Roleplay City
Administration => Infusco Archives => Archives => Old Roleplays => Topic started by: Trillian on October 29, 2009, 06:13:47 AM
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SHE ENTERED THE NIGHTCLUB without any trouble, marvelling at how the demonic bouncers knew to let her pass this time. One of them recognised her and offered her a nod of acknowledgement while the other stood stoicly on the other side of the doorway. She nodded back as she passed him, realising that they\'d read her mind in order to know what she knew, and she hadn\'t felt a thing. It was somewhat worrying that she could still be so ignorant, even in her knowledge.
She\'d dressed herself in club attire once again, with a shape hugging royal blue dress with a hem that ended ten centimetres above her knees. The chinese collar kept her a little modest, though there was an almond shaped hole vertically cut from below the collar to the beginning of her cleavage. Without sleeves and wearing flats, and with her dark hair pulled up and back into a bun, she looked like she was imitating the modern-traditional chinese look.
The pulse of the music was overpowering, even in the corridor. She read each pinned notice, aware that others that had entered the club after her were moving past. There were lists of Oligarchy rules for each species, as well as a notice about the club. Mortals were to enter at their own risk, the risk being potential death. There was no protective cloak for human beings, and there was no representative for humans on the Oligarchy either. A tattoo marking (with an illustration on the sheet) upon a human\'s wrist meant they were protected by the club and no longer at risk. She took a deep breath before leaving the corridor and entering the nightclub proper, having to remind herself that she wasn\'t an ordinary human being, she had the heritage of a fire demon.
She\'d wanted to call up Kerr fairly soon after their meeting, but had held off for a couple of nights. She planned on calling him tonight, after spending a couple of hours at Risk, so that their conversation could be extended. She wondered if she was mad, wanting to spend time bonding with a vampire. A gentleman was a gentleman though, and Kerr had been nothing less. After moving intot he club proper, she spent a short moment sweeping the floor with her gaze, getting herself orientated, and headed for the bar where she intended on having a gentle cocktail, something fruity perhaps.
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Leaning back against the bar on his elbows, Kerr was idly surveying the room when Jenna walked in and stopped. He noticed her immediately, his gaze drawn to her observant form; she looked around, he looked her over. Her dress matched her lovely eyes, he noticed, and drew attention to a figure that he\'d not really paid attention to when last they\'d met, but looking at her now and remembering the way she smelled
like sex, sex in the sun, slow and slick
had his attention alright. A few others\' too, he observed as she began walking towards the bar.
Not really towards him, as it happened, for he was tucked into the corner, on the last stool at the short end of the bar. There were two free seats beside him (though he\'d been trading stares with a boy in a booth across the room that he\'d believed might fill one of them soon) and his booted foot was hooked on the foot rung on the closest. He straightened up, suddenly conscious of the lazy way he was sprawled over two stools, simply because he\'d been sitting and drinking casually from the glass of blood on the bar at his elbow, happy to be left to his own devices in the corner until he was ready to make a move.
"Jenna!" he called as she came even with him, seeming to be heading for the long side of the bar, where there were also free seats - the club was fairly quiet tonight, as far as crowds went, only minimal shoulder bumping as one made their way somewhere, and most of those sitting were populating the booths and tables close to the floor. It was a dancing night, rather than a hunting one, it seemed. A good night for a newly-discovered demon to be out perhaps, since the majority of club goers were here for a good time.
Almost the second her name left his mouth, Kerr had second thoughts about whether she\'d recognise him. He was wearing black leather pants and chunky boots below a tucked-in shirt that was certainly not for business. It was a coppery chocolate colour, similar to his eyes, made of satin with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. The top three buttons of the shirt were undone, highlighting a simple necklace around his throat that consisted of six black leather strings (on a woman, it would have been flirting with being called a choker). He\'d also lined his eyes lightly with some dark eyeliner; he was still not very confident with wearing the makeup, however, and wondered if he should swipe at it before Jenna came his way.
A smile instinctively lit his face as he realised it was too late for such things, she was already coming.
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She heard her name as she closed in on the seat she\'d wanted. It had come from her right and she turned to look that way, pausing in her steps. Her gaze sorted through the crowd, dismissing those she didn\'t recognise. When she stopped looking at those standing and began to look at those who were already seated at the bar, she noticed Kerr, thinking he looked very familiar (and they were making eye contact so he must\'ve been the one to call her name), before she recognised him a second later. Moving towards him now, his face lit up with a smile and she found herself responding in kind, feeling relieved that she had a familiar face in here as well as a little guilty for not calling him sooner.
"Kerr," she bid, her voice lost in the music but she supposed he could hear her well enough. She moved in for a very natural kiss upon his cheek, as one would greet a friend.
