“Crap,” Jess said suddenly.
“What?”
“My car. It’s parked at the hotel. I totally forgot.”
Sean backed off the accelerator. “Do you want me to take you there instead?”
“No... No, I’ll get it in the morning.”
“Sure?”
She nodded. “Positive.”
He thought about offering to pick her up in the morning, but after the argument about driving her home, he figured it was an offer extremely unlikely to be accepted, so he kept his mouth shut.
She shifted in the seat again, discomfort written all over her face.
“Are you okay?” he asked as she squirmed once more. He hadn’t hurt her somehow, had he? “You look like you have ants in your pants.”
“I, uh, couldn’t find my underwear.”
“Huh?” It took him a moment to realize what she’d said.
“I couldn’t find my underwear,” she said again.
He couldn’t help but laugh, even when she shot him a look designed to wither. “Is that why you’re twitching around over there?”
“It feels weird,” she said, not bothering to hide her annoyance.
“So you don’t make a habit of going commando, then?”
“No, I don’t. When you get back, turn the lights on and find my thong, okay? I don’t want Hailey and Rob coming back and finding it under a chair or something. I don’t even want to imagine Hailey trying to return them at work one day.” She shuddered.
“She wouldn’t know they were yours. Unless you write your name in your panties or something?”
Sean didn’t have to look to know that she was rolling her eyes at him. She seemed to like dismissing him like that.
“No. I imagine having you stay at their house means they’re fully expecting to have to go through it and remove discarded women’s underwear in every room before they unpack.”
Ouch. That one was designed to wound. And it did. Sean wasn’t sure why—it wasn’t too far from the truth. Hailey had been clear that if—when—Sean brought female company home while he was staying, he was only to use the spare bedroom he’d been assigned. Rob had later said that all Hailey was concerned about was Sean having sex in their bed and Sean hadn’t found it hard to promise that he wouldn’t do that. And he’d once again marveled at his brother’s ability to settle down with one woman for the rest of his life.
“Yeah, there’s bound to be piles of the stuff,” he said agreeably. It was pure instinct to respond to a hurtful barb with a quip.
Jess didn’t come back with the expected rejoinder. Instead she stiffened in her seat.
Sean pulled up to a stop at a red light and turned to look at her. Her mouth was a thin line.
“I was joking,” he said, beginning to feel annoyed. She was just like his family—just like everyone else—expecting the worst from him.
She folded her hands primly in her lap, facing forward. “Of course. The light’s green,” she added.
Sean took off. They were only moments from Jess’s home, according to her directions. If the traffic was bad, it could take up to twenty to thirty minutes to get there from Rob and Hailey’s. But at this time of night, it was going to be little more than ten. Probably for the best.
Two blocks later, he pulled up in front of a series of modern town houses, and Jess directed him down the driveway to the third one back from the street—perhaps anticipating that he wasn’t going to settle for anything less than seeing her right to her door.
“Here’s fine,” she said, her fingers already playing with the door handle.
“Jess, wait.”
She paused for a moment and turned her head to face him.
Sean cut the engine, noting the flare in her eyes as he did so. His annoyance faded. What was she so scared of?
“Don’t worry, I’m not coming in. I just didn’t want to disturb the neighbors.” Sean found Dezzie’s low rumble comforting, but he knew not everyone shared his fondness for the powerful engine, especially not in the dead of night.
“Oh, that’s...nice. Okay, well, thank—”
“Jess?” He cut her off. Sean had always been fascinated by human behavior and psychology. It was, according to his agent and publisher and various reviewers over the years, what made his books stand out from the rest. Yes, he might write about vampires and demons and all kinds of strange and wonderful creatures, but what made his books different was...the word they used was relatable. Although the world of Sebastian Douglas, Demon Warrior was make-believe, Sebastian, his assistant, Robert—a shout-out to his brother—and the people they encountered on their adventures were real. Well, as real as Sean could make them. And the situations they faced, although perhaps not everyday in reality, echoed some of the most common themes of life: hope, duty, loss, friendship, loyalty.
It was one of the qualities that made Sean so good at reading other people.
He wondered if Elvire, the vampire queen who not-so-secretly lusted after Sebastian, would behave the way Jess was right now, if Sean ever let Sebastian and Elvire do the deed. It was something his fans were very keen on—they were very fussy about who Sebastian was paired with and nothing provoked a storm of fan correspondence than a new love interest for his unexpectedly sex-symbol-status hero. Especially since double-agent Elvire had been hanging around since book two, waiting in the background for Sebastian to notice her. And not stake her. Well, not in that way, anyway.
“Hmm?” Jess said, feigning politeness. Sean could see her fingers already clutched around the door handle.
What did he want to say? As a writer, words were supposed to be his forte. Right now he was the superhero whose mortal enemy had flung his trusty weapon from his hands.
“Just...thanks,” he ended up saying lamely.
Her mouth curved almost imperceptibly in the echo of a smile. “Ditto.”
Then she was gone. The door creaked before she banged it shut—must get that fixed—and then in a flash of red from the exterior light hitting her dress, she was inside and hidden from sight.
A strange emptiness followed him home. And while Rob and Hailey’s place had always felt welcoming to him, as he reentered it he couldn’t shake a feeling of displacement.
Calling Suzie inside and pouring himself a glass of wine, Sean grabbed his laptop and threw himself on the sofa that just minutes before had held so much promise for the night ahead. It still smelled of her, of their lovemaking. Only now the body curled up beside his was furry, slightly stinky and already snoring. He opened his laptop. It was time to ramp up the sexual tension between Sebastian and Elvire. The fans were gonna love it—even if he was only teasing them. Happy endings didn’t exist in Sean’s world—not in fiction or in reality.
* * *
SEAN WOKE UP—still on the sofa—with a headache and dry mouth. He’d taken to the red wine a little too enthusiastically after driving Jess home. He’d also written an entire chapter—although he couldn’t help wondering how much of it he would end up keeping. His inebriated writing was often pure drivel, but occasionally it contained a nugget of pure gold—a gift from Bacchus.
Hmm, Bacchus. Sean let his scrambled morning thoughts meander. The god could be an awesome villain, causing havoc by making everyone party orgiastically until they died of exhaustion.