I didn’t allow myself to blush. “He’ll be exhausted from the flight and the time change. I’m only being considerate,” I said primly.
Spade didn’t comment. After a moment, his eyes narrowed. “I can feel him, he’s almost here. Don’t bother with a shuttle, I’ll drive you to the hotel myself. See you in front.”
I stood as close to the arrivals entryway as security would allow, craning my neck to see around the throngs of people. True to Spade’s prediction, I soon saw Bones striding though the passengers waiting to collect their luggage. He had only one bag slung over his shoulder, and he moved with long, predatory steps that easily outdistanced those in front of him. His eyes met mine, and the rush of joy I felt at seeing him made my heart skip a beat.
Bones pulled me to him, slanting his mouth over mine before I could even smile at him. I wrapped my arms around his neck as he lifted me off my feet, running his free hand down my back.
I could feel people staring at the blatant display, but I didn’t care. Only the knowledge that the hotel room beckoned gave me the incentive to push him back.
“Let’s get your stuff and leave. Spade’s waiting with the car.”
He lifted his head but kept his eyes closed for a moment. When he opened them, they were hazel but not glowing. Blazing emerald would have attracted too much attention.
“This is all I have, we can go. Best hurry. Charles might have to pull off the road and take a walk, because I want you right now.”
The flat concentration in his voice made my belly clench in anticipation. We nearly ran to the exit, his hand gripping mine.
Spade had the passenger door open. Bones threw his single suitcase across the seat and then gathered me into his embrace, slamming the door behind him. The car took off without even a hello exchanged between the two men since Bones had already returned to kissing me.
“Wait,” I gasped, coming up for air. “We’re almost at the hotel I checked us in to.”
“Brilliant you are, Kitten.” He smiled. Then to Spade, “Drive faster.”
“Absolutely, mate. I can see you need your sleep.” Laughter vibrated under his words. “Ah, here we are. You can ring me later about how you fared.”
I’d picked a room on the top floor near the elevators. Less people to disturb if we were closer to the low-flying planes. In the elevator, I dropped my plastic room key as Bones kissed my throat and rubbed his body sensually against mine. He picked it up, glaring at the shocked elderly couple who had the misfortune to be in there with us.
“Mind your own business,” he snapped.
Thankfully they didn’t get off on our floor.
The hall was empty when we stepped off the elevator. I jerked my head in the direction of our door, already unzipping his pants. We stumbled into the room where a Do Not Disturb sign already hung on the knob. When I checked in, I knew we’d need it.
“Don’t even think of foreplay,” I said, already burning with desire. I threw off my coat and backed toward the bedroom. Bones followed, mouth locked on mine as his hands slid underneath my skirt to bunch it at the waist. The mattress was high off the ground, hitting the back of my thighs as his upper body covered me while he remained standing. Fingers ripped off the thin material of my panties. He cast them away, and I wrapped my legs around him while he thrust inside me.
“Yes, oh God, yes.” I groaned, thrashing under him.
He straightened for better leverage, gripping my waist with one hand. The other untied the sweater I wore, unclipped my front bra snap and unbuttoned his shirt. His pants had fallen to the floor already.
“You’re so hot inside. Like wet fire. I love to feel you, Kitten.”
Each pumping motion of his body felt sharper to me. My skin was oversensitized from PMS, my breasts fuller and more tender, loins heightened to exquisite sensation. Bones didn’t have to increase pace or force to feel like he was slicing through me straight to the center. Moans became shouts and shouts became screams of ecstasy. Nerve endings stretched, winding faster and tighter together until they snapped with a rush of aching heat that vibrated from the inside out. Even my fingers tingled.
“A thousand tiny hands.” Bones groaned in satisfaction. He slid up the bed to where he lay fully on top of me, still pulsating within.
“What?” I could barely speak.