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He turned to look at her, surprised because she was leaning towards him, and realised belatedly what she was doing. His mouth snapped closed an instant before she made contact - on his cheek, yes, but very close to the corner of his mouth, like he\'d been about to kiss her lips but had not quite made it.
Against his will and completely out of character, he blushed, feeling awkward about his idiocy and lack of societal confidence. In his head, he could hear Ash cackling at him for making such a gauche mistake - he certainly would\'ve known what was happening and suavely kissed Jenna\'s other cheek - and he tried to squash it. The fact that he and Jenna had parted in his office with very similar actions only exacerbated his embarrassment, but he did his best to cover it up.
"Would you sit with me?" he asked, wriggling even farther back on his minimalistic stool to gesture at the one beside him. He\'d swung to face it, his leather-clad knees spread wide so that she could neatly manoeuvre onto the seat, not thinking about the subconscious signals his body would be sending her when she sat there.
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She didn\'t realise he felt awkward and embarrassed, and only had a smile for him when she pulled back. When invited to sit, she bid him a thank you and primly maneouvred herself atop it, crossing her legs towards him and having to rest her higher foot against the back of his calf.
She leant forward to talk to him, her left arm on the edge of the bar to support her, not used to the fact he had superior hearing.
"I was going to call you tonight," she confessed with a smile. "I thought it would be interesting to also talk about the club." She knew he\'d get the idea that was why she was here, to see what it was about so she could comment on it to him.
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He laughed good-naturedly and also leaned towards her, knowing he would have to project his voice properly to have her hear him. "I was going to call you tomorrow night, to see how your meeting with your Oligarch went and ask if you\'d had any lessons yet!" he grinned, feeling a glow in his chest that had nothing to do with the blood he\'d ingested and everything to do with the fact that she\'d told him she was going to call him.
It was a courtesy, no doubt, since he technically no longer had anything to do with her professionally, but it was a lovely gesture anyway. It showed that she was thinking of him as much as he\'d been thinking of her (though she\'d gone the extra step of coming to Risk so that they\'d have something else to talk about... which really intrigued him).
"How\'s everything been going?" he asked, his smile warmer as he touched the arm she had resting on the bar, her skin hot to his cold. He left his fingers resting against her rather than moving them away when he\'d finished speaking, figuring that her foot against his leg was already contact so it wouldn\'t matter (though she could move away with a little nudge of her arm, if she wished).
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She noticed the touch on her arm but didn\'t pull away, still leaning forward so she could hear him talk and finding herself charmed by his softly lilting accent.
"No lessons," she said, "but the meeting went well. He\'s quite gruff, but I think good natured. He shared a lot of information with me," she explained. "He told me he\'ll supply me a tutor, so that I can learn more about my... species." She looked away to half roll her eyes before looking back at him. "It\'s strange, but I still can\'t think of myself as anything except human."
Her smile was fixed on her face. She hadn\'t stopped smiling, in fact, since she\'d lain eyes on him, and liked that he was the same to her.
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Again, he chuckled. "Well, I guess there\'s not much of a call for fires to be started, so that you could be validated as a demon," he teased, his eyes twinkling as he waited for her reaction, hoping she would laugh with him. It was ironic on some levels, because many of the demons he communicated with never bothered to master the english language to the point that they would even understand the words he was using, let alone understand his humour.
"If I weren\'t supernatural, I wouldn\'t think of you as anything but human," he then assured her, glancing down at where his fingers were touching her arm and stroking her skin softly. "Because I\'m not, though, I can\'t think of you as human, not when you smell like you do." He inwardly blushed as he thought he probably shouldn\'t have started down that track, for how would he explain the sensuous impression of her he had?
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She laughed appropriately, a soft laugh because it wasn\'t the kind of comment that would force gut-wrenching guffaws out of her (not that she\'d had the pleasure of laughing that hard, ever)
Her laugh left naturally and the smile broadened at the extra touch on her arm. When he looked down at his hand, so did she, and it entered her consciousness that they were flirting. She lifted her stare to meet his then, semi-surprised that he\'d instigated the quiet flirt with his touch, when he spoke of her smell. She blinked her surprise at such a statement, thinking of the scent of her soap (milk and honey) and her perfume (jasmine), before she realised he meant her.
"How do I smell?" she asked, innocently enough, though once it was out of her lips, she realised how affronting such a question could be, but she wasn\'t self-conscious enough to blush.
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Instinctively, he licked his lips and his gaze danced between her eyes, taking in their beauty. He wanted to tell her, he really did, but he dared not be so confronting, not with her. Instead, he smiled and leaned right over to her, placing his own mouth right beside her ear so that he could whisper to her.
"Without going into details that I fear would offend you, let me say that you remind me of being young and mortal and that I haven\'t smelled anyone as intoxicating as you in all my centuries." His voice stopped on an unusually high note, for he wanted to say more but he knew he shouldn\'t - it left his sentence sounding unfinished, though.
