stroking my cheek. 'I've come to realize what a strong, versatile woman you are, Alexandrea. And after all, I let Alex uh, handle me, on that first ride to the house. He had a grip on my situation long before I did.'
Where had this humility come from? This profound gratitude? Mr. Tripplehorn was a changed man-but that didn't mean I'd surrender to him. It would take more than this wild, abandoned coupling to make us a couple in the way he seemed to want now.
'I'm really pretty ordinary, Billy.'
'A lady lawyer who's outfoxed the magistrate-and everyone else-is hardly ordinary, sweetheart.' His smile waxed boyish, enough that I noticed how his even, white teeth caught the moonlight. 'You've got to have some smarts to triumph in the courtroom, and also manage the orphanage, and I admire that. Your father would be proud.'
How did he know…?
I didn't want these unsettling details to derail my train of thought, so I pressed on. 'Billy, I saw the way you responded to Pandora and Pink and Perfidia! Those vixens had you coming on command-doing aerial acrobatics, for Pete's sake! I'm just a boring little mortal.'
'But you don't bite,' he replied ruefully. 'Perfidia gets a man's blood pumping, all right, but that's not what I have in mind when I want a woman to suck me. I almost didn't make it back to you.'
I stroked the long, strong column of his neck. He was still young and strong as a bullmoose, even in these refined clothes. 'So where did you go? How did you recover?'
'Who says I did?'
Once again he flashed his wicked grin, and I saw those white, even teeth…inscisors I'd never particularly noticed before.
Billy kissed me-a diversionary tactic-but I let it pass. 'Let's just say there was some magic worked in my behalf. Call it an attitude transfusion.'
He pulled something from his pocket then-a tarot card of The Lovers. 'Pandora whisked me off to her villa in Italy to recuperate. Convinced me to make the most of myself, so I could be equal to loving YOU, Andrea.'
Was I still hearing little hints between the lines? I sighed, wondering how to make Billy see our reality through his own, earthy eyes rather than Pandora's.
'Billy, I adore you, and the Three P's have the best intentions-mostly. But I'm not sure this'll work. You're a hot-blooded young stud, and here I am, at thirty-five-'
'So it's damn well TIME you had a lover like me making you scream! You're hitting your sexual prime, Miss Moore. You deserve a man who can handle that.'
He kissed me again, running the tip of his tongue around my lips-another effective diversion. The change in this young guttersnipe went deeper than his elegant clothing, it seemed. But if he'd been to Pandora's villa-a seaside haven I'd heard her reminisce about-had she'd been coaching…
'I hear Alex Moore's to be the next magistrate,' Billy said matter-of-factly.
'NO! I'm through acting like a man!'
'So only wear these clothes until you're sworn in, and then show everyone who you really are!' he said with a chuckle. 'Who could've dreamed Redemption would have a female on the bench?! I, for one-'
'It would never work, Billy.'
'Why not?' He seemed genuinely appalled at my attitude. 'You've got the legal expertise-the experience-and think of the fun we'd have in court! I could crouch under your chair and slip my head under that black robe. What a scandal, to learn the new magistrate wears nothing under it!'
'Pandora obviously gave you some sort of magic potion-'
'A love potion, Andrea,' he crooned. 'With the money we've got, we could build a big house on that hill. We could have a French maid like Cerise-who sends her regards, by the way. And I could be your love slave, Andrea. There's something to be said for a life of service and devotion…'
My mouth hung open. I was SO tempted to agree to anything this sweet-talker asked…but what if this was some evil trick Perfidia had devised? For all I knew, she and the other two vamps were eavesdropping-I couldn't believe they would abandon me, forever. And it would be just like that blonde bitch to reel me in again, using Billy for bait. He was too good to be true.
My heart turned into lead as I looked at him. But I'd led him down the primrose path twice before, so I had to act responsibly. 'You've painted a pretty picture, but I can't live in it. Goodbye, Billy. You really should go now.'
'Well, that's a fine how-do-you do!' he snapped, letting my feet hit the ground. 'The Alexandrea who had balls enough to yank me out of Lucy's arms and then stand up to her daddy wouldn't be such a nay-sayer. But thank you anyway. You gave me a whole new life, in more ways than you know.'
As Tripplehorn strode away, I felt my whole future going up in the mist of a vanishing vampire-like the smoke from Perfidia's infernal cigarette. And, as though he'd heard my thoughts, Billy turned around. Damned if he wasn't holding that black stiletto she'd never been without, lighting a small cheroot so I could see what my doubts and disbelief had cost me.
There was only one way Billy could be sporting Perfidia's favorite possession.
'We could've traveled through time-could've done any damn thing we pleased, Andrea.' He inhaled, and then blew his smoke into a ring that framed his disappointed face. 'There's a whole new world out there beyond Redemption, and now that Perfidia's been destroyed, I wanted to show you a life without limits. A sweet freedom like you can't imagine. But you're not ready.'
I had a sudden vision of a fire to rival Armageddon; could hear Perfidia's screams above the licking of the flames. 'I gave you eternal youth,' she cried to her tormentor. 'Saved you from the ravages of menopause! And this is how you thank me, you little shit!'
'You betrayed my Andrea and nearly killed Billy!' came the shrill reply. 'Dying this quickly is way too good for you, Perfidia!'
My mouth dropped open when I realized Miss Pink-my mother!-had snared the blonde bitch with her own portable prison, set her gown afire, and then shoved Perfidia out into the bright light of day. My heart was pounding with pride and excitement, for Pink had risked her life by so boldly disposing of the vampire who'd been a thorn in all our sides.
Then I shuddered, and when the vision cleared I saw Billy striding away from me, toward a magnificent carriage pulled by four ebony Percherons. When I realized their hooves weren't touching the ground…saw the cemetery gates right through his translucent driver…I knew Tripplehorn had provided me that vision of Perfidia's passing.
And I knew how.
I swallowed hard. The man I loved had offered me a whole new definition of 'always,' and I'd turned him away for all the wrong reasons. While I could stay here and live like a queen-or a magistrate, if I got desperate for entertainment-what point would there be if I were alone? The only other man even vaguely eligible for my affections was Nat Dammet, and after he discovered Alex was really an Andrea, who knew what might happen? I'd seen how he treated the other woman who turned on him.
Billy spoke briefly to his driver, who was opening the carriage door for him. He was so beautiful in the moonlight, draped in that splendid cape-which Pandora had probably kept as a memento, from a lover in her lengthy past-that tears ran down my cheeks. I would never forget this moment, this last look at the man who'd changed every life that touched mine- 'Billy!' I cried, tugging up my trousers. 'Billy, wait!'
But he shut the door, and the driver vaulted nimbly into the seat with a whistle to his team. They took off without a sound.
Utter panic made me step out of my pants to run after them, hollering at the top of my lungs. Something told me Nat Dammet and Virgil Furmeister came around a corner just in time to see Alex Moore running down the street, exposing a feminine backside as he chased…absolutely nothing, that they could see.
'Billy, please!' I hollered. 'I don't want to live without you! Take me away from here!'
By some miracle, just as I sensed my race was lost, a masculine hand reached out the window of this mirage. I latched onto it with my last ounce of strength…felt myself leaving the ground…floating above the trees and the snow-covered rooftops, toward the moon. And in the wink of an eye, I was inside that carriage, straddling Billy's lap.
'Can't live without me, you say?' His gaze wandered between my splayed legs. 'My, my, how the tables have turned since it was ME getting caught with my pants down.'
