Instead, Thea finally found her voice and blurted out, “Um, who are you?”
“Jacqueline DuBois. Julian’s oldest and only friend.”
“Oldest is true,” I muttered. “We grew up together.”
“Oh,” Thea responded in a small voice, her eyes finding the floor.
“Wait, does she think…?” Jacqueline reached out and smacked me in the chest so hard that I nearly flew back and hit the wall. “You haven’t told her about me?”
“No, he hasn’t.” Thea held up her head, doing her best to hold her ground, even as her lower lip began to quiver.
“You dick. Now you made her cry.” Jacqueline wrapped an arm around Thea’s shoulders before I could stop her. Thea seemed too surprised to say anything. I couldn’t blame her for that. The whole situation gave off a distinctly scandalous impression.
“You made her cry,” I pointed out.
But Jacqueline was ignoring me. She lowered her voice–as if I couldn’t hear her. “He didn’t say anything about me? Jacqueline? Sometimes he calls me Jacque? Or Jackie?”
“No.” Thea shook her head.
“It’s your fault if you didn’t prepare her,” Jacqueline argued.
I opened my mouth to protest, but Thea beat me to it.
“Are you his real girlfriend?”
Jacqueline looked at me, her eyes brightening merrily, and then we both burst out laughing. “Oh, honey, no!”
“You have a key,” Thea pointed out, “and you were naked...”
“That was an inside joke,” I explained quickly, before turning on Jacqueline, “I can’t believe you actually did it.”
“I promised you the most beautiful house in Paris and the prettiest female I could find waiting for you in bed,” Jacqueline reminded me, still hugging Thea close to her. “I was trying to give him some incentive to give up his stupid plan to take an eternal nap.”
“Eternal?” Thea echoed the word, glancing over at me. She knew about my time-out from the world, but I hadn’t filled her in much on the reasons why I’d gone to sleep. Thanks to my best friend, I was now going to have even more explaining to do.
“I see your ego is still intact,” I said, turning the conversation back to Jacqueline’s transgression. “Or is there a shortage of pretty women in Paris these days?”
“I said the prettiest.” She looked Thea over again. “Although, I might have competition.”
“She’s my girlfriend, not yours.”
“I can look,” she said defensively.
“But no touching.” It was best to remind Jacqueline of this rule, especially where Thea was concerned.
“Wait, are you flirting with me?” Thea asked suddenly.
Jacqueline loosed a bell-like laugh. “A little.”
Thea turned on me. “And you aren’t going to rip her head off or anything?”
“Has he been ripping people’s heads off a lot?” Jacqueline asked slowly, but she didn’t release Thea.
“Only once,” I said before Thea could tattle on me.
“Only once?” Jacqueline shot an impressed look at Thea. “He must really like you.”
“So…she’s not a threat to you?” Thea pressed.
“Her? No,” I said with a chuckle. “She’s practically my sister.”
“So, you two have never...” She trailed off with a look as pointed as my fangs.
“No,” Jacqueline said, but once again, I found I couldn’t lie to Thea.
“When we were kids,” I admitted, earning me a frustrated look from Jacqueline and a frown from Thea. “You have to understand that teenage vampires are...”
“Horny,” my old friend finished for me. “And it was the fourteenth century. There wasn’t much else to do. I slept with everyone just to keep from staking myself out of boredom.” The corners of Thea’s mouth danced up slightly, and Jacqueline took this as a sign of forgiveness. “And, honestly, you are much more my type than Jules. He doesn’t know how to have fun.”
“Stop hitting on my girlfriend.” I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Remind me to have the locks changed.”
“That is unfair. I did an exquisite job on this place.” Jacqueline spun Thea to face her. “Don’t you think?”
“It’s beautiful,” she said sincerely, looking a bit dizzy at the change in conversation.
“You have to see the bathroom. It’s fit for a queen.” She grabbed Thea’s hand, shot a triumphant look at me, and dragged her into the en suite bath.
This was my fault. I should have guessed that Jacqueline would have heard that I was returning to Paris and surprise me. It wasn’t that I was avoiding her. I’d simply expected to have some time to prepare Thea to meet her and to speak privately with Jacqueline about what was going on. But the trouble with best friends, especially ones you’d known forever, was that they might pop up anywhere at any time. Even naked in your bed.
