The Black Dagger Brotherhood_ An Insider's Guide - J. R. Ward [166]
Erhm . . . yeah.
Great, now I’m blushing.
Jane curses, and I hear a box getting flipped open. I look up. It’s a first-aid kit, and after she finishes cleaning what seems like an enormous gash in Vishous’s thigh, she takes out a needle and black surgical thread and a syringe I’m thinking is full of lidocaine.
Okay, I’m so looking down again for this part. I love to watch medical shows on TV, but I always have to avoid the gory sections—and as this is happening right in front of me, it seems twelve times more vivid. Or maybe twelve hundred times more so.
I hear V hiss and Jane murmur something.
Crap. I have to watch. I glance up. Jane’s hands are very much solid, and she’s stitching up her man with quick precision, like she’s done this a million times. Vishous is staring at her, a dippy little smile on his face—
“It’s not dippy,” he cuts in. “I do not have a dippy little smile on my face.”
Funny, now that he’s in Jane’s presence, he’s softer all the way around. He’s not exactly nice to me, but I don’t wish I were wearing body armor anymore.
“It’s kind of dippy,” I say as Jane laughs. “But I mean, sure, it’s dippy in a very I’m-a-warrior-vampire-I-eat-lessers-for-lunch sort of way. You’re straight-up gangsta. No one’s going to mistake you for a lightweight.”
“Wise of them,” he says as he reaches up to Jane’s hair with his glowing hand. It’s kind of cool what happens. The instant the light of him hits any part of her she becomes solid, and the longer he touches her the greater the area becomes. If the two of them are cuddling on the couch—and yes, he does cuddle with her—she’ll become wholly solid and stay that way for a time afterward. His energy pulls her form together.
Which is kind of romantic.
Out in the hall I hear a door open and shut and footsteps coming toward us all. I know it’s Marissa because I can smell the ocean . . . and because I hear Butch start to growl with an erotic kind of welcome. Marissa pauses and pokes her head into V and Jane’s room. Her hair is cut now so it’s just down to her shoulder blades, and she’s wearing a very nice black Chanel suit that I wish were in my closet.
The four of us talk a little, but then Butch gets impatient and calls out for his female, and Marissa smiles and leaves. She’s taking off her jacket as she turns away. Probably because she knows her clothes aren’t going to be on for long.
“There,” Jane says as she snips the thread. “All better.”
“I have something else that needs attention, true?”
“Oh, really? Would that be the graze on your shoulder?”
“Nope.”
As V reaches for her hand, I clear my throat and make for the door. “Glad everyone’s okay. Maybe we can reschedule the interview. Yeah . . . um, take care. I’ll see you later. Have a good—”
I’m saying all these things because I’m feeling awkward. Like the intruder I am. Jane replies with some nice words as V starts to pull her down to him. I shut their door.
I walk down the hall and take a last look around the Pit’s living room. Change is good, I think. And not just because in this case there is less Frat and more Home to this place now. I like the change that’s happened, because those two guys are settled and happy and their lives are better because of who they ended up with. And Butch and Vishous are still together.
I step out into the September night and have to wrap my arms around myself. It’s cold in Caldwell; I’ve forgotten how upstate New York gets cold so early. I find myself hoping my rental car has heated seats.
I’m getting behind the wheel when the front door to the mansion opens and Fritz comes rushing out. He’s like Tattoo from Fantasy Island, holding my bag up while he runs, calling through the dark, “The purse! The purse!”
I get out of the sedan. “Thanks, Fritz, I would have forgotten.”
The doggen bows low and says in a heartbroken tone, “I’m so sorry. So very sorry. I couldn