Page 4 of A Little Red
Scarlet swallowed hard, willing herself to speak up, say something, do anything.
Run.
Episode 3
Dancing
Scarlet
“Just one drink. Your date won’t mind.”
The words hung in the air, waiting for a response. Scarlet knew that she’d better give one because his hand was already reaching out to take possession of her wrist. He was dressed in a black suit of some slick-looking material over a black silk shirt. His hand against the black cuff of the suit was unnaturally pale and her guts squirmed at the idea of those cold fingers touching her skin.
“Yes, I will,” said Liam. The man in front of her jumped, startled by Liam’s words. He swung around to face Liam only to find that Liam was far closer than expected. Liam must have used the music to cover his approach because Scarlet hadn’t heard him either.
The vampire made an odd jerking motion as if expecting Liam to make room, but the only move Liam made was to raise his eyebrows. The man had to edge off to one side to get out from between Scarlet and Liam. The maneuver was awkward and Scarlet tried not to smirk in amusement. Suddenly the vampire wasn’t nearly as frightening as he had been a moment ago.
“This one’s mine,” said Liam.
“So close-minded,” said one of the others at the table. They were all wearing various shades of black, like the first rule of vampire club was always wear slimming / threatening colors. Only the one who had spoken had been bold enough to wear something as garish as a color—a ruby red tie. She compared the entire table’s ensembles to Liam’s navy suit and found them wanting. Liam looked like he could tie all of them in knots. Did vampires only turn anorexic male models?
The first man glanced over at the table and Scarlet flashed back to every encounter with every high-school bully ever. This one was so clearly currying favor with the others, puffing up to impress. Scarlet frowned. She hadn’t had any patience with bullies in high-school and she didn’t have any now. She couldn’t believe she’d let herself be swayed for one single moment by that jackass. She pulled herself up straight and prepared to deliver a piece of her mind.
“He’s right,” said the first man, trying to recover some of his bravado, inching forward and running a soft hand down Liam’s arm. Scarlet’s mouth swung open a little. She was fine with gay people. In the greater scheme of things to worry about, she could never understand why people worried about sexual orientation. But this was not gay, this was…
“Youbothcould have fun with us.”
Sex as a weapon.
She looked at Liam. Was this going to be a thing? Would he freak out like some sort of homophobic backwoods idiot that she’d gone to high-school with? Had Scarlet been a betting woman, she would have bet the vampire was doing it strictly to mess with Liam’s head. HewantedLiam to react, but Scarlet couldn’t predict how Liam would respond. Liam let out an annoyed, rumbling sort of growl, like he couldn’t believe he was having to put up with this shit.
“I like pets,” added the man with an overly toothy grin. Scarlet found it very sloppy to let the mask slip even so far. But apparently it pushed Liam from irked into annoyed because he kneed the man in the balls. Scarlet wasn’t sure she even saw him move, but she heard the impact.
“Ooh!” she squeaked her hands flying to her mouth in surprise as Liam followed the knee up with a punch to the jaw. No one at the vampire’s table moved as their friend crashed to the floor. He rolled to his back, looking up at them in dazed stupor. Scarlet was impressed. It was very difficult to actually stun a vampire and Liam had done it with ease.
Liam always looked fit under his suit, but for the first time Scarlet noticed how thick his forearms were. And just how much tailoring must happen to make his suit jackets fit right across his shoulders. She knew she shouldn’t be enthralled by such brawny displays, but she was learning a lot about herself this evening. From her own speciesist tendencies to the fact that watching Liam pummel vampires made her more than a little bit wet, Scarlet felt like this evening was going to take a lot of meditating on.
Later. When Liam wasn’t looking at her like he wanted to lick her like a lollipop.
“As I said—this one is mine. Get your own.” Liam held out his hand and Scarlet took it, reveling in the way the vampire looked both angry and defeated as Liam led her out onto the dance floor.
“Should we worry about them or call security or something?” asked Scarlet, trying to sneak a look over her shoulder at the table where the vampires were distinctly not looking their way.
“No,” said Liam. “If it were a problem, security would have been here already and they wouldn’t be talking to us. Those asshats should know better.”
“Oh,” said Scarlet. She didn’t want to add anything else because she didn’t want to admit that clubs of this caliber were entirely out of her experience. She felt like a country bumpkin or the kitchen maid who had somehow managed to get herself invited to dance with the prince. The gorgeous, beautiful prince with the amber eyes who was holding her very tight and had just punched out a vampire for her.
“I don’t think I like this skirt as much when we’re dancing,” he muttered, looking down at the offending garment. Scarlet was ambivalent on the subject because she knew that if it hadn’t been for the mound of tulle and lace, she would have been plastered against his front and that probably wasn’t what good girls did. But she wasn’t feeling very good at the moment. She was feeling like she wanted to take the prince home and do very naughty things to him.
“Liam,” she said, trying not to sound as breathless as she felt. “You didn’t have to say you were my date.”
“I didn’t say I was your date. I said you were mine.”
“Oh,” said Scarlet, staring into Liam’s warm brown eyes. She knew this was her moment to say that no, she didn’t belong to him or anyone, thank him for the drinks and the punching and then go home. She opened her mouth to say that, or at least say something, when another couple jostled into them. Scarlet clung closer to Liam, losing all pretense of dance form, her arms sliding around his neck. He dipped his head down and let his lips drag across her neck, before taking her earlobe gently in his mouth. His breath was hot and wet and his tongue flicked out, running along the crest of her ear. She let out an involuntary gasp and her knees seemed to have suddenly turned to jelly.
“Time to go, Little Red,” he whispered.
“Yes, Wolf,” she replied.
