Read 5 - Together To Join for Free Online Page B

lifted a cast iron skillet lid, revealing eggs, already scrambled, and on the other side…real cottage potatoes! Garrick moved even closer as she lifted and turned his potatoes. Her efforts weren’t needed. They looked ready; perfectly browned and smelling every bit of it. Everything smelled amazing. He inhaled deeply of the fabulous aroma permeating the air.
    “I suppose you have a rasher of bacon frying somewhere, too?”
    “And rice pilaf.”
    Rice pilaf? He stopped the question. He had said something along that line. The woman was thorough and had an excellent memory. She settled back onto her stool without looking at him.
    “I’m ready to try a truce. You interested?”
    She shrugged.
    “Is that a yes?”
    “I learned to cook by following the armies. Lots of women follow armies. To serve their…needs.”
    “You were a camp follower? No way.”
    “If you don’t believe my answers, why ask?”
    “How did you remain a virgin, then?”
    Her eyes were wide and very green, reflecting the firelight as she looked up and over at him. “You remember that?”
    “I’m known for my attention to details, lady. No matter how small and obscure. So answer the question.”
    “There are many ways to satisfy a man without…that.”
    He swallowed the immediate influx of emotion. Heaven help him, but he was ready to hit something. It was instantaneous and it was massive. And moronic. Self-defeating. He wasn’t angry. She was a dead creature and he was trying to find her weakness. So whatever the reaction was, he shoved it away and refused to evaluate it.
    “Name some.” He might be conquering the odd emotion, but his voice didn’t sound like it. He sounded gruff and angered.
    “A…well-cooked meal, followed by a good vintage wine worked, especially if a man is exhausted from a day of marching. Or a battle. And if more was needed I provided it, too.”
    “More?”
    “I took some fluid from him…sometimes from more than one of them. I understand it’s a highly erotic sensation - creating a thrill not unlike making love. Or so…I’ve been told.”
    She couldn’t be blushing. Garrick refused to believe it. He absolutely, totally, and completely refused to accept that a vampire had emotions, let alone was capable of exhibiting them.
    “Which army?” Shit . His voice was even lower and rougher than before.
    “Any of them. All of them. One army is very like another, really.”
    “How far back are we talking? Alexander the Great? Richard the Lion-Heart?”
    “Napoleon. Of course.”
    “Of course?”
    “That man destroyed my world.”
    “I’m going to guess we’re playing show and tell. I’m game. I’ll go first. I’m going to hazard a guess that you were a French aristocrat. And you died…circa 1793. Am I close?”
    She smiled. “1790.”
    “How could he have demolished your world, then? You weren’t around when he came to power.”
    “The dead can still react to what the living do. We’re just powerless to stop it…especially if it happens during the day. Executions always took place during the day. Usually morning – so the populace can see and cheer.”
    She didn’t put any inflection in the words which made them worse, for some reason.
    “The guillotine?”’
    She nodded.
    “Your family?”
    “Yes.”
    “Why do you blame Napoleon? Robespierre is your villain.”
    She smiled more to herself than at him. “Would you like to eat now? I believe it’s ready.”
    She turned toward him, reaching mid-chest level, her entire form caressed by the fire’s glow, while she wielded her long-handled fork like a sword. Or a phallus symbol of some pagan ritual. And if he didn’t change the view and quickly, he was afraid his wool slacks wouldn’t hide the reaction. He stepped back and looked around.
    “Any chance you have a dinette handy?”
    She gestured to one of the alcoves where shapes could barely be made out. Once she took her pans over there and pulled on a cord lighting the area, it was