FOURTEEN
Lord and Lady James Jameson XXIII
and Mrs. Edwina Fitzwilliam
Do Hereby Request the Honor of Your Presence at the Wedding of Their Children
miss esmeralda jameson
and
mr. frederick j. fitzwilliam
~ Date and Time to Be Determined ~
The Ballroom, Castle Jameson
New York, New York
Light refreshments and bloodletting will be provided
~ The couple is registered at Crate & Feral ~
“Answer me this,” I said, staring at Frederick. “For someone who claims to be clueless about modern society, how did you pick up on how to dress so well from one measly little trip to Nordstrom?”
Frederick seemed genuinely surprised by my comment. “Do I know how to dress well?”
I huffed a laugh. If I didn’t know better, I’d have accused him of false modesty. He was wearing dark blue jeans and a light blue button-down over which he’d pulled a deep burgundy sweater—none of which we’d purchased at the mall the previous week.
Even if I hadn’t kissed him the other night—for science and comparison purposes, of course—it would have been all I could do to keep my hands off him. I was almost afraid to take him to Sam’s party looking like this. I didn’t know Sam’s or Scott’s friends well enough to know how they might respond to Frederick walking into this party like the world’s most oblivious sex on a stick.
“You do know how to dress well,” I confirmed. “You look like you just walked out of a J. Crew photo shoot.”
He raised an eyebrow at me. “What is a J. Crew photo shoot?”
I waved my hands. “You know what I mean. How could you possibly not know exactly what you’re doing, dressing like that?”
He paused, considering my question.
“Maybe when a person turns into a vampire, they acquire an encyclopedic and instantly updated understanding of how best to dress for purposes of blending into modern society and attracting victims.” He gestured to himself, giving me a broad, dazzling smile. His eyes twinkled with amusement. “What you see before you is the result of millennia of vampiric genetic evolution, Cassie. Nothing more.”
I raised a skeptical eyebrow at him and folded my arms across my chest. “Spare me,” I said, though I was on the verge of laughing. “There is no such thing as vampire osmosis or I wouldn’t be here. And we didn’t buy you those clothes at the mall.”
He gave me another smile, more bashful this time. “Fine, fine. You’ve got me.” He pointed at the television. “I’ve been watching subtitled Korean dramas on Netflix.”
A pause. “Korean dramas?”
“Yes,” he confirmed. “Did you know that about a decade ago, South Korea’s government began investing massive sums in its entertainment industry? It’s an entertainment powerhouse now. It has made a science of dressing its actors and actresses attractively. Between our trip to the mall and Crash Landing on You, I’ve learned an incredible amount.”
I hadn’t seen any Korean television before. But if Frederick had learned how to dress by watching it, I wasn’t about to complain.
“Crash Landing on You?” I asked. “Is it good?”
“If vampires were capable of producing tears I would have cried my eyes out.” Then he glanced at his new wristwatch—something else we definitely didn’t buy together. He’d gotten alarmingly good at online shopping—especially for someone who’d originally been so dead set against connecting to the internet. “It’s time for us to leave for your friend’s party. Shall we go?”
I nodded and grabbed my purse, trying hard to tamp down the irrational wave of possessiveness that suddenly came over me at the idea of sharing Frederick for an evening with Sam and his friends.
“Oh, before I forget—I want to reassure you that I have given some thought to possible conversation topics for this evening.”
“Oh?” This was good news. I’d hoped tonight would be an opportunity for him to practice interacting with people in a relaxed setting. If he’d thought things through a bit, so much the better.
“Yes. I spent four hours on the internet after you went to sleep last night, researching topics of most interest to people between the ages of twenty-five and thirty-five. I noted my findings on a scrap of paper.” He patted the front pocket of his jeans nodding proudly. “I am bringing the list with me in case there is time on the train for me to study before we arrive.”
My stomach sank. I’d wanted him to have enough familiarity with current events that he would be able to vaguely follow conversation. Maybe even make a casual reference to current music, or skyrocketing rents in the city, or the slow, inexorable decline of capitalistic society. If one of those topics happened to come up, of course.
But it sounded like he’d sat up all night on Wikipedia. That hadn’t been my intent at all.
“You didn’t actually need to memorize anything,” I said. “Or really study anything at all.”
His smile slipped. “Oh.”
“I’m sure it’ll be fine,” I said quickly, hoping I sounded more certain of that than I felt. In truth, I was suddenly very concerned Frederick was about to become an in-the-flesh embodiment of the How do you do, fellow kids? meme. “Always better to be overprepared than underprepared, right?”
He straightened a little at that. “True.”
Worst-case scenario, I told myself as we made our way down the stairs, Sam and Scott would just become further convinced I was living with a weirdo.
It was immediately obvious that I was not the only one who thought Frederick looked good that night.
Or, at least, it was immediately obvious to me. Frederick, on the other hand, seemed completely unaware of the effect he had on the people we passed on the street. His eyes seemed to be everywhere all at once as we walked through the frigid late-autumn evening towards the El, studying our surroundings like he expected to be quizzed on everything later—but the appreciative once-overs and open-mouthed stares he earned from passersby went right over his head.
“Is this how you get to work every day?” His voice was full of wonder as we descended into the underground El station. Frederick seemed to be the only person not bundled up like a shapeless potato against the cold. It hadn’t occurred to me before now that he didn’t get cold the way humans did, though in hindsight it probably should have. Either way, the lack of extensive bundling up only enhanced his attractiveness. A group of young women making their way up the stairs stopped mid-conversation and turned to watch him as he and I approached the ticket vestibule.