Pale arms held me closer. He nuzzled my neck, pushing my hair back. “That’s what it feels like inside you when you come. Like a thousand miniature hands pulling me in deeper, squeezing me, burning me. It’s incredible. You strip my will from me each time. Do you know what I’m going to do to you now?”
No idea I would have responded, but all that came out was a cry. He rotated his hips in an erotic twist that arched my spine and made me rake my nails down his back.
“I’m going to bite you,” he whispered.
I wound my fingers in his hair and pressed him to my throat.
A low chuckle rumbled in his chest. “Not there, luv. Here.”
He ran his hand between our joined bodies to rub his thumb over my clitoris. I jumped from the contact. He moved down my body, his other arm holding my legs. His tongue delved into the top of my crease before flicking in a series of licks. Then a slow glide from top to bottom, seeking. I trembled under his mouth, helpless. Somehow my skeleton had been replaced with jelly. He moaned and then swirled his tongue over my clit.
“I love you,” he murmured, then bit.
The white light descended, blotting out everything in a blizzard of rapture that transcended pain while matching agony for sheer pleasurable intensity. It took reason, will, and sanity on a merry ride through the wonderland of chaos. Time blinked by, minutes fusing into microseconds. When my eyes focused again, Bones had his hand clapped over my mouth to silence the shrieks that couldn’t be stopped. He shuddered repeatedly on top of me, in the throes of his own release, before relaxing with a final groan.
Shivers still rocked me. His hand left my mouth since my screams had died down to ragged panting. My throat was sore from the muffled cries. The first time he had done that to me, I’d been insensible for thirty minutes and lost my voice. Since I figured I could still talk, this must have been shorter.
“Blimey, now I can think straight again. I felt like a rabid animal before. Knew I could only hold out another ten minutes, and how is that fair to you?”
Who in the hell is he talking to? I wondered in a daze of afterglow. Chiseled arms lifted me and carried me into the bathroom.
“Still out of it, hmm? Just as well. You’d faint if you saw the bed. Broken like a bunch of twigs. No one makes anything durable anymore.”
Author’s additional note: If you’re wondering why Bones went to Australia in this version, he went there to pick up the red-diamond engagement ring. He proposed to Cat right after this scene, and Cat’s acceptance, as well as Bones calling her mother to give her the news, remained pretty much unchanged from the original version to the published one.
Chapter Nineteen
The Dress Shop
Author’s note: This deleted section shows Cat, Denise, Annette, and Justina going dress shopping for Cat’s upcoming wedding. Sound like a recipe for disaster? *grins* It was. It ended up being cut because my editor thought that it was funny, but she wanted to get to the main plot faster. As you can tell, a lot of scenes were cut in an attempt to keep the pacing as tight as it could be. I understand the reasoning, but I admit that I hated cutting scenes like this. I love showing the characters doing “normal” things—or at least, attempting to—and in hindsight, I think At Grave’s End could have used a few more light scenes to balance out the darker ones.
“I must be high,” I mumbled as I waited at Denise’s two weeks later.
She gave me a sympathetic pat on the arm. “You’re right. You must be stoned, cracked, smacked, juiced, whatever. I just hope you’re also armed, because you’re going to need it.”
Randy smiled at his wife. “Honey, I’m sure it won’t be that bad. If Cat’s mother agr
eed to go with her to pick out the material for her wedding dress, then she must have mellowed. As for the other lady, Annette, well, she’ll be on her best behavior, no doubt.”
“You must be high,” I amended with a shake of my head. “First of all, my mother is only going so she can ruin everything. Second, the last time that other ‘lady’ was on her best behavior, I came this close to killing her.”
Annette might be a first-class slut, but she was still the chicest woman I’d ever met. Bones had been cautiously pleased by my offer to include Annette in today’s excursion. One phone call later and here I was, waiting for her and my mother to arrive. Annette had come all the way from London. My mother was pissed about driving an hour to get to Denise’s.
“What does your mother know about Annette?” Denise prodded me.
