Silent Cravings (26 page)

Before long, Ken was clucking his tongue and making disapproving noises.

“Oh, honey, no, no, no. We’ve got to do him better than this,” he said, pulling out a pair of jeans and one of the bottles of aftershave and examining them critically. Mouse made a face. “This will never do. I’ll have to go with you.”

Christoph didn’t care what the effeminate vampire thought. Those were pants! Still no briefs but
real
pants! And aftershave meant a razor. God, he needed a shave.

“Jeans are great,” Christoph said, reaching for them. “Seriously.”
Please. A man deserves pants. Distract him!
“Hell, Ashi needs clothes, too. You can’t get me all gussied up and ignore him. He’s with Sebastian. You should go see him. He’s cute.”

“Actually, Ken’s right,” Royce said, drawing every eye in the room. He was leaning in the doorframe, an amused smirk curving his lips. “If those two are going to work for me, they need to be dressed appropriately. Jeans won’t cut it. I want them at Twisted Temptations four nights a week. Ken?”

Ken smiled, nodding as he puffed out his chest in self-importance. Mouse’s face fell at this pronouncement.

“Excellent. How’s the knee?” Royce asked.

Every Were instinct Christoph had was screaming at him to either go for Royce’s throat or curl up in puddle of pee and cry for mommy. He was proud that he managed not doing either of these things, and instead nodded stiffly to Royce. “Better.”

God, he hoped Ashi wasn’t having a good time.

Ashi was having a good time. He vaguely wondered how Christoph was getting on. He hoped the ape was being bitten.

After the Were ran off to the bathroom with the jeans Ken had been doing his best to withhold, Royce looked over the assembled crowd, thoughtful.

“Is all this what I think it is?”

“Odds are high on three weeks, low on two and four.”

“Put me down for a hundred on four weeks.”

By the end of the second movie, Thad was getting tired. His eyelids were drooping, and it was Sebastian who got up to pore through the movie titles. He was jazzed by the violence, grinning at Ashi.

“
Transporter 3
?”

Ashi was getting tired as well, but it was a sort of lethargy rather than his muscles telling him it was time to go to bed. He rubbed his face. He had fuzz on his lip and chin. Another item on the list of things to ask Analie to get.

“Christ, how many sequels are there? Yeah, sure. I’m game.”

In the kitchen, Ken was still clucking over the contents of the bags. “Good Lord, did you really buy… Oh,
no
.” He groaned theatrically, and summarily tossed the aftershave in the trash.

Mouse was a mite peeved by now, her eyes gaining a reddish tint.

“
I
do the shopping for the men-folk from now on.”

She flipped him off.

Royce was still chuckling over Ken’s antics as he exited Mouse’s apartment. He ran into Analie, who was holding a box, in the hall. Clarisse and Angus, who followed Royce out, both waved a greeting to the girl.

“Welcome back. How was class?”

Analie smiled broadly, feeling like her face was going to crack.

“It was great. Too busy in the kitchen, so Jacques kicked me out early. ʼScuse me, please.”

She edged around the shadowy group and raced upstairs with the box of cookies. Tonight had been way too stressful—difficult cookies, no chaperone—and as soon as she dropped off the box, she was going straight to her room to text Freddy. Crap, she still had to ask Royce or someone about the White Hats. She’d do it later, after she wasn’t so jumpy.

At the end of the hall she knocked on Sebastian’s door. She could hear a movie going on inside and it sounded
awesome
.

Christoph came out of the bathroom, now clad in jeans, and walked over to see what Ken was moaning and groaning about. He reached around the vampire and snagged a shirt, pulling it over his head. Finally.

“Hey, I
like
that aftershave,” he said, scooting past Ken and fishing the bottle out of the trash.

“
You
may like it, but your adoring fans
will not
,” Ken said, snagging it out of his hand and throwing it right back into the trash. “If you’re going to work Twisted Temptations, you have an image
to uphold.” He grinned wide enough to show a bit of fang as he looked Christoph up and down. “Though you might be able to get by on looks alone with a body like that. Ooh, Daniel is going to
love
you.”

Mouse hid her head in her hands, shoulders shaking in equal parts silent groans and laughter.

Christoph grabbed the aftershave out of the trash again. “I don’t
have
adoring fans. And what the hell is Twisted Temptations?”

He was starting to feel very uneasy. Not that he was completely at ease before, but this “Twisted Temptations” thing people were talking about was not a word combination he wanted to be associated with.

“Oh, you will. Twisted Temptations is one of Alec’s clubs. He expects you to play the part of eye candy.” Ken’s grin widened, his canines gleaming sharply. “It’s one of the hottest nonexclusive clubs in the city. Don’t tell me you’ve never heard of it?”

Analie had to knock a couple of times, finally pounding the door with her fist to be heard over the mayhem on the big screen.

“Come in!” Sebastian shouted, still focused intently on the TV. Even Thad had woken up a little and was watching the screen avidly as Jason Statham performed a very unlikely maneuver with his fist, destroying the face of the guy he was fighting.

Analie entered the room and winced at the volume of the movie. She was surprised to see Ashi sitting on the couch, looking incredibly at ease and un-asshole-ish, with Thad and Sebastian. He glanced back as she came in and quickly stood and approached her. Analie edged away.

“What’s that?” he asked, pointing at the box.

Analie glared and walked over to the couch, careful not to startle Thad. She dropped the box off in Ashi’s vacated spot, mumbled, “Sorry about the whole fuzzy thing” and hurried back to the door. Thad barely had time to say “thanks” before she was gone.

“Hey, wait. I have a favor to ask—” Ashi began.

“Ask whoever wants to chomp you,” Analie snapped and slammed the door shut behind her.

“Harsh,” Sebastian muttered, not looking away from the screen.

Thad opened the box Analie dropped next to him and pulled out a cookie, munching on it. “Ish good. Ya shud try shome.”

Royce was staring at one of the security feeds on a monitor in his office. Analie had defied him again. She knew very well that she was never to travel unchaperoned. It probably had something to do with Christoph and Ashi being here, though he wasn’t sure precisely how they tied into the matter. She had returned on her own so he wasn’t too terribly put out, but it was a concern, nonetheless.

“John.”

“Yes, sir?”

“Make sure someone is keeping an eye on Analie. She’s not to travel alone again.”

“Yes, sir.”

He thought about it a bit longer, reviewing the security feed one more time. He watched the way she bounded up the steps, and the cheerful smile on her lips, with narrowed, calculating eyes.

“One other thing.”

“Sir?”

“Make sure the Goliath alpha gets copied on the promotional piece for our new guest stars at Twisted Temptations.”

John’s lips curved in a wicked grin. “With pleasure.”

Christoph would not describe himself as “eye candy”.

“I don’t care what happens in New York. I live in California.”

He glanced over as Analie entered the living room, breathing a long sigh of relief.

“How’d it go?” he asked.

“Great,” Analie said, giving him a warning look. He nodded and turned his attention back to Ken.

Analie went to her room and changed back into her jeans and T-shirt. Bliss! She grabbed her phone from under her mattress and texted Freddy.

Weirdest cub-hide ever. Lookin forward 2 ur visit!

“Christoph, you just know
you are going to draw
all
the honeys if you tell them you’re a Hollywood star. You wait right here, I’m going to go get that other boy. What was his name?”

“Ashi,” Jessica answered, the dry humor in her voice tempered with concern. “I’ll come with you. He might not agree right away.”

As in, not at all.