Taken by Moonlight (4 page)

“You’re
probably—”

A low
whistle sounded and both Vivienne and Drew turned to the source of the sound.
Max leaned against the door frame, his eyes intently taking in the vision in
red before him. Vivienne had met Maximilian Carter, better known as Max to all
those who wanted to keep on his good side, on their college track team. His
all-American-boy looks and easy charm had made him a quick favorite among the
ladies but it was his humorous outlook on life that had really attracted
Vivienne to him. As any heterosexual male and female would do, they’d tried
dating but after a week, had found they were much better off as friends.

“Move over
Beyoncé and the entire House of Dereon. Make way for Vivienne of the House of Bordeaux.” Because she couldn’t help it, Vivienne laughed. Max wasn’t finished, however.
His eyes traveled the entire length of her body before he spoke again. “You are
one sexy lady, Vivienne Bordeaux.”

She might
have blushed, especially at his low and suggestive tone, but this was Max.
Instead, she grinned and winked saucily at him.

“You’re not
so shabby yourself. The women won’t be able to leave you alone.” For all the
humor she’d interjected into her voice as she said it, they all knew it was
true. Max was what one would call a metro-sexual, although not to his face if
one wanted to keep one’s teeth. His hair was dark blond, highlighted with
streaks of platinum, though he swore they were natural, and cut in a shaggy but
even way that seemed to send out a call to all women standing within feet of
him. Vivienne had been to parties with Max where she and Drew had simply sat in
open-mouthed shock as female after female, give or take a male somewhere in
there, solicited him in blatant invitations for
rigorous
after-hours
activities.

“Seriously,
Viv, are you trying to get me thrown out of the club for assaulting the first
idiot who touches you?” he continued playfully, his smile widening as his hazel
eyes left Vivienne and moved to where Drew sat at the edge of the bed. Her
smooth mocha legs were crossed, her feet bare, and she stared at Max with a
raised brow and a smirk that was in no way friendly.

As his eyes
settled on her, she snorted, which caused Max to lift a challenging brow. “Is
there something you wanted to add, Drew?”

The woman
in question stood, pulling down the edges of the oversized and old blue
T-shirt. Drew had yet to change for the trio’s evening out, as she’d spent the
past hours transforming Vivienne. She approached Max with what appeared to be a
smile on her face. Vivienne shook her head at their antics. Although she
considered them both her close friends, she sometimes doubted they thought the
same of each other.

Drew
stopped directly before Max and replied, “I was merely going to say that any
brawls of yours would more than likely be because of your inability to hold
your alcohol and over your latest
faux
blonde bimbo. You’re blocking my
exit.”

Max frowned
before he shrugged and stepped away from the door.

“I was
beginning to wonder if you were going to wear that. I wouldn’t be surprised if
you had—just embarrassed for Vivienne.” It was said carelessly, like an
afterthought, as he moved closer to Vivienne. Drew tossed a glare back over her
shoulder but held her tongue as she left the room.

“Hey, don’t
look at me like that. She started it,” Max immediately said, catching
Vivienne’s raised eyebrows. He moved to stand behind her and looked at their
reflections in the mirror. They cut a stark contrast but still fit. She was
brown, her complexion easily described as golden-honey; he was pale, a result
of the faded summer tan he still mourned. She, with her straightened black hair
and vulnerable expression, and he, blond with the promise of sin in his eyes.

“You really
need to stop taunting her like that, Max.”

“She
doesn’t seem to mind. In fact, I think she likes it.”

“You mean
like you like it?”

His lips
parted in a sinister smile and she shook her head. Vivienne once wondered if
their animosity toward each other was driven by a sort of attraction, but after
years of watching them go after each other with verbal battleaxes, she’d
decided that it was just plain, mutual dislike. If not for her, they probably
would have had nothing to do with each other.

Max
suddenly leaned his chin against her shoulder and said, “Oh come on, Viv. Admit
it. You enjoy seeing us spar. It’s basically free entertainment for you, isn’t
it?” He winked and stepped away from her. “Don’t worry, I won’t tell Drew.” At
the door, he looked at the watch on his wrist and then past her with a devilish
grin. She didn’t have to wait long to find out what that meant.

A few
seconds passed before she heard a loud pounding and then Max’s voice rang out,
“What’s taking you so long in there, Drew? It’s not even your birthday and
you’re making us late! Don’t make me come in there—”

That was
followed by a round of outraged shrieks as she guessed Max either pushed open
Drew’s bedroom door or pretended to do so.

She stifled
her laughter as she moved away from the mirror and began searching for her
clutch purse. Max was right. Soap operas be damned. Who needed them anyway when
she had Max and Drew?

“Viv, your
sister’s crazy. You should have known better than to go camping with Cassie,”
Max said with a shrug of his shoulders, as if that information were noted fact.

When she’d
arrived back at the apartment that morning, she’d briefly informed them on her
night with Cassie before crawling into bed and passing out. As the ride to the
club was going to take close to thirty minutes in the bumper-to-bumper city
traffic, she’d decided to inform them of the details. She’d told them of being
chased by a wolf, and of running into strangers in the forest, and the
blindfold, and the teenager sniffing her. They’d both found the blindfold and
the teenager sniffing her extremely weird, but Max was the only one who’d
commented directly on Cassie.

Vivienne
was about to defend her sister, although she knew that Max meant no harm, when
Drew spoke up.

“Just
because a woman is smart enough not to fall for your jaded charms does not mean
she’s insane.”

Vivienne’s
laughter rang out as she turned to look at Max. She couldn’t make out his
expression in the darkness of the cab but knew he was probably scowling. Max
had never directly made a pass at her sister but he’d indicated a few times in
college that he would. In fact, junior year he’d joked to Cassie about taking
her out. Sadly, Cassie was on her “love the earth, love the world” road and had
told him she wasn’t interested in “boys who didn’t know that leaving on the
lights was slowly leading to the destruction of the environment.” Everyone else
found it funny; Max had not.

