What’s New Pussycat(15)
“So what does Derrick do for a living?” she asked, taking another gulp of her wine and leaning back in the chair, leaving the front of his shirt to gape open, allowing just a hint of cleavage to show.
“Derrick owns the local bar in town. He slings booze and breaks up fights.”
“A bartender? Huh.”
“Surprised?”
“Is it your passion?”
“Owning a bar?”
“Yeah. Do you like owning your own business, serving drinks?” she asked, crossing her long legs at the ankles, his socks drooping from her feet.
“I do. Some say it isn’t very ambitious, especially in Cedar Glen, but I do pretty well, considering.”
Tipping more wine into her beautiful mouth, she capped off another glass, licking her lips and smiling. “Considering what?”
“A good portion of Cedar Glen is vampire and they don’t drink anything.”
Her green eyes went wide. “Vampires? Aren’t they a violent bunch? I haven’t had much exposure to them, so I don’t want to judge, but I’ve heard things that aren’t exactly without some gore.”
He shook his head and smiled, liking the way her eyes met his. There was nothing coy about Martine. Her direct nature was incredibly hot. No games. No innuendo. Hot.
“No one in Cedar Glen is violent. A little left field? Definitely. Many of the folks in town have one affliction or another that separates them from their race. It’s what Cedar Glen was founded on. Differences.”
“So sort of like a land for misfit toys?”
He smiled. He hated the kooky labels they’d been given, but he was damn proud of his grandparents for giving the outcasts a place to go—even with a curse on his head. “Yeah. Just like that, in fact.”
Martine leaned forward on the table, the shirt gaping open again, forcing him to drag his eyes to her face and ignore the creamy swell of breasts. “I was thinking about what you told me back at your brother’s, about how your grandparents saved all those werewolves. How courageous to thumb their noses at your elders. What an amazing testament to your kind.”
Her words of approval made his gut clench, filled it with warmth that was strange and new. “What about your kind?”
Martine bristled immediately, her body language a clear sign he should back off. It was in the way she sat up straight and smoothed her hands over her shirt, in the way her lips tightened as if to say keep out. “What about them?”
Derrick threw up his hands before pushing his chair out. “Sorry. I forgot the no-questions rule. Forget I asked. How about we clean up? I’ll rinse the dishes, you load the dishwasher?”
Martine pushed her chair back, too, and rose, grabbing a plate, an awkward silence settling between them. “You bet.”
As she trailed off to the kitchen to the tune of Claire De Lune, he fought to look anywhere but at her rounded ass, grabbing more plates and glasses to keep his eyeballs in his head.
He followed her into the kitchen, dropping their glasses into the sink and placing a hand on her shoulder. “I’m sorry. I really didn’t mean to intrude. I guess it’s just hard to know what’s out of bounds. I was just making conversation.”
She looked up at him then, her expression sheepish. “No. That’s on me. I’m going to tell you something honestly, and I hope you won’t judge me too harshly.”
Martine paused, letting her head drop, her thick, dark hair falling toward her face in silky strands. “I hate being paranormal. I hate the rules. I hate the hiding from humans. I hate the ridiculous restraints placed on us. I hate that someone placed a curse on you that will leave you dead just because your family helped people in need. It makes me angry—it enrages me, in fact, and I want no part of it. I’ve always struggled with it.”
Derrick wanted to ask what restraints, but he knew better. He might not be a great communicator, but he smelled her struggle, her helplessness, and it only made him want to ask her more questions. “It’s not so different than being human, you know. Humans have all sorts of rules, and grossly unfair ones at that.”
Martine scoffed. “Can they curse you to die if you don’t have sex with someone you’ve never met before? Can they cast ugly spells on you? Hold you…”
Hold her what? Spells? She grew more interesting by the second, but he kept his questions to himself. “In all fairness, humans have plenty of crazy rules, Martine. Someday, you should read what’s illegal in Idaho alone. It wouldn’t surprise me if they had rules just like my curse. Some are so ludicrous they’re laughable.”
Her eyes fell to the sink with a sweep of her lashes against her cheek “Do humans have to hide from us like they’re lepers? Hide their abilities so they won’t turn into someone’s science project?”