Taking Chances

Title: Taking Chances- Chapter 8: Marry Me, Now!
Author: Bubukittypuck
Archived: Here of course, Fictionpress, and my laptop
Summary: Marguerite's first person perspective on the relationship she has or does not have with Josef. She is freshie to Josef's donor.
Rating: It ranges from PG-13 to M later on.
Pairings: OC/Josef
Feedback: Review please though do not flame.
Characters: Josef, Marguerite, Beth, Mick, and any other characters inhabiting Los Angeles.
Beta’s: None
Disclaimer: I don’t own Moonlight or the characters, though I do wish Moonlight does come back. For now, writing fanfics seems to stem the need to hunt down Jason Dohring and bring him back to my bedroom. I do not own the right to Nair though I wish the company could make it less sticky and more perfumy. Plus Saran Wrap is not a patent I hold but it does come in handy when I need to cover up a dish and send it off on its way. Chippendale I love but I do not own nor the Coolpix but I wish I owned Ashton Kutcher. I do not own Hostel and I respect Eli Roth. If I ever met him in person, I would ask him to put me in his next movies, whether I am the one being killed or the one to kill. He is a genius and I adore him.

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[Being I]"The key is to this house because I want us to start a life together. I want you to marry me," he answered a twinkle of amusement in his eyes. He got down on his knee and pulled out a ring box. Son of a bitch was serious about this. What in the hell was going on? [End I]

Those words repeated itself in my head over and over as I looked at Josef perched on the bathroom sink in the guest room I occupied. Even now, when I pulled him to his feet and excused the two of us to 'talk' over his proposal in private, the men in my family was ready to come after him. The men disliked dishonesty and boy, was Josef dishonest about his place in my life. He told my uncle and father, my father whom I adore beyond comprehension and my uncle known for his former boxing occupation the two of us were friends and I defended him only to let them and the family think he and I were involved. God, even James saw the whole thing and now I wondered what his thought process headed towards.

"Well, what did you think of my proposal" Josef stated as he crossed his arms over his chest. Oh, how I wanted to walk on over and slap the little smirk off his face but I knew he could stop me with the fluid movement that came with being a vampire before I even took half a step towards him. A negative check in the box of why Josef and I were not compatible with one another no matter that I wished we could be.

"What did I think of your proposal? Josef, you surprised the hell out of everyone, including myself. What are you trying to pull?," I asked as I laid against the bathroom door. Knowing my family, someone sent out a spy to listen in on the conversation. With added measure, I locked the door and pounded my fists every few seconds against the door to drone out our conversation.

Josef leaped off of the edge of the sink with the ease of a panther and boy, he looked every bit of the lethal panther as he glanced over me. Vaguely, I wondered whether my face was still red from the embarrassment and shock of hearing his marriage proposal. He walked slowly, but surely, towards me, his hands in his pocket, where the damn ring box laid as well. When he opened the ring box, a whooping fat diamond engagement ring twinkled and taunted itself at me in the velvet encased around it, I wanted to punch and kiss Josef in that moment.

For a fleeting few seconds, elation and pure joy invaded my whole body at the prospect of Josef wanting to marry me and be the man I yearned for all these months. However, in those same seconds, a bucket of water iced the veins inside of me and I felt Josef was pulling my leg. Josef, a man every woman he slept with and came into contact with all said he was forever a bachelor, a Casanova never to be tied down to one woman, went down on one knee for my hand in marriage. Impossible, my mind thought because of how quick he asked me and never had we even acknowledged our feelings to one another nor did we ever go on a proper date to even see if we were compatible. As a result of those questions bashed around in my skull as I wanted to find out the truth from Josef in private.

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Those hands of his laid against the sides of her head, blocking any escape routes she had in case Josef went vampire on her. This scenario brought back the library incident in Josef's head and he fought back the need to kiss her. Past few days after he gotten calls about the murdered freshies and the owners pushing for revenge and bloodshed, Josef received inspiration in the form of the paparazzi photographs of Marguerite and himself the day she was released from the hospital. It was brilliant and stupidity but the way he planned it out, the scheme would work. With the help of Mick, Beth, and even Marguerite's own sister, everything fell into place.

