VAMPIRE ROMANCE
By: Madeleine Maclean
Elevated by Her Vampire
Chapter One
Babs Willem looked at the house and her mouth dropped open. “I’m supposed to keep that place clean?”
She stood outside a wrought iron gate looking at a building that had columns on the front porch. The place brought visions of Heathcliff and someone keeping a deranged wife locked in the attic. Very Gothic.
She looked down at her flowered print dress and laughed. She was going to add a bit of color to the place wasn’t she? Not surprisingly. With her large body and read hair with unruly curls she brightened up anywhere she went.
At least that was how Babs looked at it.
She pressed a button on one of the stone pillars one either side of the gates. She never would have known this house existed because it was set back in the woods. All she knew about her new employer was that he was a recluse and that she was the fourth housekeeper this month.
Babs had bills to pay and very few skills so she jumped at the chance to come here. She’d have a place to live rent free. Food and she could work on paying down her credit card racked up by a cheating and spending ex-boyfriend.
She didn’t expect there to be any nightlife, but she didn’t want any. She’d sworn off men well and truly.
No one answered her ring, but the gates swung open. “Trusting.”
She could be a serial killer come to murder the occupant of the house and steal tings. She rolled her suitcases up to the front door. The knocker on it looked like it came from A Christmas Carol. She pulled it up and let it go. The sound was otherworldly for sure.
“What have I gotten myself into?” she said, then laughed.
She’d make the best of any situation she encountered. She’d learned the hard way that sometimes a fat girl had to do that. Not as many doors opened up for you when you walked through life with extra pounds. Nope, life was a skinny girls’ game.
Plastering a smile on her face that was almost genuine, she waited for Lerch to answer the door. The man who did answer it was almost as dour as the Adams’ Family’s butler. He was almost as tall, too.
Gray eyes peaked out of pale skin, but for some reason, she sensed a warmth within him. He looked her over.
She stuck out her hand. “Babs Willem. I’m your new housekeeper.”
He looked down at her hand. Crap. Was he one of those people who didn’t shake hands? She wasn’t sweating as far she could tell. He finally took her hand in a firm handshake. A zing of electricity went through her.
This was going to be interesting.
***
Elias Whitaker had never seen so many colors on one dress as when he let Babs into his home. She wore it with a chunky necklace and several large bracelets that set off her pale skin. She smiled, showing teeth through bright, red lipstick.
He didn’t find the color off-putting, it just didn’t reflect his current mood. His ex-girlfriend hadn’t worn any lipstick, but she was gone so it didn’t matter. She’d broken his heart and he wasn’t going to give it to anyone ever again.
He’d never had luck with women. None. Despite all of those movies and books about women swooning at the feet of vampires that had never happened to him. He was probably the only nerd vampire that ever existed.
Recently he’d resigned himself to a fate of being alone. For a human that might not be bad. Considering he would live forever unless someone staked him that was a long time to be alone. And his mood reflected that. Hence he’d been through four housekeepers this month. Even if he wanted to kill himself, he couldn’t. He was old enough to be immune to the effects of the sun.
Hard to get good help when you lived in the middle of nowhere and brooded all day. His only companion, his keeper, Cole Rothschild, didn’t want to spend time with him either. He’d contracted with this agency to get him yet another housekeeper.
Elias sighed as he closed the door behind Babs. She was a lot of woman, but he’d always liked his women bigger. He’d never understood the modern obsession with skinny women. Like fucking a skeleton.
He was dead enough. He didn’t need to have sex with someone who was almost as dead as he was. No, he preferred his partners live. Too bad they didn’t seem to like that he was a vampire. At least his ex hadn’t appreciated it when he’d told her.
She’d never noticed that he didn’t eat. Or that he had a freezer of blood in his basement. One sees what they wanted to see. When she figured it out, she left him in the middle of a rainy night. He’d begged her not to go, but the look of revulsion was enough to turn his terminally empty stomach.
So here he was, starting again, with another housekeeper.
Babs smiled up at him.
“I’ll show you to your room,” Elias said.
He took her suitcases and led her up the curving staircase to the second floor. “Nice house.”
“Thank you.”
“Will I be cleaning it by myself?”
“There is a staff that comes in once a week. You will be doing other things.”
“Cooking?”
“Only for yourself,” he said chuckling.
“Laundry?”
“Yes and maintaining the house in between cleanings. I like my house dust free. There will be guidelines and some of the house is off limits. That is non-negotiable.”
“I saw a library.”
“When your work is done, you can spend as much time in there as you want,” he said.
She nodded and followed him.