13. Teresa

Teresa

F lora was quiet on the way home, giving me plenty of time to think about that kiss. I was such an idiot losing control like that. Now that my vampire had a taste of our mate, she was going to be insufferable. All afternoon the creature had been chattering in my head, demanding that I officially mate her.

I couldn’t decide what to make of Flora. It took her nearly an hour to get ready for work this morning, emerging with perfectly coiffed hair and flawless make-up. With her designer clothes and sunny personality, it would be easy to dismiss her as some kind of vapid socialite.

Yet that cheerfulness she wore like a mask disappeared when she was in boss lady mode. I’d watched her closely today as she encouraged her staff who were doing a good job and chewed out those who weren’t. Her team respected her, and so did the suppliers and partners she met with on her video meetings.

So which version of Flora was the real one? I couldn’t tell yet. I hadn’t had much time to think about it at the office though. I had a job to do, and I’d spent most of the day running background checks on everyone she came into contact with at the office, from the security guards to her CFO, who I still hadn’t met.

It had been shockingly easy to break into personnel files on the company’s network. I’m sure Flora would have given me access, but it was more fun to do a little hacking. We’d have to help Meyer beef up its online security when this was all over.

By the time we got home I was going stir crazy from spending so much time sitting around. I preferred being active.

“What do you usually do now?” I asked.

“Put on comfortable clothes, heat up some dinner, and work for a couple of hours.”

“No,” I said, shaking my head. “You need to move a little. You’ve been sitting all day and that’s not good for you. Put on some workout clothes and meet me downstairs in the gym.”

To my surprise, when I scoped out the house last night I’d discovered a well-appointed gym in the basement as well as an outdoor swimming pool. It was a little cold for swimming, at least for humans, but a little bit of cardio and stretching would do us both a world of good.

“I don’t want to work out,” she said stubbornly. “I have a lot of work to do.”

“You’ll thank me later,” I said, putting my hands on her shoulders to get her started up the stairs. “Now be a good girl and change.”

Flora’s mouth dropped, but her pupils dilated and the pulse in her neck picked up, telling me that she liked being called a good girl just fine. I didn’t want to analyze it too closely, but the more time I spent with my mate, the more I wanted to take care of her. I could tell already that she’d been working herself to death and not eating well. The least I could do while I was here was help her break those habits.

My vampire growled deep inside me at the thought that was my stay here was temporary. But really, how could this work? Even if I was starting to learn that Flora was more nuanced than she’d first seemed, she was a billionaire CEO, and I was a for-hire security agent who grew up relying on government food boxes. We couldn’t be more different.

“Have you ever gone rock climbing?” I asked as we reached the landing to the second floor.

Flora shuddered. “Uh, no. I’m not a big fan of being outside.”

I suppressed a sigh. It was definitely never going to work out between us. But that didn’t mean I wouldn’t help her get healthier while I was here.

A little more than an hour later Flora threw herself down on a mat on the gym floor and cried, “Enough.”

“What’s the problem?” I asked from where I was running at top speed on the fancy treadmill while Flora worked on the elliptical.

“I’m exhausted.” She sounded pouty. “And I hate exercising.”

“You said you do yoga,” I reminded her, nodding to the corner where she had a little yoga area set up with a mat, straps, and blocks.

“I do gentle yoga,” she said. “Nothing that involves me sweating. I’m sweating!” She said the last part like it was some kind of travesty.

“You were barely moving on that elliptical,” I said, stepping off the treadmill.

I dropped to the floor a few feet away from her and started doing push-ups – on my toes, thank you very much.

Flora pushed up to seated, and from the corner of my eye I could see her watching me as I busted out twenty-five push-ups before lowering down into child’s pose to stretch my back.

“You need to do some cardio and strength work,” I said, rolling over to sit next to her and lifting her arm. “You have weak little spaghetti arms.”

Flora rolled her eyes. “I hate the elliptical.”

“Okay then, we’ll keep trying until we find something you like to do that gets your heart rate up.”

Her eyes flared and I knew she was thinking of something we could do together to increase her heart rate. My vampire was one hundred percent on board with that idea. I reminded her that I was Flora’s bodyguard, but even the threat of Lois getting mad at us didn’t make her settle down.

Speaking of Lois…

“I need to check in with my boss,” I said, popping up to my feet and reaching out a hand to help her up.

“I’ll put some food in the oven,” she said. “Let’s meet in the kitchen in an hour.”

I nodded in acknowledgment. “If anything weird happens, anything at all, scream. I’ll hear you.”

A little while later I was finishing a call with Lois when I heard Flora make a loud squeaking noise, followed by her bellowing, “Teresa!”

“I gotta go,” I told Lois, disconnecting the call and shoving the phone into my pocket as I raced downstairs.

Flora was standing in the entryway, staring down at a long, narrow box encased in bright red wrapping paper. It looked like the kind of box they used to send roses.

“What happened?”

She just pointed at the box. I squatted down, grabbing my knife from my ankle holster and using the tip to pry up the lid. I revealed the long, thorny stems you’d expect on roses, but as I lifted the lid more, I realized the flowers were dead.

That’s when I noticed the card tucked inside, with a message written in big, blocky letters.

You will be as dead as these flowers soon.