“Sometimes I take the El to the library, yeah,” I said, clenching my jaw a little and fighting against a wave of irrational jealousy. Everyone was right to think Frederick was hot, of course. I had no business being jealous. I had no claim on him. “Other times I take the bus.”
When we got to the crowded platform, Frederick stared anxiously up at the sign flashing the names and wait times of the different trains that were due to come through the station.
“You really haven’t taken the El before? Or a bus?” I knew he hadn’t, but I still couldn’t fathom someone living in Chicago for any length of time without at least occasionally taking public transportation.
“Never.” His eyes widened when the flashing 4 minutes by the name of the northbound Red Line train changed to 3 minutes. “I haven’t been on any kind of train in over one hundred years and . . . well. It worked differently back then.”
“How do you get around, then?”
He gave a one-shoulder shrug, eyes still on the sign. “I get around in a few different ways. Vampires can run very fast, you know. Also, if necessary, vampires can fly.”
Frederick could freaking fly? That was news to me. I glared at him and said, “You told me you wouldn’t hide anything important anymore.”
“I didn’t think knowing how I got around Chicago was important.” A corner of his mouth ticked up. “I am also joking about being able to fly.”
I rolled my eyes. “Joking, Frederick? Twice in one evening?”
His eyes twinkled with amusement. “Well. Partially joking.”
I was about to ask what that meant when our train surged into the platform. Everyone except Frederick instinctively stepped back from the platform’s edge as it hurtled into view. I grabbed him by the arm to get him to step away.
The feel of his biceps beneath my fingertips triggered my body’s memory.
It was the first time we had touched since we’d kissed in the kitchen two nights ago. His strong arms pulling me impossibly close. His lips, soft and pliant, brushing against my own.
I shook my head. Now was not the time to dwell on something we hadn’t even talked about since it happened. We were about to get on the Red Line at rush hour—a stressful endeavor even if it wasn’t your first time on public transportation. And Frederick was counting on me to guide him through it.
“This is an assault on the senses, Cassie,” Frederick said, shouting to be heard over the din of the station and the whoosh of the approaching train.
“You’re not wrong about that,” I shouted back. Sam’s party started at seven, and the platform was packed with people—some heading home from work, some on their way to a Cubs game (if the sheer volume of Cubs hats and jerseys people were wearing were any indication), and still others who, like us, were simply going out on a Friday night.
The noise and the crowds that went along with riding the El at rush hour on a Friday were a lot to handle, even for someone who did this almost every day. In hindsight, I probably should have introduced Frederick to public transportation at a saner hour. But he wanted to learn about life in the twenty-first century. Might as well throw him into the deep end of the pool.
The train cars opened with a loud ding-dong sound. I kept my hold on Frederick’s arm, wordlessly signaling him to wait until everyone who wanted to get off had left the train.
“One small step for vampire, one giant leap for vampire-kind,” I murmured into his ear as we stepped aboard, pleased at my little joke. But his forehead creased in confusion. He looked like he was about to ask what that meant when a loud group of guys in Cubs jerseys shoved past us from behind and muscled aboard the train.
“Oh!”
Frederick’s hands flew up to grip my arms, steadying me as I nearly toppled to the floor. The train lurched forward a moment later—and while usually I prided myself on my ability to ride public transportation without losing my balance, the suddenness of Frederick’s fingertips digging into my upper arms caught me completely by surprise.
I quickly regained my footing, averting my eyes as a warm flush crept up the back of my neck. I tried not to think about how close he was but pretty much totally failed. He relaxed his grip a little once it became clear I wasn’t going to fall, but even though I was clearly totally fine now, he seemed not to know what to do with his hands once he’d put them on my body.
Which just made things that much more awkward when the train jerked unexpectedly, one of the Cubs fans stumbled into me from behind, and I fell directly into Frederick.
“Shit!” My exclamation was muffled by his broad chest. His burgundy sweater was so soft it might as well have been made of angel kisses. I breathed in, deep and reflexively, and then immediately wished I hadn’t because, god, he smelled good.
Beyond good.
I had no idea if it was some sort of expensive cologne, or the soap he used—or if all vampires smelled this amazing if you breathed them in right at the source. All I knew was that the scent of him made me want to crawl inside his soft, fitted shirt and wrap myself up in it. Right there, on the crowded Red Line train, all the other passengers be damned.
“Cassie?” Frederick’s voice rumbled in his chest. “Are . . . are you okay?”
He sounded concerned but made no move to disentangle himself from me. Not that he could have; the wall of the train was at his back and we were packed in there like sardines. However, he could have at least tried to put some space between us.
But he didn’t.
Instead, he slowly slid his hands from where they still rested on my shoulders down to the small of my back, enveloping me in his arms in the process.
He pulled me closer.
“It isn’t safe in here,” he murmured, his breath fanning cool and sweet across the top of my head. “I will hold on to you. For your own protection, I mean. Just until we reach our destination.”
What he was saying was just an excuse to keep holding me. I knew that. But I didn’t care. I shivered, tucking myself closer to him before I could remind myself that cuddling in public with one’s vampire roommate was probably not a smart idea. But his body just felt so delicious against mine. Despite the chill he radiated, I felt nothing but heat suffusing me, excitement racing down my spine as he pulled me closer and rested his cheek against the top of my head.
The rest of the train ride simultaneously took far too long, and by passed in an instant.