Cold Hearted Woman
They laid there for a while. On her bed, silent, staring at the ceiling. As dawn crept forward, though, Josef stood up, still holding her and carried her to the freezer. (He'd already stopped thinking of it as his freezer.) He sat her on the bed silently, and began to unbutton her shirt. He concentrated on the task, never looking in her face, even as he slid it over her shoulders. Then he lifted her hips and pulled her jeans off too.
With all the precision and warmth of a nurse giving a sponge bath, Charlie thought.
She laid there with her hands behind her head, staring at him. He turned slowly, and removed his shirt and pants as well. Funny, she thought, I imagined if he ever undressed me there would have been a different result.
He then crawled into the bed next to her. It was a good sized bed, but rather than putting space between them, he laid so they were touching. He pulled her to his chest, and began to stroke her hair.
How can I feel so lonely when Josef is sitting next to me? she wondered. She cursed herself mentally that she craved acceptance from a man who would only open up to her after she'd prodded the hole in his heart with a sharp stick. Certainly that was it, though. She didn't need Josef to love her. Of course she found him attractive, no woman, with or without a pulse, could deny it, but that's as far as it went, or at least that's what she told herself. She just desperately needed a friend, and, let's face it, Josef was her whole world. At this, most painful of thoughts, Charlie began to cry silently.
Josef knew, and rather than ask her why, he continued to hold her close. So that's it, is it? A love that is gone, or perhaps will not accept her because of her vampirism, Josef thought. Of course there was a love somewhere. Charlie was nothing if not appealing. Smart, and soft, and so strong when you didn't expect it. She'd even taken vampirism in stride. Perhaps that was it, a man who wouldn't understand her new nature. If that was the case, Josef would cheerfully kill such a man, one unable to see past this new life of hers, when she was, beyond biology, virtually unchanged.
Maybe she'd try to rekindle the past romance when she left Josef. But Josef put it out of his mind. It was nicer than he would have expected, having someone to come home to. And in a part of himself, he'd never admit, he wished there was some way to make her choose to stay.
He waited until she was deeply asleep, and pulled back a little. Far enough away that he could really look at her. He knew every line of her pretty face. Her long neck, and rounded hips, and the black polish on her toenails. She was undeniably beautiful. Sexy, in a way too, he decided, but not in such an obvious way, in a way that took you by surprise, that took your breath away, especially when she was laying in practically nothing in your freezer.
Josef knew he should move away, stay on his side, give her space. But he decided, he could be gruff later. Tonight, she was heartbroken, and maybe, she'd appreciate waking up in his arms. So he held her still tighter, and fell asleep.
When he woke, that night, he was still holding her, as he'd predicted, with one hand tangled in her hair, and one curved around, to rest on the small of her back. He was surprised however, that she had put her arms around him as well, most notably her hand on his hip, her thumb hooked into his boxers.
He was not entirely prepared however, for what happened when she woke. She looked a little dreamy, still smiling softly. And then, in an instant, she had pushed him on his back, fangs down, and whispered, "I'm hungry." He was fine, if a little perturbed, until she went for his neck.
With his left hand he pulled her head back, and offered his right wrist.
She nuzzled it for a moment before piercing his skin. She looked into his eyes as she fed, and the air in the room began to sizzle. She was powerfully aroused, and it was beginning to affect him as well. He gently extricated her from his arm, disappeared and reappeared with a tall glass of blood. He took a long drink before handing it to her.
"What just happened? One minute, I was just hungry, the next I wanted to rip your boxers off with my teeth," Charlie asked.
"Charming visual," Josef said, holding his breath so his fangs didn't come down, showing just how affected he was by her words. "Feeding especially from another vamp is tied strongly to sex," he continued, "but if you're hungry enough, it just seems like feeding. Now that you're in control enough to notice your other impulses, you could try feeding on a human, or you could drink from a glass for few days until you feel you are ready," Josef replied coolly.
"Wait, I was this close to ravishing you, and you want to release me on the unsuspecting male populace?" Charlie asked, shocked.
"The female populace too, if you like," Josef said, wickedly.
She threw a pillow at him.
He cupped her cheek with his hand before saying, "You're doing great. You're a natural. Now go put on something cute, we're meeting some friends for a drink."
Charlie rolled her eyes at him, and he smacked her ass, before pointing her in the direction of the door.
She made sure to shake it just a little extra as she walked away.
She turned back to face him as she reached the door, though. "What kind of cute?" she asked. "Girly cute, classy cute, sexy cute, slutty cute?"
He chuckled, "How about somewhere between classy and sexy?"
"That's a pretty wide spectrum," she said speculatively.
"We're going to a bar, you can figure it out," Josef said desperate to get her barely clothed body out of the room.
"I'll be back in ten," she said, removing her bra and underwear as she walked away.
Josef was given about a two second unobstructed view of her backside. He drank the rest of the blood in a gulp and ran his fingers through his hair.
She came back in a pair of dark, trouser cut jeans, a white tank, and a burgundy vest.
And he could see almost as much cleavage as when she was only wearing the bra...
God, he was going to regret saying sexy, wasn't he? In the future, he decided he would say "nun."
Cold Hearted Woman by CCR (A/N: because Josef deserves it, even if he didn't get Charlie all hot and bothered on purpose. hehe)
She's got a smile a million miles long
Got a trail of crying and leaving song
You don't know and you don't care
You're completely unaware
Sometimes I wanna rip out your heart
To see if something's there
Cold hearted woman
You're bringing me down in flames
Running around all over town
Running down my name
Gonna get me a loaded pistol
Hey, was that out loud
Cold hearted woman
I'm gonna put you in the ground