Chapter 61
Pam's POV
It had been two days of nothing but wild, animalistic sex with Quinn before and after my duty at Fangtasia. He was almost healed completely and I have to be honest, I was ready for him to go home. I just didn't know how to broach the subject with him. It had been a long night at the club. Every scumbag from every neighboring parish had flooded into the bar and started fights, offered themselves to vamps in the bathrooms, someone had overflowed the toilets in the womens room. Ginjer was on the rag and bitched all night until I glamored her into never having a period again. Chow was more interested in mesmerizing some underage breathers than doing his job. It was about fucking time for Northman to get off of the honeymoon and get his lazy ass back to work. It must be wonderful to lay around all night fighting and fucking while shirking your responsibilities. I should try it sometime.
And now here I sat, a block away from home, dreading the conversation I was going to have with a huge ass were tiger. I couldn't handle this co-habitation for one second longer. I was all fucked out for the time being and he was seriously cramping my style. I needed alone time. I needed to know that I could bring home a lover and not feel awkward.
Don't misunderstand me, Quinn was a phenomenal lover. But as a rule, I tire of lovers easily and I am a woman who needs variety. Two days of the same without any strange and I was on edge.
Get a fucking grip, Pam. It's your house, just tell him. He's a big boy, he can take it.
I drove the last block to my house and pulled into the garage.
Here goes nothing.
Quinn met me at the door. He looked nervous, what the hell had the damn lummox broken now?
"Hey babe, how was work?" he was shifting from foot to foot like a kid who had to piss.
"Don't ask." I eyed him suspiciously. Something was definitely up. "Okay, Were, out with it. I hate suspense."
"Pam, you know I think you're amazing and all, right?" I nodded while still giving him the hairy eyeball. "I have had the best time with you for the last two nights and I hope you have had a good time too." I crossed my arms and gave him the full glare, hoping it would speed up this little display. "Well, you see babe, it just...." sweat was dripping off of his forehead now, he must have broken something expensive. I swear if he had gone near my Happy Days Commemorative Porcelain Plate Collection I would make a rug out of him! You couldn't find the Fonzie plate anywhere anymore! "I think it's time for me to head back to my own place."
That took the piss right out of me. Was I feeling rejected, really? Wasn't I planning on coming in here and telling him that he needed to do what he was so busy telling me he wanted to do?
Not the SAME! I should be the one deciding this, not him!
"I hope you're not mad, I hope you won't mind dropping me off somewhere so I can call a cab or something. I just didn't want to risk calling someone here to your home, I need to know that you're gonna be safe."
"I'll drive you where ever you want to go, Quinn. Unless you don't want me to know where you live."
Fat chance of that, I'd known his address since the night all that shit went down at Merlotte's.
"No, I want you to know, I mean, I hope this isn't the end of our little arrangement, the whole fuck-buddy thing is great!"
I don't think I cared too much for the term fuck-buddy, even though it sounded like one I would use myself.
"Yeah, sure. Well, no time like now, let's head out, shall we?"
He'd given me pretty good directions to a place about 40 miles outside of Shreveport. We didn't speak at all during the drive. He'd cleared his throat a couple of times like he was about to say something but never did. I was busy trying to figure out how I could possibly feel this way simply because he had beaten me to the punch. I should be relieved that I didn't have to be the bad guy now. Awkward didn't even begin to describe the feeling between us.
I don't know what I was expecting as far as his house, but it sure as hell wasn't what I drove up to. I had seen this house in Supernatural Living, a magazine that features the homes of well to do Non-Humans. They don't name or show the owners most of the time because not all of them are vampires. So far, vampires were the only Supes who had come out.
I stopped at the huge double gate that had a speaker and keypad. I expected that he would get out and walk to the keypad to put his code in.
"Just punch in 1278 and hit the pound key." Why in the hell would he trust me with this? I wouldn't give him a key to my house! Come to think of it, I was pretty damn sure that this was not the same address that I had found during my background check of him.
I entered the code and the gates swung open. I drove up the driveway to the mansion that sat among magnolias and myrtles. It was magnificent, so much more so than the pictures in the magazine had shown. I snapped my jaw shut, it wouldn't do to show him how impressed I was with his hovel.
"Just park anywhere you'd like. If you wouldn't mind accompanying me inside that is." He'd sounded almost bashful when he'd asked me that.
"I guess I could stay for a few minutes." Or as long as it took to get the grand tour. I was wet, thinking about seeing first hand one of the homes I had practically masturbated to pictures of. What can I say? I'm an architectural whore.