“Oh, nothing much. Just that she’s an old friend of Bones’s who also happens to be a vampire. That guaranteed my mother’s hatred.”
“This is going to be one wacky wedding,” Denise said with a grin.
Probably. “Annette’s here,” I grumbled. Two minutes later, a car pulled up in the drive.
Annette DeWitt, formerly Lady Ormsby, stepped out of the shiny silver Mercedes as gracefully as if it were a throne. Her strawberry-blond hair was arranged in a purposefully messy chignon, and she wore a navy-blue tailored jacket over matching designer pants. She went to the door and rapped once.
“Jeez,” Denise whispered as she peered through the window, then looked at me in consternation. “Do I have something in my teeth?”
“That’s exactly how I felt when I first met her.” I sighed and went to answer the door. “Hello, Annette.”
Champagne-colored eyes considered me from a lightly lined face that was smolderingly attractive. Annette had been thirty-six when Bones changed her. Times were different back in the seventeen hundreds, so she looked around forty-five, but she made it look good. Real good, damn her.
“Cat, I’m going to say this straightaway so there’s no misunderstanding.” Her accent was pure upper-crust Brit, each syllable perfectly pronounced. “I know it’s because of you that I’m here. Crispin would never have done this on his own; he’s still too cross with me. I behaved quite dreadfully when I thought there was still a chance for him and me, but then he bound himself to you and that settled it. In truth, I’m astonished you showed so such maturity as to include me in your human celebrations.”
“Thank you for clearing that up, and I’m glad I impressed you with my grown-up behavior. The fact of the matter is, Bones cares for you. I love him, I trust him, so here you are. As long as you can tolerate the new standards of behavior around him, I have no issue with you.”
There. Didn’t that sound better than fuck off, you condescending bitch!
“This is Denise, my best friend, and her husband Randy,” I added. “Guys, this is Annette.”
After proper greetings were exchanged, she took a seat in the living room on the sofa. We were waiting for my mother, who was late.
“Drink, Annette?” Randy offered.
Her lips curled. “Thank you, but I had one from a flight attendant on my way over.”
I closed my eyes. If she said that kind of thing in front of my mother, the shit would hit the fan. I was sure the drink she referred to hadn’t been on the beverage cart.
“Oh, by the way, Cat,” she went on. “I have Crispin’s birthday present in the trunk. Do remind me to give it to you to take home.”
“It better not have a pussy.” The words flew out before my mental filter could stop them.
Denise spewed her iced tea all over Randy in a fit of laughter.
Both of Annette’s perfectly shaped eyebrows rose. “I seem to remember you informing me those items were off the gift list. If they’re back on, I’ll have to rethink your wedding present.”
Poor Denise was going to choke. Randy pounded her on the back while hiding his own smile.
“I’m sorry.” I hated to apologize, especially to her, but in this case, she deserved it. “To tell you the truth, the thought of spending the day with my mother is enough to give me a Tourette’s seizure, and I also have to apologize to you in advance for all the terrible things she will no doubt say.”
“She’s aware of my former relationship with Crispin and disapproves?” Annette didn’t sound like she cared. Why would she? She’d certainly been proud of it.
I gave a short bark of laughter. “No, all she knows is you’re a vampire. What did Bones tell you about her?”
Annette shrugged. “Practically nothing.”
I stared at her. “He didn’t warn you? You’re right. He is still pissed at you, and not just a little.”
The sound of a car pulling up tightened my gut with trepidation. She was here.
My mother swept into the room with none of Annette’s gliding grace. Instead, she had a stomping, angry gait that was punctuated by her slamming the front door behind her.
“So this is the latest bloodsucking murderer you’ve befriended, Catherine.”
No “hello, how ya doing, nice to see you.” Not her. Just straight to the throat and tear. She and vampires had a lot in common.
“Mom, are you going to say hi to Denise and Randy? You like them, remember? They both have pulses.” Dryly.
