~
“Oh … a …” Jenny grimaced as she bit down on the word…
One word …
Say it …
Say it because you look like a total and complete idiot schoolgirl…
“Vampire,” Bailey’s eyes flashed with amusement at her expense. “Yes. I figured if you didn’t have a problem talking to a shifter … then …” he shrugged his shoulders.
“I don’t …” she hotly denied with a small shake of her head like she had to doubly confirm it.
“Sure? Because you’re looking a little – I’ve seen a ghost – white.” Bailey teased some more.
It kind of felt like a cat playing with a mouse before it went in for the kill, and she regretted even thinking it…
“Her friend sure doesn’t like shifters…” Karl growled, dropping his eyes to the spot on the pavement that held little interest for him, but he was still smarting from the rejection when all he’d tried to be was neighbourly…
He guessed some people just didn’t do nice – or accepting…
“No, she doesn’t have a problem with…” Jenny said, flicking a look back towards Karl, and the man raised his eyes under his deep frown, cutting her off…
“Yeah, she was real … nice when I stopped by.” Karl said, about to bid her a good day and move on.
He wasn’t worried about Bailey. The vampire knew to behave himself in their small community, anything else and he’d be run out of town, and in place of pitch forks and torches; the community would be using fangs and claws.
“It’s not shifters … it’s men.” Jenny shrugged.
“She’s a…” Karl let the word stay on the tip of his tongue.
He wasn’t up on the right terminology for sexual preferences, and he didn’t want to offend anyone. He knew what bigotry was, and he’d hate for people to think that of him.
“No…” Jenny shook her head on a snort of amusement, but there was an element of sadness that filled her eyes, and he had to wonder at it. “She’s had a bad run of luck with men, is all – well, worse, but,” Jenny shrugged again as she winced and waved that memory away. “That’s not my story to tell.”
“So, she’s not a shifter hater?” Bailey dropped his arms and pushed up and away from the bonnet of the car. That move was as sexy as hell and Jenny couldn’t look anywhere else as the man strolled slowly towards her… “Crisis averted – you don’t have to move cabins.”
“You were going to move?” Jenny tried to turn her eyes towards Karl, but the vampire had her squarely in his gaze again, and she didn’t think that she was being drawn to keep her eyes on him that time – it was more of an internal need…
“Shifters can be little girls sometimes…” Bailey offered and Karl growled in annoyance.
“I wasn’t going to stay somewhere I was treated like…”
“A big, bad bear shifter with a sore head?” Bailey offered.
“Like something bad that she’d wiped off the sole of her shoe…” Karl growled back…
“Oh, you mean like the poop in the woods kind?” Baily grinned.
“Can we not do the whole – bear poop in the woods thing, again?” Kalr growled.
“Trust me, Bonnie isn’t like that. She just … doesn’t trust men, unless they’re very married … or very gay.”
“Gay…” he frowned. That left him out on both counts…
“There you go,” Bailey offered, tossing up a hand, “be more gay.”
“I’ll bake cupcakes and burn candles…” Karl offered back.
“That’s just profiling…” Bailey berated him and Karl scowled back at the man.
“I was not…” he growled harder.
“Not all gay men bake…” Bailey offered.
“Tom baked.” Karl growled back…
“See…” Bailey tossed up his hand towards the shifter as he kept his eyes on Jenny. “He knows one gay man and he assumes that they’re all the same.”
“That’s not…” Karl shook his head on his neck in hot denial…
“That’s like saying you spend your time, crapping in the woods and walking around with a growly attitude and a sore head … oh … wait.” Bailey considered it for a long moment to the hearty sound of another growl from the shifter, and Jenny snorted a chuckle. “Am I right? Or am I right?” He asked her.
“Don’t drag me into this…” she chuckled, holding her hands up in front of her like she was surrendering or was about to push the vampire back – which she wasn’t – she kind of like watching him walk towards her…
“But you’re a human female, you have to have an opinion…” Karl offered, and at that little gem of wisdom, she finally managed to drag her eyes away from the vampire and onto the shifter.
She twisted her head on her neck and gave him a curious look…
“What does that mean?” She twitched her nose at the man as her hands went to her hips and Karl took a long step back…
“Not a damn thing…” he rushed out.
He knew that stance on a female and he didn’t want to stand there and have to listen to a volley of abuse from her…
He guessed that he’d put his foot in it again. He did that a lot with females … he put it down to the fact that he’d never had a female role model with his mother dying when he was young…
“Chicken or a bear…” Bailey snorted a chuckle at the man’s expense and he got a scowl for his trouble…
“Don’t start. You already did the poop in the woods thing and the bear with a sore head thing…” Karl growled.
“Me?” Bailey tried to make himself look as innocent as possible, and yet, he just couldn’t seem to turn off the light of amusement within his eyes or rid himself of the smirk on his lips.
“You…” Karl growled back.
“I don’t do whatever it is that he’s accusing me off…” Bailey had turned his attention solely back onto Jenny.
“Sure you do…” Karl growled.
“Vampires are always the patsy…” Bailey shrugged and watched as she grinned. It was slow, and it took a while to be devastatingly beautiful and very damn sexy, but he was more than willing to wait for it.
“Poor misunderstood sweetheart…” she teased back, playing up to his teasing…
“And that’s my cue to leave…” Karl grumbled.
“Well, thanks for playing the straight guy to my Mr Wonderful…” Bailey grinned at him and Karl scowled back at him, unsure.
He twisted his head and craned it forward on his neck towards the man…
“Was that a gay joke?” Karl growled.
“See, prejudiced…” Bailey tossed back at him, and Karl snapped his head back on his neck and growled long and hard…
“I’m not damn prejudiced…” he grumbled as he started away from the pair of them.
The sound of Jenny’s gentle laughter rang out in the air and seemed to follow him into the shop, and he grumbled all the way.
“I think we upset him,” Jenny said, and the vampire lifted a hand and wafted it in the air.
“Karl’s always like a bear with a sore head,” he offered back and heard the bear growl through the glass window.
“Again…” Karl bit down on his annoyance. “Now who’s profiling and prejudiced…?” he growled and the sound was only slightly muffled by the window.
“Truth hurts…” Bailey called back, before turning his attention back towards Jenny.
He folded his arms across his chest, and that hungry look was back in his eyes once more.
“Now, where were we?” He asked.
“I was leaving town and you were explaining why I couldn’t,” she said, with a quirk to her lips that he found himself drawn to.
“Like me to elaborate?” He asked and watched as she mulled that one over… “Over … a late breakfast?”
“I never turn down free food,” she offered back.
“We’re perfectly in synch because I never let a woman pay for anything…” he grinned. “Call me old fashioned.”
“How old … exactly?”
~
~
~
“What the hell?”
Karl growled out at the sight of the human female that was at the top of a very wobbly ladder; practically clinging onto the guttering of the cabin by her fingertips and for dear life.
He hit the brakes and swerved his pickup towards the fence of her property. He was out of the cab and jumping over the fence in a few heartbeats…
“What the hell are you doing?” He growled out as he made a mad dash towards her; while the ladder rocked and swayed beneath her feet…
“It moved.” She rushed out the explanation, and she sounded as scared as hell, and neither he nor his bear liked that sound. “I thought it was on stable ground when I started up…” Bonnie rushed out …
“Females…” He growled …
Bonnie felt a rush of annoyance, for herself, for him, and for the fact that she couldn’t answer that jibe from her lofty, but somewhat unstable position because like it or not she kind of needed his help.