Despite this, he pulled back so that he was able to look at her comfortably (but their heads were still closer together than they had been when she\'d first sat down), smiling cheekily.
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When he loomed closer, her lids fluttered before she offered him her ear, turning her head a little to present herself. Her initial thought was that he was going for her neck, which was a ridiculous thought and had perished fairly quickly once her logic came to the fore. Listening to his whisper sent a chill up her spine, thinking about his cool breath, so strange in a warm building like Risk, as though he\'d just stepped in from the cold.
She\'d expected to hear more, but he pulled back and smiled at her charmingly, like he\'d somehow transformed into the mortal youth he\'d just reminisced of. She looked at him with a kind of transfixed surprise before she grinned back, not quite sure how he could\'ve offended her and preferring not to know, if he didn\'t want her to.
Their stares held for a short moment while she struggled for something to say, feeling like nothing was quite right, when they were interrupted by the barman.
"Want anything?" he asked, drawing her to look over at him and realising she was his focus, because Kerr had a glass near him (of blood, she supposed, and though she believed she really should be bothered by that, she wasn\'t in the slightest) and she had nothing.
"Oh! Yes," she blinked and shook her head as if to clear it, remembering that she\'d been heading for the bar initially before bumping into Kerr, to order herself a drink. What had she wanted? She usually wasn\'t this flustered. "A cocktail. Something fruity." She searched above the bar for a kind of menu, but saw nothing. Obviously she didn\'t need to clarify herself further because the barman grunted and moved away, supposedly to fill her order. She looked back at Kerr, the reason for her being flustered, and for some reason unbeknownst to her, she laughed.
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His smile broadened and it felt for all the world as if they were sharing an intimate joke, when nothing had really been said and oh, he hadn\'t been this giddy in a long time. It wasn\'t good but it was grand and he decided not to dwell on it just yet, for it was harmless and fun and she was beautiful and interesting and he really should just worry about her having a good time.
"It\'s a good thing you have family money behind you," he told her mildly, "the cocktails and the alcohol here are exhorbitantly priced because they\'re not the most common beverage served. But I suppose you\'ll learn that, if you like the place enough to return - tell me what you think of it so far?" he requested, raising his eyebrows and looking keen to hear her opinion.
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She had nothing but smiles for him and his smooth humour that continually poured out of his mouth. He was quite witty, she found, and upon the request for her opinion, she didn\'t even give the club a quick glance, maintaining her eye contact with Kerr instead.
"It looks like any other nightclub," she said, "but I haven\'t really looked around," she admitted additionally, and it was Kerr\'s fault that she hadn\'t, for since she\'d sat down on the stool next to him, the club had become a loud blur and he\'d been her entire focus. She was enjoying herself though, and wasn\'t that what going to a club was supposed to be about?
A yellow and orange cocktail in a flowering glass was presented to her elbow and she turned to look at it, seeing the cherry on a toothpick balancing on the edge and smelling the strong aroma of pineapple already. When the barman mentioned the price was thirty five dollars, she didn\'t know the difference between this exhorbitantly priced drink and others from other clubs. Instead of saying anything, she reached into the diamond cutout of her dress (at the front) and pulled her credit card out from its position between herself and her bra strap, handing it over to him for processing.
Her left arm hadn\'t moved from its position, not wanting to pull away from Kerr\'s friendly touch, but she expected that she would have to move at one point.
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"Would you like me to show you around?" he asked, the question asked in a leading manner, as if it would be a daring adventure for him to show her about the club.
The innuendo that he could show her things that others couldn\'t was also naturally there, because of his access to the V.I.P. lounge... he wasn\'t sure he should show her the feeding rooms. He\'d never thought of them as seedy (though Ben always had), just exotic and naughty, but picturing Jenna in one (even if it was with him)... well, he would admit to leaning definitely towards the former, rather than either of the latters.
"I could take you to a more... exclusive area, upstairs, that most can\'t get into - if you\'d like to try somewhere you can actually hear yourself think," he joked, glancing over her shoulder at the dancefloor. It didn\'t matter how many people were in attendance, the music always seemed to be at the one (LOUD!) volume.
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"Certainly," she accepted, turning and then forced to break away from Kerr in order to sign the credit card docket presented to her. The barman offered her the customer copy of the slip but she declined, watching him crumple it up and toss it somewhere underneath the bar (where she supposed must be a bin). She picked up her drink, took a smell of it (and could feel the waft of alcohol more than actually scenting it, but there was a nice hot feeling to it that appealed - perhaps vodka?) and then suckled on the straw while Kerr told her about an exclusive part of the club that was on offer if she would like to see it. She made a small noise after pulling away from her drink, holding it in her left hand and gesturing to Kerr with her right. "Lead away, sir. I\'m at your mercy."
