Page 75 of Silent Stalker
“You’re loved, Emerick. Your entire brood suffers from anxiety if you leave without an entire entourage.”
Ben raised a brow. “Why do you think it’s him we’re determined to protect? If anything happens to you, Emerick will be painting the city with blood.”
I link my arm with Emerick’s, and I grinned at the thought of him going on a rampage. “You’re going to have to contain yourself. If I can contain myself, you can surely contain yourself.”
“I will not be containing myself if you pick the little red or the little purple dress. Well, I will restrain myself until tomorrow night, but all bets are off for tomorrow night if you wear one of those dresses.”
“I see we’ll have to take all three of those dresses home to see which one is the most effective. I’ll do my best to avoid completely derailing him until tomorrow night, Ben.”
“And I will make certain everyone knows their lives are in danger should they interrupt you without it being a true emergency.” With a shake of his head, Ben went ahead of us in the direction of the clothing store.
“I think he thinks we’re being ridiculous,” I whispered to Emerick.
“We are being ridiculous, Pepper. I see no reason to be ashamed of this. But we should hurry, especially if you want to try on numerous dresses. Let’s not worry your mother more than necessary. I suspect she—and my maker—have a somewhat different view of the situation than we do.”
Of that I had no doubt.
Emerick must have somehow founda moment to warn the shop employees we were coming and that we had a time limit, as the second I stepped foot through the door, they pounced. With an efficiency I couldn’t help but admire, they tossed me into a collection of different dresses, blouses, skirts, slacks, jeans, and jackets. Almost everything fit, except for several of the pesky jackets.
Of the jackets, I clung to a black leather one, refusing to let it out of my grasp until they promised it wouldn’t be carted off to some unknown fate.
Emerick reached for my jacket. “I’ll hold it for you since you like it that much.”
I considered fighting him on it, but after a brief struggle, a bemused Emerick stole my prize and draped it over his arm.
The store employees shooed him out of the dressing area. After a brief discussion with them, we settled on a dark red floor length dress with lacing and a slit fringing on scandalous as my chosen weapon of war. While the dress did a damned good job of covering me without the need for modesty panels, it excelled at hinting at my curves and drawing attention.
Emerick’s eyes narrowed, and he looked me over.
“You better like the dress, as there was a lot of wiggling involved to get into it. I expect there will be a lot of wiggling involved to get out of it.” I smirked at him and went to the counter to retrieve my new stake along with the others I’d brought in case of trouble. As I doubted we’d run into trouble on the way back to the car, I tucked them under my arm. “Okay. I’m ready to go.”
“I’ve already handled everything else, including taking the clothes to the car. Ben has some of it, as everything wouldn’t fit in ours.” Emerick turned to the store employees and dipped into a bow. “Thank you, ladies. She’s absolutely radiant.”
I escaped the store before anyone else could say nice things about me. Ben waited outside, and he chuckled. “You look like you swallowed a frog.”
“He’s saying nice things about my appearance, and it doesn’t involve me wearing layers of makeup to hide my actual face. He could at least aim his compliments at the dress.”
“As it is you making the dress beautiful, I’m afraid you’re going to have to learn to cope with his admiration.”
“Emerick, Ben’s saying nice things about me,” I tattled.
“As he should.”
Damn. “I thought vampires were supposed to be possessive and grouchy when other vampires edged in on their turf.”
“He’s not edging in on my turf. He’s telling the truth.” Emerick stepped out of the store, hauling two large bags with him. “He is also giving you solid advice. You will simply have to learn to cope with my admiration, as it is you that makes that dress beautiful. I hoped you would like the dress because it is lovely, but I would not have selected that dress for Salania, for example. She would look like a lobster or horrifically sunburned. The dress would not be beautiful on her because she does not wear that color well. Fortunately, she isn’t fond of wearing that color. As you dislike clothing shopping, I decided I will do something I enjoy for purely selfish reasons, dressing you in clothing I find appealing.”
“Your taste is clothing is surprisingly modern,” I said, and as I refused to be someone who couldn’t handle carrying her own things, I shuffled my stakes to one arm and grabbed for one of the bags.
Emerick dodged, clucked his tongue at me, and headed for the Civic. “If you had wanted to carry them, you could have grabbed them in the store. These are surprises, and I will not let you take this sweet victory from me.”
“More presents? What am I going to do with so many presents? I haven’t gotten you any presents yet. This is not a balanced present arrangement. I haven’t even finished opening the presents I’ve already gotten.”
Ben snickered. “I’ll help you with looking for presents in a few evenings, once it is safe to come into the penthouse.”
“Thank you, Ben.”
“Of course. Do try to release him from your clutches after a few nights. The rest of the brood will surely become concerned for his safety within a week.”
