“Do you trust what they said?” Pearl asked softly so she didn’t wake the troubled Vamp.
“Yes,” I whispered, still running my hands through Ezra’s hair. “Their answers were truth.”
Jack eyed me, having stayed quiet the longest. “What aren’t you telling us?” He slanted his head toward Ezra. “That was something else entirely.”
Resting my cheek against the top of his head, I inhaled his scent heavily. I wasn’t going to lie to them, and at the same time, I hadn’t told them initially because I wasn’t sure how they would handle it. But Jack had figured out something was askew. “I asked him to be exclusive. To have a real relationship.” Their expressions carefully stayed the same, not giving me much to go on. “He said he had already been thinking about it,” I rubbed my cheek against Ezra’s head, “This is him not hiding his emotions.”
Jack ran a hand through his hair. “I can’t say I didn’t see this coming.” He stared at the bedroom door. “But why did he fly in here the first time, pissed the f**k off, go immediately to the shower, only to come out in a mildly better mood?”
My lips pinched. “We have…a little issue…with jealousy and I told him we weren’t doing anything…intimate…until we figured out what we’re going to do relationship-wise.”
Jack’s lips twitched. “That explains the shower.”
Pearl cocked her head. “You sure about what you’re asking for?”
I sighed. “We’re practically already doing it. I just want it agreed on.” I wanted him to be mine.
Golden eyebrows rose. “I think you know what I’m talking about.” She gestured around the room. “I’ve never seen him like that before. When he first came in, he was floating.”
Ah. “Like I said, we’ll have a little issue of jealousy to work out in the beginning.”
Both gave me a look.
My eyes narrowed. “Okay, a big one, but that doesn’t mean I don’t stand by what I want.” I paused, and gradually began to grin, staring at Jack. His expression became instantly wary, so I asked sweetly, “Jack, can you help me with something?”
“What?”
I plucked at my shirt. “I need a man’s opinion on what’s,” I imitated Ezra’s deep voice, “sexy and seductive.” I rolled my eyes. “He pretty much said my clothes suck.”
Jack gurgled, and quickly cleared his throat. “I could probably help you with that.”
My smile grew. “Perfect.”
Sometimes things work out perfectly.
Right after Ezra left for kitchen detail the next morning, Elder Merrick called the room to tell me he had a meeting to attend and wouldn’t be available for our training session. So I had jumped on the private time and tried to wake Jack up, ready to have him help me with my clothes dilemma. He had groused unintelligibly for a few minutes while I tried to wake him, but had woken fully when I dragged his ass out of bed where he had been snuggled up, all nice and warm next to Pearl. He hadn’t much appreciated hitting the cold floor.
But we had gotten to work…sort of.
“What about this one?” I asked, holding up a pair of jeans almost identical to what Ezra wore yesterday, only girl-style, and a strapless silver shirt. “I really like it.”
Jack pounded his head against the wall. Literally. We had been at this for a half-hour. He, I was finding out, was like any other man I saw in department stores being dragged around by a woman. The look of pain was barely masked.
The only difference between him and the other men I had observed was he didn’t lie to hurry me. He kept vetoing every outfit I pulled out of my closet, in effect making this process much longer than it should have taken.
I shook the garments. “Ezra wears pants just like these!”
“Ezra’s a guy!” Jack sighed, grabbing the jeans from my hands. “Jeans can, at times, be sexy on a woman, but they’re always hot on a man.” Frustrated, he tossed the jeans onto the pile in the closet. “You don’t want at times. You want always.”
I chucked the shirt, enjoying the thud it made against the wall. “He said not to take it offensively, but how can I not!” I cracked my neck. “I like my damn clothes.”
Gently, Jack’s eyes closed, and he rubbed his temples. “He’s a full-blooded Vampire. He has different interests to you.” Brown eyes slowly reappeared, and he stared. “At least he was honest and man enough to tell you the truth of what he wants.” His gaze hit the pile of clothes on the floor.
I blinked, thinking I was missing something. “Jack, you doing okay?” He had been acting much better these past few weeks, so I had assumed he was, but now, I wasn’t so sure.
He rubbed his chin and sighed. “Yeah, I’m fine.” After another sigh, he looked at me. “I’m sure he won’t care if you wear your own clothes most of the time, he just wants to see you dress for him every once in a while.”
I watched him for another moment, gauging his honesty. I had sniffed the air, and he hadn’t lied, but he hadn’t told the truth, either. His scent was somewhere in the middle.
When it didn’t look like he was going to elaborate any, I grumbled, “Just tell me what guys like.”
He rested against the wall. “If you’re going for the f**k factor, you need a dress. Extremely short and showing lots of cle**age. But nothing too gaudy, so you can wear it anywhere.” His eyes skimmed me from head to toe, not sensually, his regard purely analytical. “Black. Or red, like the color of your hair.” A pause. “Vamps like hooded robes, so possibly add that for effect.”
I snorted. “I’m not wearing a damn hooded robe like his.” I tapped my chin, thinking this through. “But maybe I could come up with something a little Shifter-Vampire.”
Chapter Sixteen
Cursing my bad luck, I hurried through the maze of hallways for the noon meeting. King Kincaid had caught me as I had been heading outside for a private run in my wolf form to fully use my free time, informing me that my presence would be required for the gathering. All of the Prodigies were requested to be there. Not in the realm of normal, I had hurried my run, but I hadn’t been quick enough. A damn critter had chewed on my heels, wrecking them beyond repair.
I still wore my new outfit. Even shoeless. Oddly, I actually preferred it, but Jack had said the heels were sexy as hell. And now I didn’t have them.