She gave him a brilliant smile, her eyes dancing merrily. It was a cheeky statement she thought nothing of, playing on words at the fact he was a vampire and she could end up being his victim. She felt in no danger of it, trusting him as completely as she had when he\'d taken her to his very private quarters at the Oligarchy building.
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He laughed suavely and instinctively snatched her waving hand out of the air, standing and grasping his drink even as he got a better grip on her warm, soft fingers, holding her gently but firmly - celerity certainly helped the most mundane of tasks be achieved more smoothly. She didn\'t seem averse to holding his hand as he led her through the club and he enjoyed it.
Because it would mean a longer tour with him touching her (and for no other reason, really), he did show her the feeding rooms, keeping his tone impartial and merely smiling mysteriously as he said the areas were provided specifically for vampires to feed in privacy. He didn\'t allow her to linger outside any that were populated - and he was so mortified by the noises coming out of one that he just above yanked her back towards the way they\'d come. They spent far longer in the basement area, exploring the free snacks, the how and the why of provision (not that he was an expert, of course).
They went back upcto the club itself and Kerr found the crowd had grown somewhat in the time they\'d been talking and touring - holding her hand had become a necessity, if he didn\'t want to lose her. The stairs up to the Topaz Lounge were a relief because they were unpopulated (after the first riser, anyway - it was filled with adventurous dancers who wanted a little extra attention from the crowd, though they didn\'t like the way the bouncers addressed them) and it only took a tilt of his head to display his tattoo (a formality really, since the bouncers had learned who he was) before he and Jenna were admitted.
Once inside, the lack of extraneous noise was stark and he grinned at her. "It\'s quieter here," he said unnecessarily, "you choose where we should sit," he invited, looking around at the booths, tables and the bar at the far end of the room.
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Jenna followed Kerr about the place, asking questions or commenting, sometimes making jokes, mostly laughing at his. She was fascinated with the replenishing room; free food and fruit juice for whoever wanted it. It wasn\'t even guarded, relying on the risk goers to only take what was needed. She liked the idea of that.
After being taken up to the VIP room, she glanced around when invited to choose a place to sit, and wanting privacy (though only a couple of others were in the large space with them, and keeping to themselves), she chose a corner booth for two on the opposite wall of the bar. She was feeling a little giggly thanks to the large drink and generous amount of alcohol in it, now that she was most of the way through. Another one wouldn\'t have her keeping her senses, and she didn\'t want that, wanting to remember this night as a lighthearted night of fun.
"So, is this place your normal feeding ground?" she asked, unswayed by her inappropriate question even as she set her drink down and folded her arms on the table before her, giving Kerr a wry look. "Or is there some other secret location I still don\'t know about?"
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He sat opposite her, mirroring her pose automatically and trying to hide his smile as she asked her blunt question. He found her straight forwardness refreshing, and her fearlessness admirable. She was very easy to look at, too, and that had wormed its way beneath his defenses first.
"Uh... well, I guess this is it, yes. I don\'t feed all that often - every few nights or so, depending on my work schedule. It works against me, though, because there are nights where I need replenishment so desperately it\'s all I can think about, so anywhere becomes my hunting ground," he told her, waggling his eyebrows mischievously and hinting at a darker side... that he really didn\'t have.
If he got so low on blood he couldn\'t think straight, frankly he just ordered some from the kitchens at the Chambers and there it was. Right now, however, he wished Jenna to gain a more romantic (dangerous) image of him - perhaps lurking in Pisky Memorial Park, waiting to leap out at unsuspecting mortals. He wanted to impress her.
"I generally call in here after work, though. Pick someone up if I feel like the interaction, order at the bar if I don\'t," he shrugged, leaning back against the back of the high booth coolly now, watching his hands draw the glass of blood closer and the right one lift it. He\'d been so busy talking and hosting, he hadn\'t drunk it, and it was gluggy with coagulation and cold. He threw it down his throat and winced, his lower lip swiping up over his upper lip to be sure he wasn\'t sporting an inappropriately red moustache.
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As it turned out, Jenna did imagine him lurking in a park, much like Pisky, standing with his shoulder against a tree, shadows hiding him from an unsuspecting businesswoman on her way home from work. It could\'ve even been her, (except for the fact she drove to work and parked beneath the museum), hurriedly walking along, only to be stopped by a mysterious man who came out of nowhere and dazzled her with charm.
"Pick someone up?" she repeated with a growing smile, dashing the daydream, "you make it sound like a one night stand." A thought occurred to her then, the kind that she would\'ve made a quicker connection if it hadn\'t been for the fruity cocktail slowing down her synapsis. "Is it intimate? Drinking from someone? I imagine it would be." She answered her own question and breathed a short chuckle at herself, annoyed that she hadn\'t let Kerr answer her first.
