Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter Colletion_ Books 11-15 - Laurell K. Hamilton [664]
My pulse was suddenly in my throat. I fought to keep a blank face, but wasn’t sure I succeeded. How much had she read while she was playing inside my head? Did she know about the pregnancy scare?
Thea was watching me very narrowly. She saw the fear on me, but didn’t understand why. Which meant either she’d only read things about her sons in my head, or she didn’t understand why being pregnant would scare me. If the former, yea; if the latter, she was too odd for me to talk to.
I turned to Auggie and his angry girlfriend. She was the only woman on his side of the room. Standing in the spike heels she was over six feet tall. But whereas with Claudia it was all muscle, and menace, this woman was thin. There was no play of muscle to her arms and legs. She was making angry gestures with large hands, darkly painted nails, a diamond flashing on her right hand. Her dress was red with silver sequins. It fit her like a tiny, glittery second skin. The dress was so short that when she flounced around the couch, taking too long a step, she flashed enough flesh that I knew she wasn’t wearing anything under the dress. Oh, my.
Auggie coaxed her back to me. Her face was perfect in a high-cheekboned, almost stark way. She wore enough makeup, artfully applied, that stark should not have been a word you used for her face. Her hair was long, and teased too high on the top, as if she’d never quite left the eighties, but it was brunette. It might even have been her natural color. The spaghetti straps of her dress and the thin material should not have been able to support her breasts. Breasts that large do not stay perky without more help than the dress could give. Her breasts sat under the dress in a way that real breasts just don’t. She flounced toward me, holding Auggie’s hand. The walk was good, bouncy, but her breasts didn’t bounce with her. They were big, and even shapely, but they rode under her dress like they were way more solid than breasts are meant to be.
It took Micah tugging on my hand to let me know I’d missed something, staring at her chest. I shook my head and gave Auggie eye contact. “Sorry, what did you say?”
“This is Bunny; she is my mistress.”
Bunny. I thought, was it her real name? I hoped so—who would choose to be Bunny? I nodded. “Hi, Bunny.”
Auggie gave her a little pull, and a nod.
She gave an angry sullen face to me. “At least I’m only whoring for one man, not a dozen.”
Micah actually pulled me away from her. I let him do it. I was so astounded at the rudeness of it that I was speechless. I wasn’t even angry yet; it was too unexpected. Too rude.
Auggie ordered her to kneel, and when she didn’t do it fast enough, he forced her. “Apologize, now!” His power filled the room like cold water, shivering along my skin.
“Why am I a whore, when his wife is pimping out her own sons, and this one is fucking everything and everyone that will stand still?”
“Benny,” he said in a very quiet voice. I knew that tone of voice. It’s the careful, controlled one you use when you’re afraid of what you’ll do if you yell.
The only vampire he’d brought with him moved around the couch to stand beside him. “Yeah, boss.”
“Take her out of here. Get on a plane, take her back to Chicago, help her pack. Make sure she takes only what belongs to her.”
Bunny’s eyes went wide. “No, Auggie, no, I didn’t mean it. I’m sorry.”
He moved away, so she couldn’t touch him. She tried to crawl after him, but Benny grabbed her arm. “Come on, Bunny, we gotta plane to catch.”
She was human, and in five-inch heels, but she put up a fight. Benny was having trouble getting her to the door without hurting her. She’d proven to the entire room that she was naked under the tiny dress.
I said, “Claudia.”
She came to me, all serious, the bodyguard’s bodyguard. “Pick someone, or two someones, to help Benny get her out of here.”
Claudia nodded, almost