Page 74 of Silent Stalker
“I didn’t know if you wanted to shop for dresses, and you seemed to enjoy the first dress I acquired, so I bought a few more. If you’d like to shop for your own dresses, I would be pleased to accompany you. But I thought I’d take the opportunity to prove how beautiful you can be without even a hint of makeup. I loathed your father for that, but then I understood his reasons why.”
“Wait, what? What reason why?”
“Did you not ever notice, Pepper? Your skin is preternaturally clear. How better to convince people—and you—that you are not preternaturally beautiful than to convince you that you must hide your face from the world? You are not ugly. I just didn’t realize what he was doing or why, and I allowed your perception of yourself to influence my perception of you. But with opened eyes, I see the truth. Your perfect skin, your clear eyes—everything about you is in the prime of your life. However much I abhor some of the consequences of his actions, what he has done for you is truly remarkable. And as I feel overwhelmed with guilt at my failure to understand the situation immediately, I wish to toss you in a dress I will regret due to my desire to remove it from your person.”
Poor Emerick. I understood the sense of being overwhelmed, and I could understand how my situation would bother him.
I could find comfort that behind the things I’d hated in my childhood, behind the fear I’d endured, I’d experienced one facet of my father’s love. The reasoning for my father’s actions went a long way towards helping me accept what I’d experienced.
I hadn’t done anything wrong.
“Conflicted much?” I teased, raising a brow at him. “I don’t mind wearing a pretty dress to secure my victory over you. Make no mistake, however. I will expect you to invest a great deal of effort convincing me I should permit you to peel me out of whatever tight dress I might be wearing.”
“Remind me why we’re doing this to ourselves again?”
I spent a few minutes thinking about it while Emerick got on the road and drove in the direction of the clothing store. “I think we agreed it had something to do with anticipation.”
“We may have been rash when agreeing this was a wise idea.”
“Maybe we were attempting to learn how to handle copious amounts of frustration?” I suggested, staring out the window in the slim chance we might stumble upon a hunting miscreant. The thought of rescuing someone while removing a rogue vampire appealed.
Alas, we made it the clothing store without any sign of a miscreant.
Emerick parked the car down the street from our destination, sighed, and said, “If we mutually agree this was a foolish idea, we emerge with our prides intact, right?”
“That seems fair and reasonable.”
“I will come up with something appropriate to evict everyone from the penthouse tomorrow, find a way to bar our bedroom door, and only emerge when we’re hungry for something other than each other,” he muttered.
“Can I claim victory anyway? I like winning, Emerick.”
Emerick got out of the car, leaned over to peer in at me, and said, “I think I can sacrifice enough of my pride to allow you to declare yourself the winner. After all, you get quite the prize. I am a prime specimen you get to claim as yours. That does make you quite the winner.”
I unbuckled my seatbelt, snickered, and escaped the Civic. “Eventually, you’ll also win. I need some therapy first.”
“I’ve also won even before you undergo therapy, and I will enjoy proving that this is the case. Might I recommend you select the little black dress for tonight’s visit with your mother? While it falls into the little black cocktail dress category, it is still quite tasteful.”
Emerick had picked out a little black dress? Once upon a time, I’d owned several little black dresses, although I’d rarely worn them. “Only if I don’t have to wear heels with them.”
“You may wear whatever shoe you want. In our home, you don’t even need to wear shoes at all. I do not recommend taking your shoes off on the street. You don’t know what dark things these sidewalks have seen.”
“You mean like me, thirsty and cranky, murdering miscreants for being terrible people and drinking them dry?”
“Well, not this specific street, although I do believe you’d cornered at least one miscreant around the next block.”
While we chatted, a disgruntled Ben parked nearby, got out of his car, and glared at us.
“What?” I asked.
“This is not the estate.”
I pointed at the clothing store. “I’m going to put on a little black dress before I see my mother tonight, and then tomorrow, I’m conquering the master of our brood. Nobody is invited to witness my conquering. I’ve accepted his surrender with the help of a promise of wearing a little black dress.”
“Okay. We do need to hurry, as your mother and Master Clarke are waiting at the penthouse. I’ve been informed they’re relaxing and enjoying some quiet time. I believe your mother was gifted with some new yarn, which has captured her attention. Master Clarke is reading a book.”
“We’ll take our time, then,” Emerick said, coming around the car to offer his arm. “An hour or so. My maker doesn’t get sufficient time to enjoy such peaceful pursuits, and my wife may wish to wear the little red dress rather than the little black one. There is also a rather lovely little purple dress. I may have indulged on my acquisition of little dresses.”
“Thank you for showing mercy on us all, Pepper,” Ben muttered. “As I value my life, I will accompany you, but I will do my best to ignore your flirtations.”