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He gazed playfully at the ceiling, eyelashes dark against his pale skin as he affected a look of innocence (that really wasn\'t genuine or long lived). His head tilted this way and that, as if he were weighing his response carefully, his lips moving because he was nibbling on his tongue stud while he gave his coy little performance. He was looking back at Jenna soon enough, though, smiling in a far more knowing manner... one might even say seductively.
"Well... yes. It is very intimate, not to mention highly pleasurable for the victim. That\'s why there are so many mortals here at Risk than vampires; they live for the thrill of it, the sensuality. I\'ll be honest and say a feeding often ends up a one night stand - very often for some vampires," he interjected wryly, thinking of his pathetic boss and his penchant for young boys he could screw and chew.
He gave a shrug, looking her directly in the eye. "I do it occasionally, if I\'m in the mood. I\'ve... had too many relationship dramas in the last six months and I\'m quite happy with no strings attached, for the time being. It\'s consentual and enjoyable," he added with a single-shouldered shrug, part of him wondering why on earth he\'d just told her he was doing a good job of sleeping around, and regretting he\'d made it sound like a more frequent occurrence than it was. Since Carly, Ash and he had stumbled into their arrangement it was, anyway.
God... what the fuck am I doing? What she must think of me...
You\'re not supposed to care.
He frowned and glanced down at the table, where his fingers had suddenly taken up spinning the empty glass upon it, for something to do. "I\'m sorry," he mumbled, with a dismissive shake of his head, looking appealingly up at her through his lashes. "That was probably too much information, wasn\'t it? An \'overshare\', as they say these days." He grimaced apologetically, wishing he\'d kept his mouth shut - even though part of him realised that he\'d only been honest.
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The answer she\'d got was more than she\'d expected, and perhaps Kerr saw it on her face as she looked at him, maintaining her composure but not really sure what to think about it all. She\'d asked, and he\'d told, and she couldn\'t be upset with him for that, but all romantic notions about him disappeared very quickly. It was childish, really, to think of him in the \'dark vampire\' role, even though he was dark in colouring, a vampire, and of a fascinating and old-fashioned background. Of course these were modern times, and he was enjoying modern relationships. Her silly imaginings had led her astray.
"I did ask," she said, wanting to make him feel better, for she wasn\'t upset or embarrassed by what he\'d shared - he\'d simply switched on the light for her in the middle of a daydream. He\'d done her a favour really, for she could romanticise her own talents in much the same way, and she had to remember that what she could do was dangerous and potentially harmful. If she sought to advance her skills, she would also have to advance her control, lest she set something aflame that she didn\'t wish to.
Not knowing what next to say, she reached for her mostly empty glass and suckled on the straw, taking the last few swallows. It was a welcome relief from the awkward moment passing between them, and really the night was mostly a success. There was just the little hiccup of him being, well, less like a fantasy and much more real.
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Kerr tilted his head slightly as he watched her, noticing that she was awkward and trying to be okay with that. He had enough regrets to keep him warm by day, though, he didn\'t need any more, so he didn\'t think it was wrong to want to make it up to her.
"What about you?" he asked softly. "I gather, since you\'re here alone, that you\'re single? - even though I find it very difficult to believe." His expression was not suave or appealing or cheesy; if anything, it was wry and he\'d simply said the words like he might have been making an observation about the weather. he thought she was amazing and he honestly couldn\'t believe someone wasn\'t actively pursuing her.
Why, if things hadn\'t been different for him, he certainly would be!
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"I am single," she said, setting her now-empty drink down and making sure it was safely away from the edge of the table before looking at Kerr, her hand still holding the short stem of the glass as she fiddled with it between her thumb and index finger, mostly turned to face Kerr. "I don\'t have much time for romance. Work keeps my busy," she added, then smiled to let him know this was how she preferred it, and she\'d done very well for herself in her chosen career, being in charge of a department at the museum at a much younger age than all the other department heads. Granted, her space wasn\'t as big as the others (along with her budget), but it was more than she\'d believed possible, and it was mostly thanks to ignoring her social life to some degree.
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He smirked, knowing he was about to be inappropriate but trying to be cute about it - he rested his right elbow on the table and leaned his jaw upon the heel of his hand, fingers curled against his cheek as he watched her with interest.
"For romance," he repeated after her, emphasising the word so that he was demarcating his point. "I see. But what about... loneliness?" he asked, his eyebrows raised and his expression cheeky. "Do you ever get the urge to just... have someone there for a little while?" By \'little while\', he meant a night, but she would know that.
