“You went out with Lucas Blackmoore?”
“Yeah.” Beth took a sip of her tea.
“Where’d he take you?”
“We went to the most expensive restaurant I’ve ever been in. There weren’t even prices next to the food, no kidding. I only found out how much everything cost because I got a peek at the bill before we left.”
“I take it you aren’t distraught because Lucas Blackmoore ran after you at one of his concerts. Or because he took you to his house, kissed you, and then took you out on a nice date.”
Beth smiled, it was a small one, but Felicity would take what she could get. “Nope, that was the good stuff. A few days after the impromptu kiss, I received a letter in the mail with a single ticket, upper balcony seats near the stage for one of his concerts. Not only that, they came with a VIP backstage pass.”
Felicity heard an ache in Beth’s voice as if talking about this hurt. Felicity didn’t know what the problem was yet, but she’d make sure Lucas Blackmoore paid for what he did to her friend.
“So what happened?” Felicity found her hands interlacing in a fierce grip as waited for the bad news. Something had hurt her friend terribly to make her abandon her love for LBB. A love she’d carried for years.
Beth threw back the last of her tea then slammed the teacup onto the coffee table in one violent clatter. The porcelain clanged against the spoon and Felicity waited to see it break, but it didn’t. Beth stood and paced. Her right knee sagged lower with each step she took and Felicity knew it must hurt to walk on, but she never stopped.
“So, I slowly make my way downstairs toward the back of the theater after the concert. I’m nervous, right? I’m there alone and I have a backstage pass. The concert’s packed so it’s slow moving, but I finally get there, flash my VIP pass to some burly man, and get let through a series of rooms,” she paused and dragged in a deep breath. When she leveled her eyes on Felicity they were raw, not with pain, but anger. “You wanna know how I found him?”
Not really. Wherever this was going had to be bad, bad, for Beth to give up her obsession over Lucas Blackmoore. “What’d you see, honey?”
In her mind, Felicity conjured up horrible images of a vampire orgy. Some still had them, but usually in private by the wealthy. A mixture of humans, weres, and vampires would get together to have sex while sharing each other’s blood and bodies in the most intimate way vampires could. Some orgies were rumored to go on for days.
“I walked in there and froze. He was completely naked. Some woman was sucking his cock like it was her job, and another was draped over him. He was kissing her like he was trying to swallow her tongue. The girls were butt-ass naked. That’s what I walked in on.”
Felicity’s stomach plummeted. What Beth described was not quite a vampire orgy but close. “Oh, Beth I’m so sorry. I had no idea he was like that.”
Beth grunted, her strong legs pacing and with each step, her bad leg wobbled. “What’s worse, what’s actually worse, Fel, is that he looks up at me, right? He sees me standing there like a damned idiot and he looks all surprised to me. He invited me there! Then he throws the girls off him and starts coming after me. I bolted the fuck out of there.”
“Did he catch up with you?”
“He tried to, but I went through the theater so all the other fans saw him wearing nothing. They surrounded him like a pack of rabid animals. I was just so mad, so hurt. It felt like he betrayed me. I know it’s stupid but it did. Before I left, I looked him in the eyes over the hundreds of faces surrounding him and told him I hated him. I know he heard me because his jaw clenched like he was pissed. He ain’t got anything to be pissed about. That was the last I’ve seen of him. The last I want to see.”
Felicity let out a low whistle as her eyes searched Beth’s empty looking house again. “I take it you’re off the LBB bandwagon then, for sure?”
Beth sat down and her shoulders sagged. Her hands covered her face as she shook her head. “Yeah, I’m done. He played me or was trying to play me. I’m glad I saw what I saw, Fel, because if I hadn’t then I might have gotten hurt. Hurt bad. I don’t want a man who needs dozens of other women in his life to please him. I want a man who needs just me. For a few dumb days there, I thought maybe it’d be him.”
Felicity didn’t voice her concern that he’d already managed to hurt her pretty badly or that she’d held on to the thought of him being the “one” for years, not days. “What a dick,” Felicity said.
Beth snorted then snorted again until she slowly started to laugh. Smiling, Felicity sat next to her friend. She wrapped an arm around her shoulders and hugged her.
“I’m sorry, Beth. Seriously, what an asshole. I’m glad you found out early on.”
“Yeah, me too,” Beth said, her voice hollow. “Well, you said you wanted to go out. Let’s go out. I’m putting him behind me, for real.”
Nodding, Felicity looked down at her skirt and heels. She’d dressed up tonight because she and Beth were going to a club for some much needed girl time. That was before things had taken an unexpected turn. Now she felt a tight soreness between her legs where Dominic had taken her. She’d never be able to look at this skirt again and not think of him. She’d have to burn it.
Beth grabbed a cream leather jacket and pulled on some sexy calf-high boots with buckles over the top of the foot. Midnight Smoke was their club of choice. It had a good atmosphere with people around Beth’s age, which worked out perfectly for Felicity too. Since vampires aged slowly she still looked like she was in her early twenties.
However, when Beth opened the door to leave, a large, irritated male blocked their way. His dark eyes blazed with anger and he trained them right on Felicity.
Felicity unfroze herself from shock. Surprise gripped her, making her voice a shout. “What are you doing here? Did you follow me?”
Beth wisely stepped out of the way so Felicity could march up to Dominic Blackmoore. A man whose car she had “borrowed” to get away from him, but she’d wisely left in a block down the street and had walked to Beth’s. The arrogant bastard lifted his chin a notch. As if to say, what of it, babe?
“As soon as possible I did, yes.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re mine and tonight that became official.”
Mortification reddened her cheeks. “As if I need to be reminded in front of my friend of what we, I mean you, did tonight.”
He shook his head. “No, I mean after that. I’m no longer mating with Julianna Greenwich.”
Beth sucked in a breath making both Felicity and Dom send her a sharp look. Beth threw her hands up and slowly backed away. “This sounds private. I’ll just be...in the bedroom.”
After the bedroom door closed, Felicity realized she should have made Beth stay. As soon as the bedroom door closed he was in her space, wrapping his arms around her and bringing his mouth down to hers. Luckily her senses came back rather fast and she broke the kiss.
“Remember the part where I said I hate you.”
He lifted his head enough to grin, just one corner of his mouth lifting in that sexy way. “I remember that. I also remember telling you I love you. That negates your hate.”
Her heart stuttered like a jackhammer in her chest. “I don’t think that’s how it works.”
Suddenly, he turned very serious. His eyes grew hard, lips flattened and even his arms tightened around her. “Love conquers all.”
Oh god. He just said that. She couldn’t help it. She burst out laughing, and when his low, slow laughter met hers, something melted inside her.