The way he planned it was this: He, Josef, would propose to Marguerite in front a huge public and he was blessed when it came up with her birthday bash. Everyone, including her close friends, James, and Sasha would get the word out in the Los Angeles about the supposed Playboy of Hollywood settling down with a 'normal' type of female.

From there, he revealed the scheme to her which he did with whispering in her ear in the bathroom, he received a sure slap across the face and he waited for her to try and slap him again. He was surprised however when she rubbed her eyes, ruining the eye shadow she wore.

"I cannot believe this," she whispered low enough for him to hear but not for the relatives on the other side to catch. Good thing about Josef as a vampire, he could hear a pin drop from two rooms away and the muttering oaths of a person in church whenever he felt the need to confess his sins.

"Well believe it," he replied as he tapped and thumped at the door with his hands methodically to interrupt her family and friends from listening in. He heard Sasha and James on the other side of the door, whispering and asking various questions.

[Begin I]"Were the two dating or was it an open relationship when I asked Marguerite out?", James asked. [End I]

Oh, if only, Josef thought to himself though he never would have allowed any of his girlfriends to be screwing other men while he was around. Hell, if he thought about it hard enough, he was glad for this marriage 'proposal' plan of his. Not only would he able to weed out the two murderers but have Marguerite under his protection even more. By protection, he meant keeping her away from James and off the market until this whole scenario was over.

[Begin I] "Always knew my girl would bag a handsome guy but a rich guy? Damn, she is good," Ashlee, Marguerite's friend commented. [End I]

Well, he considered himself on the regal side. Though he detested the fact of a woman wanting to marry him only for his money but then he realized the fact of living in a city where money bought power and made people talk came at a price. Hopefully, Marguerite was not one of the regular trophy wives he saw hanging off of the celebrities these days. Though he wondered what she was thinking at the moment.
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"Do you know what you have gotten yourself into? What you have gotten me into?," I questioned and stopped the need to smack him once more. The first time I was lucky and Josef allowed me to hit him. Next time, I would not be so lucky.

"Yes and it will be worth it. The final police report came in on your apartment. There were listening bugs in your house for the past few weeks, Marguerite. What does that say about the fact someone was in your house, planted them and you had no idea?," he asked as we both pounded the door and I warned the others to let us speak in private. Seeing as I heard my cousin ask for a glass cup to put towards the door, I started to turn on the water in the sink, tub, and shower. The two of us huddled together near the closed shower door as we talked more and he helped get my heart rate back to normal.

"Are you freaking kidding me?," I hissed when he pulled a zip lock bag containing a small listening device from the inside of his pocket. It was one of several devices found in my apartment. Seems the dead Deacon fellow and his buddies were listening in on me for a while at the way Josef phrased it.

"Do I look like I am kidding you?," he asked, an eyebrow rose in showing his complete lack of amusement at it. Nope, he was not kidding me or playing a nice joke on this special occasion.

"What now? If the sons of bitches invaded my damn privacy then there should be prints where they planted the stuff," I replied, running my fingers through my curls as best as I could. Tonight, was turning out to be a birthday party that went down as a memory I wanted to surely forget. However, Josef would not let me forget it.

"You say yes to the proposal and then we announce it to the groups. Go out in public with it as well, get those sons of bitches as you called them, and enjoy the rest of the summer," Josef answered as only Josef could. Made it simple as if he was explaining the need to take a breath.

Rubbing my eyes even further, I noticed the eye shadow stains on my fingers, realizing how long I had been trying to ease the headache pounding through my skull. "This is crazy," I whispered and looked towards the reflection of Josef and I in the mirror. In the mirror, another image covered the original one. In this image, Josef held me as I died away in his arms as blood stains covered my stomach and chest.

Josef's hand caressed my cheek as he willed me physically to turn my head and look at him. "No, you have to trust me and put your faith. This is going to work but it you have to say yes and go along with it. Can you go along with it?," he asked me. The horrible sight of my death disappeared when I glanced into his face. Gone was the playful nature that was Josef and in its place was a seriousness only shown in the boardroom when he went for the jugular. A slight nod was all I gave as he smirked and moved to shut off the water. He came back, held out his hand and waited for me to take it.

"We are in this together," he answered.

Taking his hand, I squeezed it and looked towards the locked door. "Yes, we are."
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"Josef and I have something to tell you guys. Josef, go ahead," I commented as I handed it over for Josef to continue. He and I stood side to side, his left hand clasping my right hand tightly. He squeezed my right hand firmly, a sign he was not happy with being thrown under the bus. Well, he planned the 'proposal' and by accounts he should finish it.

