“As you can see, Annette, he found me safe and sound.” For effect, I brought his clasped hand to my lips and kissed it.
Her smile grew frosty. “My bags should be arriving momentarily. Crispin, why don’t you fetch the car whilst Cat and I collect my things?”
It was a toss-up which I didn’t like more—being alone with her, or offering to get the car so he would be. I chose the first, since it was more bearable, and Bones left us to get our ride.
Annette had a lot of things, which she helpfully loaded onto me like I was a pack mule while making conversation zinging with underlying hostility.
“Don’t you have lovely skin? All that fresh country air no doubt played a part. Didn’t Crispin tell me you came from a farm?” Like the animals, her smug smile implied.
I hoisted a heavy suitcase over my shoulder before I replied. God, what had she packed, bricks?
“A cherry orchard. But that hardly affected my complexion. The vampire who raped my mother gave me that.”
She clucked her tongue. “Faith, I had difficulty believing Crispin when he told me what you were, but after two hundred years together, you take someone at their word.”
Nicely done. Throw in how long you’ve had him, like I don’t already know. But two could play at low blows.
“I can’t wait to hear all about you, Annette. Bones barely mentioned you at all, just something about how you used to pay him to have sex with you when he was human.”
She gave an arch little curve of her lips. “How charming that you call him by his acquired name. All his newer acquaintances do that.”
Acquaintances? My teeth ground. “That was the name he gave me when we first met. We are who we become, not who we start out as.” He’s not your boy toy anymore, got it?
“Indeed? Here I’ve always believed people truly never change from what they were to begin with.”
“We’ll see about that,” I muttered.
With her numerous items weighing me down, we proceeded to the exit. As I followed behind her, I took the opportunity to study her. Her hair was shoulder-length and pale strawberry-blond, just lovely next to her peaches-and-cream skin. She was far more voluptuous than I, and about three inches shorter than my five-eight height. If she were human, I’d judge her to be in her mid-forties. That didn’t sit in a negative column with her, though, because she gave off a smoldering, ripe sensuality that made youth look like a boring waste of time.
Bones took one look at me buried under all her luggage and vaulted over to assist. “Blimey, Annette. You should have told me how many bags you had!”
“Oh, forgive me, Cat,” Annette chuckled in false apology. “I’m accustomed to having an underling travel with me.”
“Don’t mention it.” Tightly. Underling! Who the hell did she think she was?
Luggage finally stored in the trunk, we drove off.
“When are the rest of our people arriving?” she queried, settling back in her seat. We drove a new vehicle, as my Volvo was known to Max. This was a loaded BMW. I’d ask Bones later where he got it.
“Today and tomorrow. By Friday, I reckon we’ll all be in place.”
Annette sniffed, though it wasn’t like she needed to clear her nose. “I say, Crispin, how did Belinda get herself in Cat’s little snare? I haven’t seen her since your birthday six years ago, or was it five?”
“She got caught because she started running with a group who liked to bring home live meals.”
There was something cold in his tone that perked my ears up even as Annette’s smile grew sly.
“Terrible. She must have really changed. Wasn’t it only five years ago that we three got together?”
Bones glared at her in the rearview mirror right as I translated “We three got together.” I was betting it hadn’t been for tea. And five years ago, Bones had been with me.
“Answer the question, honey. Was it six or five years ago that the three of you all fucked? See, Bones already told me that he’d screwed Belinda, Annette, but thank you for letting me know you participated also.”
Bones pulled the car to the shoulder of the road.
“I won’t tolerate such rudeness, Annette,” he said, pivoting to face her. “She knows bloody well what you’re implying, as you can see, and I don’t know why you feel the need to throw that up at her. You also know that it was eight years ago, before I met her, and I’ll thank you not to entertain her with any more recollections.”
He sounded as pissed as I felt. Annette glanced at me before raising her brows in feigned innocence.
“I apologize. Perhaps it was the long flight which made me forget myself.”
“Kitten.” Bones looked at me. “Is that sufficient?”
No, it wasn’t, and I’d have cheerfully thrown Her Majesty and her hundred pounds of baggage to the curb, but that wasn’t mature.
“I think I can handle a little ménage à trois reminiscing, but just for the record, Annette, you can forget any repeats involving the three of us.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it,” she assured me with a gleam I caught from the rearview mirror. Oh, she and I weren’t through. I’d bet my life on it.