“No, I
guess not. Just because Dan Fuller never noticed you didn’t make him insane
either but I do remember you saying—”

Vivienne
winced when Max mentioned Dan Fuller, who’d been Drew’s crush almost straight
through college. If Drew had ever had a dream guy, he’d looked, walked, talked,
and acted like Dan. She’d never actually admitted it, but from the way she spoke
of him before he’d turned into a jerk, anyone could tell that she’d seen him as
more than a friend.

“Oh, be
quiet, idiot,” Drew muttered. Vivienne contemplated interjecting before
deciding against it. The last time she’d tried to break up one of the fights,
they’d dragged her name into it and she’d had to listen as all the wrong things
they’d ever done to her were aired in the open. Never again.

“I’m not
the idiot. Dan was.”

“I am not
getting into this with you right now. You are so immature,” Drew continued, and
Vivienne closed her eyes and blew out a deep breath.

“I don’t
know which guys you’ve been hanging around lately but I am in no way immature.
I’m willing to prove it to you, if you like.” The last part was said in the
most suggestive tone she’d ever heard Max use.

Drew fell
silent and Vivienne was just about to change the topic to something tamer, like
where they were heading. Were they still in the city? If so, where were the
cars, and the lights? Where was this place anyway?

“Who falls
for these ridiculous lines of yours?” Drew suddenly burst out, the rising anger
evident in her friend’s voice.

“
Women
.
I tend to stay away from immature little girls.”

Drew
snorted. “Please, immature little girls are the only ones attracted to those
stupid lines.”

“And you
know this because…you are said immature little girl?”

“Shut it,
Maximilian
.”

Vivienne
could only shake her head, sigh and wait. Max hated when people said his full
name, well…because it was one hell of a name. When she’d first heard it, she’d immediately
thought of
Gladiator
, and although she’d tried to keep in her laughter,
she’d ended up laughing in his face. Luckily, they’d been friends for years
before he told her his full name and he couldn’t just break it off over her
reaction to his name.

“Make me,
Drew the Prude.”

Drew didn’t
reply for a few moments and Vivienne popped an eyelid open. Had Max succeeded
in really pissing her off by using that silly moniker he’d given her in
college?

Drew had
leaned forward and so had Max. They were now facing each other and she could
make out their silhouettes and some of their expressions whenever they passed a
streetlight or another car.

“Just
because I don’t screw everything that moves does not make me a prude,
Maximilian
.”

It was said
in a soft, hiss-filled voice. For a moment, Vivienne wondered if they
remembered that she was there. She was preparing to seriously interrupt with a
non-related question when Max replied, soft yet forceful. “No, you’re a prude
because you refuse to do anything out of that stuck-up, prim and proper
comfort-zone of yours. Drew. The. Prude. Suits you well.”

“Sooo…where
are we going, Max? I mean, this guy has been driving for a long time,” Vivienne
said loudly, leaning forward and forcing both of them back into their respective
corners.

Max didn’t
answer for long moments. “It’s this place called Fangs. It’s on the outskirts
of the city. That’s why it’s so far.”

“We’re
going to a place called
Fangs
?” Drew asked incredulously. “For
Vivienne’s birthday, you’re taking her to some Goth-club? I mean, at least, I
took us out to dinner at the—”

“Four
Seasons. I was there, remember? Didn’t want to tell you but you were robbed.
Food was bland at best, overcooked, or undercooked. You could have probably
made her better food and that’s saying something.” He turned to address
Vivienne once more. “It’s pretty exclusive, Viv, and definitely a step up from
smoky bars, and food for people with no taste buds. My boss is on the VIP list
of the place so she lent me her card—”

“Spare us
the details on what you did to get it.”

Vivienne
glared at Drew, but she’d turned to look out of the window. Max didn’t take the
bait and continued on.

“And it’s
rumored to have the best drinks and music in the city.”

“It doesn’t
matter. I’m sure we’ll have fun.” Probably partly due to the fact that they
entertained her with their constant bickering everywhere they went. Hopefully,
they would entertain her by simply being good friends tonight, though from
their prelude at the restaurant and now in the cab, she highly doubted it.

“Oh my
Go—what is she wearing—why are we here? I knew we shouldn’t have listened to
him, Viv. Seriously!”

They’d
cleared two rather large and mean looking bouncers who stood outside of the
tall building that looked like some sort of abandoned warehouse. After scanning
the VIP card Max provided, they’d demanded identification, before glaring at
the three of them for a long while. It took at least five minutes for them to
actually get in. They’d then walked along a dimly lit corridor and had run into
another bouncer, who’d pushed open a door for them. As soon as the door opened,
the sound of blasting music and the reds and greens of club lights assaulted
them.

And now,
Drew had a death grip on her hand and Vivienne was slowly losing feeling in her
fingers. Her eyes were on a raven-haired woman, probably their age or slightly
older, wearing a spiked dog collar, a pink and black cut up shirt that revealed
a belly ring and a tattoo of a skull on her lower back, a short leather skirt,
and long white stiletto boots! Vivienne did a quick scan of the place and
noticed that there were cages toward the front, and half naked men and women
were dancing in them.

She turned
to Max, who stood at her other side, taking in the place and the people with an
unreadable expression on his face. He had been unusually quiet since the
encounter with the bouncers.

“Max, are
you okay—?”

He blinked
and nodded, pasting on a smile as he looked at her. “Come on, birthday girl.
Let’s get you those drinks—all on me.” He grabbed her other hand and began to
move in the direction of the bar.