"Marguerite and I have been secretly dating for a while but we took a break a few weeks back. When the robbery incident happened it was a punch to my gut and made me realize I almost lost the woman I wanted to spend the rest of my life with."

Funny he said that. He should have said, "...spend the rest of my immortal life with" but I kept my mouth shut. No one in the family except Iris and I were aware of Mick, Josef's, and Iris's fiancée’s conditions. Josef's statement of me being the "woman" he truly wanted made me bite the inside of my cheek to stop the need to mention Sarah again.

"Is this true, Marguerite?," my father asked, his facing having turned a deep shade of red. Uh-oh. Last time I saw my father in this of purple/red was the first time I started to drive with him in the car. Oh, how he complained the way I steered was wrong and the need to check both sides of the right five times before moving another inch at a stop sign. I banned him for the first few weeks of training me to drive and instead went with my mother.

After I passed my driver's test and received my license, it took several weeks before I relented and had my father in the car with me on errands and father/daughter trips. To tell you the truth, I enjoyed the fact I drove my father around and we bonded during those trips. Now seeing him in this condition, a few father/daughter bonding sessions would be needed to fix this mess.

Swallowing down the acrid taste of the rising bile, I simply nodded, looked over to Josef and explained the situation as best as I could to the family. It took much control to not glance in James's direction and see his crestfallen face when I confirmed the "relationship" Josef and I had.

"We have been dating since January but a few weeks ago, I needed a break. I told Josef I wanted to solely focus on my college work," I replied and glanced over in Josef's direction. Man, he worked the fiancée to a fine T.

"Then what about us?," James asked as he made himself known to the crowd. The party wound down and Mick, Beth, and Iris were smart enough to have the limousines take back the family members not needed for this event. Josef stared down the remainder of the family and friends who opted to stay. Out of the core group who knew of Josef and his background, Beth, Mick, Iris and accompanying fiancée stayed. My father and mother, including the immediate De La Cruz clan and Ashlee were not ushered back to the respective hotels. It still left me with seventeen people to deal with.

"Who is this guy?," my father pointed towards as he looked to me for a confirmation. Another surge of bile headed up my throat and much force was needed not to throw up once more. I hated disappointing my father, the man raised me better than his own mother raised him and in front of the family I revealed the fact I dated two men between periods. Fuck, this was not good. Not good at all.

This time Josef left me to explain who James was to me. Damn it, this is what I never wanted to happen. Never had I wanted the family around James nor wanted James to be brought to the family without at least warning him about my family. Though I adored my family somehow we were all cursed. My aunt's three daughters and son and my father's children which were only Iris and I were inflicted with a curse we all disliked.

The curse ladies and gentleman inflicted the people we were in relationships with. Somehow the family was too much for a person to handle unless born into it the mayhem and catastrophes and a break up always an inevitable. Even my cousin, Liz, dated a guero for more than five years, but he still could not handle the language barriers and the events which happened around certain people or groups of family members. No matter what, it was hard on any relationship outside of the family to survive. Ashlee and my own friendship managed to survive because I helped translate between her and the family and invited her to several events. Warnings of what might happen at family outings helped Ashlee get over the fact of certain people acting like idiots and assholes.

"How can you not tell us, honey?," my mother asked in Spanish, eyes narrowing in suspicion at Josef. The De La Cruz females and Ashlee's attention settled on Josef and me. All of their eyes glanced over us and through us, all of them trying to determine whether the two of us tried to hoax them into this lie or not. For now, we had to make this hoax of whatever type of engagement this was real. This depended on getting those good for nothing assholes off of the streets and away from more innocent freshies.

"I did not want to worry everyone with my relationships. All of you are doing great and I wanted to do this on my own and handle it on my own," I replied and enunciated the 'on my own' part because though I loved my family dearly, everyone needed to let me try and make my own mistake. Even now, I was making a huge mistake in lying to my family and friends but it was for the safety of everyone. If the bastards listened to enough of my conversations, then the De La Cruz clan was in trouble of being murdered or taken hostage if the men pulled up information on any of the members.