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She guaged the meaning behind his question and wondered if he was just talking or if he was hinting. Deciding that she was reading too much into the conversation, she answered him like he didn\'t mean anything beyond being curious. After all, he\'d shared his unromantic side with her, and if he\'d been trying to charm her, that information wouldn\'t have come out.
"No. I don\'t want to be with someone who doesn\'t love me," she said simply. It was a tough call, and she\'d had a couple of relationships where they\'d slowly built up and then slowly burned out, but both men had been loves in her life, and she\'d had a couple of years with each. The first had been a very young, very passionate ordeal, and the second had ended when she\'d been promoted, last year. Was she lonely? She supposed so, but it wasn\'t so bad that she was considering one night stands.
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Despite himself, he smiled and it was stupid, but something inside him also sighed with relief. She was just... perfect and he simply stared at her, a soft and admiring smile on his face as his gaze caressed her lovely features. He wanted to tell her he thought she was beautiful, and describe the ways he would worship her pillowy lips if he could, but it remained unsaid, for it was too dangerous a gamble.
The intensity of his looking at her was broken suddenly when bar staff appeared to remove their empty glasses; he looked up and thanked the waitress quietly, straightening back into the seat once more and off his hand. God, he had to stop leaning towards her.
"Your work fascinates me. Tell me about it?" he requested brightly, changing the subject very obviously.
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She was curious about his wanting to move away from the topic, but supposed he\'d realised it wasn\'t a gentlemanly subject. He\'d danced around inappropriateness, but she believed he hadn\'t crossed the line, and so she also settled back into the booth chair, looking back at him. The intensity of their locked gazes had lowered at this point, though it had nowhere to go but down after the height it had soared to just a moment ago, before their glasses had been chinked together by the waitress, breaking the spell.
She started with where her exhibit was in the museum, what he would see if he visited, where she\'d retrieved most of the pieces, her favourite collection and the trouble she\'d gone to in order to assemble it (because most of the pieces that belonged together had many separate owners for private collections who hadn\'t wished to sell), and the few things she\'d learned about the different ancient cultures by working on the artefacts, things she hadn\'t known after studying at the university. She realised she\'d been talking for over an hour about everything, interjected and prompted with Kerr\'s questions, laughing with him over a few things, and marvelled at how easy it was to get along with him.
"I think I\'ve exhausted all my work conversation for the next few months," she told him finally, letting him know there was little left she wanted to talk about - there was only the boring stuff left.
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"A pity," he told her wistfully, "because I could listen to you talk about your work for at least the next few months." He dropped her a playful wink, finding himself thoroughly enchanted with her and truly sad that she\'d run out of things to tell him - well, he doubted she\'d run out, he more believed she was being polite, but he wished she wouldn\'t be. In more ways than one.
"What hours do you work?" he hinted, leaning his elbows on the table and wrapping his hands around them as he inclined towards her yet again. It was proving annoying to be so far away from her, unable to touch her casually - with only their feet brushing against one another occasionally (though he\'d deliberately done that, stretching his long legs towards her and attempting to leave his right calf leaning against hers).
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She gave a soft laugh at his polite comment about listening to her waffle on about her work. Politeness was all it was, she was sure. When he leaned forward, so did she, without conscious thought. Asking about the hours she worked wasn\'t so easy a question to answer, however.
"I\'m slated to work nine to five Monday to Friday, but I end up staying back at the Museum until all hours, especially if I have to make international calls to different timezones," she said with a smile, not minding the long hours she put in, and not feeling guilty for leaving earlier in the day these past few weeks (in order to investigate her heritage) because of it. She made sure her daily tasks were always done, it was the extra things she couldn\'t help staying back for (mostly because she had an empty apartment to go back to). "I\'ve been leaving on time lately," she mused.
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"So... if a diurnally-challenged person such as myself were to... request a... private tour some night... do you think you could accommodate me?" he queried, dropping his coy act in favour of a winning smile as he switched from vague hints to certain identification of himself.
He desperately wanted to see her exhibits, to experience the artefacts she\'d worked so hard to reunite, but he couldn\'t foresee a time when he could get there before six and the museum was likely closed before then. If she stayed back late at night on a regular basis, security guards wouldn\'t bother investigating and she obviously had alarm codes and keys to the place, so hopefully she\'d agree to let him in.
"I\'ll show you mine, if you show me yours," he teased, waggling his eyebrows as he attempted to sweeten the deal (cheekily). Several references to some of his pieces and their history - entertwined with some of her exhibits, in fact - had already come up and he\'d mentioned some of the antiques he owned, so it would only be natural for him to share. Of course, the fact that his best pieces and the majority of his collection was in his Scottish castle hadn\'t been stated... but he had enough at the penthouse to keep her interested for a while yet.