Quinn made no move to block the front door keypad from my view as he entered his code. 1278, the same as the front gate. Not smart, but I wouldn't dare let him know that I had been looking, so I couldn't tell him how dumb I thought his double use of the same code was either.
The front door locks disengaged, Quinn stepped inside and I saw the foyer lights burst into life. He stuck his head out the door and smiled.
"Coming in, babe?" I nodded mutely. He swung the door wide and I gasped in spite of myself. He bowed at the waist, "Please enter, Miss Pam, you are welcome in my home anytime." I stepped inside and couldn't figure out what to look at first.
The floor was the most amazing white and gray marble, polished to a mirror-like shine. There was a double winding staircase that led to the upper level to the left and right. The chandelier was made of crystal by one of the finest chandelier makers, Perry & Co. I remembered reading that fact in SL. The prisms that it cast on the marble floor and walls made me feel dizzy. It was scrumptious.
"Do you have time to see more?" He sounded as eager to show me as I felt about seeing it. Again, all I could do was nod in agreement.
Next he took me to the Grand Salon. This room was much the same as I remembered from the pictoral, although he had added a White Steinway grand piano since.
"I don't come in here much, but I have been in here more since I got the piano."
"You play?"
"Nah, with these sausages?" He held up his fingers and wiggled them. "I won it from someone who lost miserably to me in a cage match. I just wanted a piano. I thought all the huge houses were supposed to have one. Felt wrong not to."
I laughed, that was most definitely Quinn. "Do you mind if I...?" I asked as I motioned to the piano.
"By all means, have at it babe. It should be tuned, I paid for it to be, but I wouldn't know. No musical ability whatsoever."
I slid onto the bench and opened the keys delicately. It had been so long since I played but my fingers remembered. I played Tsjaikovsky's 6th Symphony, Pathetique. It was the last song I had played as a human. The music flowed from the piano in somber remembrance. When I had finished, I sat with my eyes closed until the echo of the last note faded out entirely.
I felt Quinn behind me before he actually touched me. His voice sounded strange as he spoke.
"You are the most amazing creature I've ever met. You really moved me with that. I'm not cultured or refined in any sense of the word but that was incredible."
I allowed myself a smile before turning to face him. "Can I see more?"
"You really want to? I haven't gotten to show off the house to anyone personally, they did come out once from some magazine and shot a bunch of pictures but I can't remember who it was."
"That's interesting, were you here at the time?"
"I hadn't even spent one night here at that point. I had been on the road endlessly, going from fight to fight. I think in the three years I've owned this place, I've slept here maybe a dozen times. Pathetic, huh?"
"Why do you think that is, Quinn?"
"It's too big, too empty and it makes me feel too alone."
"Then why did you buy it?"
He shrugged, "Cause it was the best and I had the money. You wouldn't believe some of the dives I lived in as a kid. I guess this house is like the big 'fuck you!' to my past."
This was making me feel things about Quinn again, and I didn't want to. "So where to next, Mr. Tour Guide?"
He took me on a tour of the huge kitchen of which held no interest for me. Kitchens were all but obsolete for the undead, with the exception of a fridge and microwave. Then we went to the basement where he had an arcade (what an overgrown kid) a home theater that rivaled any I had seen on Cribs, and a two lane bowling alley. Next was the second floor where his home gym was. He had more workout equipment than I knew names for. There were several guest rooms that were all tastefully done. I mentioned how well they were decorated and he admitted that he hadn't a thing to do with how they came out. He'd paid an interior designer to doll the place up.
"Okay, so there's one more room to go." He opened up two heavy oak doors and I walked in to the one room I KNEW he had decorated all himself.
The walls were covered in dark Chinoiserie Style silk wallpaper. This stuff was hand painted and impossibly expensive. Every inch was covered by various murals depicting Tigers. His bed coverings were a shade lighter in color with the same Tiger motif. The carpet was so plush that I sank into it as stepped inside the room. In contrast to the décor, the furniture was clean and simple in it's design but grand in it's scale. His bed reminded me greatly of Eric's in it's dominance of the room. I was enraptured, taking it all in, but still heard the familiar sound of shifting. I didn't turn to look, I knew there was an eight foot long tiger behind me.
I felt his tail slide up inside of my skirt and flick lightly on my ass. This was followed by the roughness of his tongue as it made it's way up from my ankle to my knee in one agonizingly delicious motion. I still refused to acknowledge him, until he roared that is.