The nearest family member who lived close by was my cousin Lixy, a year older than me, in Compton. Lixy and I are known as the black sheep of the family because the fact we wanted to try and separate a bit from the Cruz clan rather than stay in the nest and plant out lives around everyone. Dearly, I loved the members of my family but the thought of being watched over constantly like a precious artifact gave me hives and sooner or later I would have combusted and shamed the family for my wild antics because of the need to be free. Much better for me to have carved out a semblance of a single life for myself and stand on my two feet without the need for Mom and Pop to bail me out of trouble then to always wonder what could have been. Now, standing in a house worth more than ten times than a private school tuition bill, I waited for the family to start in on the question but it was worth it since I had Josef as my back up.

Josef held my hand as we took the onslaught of questions to the living room, where we sat together on a couch and the others grabbed seats on the chairs and couches brought in for the festivities. At first, the questions were ball-busting.

"Have you two thought much on this marriage thing?." This question came courtesy of my twice married cousin Lita. Nothing against her but she needed a lesson in picking a good husband for her though the husband she had at the moment was the kind she went for. Partially handsome Mexican gentleman grateful enough to have any woman date him much less marry him and willing to take up the gripe which only Lita could possess.

"Yes, I mentioned it to Marguerite but she wanted to wait until she finished her junior year before she gave me an answer. Well, she is finished," he answered as he looked over towards me. Smooth, real smooth of trying to evade the question.

"Have you planned a date for the wedding?," Sasha asked as she patted herself down for another cigarette. I was only too glad she was out of cigarettes since I have an aversion to the smell and diagnosed asthma when I was young. Damn, seems the De La Cruz clan caught various illnesses and diseases even some people never would have contracted. Yep, we are that special.

We looked to one another and we both linked in the words. "In a," Josef started and I ended with, "Month." In a month. In a month, the two of us would get married, we told the family. Oh, that made more problems as the family burst with even more questions. We are screwed, I thought myself as Josef and I answered question upon question for the next hour.

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I watched the full moon drape itself over the night sky and I wondered how this engagement would test my limits. In front of the world, the curtain went up on Josef and I as a couple in love but when the curtain closed for the night, he and I were merely a vampire/human co-existing for a cause. Once the show ended, I would be left to clean up the broken pieces of my heart. Nevertheless, a smile would plaster itself on my face never mind the fact I yearned for an unattainable match.

Josef would forever love Sarah. The End. No if's, and's, or but's. Hell, most of the time, I wondered when Sarah would awaken and snatch Josef back up. The stories Mick told me of the life Josef had with Sarah, though it was short, was still a life filled with laughter and happiness. Josef actually smiled, he smiled without a smirk hidden beneath the surface or a forced one he used in front of the media. His humor and body language different, more relaxed and serene when he held Sarah in his arms. Now, Mick, Beth, and I noticed he holds himself more rigid and aloof from everyone else. Even with his friends. The thought of seeing a genuine smile on his face made my day if only he could relax.

"Your parents insisted on an engagement party and your friend, Ashlee, wanted a bachelorette party. I thought a party like this one would have tired them out. Are you sure your family is human and not the rumored succubis' and incubis' rumored to have moved to Mexico a century ago?," he asked. There were other types of people running around. Succubis', Incubis', Djinn's, Angels, Demons, and even a few Vaman (part-vampire, part-human offspring’s).

"Well, you found us out. My father is of a long line of Incubis' and he met my mother, part Succubus at a bar twenty-two years ago. My niece, Juley, is one-fourth Succubus, which is why she can pass off as a human. Only her eyes give her away as one," I answered sarcastically, rolling my eyes in obvious attempt of annoyance.

We talked on the balcony a while longer. Beth, Mick, Iris and her fiancée said their goodbye's before departing. My sister hugged and reminded me not to let the family get to me. The family always went for the jugular in a test to see whether or not I would let the cat out of the bag. Nope, I was schooled in the art of saving face and not my disappointed father could stop the trap Josef placed for the freshie assassins.

"We will see you two in the morning for a few photo sessions and send them off to the tabloids to print them in the magazines and newspapers. Plus, have you the two of you sit down for interviews; let the media know the 'love' you two have for one another. With the news covering this story, which I know will be a big headline for several weeks, the men are bound to see this as an opportunity," Beth explained as she wrote down on a piece of paper the list of tabloids highly interested in any news concerning Josef. Josef always news worthy piece of vampire grabbed a lot of attention with the women he had hanging themselves at banquets, balls, parties, any and every event waited for him to bring the publicity to him.

