Vampire Bride

Chapter Fourteen - Part Two

Maxwell

"I'm so sorry that I wasn't able to meet you when you were in town. I'm quite the busy girl back at home." The fake tone in her voice is nerve-racking and I can only hope he doesn't pick up on it.

Eugene stands there for a few seconds without saying anything. I grow weary waiting for him to reply. "Are you sure we haven't met before? You look familiar."

Charlie instantly becomes tense as we both come to the same conclusion; he remembers seeing her at Junction 22. "I don't think so. I would've remembered meeting such a handsome man as yourself."

I pull her closer to me, almost crushing her. She pats my chest, reassuring me that she has this under control, but I'm not sure her flirting can get us out of this if Eugene connects the dots. "Not as handsome as this one here," she says as she looks up at me, continuing to take the reins of the conversation. As if we have this all planned out, our eyes met. Without warning, she kisses me.

"I don't know what we were all worried about, she seems perfect. Well then, I'll see you tomorrow at the presentation," Eugene says as we break our kiss. He then turns away and immediately starts having a conversation with some other vampire.

I try to examine the look she gives me, but she quickly looks away. You can tell just by glancing at her that she feels ashamed of what she did, of what she had to do to save herself. "One more person, then we can go if you'd like," I say. My mind starts to wonder if she means anything she's saying. Our previous conversation of how well she can act plays in my head. I want to believe she enjoyed the kiss though.

"Hell yeah, I want to go. I want to go as far away from this room as possible. By the way, what would he be worried about exactly?" she finally replies as she puts some space between us.

"Not a clue." I'm a terrible liar, but before she can call me on it, I change the subject. "Now, the last person you have to entice is Benjamin. You could consider him the leader of the council." We come to stand in front of a group of people who are lined up to speak to him.

I gently shove Charlie into the line with not so comforting words. "Make sure you bow. Why don't you say something in French to him as well?"

She pushes against my hand, refusing to enter the line. "What? I don't know French. What if he starts talking French back to me?"

I give her a little harder shove, forcing her into the line and stand off to the side to wait without instructing her how to go about the situation. She needs to think on her toes and from the heart, because Benjamin will know if I've instructed her how to behave. He seems to be able to sense lies and withheld secrets one would have. I have no idea what he's going to say to her, so my words are pretty much useless.

There aren't enough minutes in the world to prolong the inevitable. Before I know it, she's standing in front of the overbearing man. He towers over her in height as he stares down at her with his usual stern look.

She jolts out her hand stiffly and bows in his presence. "Monsieur, it's such an honor to meet you. My name is Charlie Preston. I'm Maxwell Barnett's future bride." I hear her say.

He holds her hand in his longer than I would like, but she doesn't let on how it scares her. "Oh, Mr. Barnett has picked himself quite the charmer. It seems he's quite the lucky man," Benjamin replies back.

"Quite lucky indeed," she says with a smile on her face.

"I'll be looking forward to seeing you tomorrow, Ms. Preston." He lets go of her hand and she rushes away from him. As she approaches me, I put on a smile to mask my worry.

I make eye contact with Benjamin as he continues to stare at her. She must be aware of his stare as well, because she engulfs me in a hug. Burying my face in the curve of her neck that the bite mark is on, I feel her tense up with fear. My hand glides up her back to pull her dark curls away to reveal the still present bite mark. I have to give the spectator what he wants.

Her nails dig into my back as to warn me when she feels the touch of my lips upon her neck. I release her hair to hide my face from view. "You did it," I whisper in her ear.

I feel her instantly relax. "Did you ever doubt me? You questioned my acting skills last night. I felt the need to show you." Her words make me laugh, but stab at my heart. Some part of me doesn't believe that this is all an act. At least that's what I want to believe.

"Let's go." Taking her hand in mine, I escort her to the doors.

She exhales in relief at my words and tightly holds my hand in return, but as soon as we are far enough away from the conference room, she breaks away from me.

"Was it so hard to adore me?" I ask once we enter the elevator.

"Do you really want me to answer that?" she replies in annoyance.

I remain silent on the walk back to the room. I know she's been put through a lot in a little amount of time and I won't make things worse...for now. We enter the room to her cell phone ringing. The sight of her running for her phone in her high heels is interesting to watch, but I get to the phone first, holding it out of her reach as I read the name that's across the screen. Dave.

I thought I got rid of him? But I play clueless as I answer the phone for her. "Hello?"

"Who's this? Where's Charlie?" he asks me.

"Charlie's a little indisposed right now. I can certainly tell her that you called, Dave."

Charlie immediately rushes toward me in frenzy. With no other choice, I hold out my hand to stop her. Her forehead meets my palm. Anger causes her arms to swing viciously at me along with a few choice words. But her perfectly fixed hair, strapless dress, and those high heels cover that anger with a humorous image.

Giving up the fight early, she becomes completely still as she whispers through rigid lips. "Really mature, Maxwell, really mature."

A smile unwillingly falls upon my lips. Her eyebrow fights against my palm to arch up in what's supposed to be a demanding look, but as my hand blocks her eyebrows from view, I don't acknowledge her gesture.

Dave continues to talk in my ear. "So this would be the infamous Maxwell that visited Morgan last night. Funny how Charlie never mentioned you, but yet she lets you accompany her on a mysterious business trip."

I know the second those words exit his mouth that I'm officially under his skin. He spit out my name as though it were venom and I find great pleasure in that. I have what he wants. "I'm her best kept secret. We have a lot of things to handle today, so I really must be going. I'm sure we'll get the chance to meet at some point, Dave." I hang up without waiting for a response. He will not get in the way again.

"Why did you do that? Are we jealous?" Her questions turn into accusations.

"Jealous? Of him? Not in the least." I don't mean to sound cocky, but it's the truth. There's no way that she's going to choose Dave, the same Dave that hurt her over me.

"Give me my phone back."

"No more phone on our trip. You need your pretty little mind in the game or you can falter, resulting in you becoming my bride tomorrow. Then Dave is definitely out of the picture."

That evil glare is on her face once again as she doesn't like either of the choices I lay out for her. "Dave's already out of the picture, Maxwell." She spits out. "I'm going to take a bath before I go out tonight." She walks to the bedroom door, but stops before she enters.

"Then why does he think he matters?"

"I don't know. Why do you think you matter?" She pauses, "And I may have agreed to a date after I get back."

"A date? Why would you do that, Charlie, when you are being presented as mine?"

"I didn't want to, but Morgan needed the help and even though we have a rough, untrustworthy past doesn't mean that I don't trust him to help her."

"Morgan is a big girl."

"Not that big. She needs help and I obviously won't be back in time. Going to dinner with him is the price I have to pay to be here with you, so think about that."

If you look at it that way, I guess it is my fault that she's going on this date. But after everything I did knowing that he's still 'in the picture' is a beatdown on my ego.

The rush of the water drowns out her rambling as she argues with herself. I now have one more thing to add to my list when we get back. Get rid of Dave. Again.