Page 3 of Love Lives

"No."

The lady leaned forward a bit, folding her arms in front of her chest in a way that squeezed her breasts together, creating a nice cleavage. "Are you sure?"

I laughed, and then I coughed. Goddamn smoke inhalation. My lungs were going to take a while to recover from that.

"Everything okay?" Aldrich asked.

"Fine," I managed to get out. "Just don't make me laugh."

"I wasn't trying." He changed his appearance again, to a brunette woman who looked a bit more demure than his usual go-to. "Is this more appropriate?"

"Just... stop."

"Trying to guess your type." He leaned back. "You're not making it easy."

"Really, just..." I trailed off, unsure what to say. I'd told him before that I didn't have a type. It wasn't my fault that he didn't believe me. I didn’t care what people looked like. I never had. There was probably something wrong with my wiring somewhere that made it so I never found anyone attractive. If there was a fix, though, I’d never gone looking for it. I was fine this way. And I was never going to go for Aldrich. Not when it was so ridiculously easy to see that he only wanted one thing. I’d told him this too, but he just kept trying anyway. He was tenacious, I had to give him that.

Seriously, who spent days sitting by someone’s hospital bed just to get laid?

"So do you like bigger boobs or smaller boobs?” Aldrich asked. “I'm not gonna judge either way." Even as he spoke, his--or her?--breasts shrank, then grew bigger again. I had to look away to stop from laughing again, the sight just too ridiculous.

"You really don't have anywhere else to be?"

Aldrich fell back in his chair. "You hurt me." Snapping his fingers again, he turned back into the man I'd gotten to know him as. Minus the red hair. That remained brown. On him, the natural coloring somehow looked louder than the red ever had.

"You got tired of being a ginger?" I asked.

The vampire shot me a questioning look, then pinched a lock of his hair between his fingertips. "Ah shit. Looks like I'm running out of juice."

"So that's your natural color?"

"Maybe." His lips twitched. "You wanna know if the carpet matches the drapes?"

"Not particularly." It was a stupid line, but for some reason, I couldn't help but smile anyway. Aldrich just had that effect on me. His brand of silliness got to me far more often than I liked to admit.

"One day I'll win you over, armadillo," he said, the smile on his lips widening when he saw mine.

Ordinarily, I would have tried to force the corners of my lips back down, but it just didn't seem worth the effort. "Your nicknames get weirder every time."

"I think I'll stick to this one. It suits you."

"Whatever." I studied his brown hair, his pale skin. "You really need to get some blood into you."

Aldrich's gaze wandered to the window. "I hate it when you're right."

"Go. I can entertain myself."

He hesitated, then plastered on a smile and rose from his chair. "If you say so."

I faked a yawn. "Think I'll just sleep."

"Probably a good idea." He strode over to the door, then stopped. "You'd better not let anyone kill you while I'm gone."

"Not part of my plan."

"Let's keep it that way." With that, he stepped through the door into the hallway. For the first time since I'd been admitted to this place, I was by myself.

Exhaling, I sank back into my pillow, staring at the ceiling. The room felt strangely empty with just me in it. But this was better. I was a grown-ass man and I could handle being by myself. I definitely didn’t need the company of a preternatural killer who wanted nothing more than to get into my pants.