Come As You Are by Melinda Barron Page B

people have left quickly, except for the people in front of you, Ms. Gandy. They did a great deal of renovations before they finally moved. It was two men, living together.”
    “That means he might have gotten sex, but he couldn’t get a baby, which seems to be his major goal,” Fletch said. “He might have scared them off in hopes of a female moving in.”
    “And that’s exactly what happened,” Tempest said. “The question is how do we get rid of him? I don’t want to lose my house.”
    “Oh we’ll get rid of him. And you’re not going to lose a thing.” Pebbles raised her glass toward Tempest. “You might even have some fun while we do it.”

Chapter Eleven
     
 
     
     
    Pain
    Darkness
    Despair
    There is no one here, no one for me to feed from
    One of the bitch’s friends comes to see Candice daily
    And whatever he’s saying to her gives her the ability to avoid me
    That is unacceptable
    Something has to change, and soon
    Or I will spend too many years in darkness
    Again
    * * * *
    Tempest didn’t want to get too content with her present location. After all, come Halloween things would change. They would bind the incubus and she would be able to go back home, be able to get back to her normal life.
    Unfortunately, right now she wasn’t sure she wanted to go back to the way things were, since that would include a life without Franco. During the last three days she’d become very comfortable with falling asleep in his arms and waking up the same way.
    His kisses had become a part of her daily life that she wanted to preserve. The one thing that hadn’t become part of it was sex. He’d made sweet love to her with his mouth on her first day there, making her tingle and relax.
    She knew now that he’d done it to settle her down, and it had worked. But she wanted more than that. She wanted him inside her. She didn’t have to be a mind reader to know he was trying to be chivalrous by not having sex with her again before the situation was resolved.
    That would never work though. She planned to seduce him tonight, but it would take careful planning. If she was thinking about it when he came into the room he would know exactly what was about to happen.
    That’s why she thought it best if she employed a little trick that she’d read about in a book. She’d set up a chessboard on a table and was concentrating on the moves, playing herself while she waited for him to come in. It was close to
midnight
and she knew he was downstairs, helping with the business as the restaurant closed its doors and the bar filled up.
    He wouldn’t stay downstairs for long, though. Since she’d been there, he’d taken to coming home just after midnight, and she could tell from the way his staff reacted that it wasn’t a normal thing for him to do. That was just fine with her, though. The more time they could spend together the better things were.
    She checked the chess board one last time, then went into the other bedroom to make sure Culo and Pero were settled in for the evening, or at least as settled as cats were at night. They would sleep until around one, and then they would get up and roam around their new surroundings. She was impressed with the way they had adjusted, including the way they now came into the bedroom and work her and Franco up every morning. A high point of that was that her new lover seemed to enjoy the feline attention. That made him aces in her book.
    The sound of footsteps on the stairs caught her attention. She hurried back to her position at the table and studied the chessboard, hoping that he’d fall for the bait. When he came in, he brought the smell of the kitchen with him, spicy Cajun food that almost made her stomach growl with need. Until she remembered her main objective.
    Sex.
    “Hey darlin’,” he said, sitting down opposite her and toeing off his boots. “Who’s winning?”
    “I am.” Hopefully, for both our sakes.
    He glanced at the board, his gaze seeming to drift over each