black now, isn’t it? And to think how Kitten used to be terrified about you finding out she was shagging a vampire. You can’t say much about that anymore, can you? Come on down, mate, take a bow! I stand in abject awe.”
“Bones,” Rodney’s voice called out gratingly from upstairs. “Just get out of here.”
I staggered. “Mom? You and Rodney?”
A scarlet blush graced my mother’s features. “He was making me dinner,” she sputtered.
I found my voice amid the astonishment. “And dessert, too, apparently! I don’t believe you. All those years, you crucified me for sleeping with a vampire, and look at you. Rodney’s a ghoul, you hypocrite!”
“He doesn’t kill people, they’re dead when he gets to them!” she thundered back with questionable logic. “And I am forty-five years old and don’t need to be explaining myself to my daughter.”
I stared at her like I’d never seen her before. “Did Rodney like them?” I asked.
She huffed. “Did he like what, Catherine?”
“The balls on you, that’s what!”
Bones laughed again and wiped his eyes with his sleeve. “Let’s go, Kitten. Just had to rub it in, I couldn’t resist. Justina, good on you, and Rodney”—another decadent chuckle—“admirable courage.”
Bones propelled me, still bitching, from the house. The door slammed behind us.
Bones still couldn’t contain his laughter as we drove away at safer speeds. “I’m delighted you didn’t ring her in advance, luv. That was priceless.”
I didn’t answer, just settled back in my chair and broke the seal on the gin.
My dress was silver. It hung to my feet in a clinging line from the waist, two ties forming a halter at the neck. The back was bare, and the front had a deep V that made a bra impossible. Those stick-on ones didn’t do the trick, either.
I frowned at my reflection. “You’ll be able to tell right off if I get cold. I’m the hostess, I’m not supposed to look cheap.”
Bones appeared behind me in the mirror. “You don’t look cheap, you’re stunning.”
A brush of his lips on my back punctuated his compliment, and as if on cue, both my nipples puckered. Yeah, it looked indecent, all right.
“Ravishing,” he whispered into my skin.
He should like the dress, he picked it out. Bones always chose more revealing outfits than I did. At least I had on underwear, minuscule though it was. Some things I insisted on despite his limitless powers of persuasion.