Page 10 of Suck This

I, on the other hand, had been relieved.

I’d been in over my head with the man, and it was nice to have a reason to break it off without ruining his and my brother’s partnership.

That’s not to say that Bradford didn’t try to get me back at every turn.

It was sad, really, but I wasn’t giving in. Not this time, anyway.

I was glad to have him in my past—where he belonged.

“He’s got the stomach flu,” I told him. “He’s spent the entire afternoon throwing up, and only stopped long enough to call me and tell me he wouldn’t be coming in…” I trailed off as the valet helped Bradford’s date, his eighteen-year-old bride-to-be that was pregnant with his child.

The same one that was still the secretary at their law firm. The same one that thought she was the most supreme being on the planet for getting my man and keeping her job.

When in reality, the only reason she still had her job was because my brother couldn’t find anyone that was willing, or stupid enough, to do the job besides her.

See, not many people wanted to defend vampires, and in this day and age, when it was taboo to be around vampires, be friends with a vampire, or be genuinely nice to one, it was understandable why no one would want to work with someone that defended them.

Vampires weren’t all that bad.

They were a very new thing on this planet that was so set in their ways, and it was going to be a long time before everyone was entirely comfortable with something that wasn’t completely human being out in the open. Free to walk among them and have rights.

Rights that were very often taken advantage of… hence where my brother and Bradford came in.

I had to admit it, Bradford and my brother made a good team.

“Oh, God,” Bradford moaned. “I hope he didn’t pass that to me.”

I did.

“Have a nice night,” I muttered, skirting around the now very agitated that she was being ignored teenager who’d banged my man.

I waved Bradford off and walked up to the reception/whatever the fuck it was called, stand.

“Acadia…”

The man… vampire… waved me through. “Go ahead.”

Blinking at how fast I was let in when the person ahead of me had practically been strip searched, I stepped foot inside, and immediately came to a halt when I saw what awaited me.

The house had been beautiful on the outside, but the inside was magnificent.

Tall, arched ceilings with a massive chandelier that extended from the middle of the ceiling all the way down until about ten feet above our heads. The floor was what looked to be marble, and large marble pillars the same color as the floor extended from the floor all the way to the ceiling.

Each pillar was decorated with strands of Christmas lights in a perfect swirl from top to bottom.

And the decorations that hung from the ceilings made the entire place look like a winter wonderland.

Though, I had to wonder why that was when it was October.

Then I started to really look closely and realized that the decorations weren’t snowflakes like I’d thought, but mini jack-o’-lanterns that were shimmery and sparkly.

And then the lights turned from white to orange, and then from orange to green, and I smiled.

There was the fall look I was expecting!

Stepping past the threshold of the main entrance, I made a loop around the outside edges of the room, staying to the shadows like I normally did.

I didn’t much like being the center of attention, which was also a problem that I faced with Bradford.