“Barely, and thanks to that one”—a stiff finger pointed at Randy—“who had your evil ex-lover in his wedding party, you left a wonderful man who was devoted to you. Each day I cry when I think of Noah. Isn’t there any chance you would reconsider…?”
“Don’t go there, Mom.” Now I was upset. Didn’t she know it was tacky to discuss reconciling with one’s ex-fiancé before shopping for a wedding dress to marry the new one? “Noah is so much better off without me, I can’t even articulate. I thought I’d throw that in, since the fact that I never loved him seems unimportant to you.”
Annette rose from the couch and extended her hand. “Hello. I am Annette De Witt, charmed to meet you. I’m afraid Cat never told me your name.”
My mother stared at her hand with more revulsion than if it had been a snake. “My alias is Justina Russell, and if you think I’m dumb enough to touch one of your vile, iniquitous paws when you’ve probably killed more people than the plague, you’re very mistaken.”
Denise handed me the gin bottle without bothering to include a glass. I ripped the top off and took a long, deep pull and then another. And another.
Annette withdrew her hand and gave me a look of growing awareness.
“I see now what you mean, Cat. Crispin is clever in his omissions, is he not? Very well. She’s not the first outraged mortal I’ve encountered. Justina.” Back to my mother. “You say you bear the name Russell? How appropriate, since it’s what your daughter’s married name will be. I hear Crispin’s marrying her under his birth name—how sentimental.”
My mother gazed between us in momentary confusion. “Who the hell is Crispin, Catherine?”
“That’s Bones,” I supplied. She had this coming. “His real name is Crispin Russell. But he called himself Bones after he became a vampire. Something about being raised in an ancient graveyard.”
She looked aghast. “You called yourself by his name when we left Ohio? And let me use it as well? God, Catherine, were you never free of that scum!”
I could tell Annette wanted to smack her for how she was talking about Bones. She knew, however, that any misstep with my mother wouldn’t be overlooked, even if it was in his defense. Wisely, she pursed her lips and didn’t comment.
“Mom, there isn’t enough gin on the market for me to be able to handle you. I let you unleash some steam since you just can’t help yourself, but that’s enough. I am marrying that vampire whether you like it or loathe it. Don’t bother; I know, I know, you loathe it. But if you call him even one more insulting name, I’m going to throw you out. That goes for in the car too. Or the dress shop. Or anywhere else we may be. You’ll walk home, because I won’t listen to your poison about him. Can you behave long enoug
h to be my mother? Or am I saying good-bye to you now?”
There was silence as she considered this. Time enough for me to take another drink.
Finally she settled for a muttered curse on all things undead and straightened her shoulders. “I’m going with you. Someone has to make certain you look presentable when you go to the altar like a lamb to slaughter.”
“Right,” I said wearily. “Let’s go.”
***
We took my car since it was the only one with bulletproof glass. Behind us I saw Dave and Cooper following at a discreet distance. Bones had flatly refused to let me drive around without some kind of escort, and they’d chosen to remain unseen. Smart men. After all, they’d met my mother before.
We went to Magdalena’s, a lovely dress shop that specialized in handmade wedding gowns. I would have just shopped at a regular store and gotten it adjusted, but Bones had looked at me as though I’d lost my mind when I suggested that. The miser in me protested at spending all the extra money just for personal fittings and fabric selection. Still, it made him happy, so I was here.
The owner’s name was Elise, despite the shop name, and she greeted us warmly as we walked in.
“Come in, please, you must be Cat. How beautiful you are, what coloring!”
Oh shit, bad way to start out. My mother’s lips twitched with a thousand stinging comments, but she managed not to do more than grunt. My looks came from my father, down to my luminescent skin that was just a shade too creamy to be human.
Elise went on, heedless. “Which one of you lovely ladies is the mother? From your pale skin and strawberry hair, I’d guess it was you!” she gaily said to Annette.
Denise laughed and then began to cough to cover it.
My mother bristled. “I am her mother,” she snapped.