-
"You know, I\'ve always wondered why the museum began keeping a twenty four hour schedule since a couple of years ago. I didn\'t believe people would want to come and see the exhibits at three in the morning." She looked at him with renewed interest and respect. "I suppose that must have been your doing," she said, using \'your\' in general terms, speaking mostly of the Oligarchy as a whole and using Kerr as a representative of the organisation.
She hadn\'t answered his initial question, so pressed on.
"Of course I have time to spare in order to educate the general public," she said, gesturing at Kerr and swallowing a laugh at adressing him in such a mundane way. "And I have every intention of seeing that heritage vase of yours," she said, accepting his invitation to call around to his penthouse in order to view his private collection.
She hadn\'t forgotten his earlier comments about not wanting a relationship in order to keep things simple, but there was no reason why they couldn\'t be friends.
-
He chuckled, shaking his head and raising his hands as if he were attempting to surrender. "I had nothing to do with it, I swear! I didn\'t even know it was open twenty-four hours - and if I did, I\'ve forgotten! In all honesty, I simply haven\'t been inspired enough to go and check it out," he grinned, lowering his hands to the table and then reaching over to grasp the closest of hers, toying with her fingers.
"But I am now," he told her huskily, looking adoringly at her. She was adorable. "So why don\'t we make a date, hmm?" he queried, his voice light and playful because he didn\'t want to pressure her - and there was something intimidating about using the word \'date\' around her, because he got the distinct impression that although she enjoyed flirting with him, her ideals would see her turning him away beyond anything friendly.
It was true that they had different goals in their lives (though they both seemed to be insane workaholics), but it was also true that a big part of him wished they didn\'t. Or that she\'d at least drop her standards and allow him closer to her for a little while - but the catch was also that that was exactly what he found so adorable about her. Well, one of the things, anyway.
-
She was surprised at his comment about not being inspired enough to check out the museum, for it was a place she loved and couldn\'t imagine living without. It was like telling an avid book reader that he\'d never stepped foot in a library. There was something plainly wrong with that. The comment, combined with the touching of her fingers, was a bad mix, though she didn\'t pull away. Something negative didn\'t gel with something positive, and so it seemed like an artificial move on his part. Following up that he was now interested in the museum (because of his interest in her, obviously) was flattering, though not quite enough to save his earlier mistake. She let it go, however, forgiving his stumble because she wasn\'t perfect and couldn\'t expect others to be. So he hadn\'t been interested in the museum, which was a disappointment, but it wasn\'t the end of the world. After all, he\'d been around long enough to see many things first hand. Perhaps some old items (beyond his own private collection) or cultures just... didn\'t appeal.
"Friday night the Museum\'s usually quiet," she offered, for everyone did other things on Friday nights. She wondered if he would sacrifice a party night for her, assuming that every night wasn\'t a party night for him.
-
He pulled a face, looking pained and apologetic at the same time, letting go of her hand and moving his own back slightly because she hadn\'t returned his touch. He tried not to be worried by it, but he was all the same, part of his mind staying focussed on the here and now while another part spun off and tried to work out the reason for her lack of response.
"Unfortunately, your Friday nights are so quiet because it\'s the favoured night for supernaturals to go out and do stupid things like get drunk and reveal their true nature to crowds of mortals that are out enjoying the end of their working week," he explained wryly. "I always work Friday nights - and I tend to start earlier than usual and end later, because the workload is always increased, so I wouldn\'t be able to get to the museum on a Friday before three o\'clock. Ish," he explained apologetically. "Well... unless I just went and insisted any cases get locked up for the night, we do have cells," he mused.
Really, he could insist on such a thing, or on other oligarchs taking his place and doing their best with his vampire cases - as he\'d done with shifter and demonic cases in the past - but he simply wasn\'t sure he should go to that much effort. Not because he didn\'t want to and not because Jenna didn\'t warrant it, but mainly because of the worrying lack of enthusiasm she seemed to have all of a sudden.
What did I say? Did I say anything or am I just coming on too strong and she\'d rather not be left alone in a quiet, empty place with a vampire?
She\'s a fire demon! She could fucking roast you alive and not even have to step over the pile of ashes!
She may not realise that, though... did I say something? What did I say?!
He would feel a fool if he moved his schedule around and inconvenienced forty odd staff for the sake of a polite tour (of relics he\'d generally seen in museums all over the world many times before, just never together) that she really wasn\'t enthused about giving. How humiliating!
-
She noticed his hand retreat and felt loss over it. Her reaction hadn\'t been conscious - more of a sense than a series of thoughts. She wondered why he pulled away and bundled it together with the fact he was forced to reject her first offer of a nightly tour to spend at the museum.
