Single White Vampire (Argeneau #3)(65)
Kate grimaced. She'd had to drag him to the blasted thing that first day; now he was all eager to go. And she wasn't. The last thing in the world Kate wanted was to go anywhere she might have to face Chuck Morgan. If the publisher hadn't been pleased with her last night, today, after seeing the headlines, he would be livid. If she still had her job by noon, she'd be a lucky woman.
But, she told herself, there was no sense in dragging it out. She might as well go learn the awful truth.
It wasn't as bad as she'd feared. In some ways, it was worse. Kate still had a job. In fact, Chuck was terribly pleased with the publicity. Lucern had made the front page, after all. As had Roundhouse Publishing. The man kept congratulating her as if her public humiliation was some sort of grand promotional scheme. Kate would have liked to choke him. By the end of the day, she decided that if he patted her in that congratulatory manner one more time, she was going to.
It was more than a relief to Kate when they closed up the hospitality suite and everyone was freed to prepare for the night's Rock 'n' Roll party.
Her gaze went to Lucern. The man had come out of his shell with a vengeance. Every time she'd looked his way today, he'd been talking to a fan or another writer. Kate couldn't be sure, but she suspected he'd done more talking since arriving at this conference than he had in the past several decades. He'd become more loquacious with each passing day, and today had been no exception.
Of course, there wasn't a single solitary conference attendee who hadn't seen the headlines. The news of the situation had also made the rounds, and while most people were terribly sympathetic with both her and Lucern, there were a few who still snickered. They offered their "You poor dears" or their "How embarrassing it must be for yous," while they chuckled nonetheless. Of course, Lucern wasn't suffering those little snickers. Everyone seemed to feel great sympathy for him, saving all their amusement for her.
Which was usually the way of it, Kate thought wearily as she walked toward the table with Lucern and the other writers; the woman always suffered the scorn and humiliation, while the man walked away with the glory or sympathy. Unfortunately, try as she might, Kate couldn't be angry at Lucern for the way other people acted. He had apologized repeatedly while Kate and Jodi had worked to untangle her sleeve from his codpiece, and she knew he really felt bad about the whole thing. But it hadn't been his fault. It had just been one of life's unfortunate incidents.
Lucern glanced at her as she approached, and Kate managed to pull a smile from the depths of herself.
"Time to go?" he asked.
"Yes." She smiled at him, then the table in general. "Time to get ready for the Rock 'n' Roll party."
Lucern stood and took her hand, his gaze moving over her face with a tinge of what she thought might be concern. "You look weary."
"It was a long day," Kate agreed with a small shrug. They left the hospitality suite. They didn't speak again until they reached their own. Chris hadn't returned yet, and the suite was empty and silent.
"What does one wear to a rock and roll party?" Lucern asked as he closed the door behind them.
"Well, I gather it's an oldies type party. Fifties. Jeans and T-shirts will do. I brought a leather jacket and boots for you to wear," Kate explained. She had said she would take care of everything, and she had to the best of her abilities.
"A leather jacket?" Lucern asked, one eyebrow raised.
"Yes. You know, the Fonzie look."
"The who?"
She frowned at his bewildered expression, then recalled he didn't watch television. He'd missed loads, she realized with amazement. "He's a cool fifties character from a series. Leather jacket, jeans, leather boots and greased back hair. Very cool."
"Ah. Yes, I recall a couple characters like that from those days." Lucern nodded. "But how did you know what boot size to get?"
Kate flushed and shrugged, then turned toward her door. She was slipping through it when she admitted, "I called your mother and asked."
She didn't wait for his response, simply closed the door on his startled expression. Then she went to pull out the bagged clothing from the costumers. She set the bag holding the leather jacket and boots on the bed, then held the see-through bag with her own costume up for inspection. This was certainly going to be an adventure. The costume didn't look at all appealing. She'd bet anything that those crinolines were going to itch like crazy.
Actually, she'd been wrong, Kate admitted sometime later as she surveyed herself in the mirror. She wore saddle shoes, bobby socks, the pink poodle skirt and a cream sweater set. She'd pulled her hair back into a ponytail and gone light on the makeup, and she looked about sixteen. She shook her head at her reflection, then decided she was ready and walked out to collect the bag with Luc's costume.
Chris and Luc were both watching television when Kate joined them in the living room, and her gaze slid from one's oil-slicked head to the other. She gaped. "What have you two done to your hair?"
Chris turned and grinned. "Isn't it great? Luc helped me with it. I didn't bring a leather jacket, but he said if I stuck a pack of cigarettes under my T-shirt sleeve I'd look just as cool."
Kate looked at Lucern. Great. Now she had two grease-slicked Fonzies on her hands. Still, other than the hairstyle, they were very different. Chris's hair was light, while Lucern's was as dark as midnight. Chris was tall and wiry, his body lanky rather than having the muscular breadth of Luc's. Chris's T-shirt was plain white; Lucern's was black and pulled tight across his chest, showing every ripple of his muscles. God, he looked hot. Even with enough grease in his hair to fry donuts.