"Mustn\'t keep you from your political duty," she said lightly, then continued. "It doesn\'t really matter what night we choose, I suppose. We don\'t normally attract the masses unless we have something like an animatronic dinosaur exhibit," she said, rolling her eyes, though she was only half joking. Anything that brought people to the museum couldn\'t be a bad thing, though she was getting tired of the whole dinosaur fascination the public seemed to have.
-
He gave a snort of derision when she mentioned keeping him from his political duties, still unimpressed with the whole arrangement, even after... God, over a year already? Time flew, who\'d\'ve thought?
Kerr couldn\'t help but smile as she derided animatronic dinosaurs. He preferred them in a movie but could see why they\'d attract families; they were fun and would be pretty cool to watch.
"Yes, any night is fine. My work schedule is generally nine p.m. to around two a.m. - though it depends on clients, of course - so I could come in early or late every night, and I generally have two nights a week off, just not consecutively. That\'s what tonight is," he said, grinning happily at her. "Heck, I suppose we could go now, if you were up to it," he suggested spontaneously, seeing it as a viable option for extending their night together.
They could even go via his place if she wanted... but again, he was hesitant and careful not to press. Not when there\'d been a hiccup of some sort in the vibe.
-
She frowned at him, but was smiling at the same time, unsure of the quality of his suggestion.
"Do you know when your next night off is?" she asked. She wouldn\'t mind going to the museum tonight, but would prefer to look forward to another meet, rather than jamming everything into one go. If he insisted they go tonight, however, she\'d go along with it. It would only take one plea, or a comment, and she would easily give in.
It occurred to her belatedly, that he might have plans to spend his recreational time with someone else. Before she could withdraw her question though, he answered.
-
"I do," he grinned, "it\'s in four nights\' time. Would that suit you?"
He was telling himself not to get his hopes up, to tread cautiously and stop thinking of their future meeting as a date (even though he\'d put the word out there himself). He should think of it as a meeting with a like-minded soul, someone with whom he communicated very well, admired and loved intellectually sparring with.
The fact that he found her every movement fascinating, her scent erotic and her beauty dazzling would just have to be put aside (until he sensed some genuine enthusiasm from her). Except... "I could take you to dinner first, if you like, and we could take it from there, fit my place in somewhere?"
Except he was an idiot for her and couldn\'t help himself.
-
"Four nights," she said with a nod, quickly calculating which night of the week that would be, "sounds lovely," she concurred. His next suggestion gave her pause however, and not because it sounded like a date, but rather it was the technicalities of the scenario.
"Oh! You can eat?" she asked, not remembering him having coffee or cakes when they\'d been at his office, but that hadn\'t meant anything. Perhaps blood was his survival food, like the human body needed water, and the rest was simply extra for processing. It would be rather advantageous, she supposed, for a vampire to be able to digest food. It would certainly avoid a lot of questions.
She hadn\'t ignored his request purposefully; rather she liked the idea of going out beforehand with him, rather than merely spending time at the museum and making it feel like an extension of work rather than an outing, which was how she\'d prefer to think of it.
-
He smiled kindly at her. "No, but that doesn\'t mean I\'m not interested in taking you out. I have no qualms about watching you eat something lavish - if you don\'t mind that - because that\'s enjoyable to me and I love restaurants. I can convince everyone I\'ve eaten, only you would know the difference," he told her, dropping her another wink.
-
"Sounds interesting," she mused, grinning at him and not minding his not eating, if he didn\'t mind. "Then after dinner you\'ll show me that heritage vase of yours," she told him, pointing her finger into his face quite rudely, in order to show him she was being stern with him, except the effect was ruined with a giggle and a quick extraction of her pointing finger.
-
He laughed with her, pleased she had accepted his proposal and also that she was relaxing back into a playful mood again. He eyed the finger waving in front of him, debating showing her how fast he could be by catching it and kissing it, but deciding that would be way too forward. He looked mischievously into her eyes instead.
"Honey, I\'ll show you whatever you want to see, whenever you want to see it," he smirked. "Though we may want to do the museum after dinner and finish at my place. Alone. In private. Just the two of us and my... collection," he told her, waggling his eyebrows and laying it on thick because he knew she\'d never fall for cheesy come-ons (and he hoped she knew he knew that), but she had proved she could take a joke.
-
He was being overly cheesy and she recognised his lines for what they were; jokes. Giggling, but overly aware that they\'d wrapped up their conversation (because arranging a second meeting usually meant that the first was coming to an end).
"Oh dear. Looks like I\'d best make my escape now," she said, and then added an element of seriousness, just in case he took her words as something other than a wrap up. "Thank you so much for showing me around the club, Kerr. I doubt I would\'ve been brave enough to venture where we did without a guide." She saw by his expression that he hadn\'t expected her to wrap it up, so offered him an explanation as to why. "It might be early for you, Kerr, but it\'s late for me." She reached over to touch his upper arm reassuringly.