Nodding, I turned back towards the skyline of Los Angeles where I even made out the HOLLYWOOD sign and wondered how long I could take faking a relationship with Josef without thinking I actually was in one with him. Those emotions of mine needed to shut themselves off if the need to pretend to want Josef as my own to survive the aftermath.

"Thanks," Josef merely said as he waved the others away and told them to lock the door on the way out. He nursed his drink, a glass of blood in his right hand as I played with the little umbrella on my Long Island Iced Tea. After the onslaught of relationship questions, James giving me the dirty look, and my father disappointed in my actions, I deserved to drink my self-pity away.

The attention I had for the moon soon turned towards the rock on my ring finger. It sparkled in the moon light and if this was a real engagement, oh, I would have buffed the diamond up to a nice glint and shown it off at any possible moment; but it was not. Only consolation of this night was the family members who attended and the presents I received. I had yet to ask Josef about the tuition check for my college education and I brought it up as we settled ourselves for the rest of the night on the balcony. Josef dragged two chairs out; we sat in them and made a comfortable silence for the two of us. In fact, I almost forget what I wanted to talk about when Josef brought up the check incident.

"With the check you will not have to worry about taking out those damn loans. Take out one of those loans and you might as well bend yourself over the desk because you will definitely get screwed repeatedly for the loan mistake," he answered as he winked towards me, clinking his drink against mine. In any other situation, he and I could have been great friends if the sexual tension was not there but even if he was a human, the tension would still be there. What can I say; I find myself attracted to a man or a woman that could potentially batter my emotions. Yep, I am definitely a good judge of a boyfriend or a girlfriend.

"Nice use of the words, 'desk', 'bend over', and 'screwed'. Once you get tired of the job you have now, you can always make a killing as a screenwriter for pornography. Hell, you can give the best lines to Jenna Jameson and maybe she can win an Oscar for her performance in Cumtastic Foursome," I replied back as I held my glass up in a triumphant zinger.

"Very nice, did you make up the Cumtastic Foursome title?"

"Yep, I might need to scale back on viewing porn but it helps with my studies."

"On what?"

"On the human sexuality class I took this semester, remember? You caught me that one time with a stack of rented porn on the coffee table? I told you I had a paper due on the cultural change in pornography."

"I thought you were joking and embarrassed you watched it for your own enjoyment, Marguerite."

"Well, I enjoyed a few of the movies but the other ones were horrible. Hell, I could be a better porn actress and make it somewhat believable."

"Porn is not supposed to be believable. Can you really believe a woman will order a pizza just so she can thank the delivery guy by blowing him? Please, how many pizza guys look like moi?," he asked, pointing to himself. The man had high remarks for himself.

"Alright, I will give you that but if I ever order a pizza and a hot guy delivers it, I am taking that opportunity," I joked, finally able to feel comfortable talking to Josef in this wanton manner. Hopefully, this 'engagement' would not ruin the banter and somewhat of a friendship we had going on. Even though I desperately wanted to rip his clothes off.

When the moon started to hide itself away and the sun sneaked its way back up into the sky, I realized I was ready to sleep the events away. How Josef looked in his unbutton shirt and arms pulled up to his elbows, hair astray, and posture that of a man who needed a few hours of sleep, it was time to wind down this conversation. Stretching one arm over my head and yawning loud enough to make myself look tired and ready for bed, I reminded Josef it was time for both of us to catch some sleep.

"Tired of my company already?," he asked in mocked shame. Once again, a man of dramatics he was.

Laughing off his comment, I patted his shoulder, said my good-nights, and whistled for Phantom to get off of the couch and headed back with the furry guy in tow back to my room. I wondered how the rest of the life I had at this moment would unveil itself for the next several weeks as Josef's 'fiancée'. When my head hit the pillow and my eyes closed shut for the night/morning, the last though I had before sleep overcame me was the image of Josef on his knees with a ring box held in his hand as he proposed to me, only this time for real. Now that placed a smile on my face as I dreamt the mid-morning away.

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Few days later:

Josef's eyes adjusted to the lights and the cameras pointed towards his vicinity as he watched in amusement as Marguerite waved makeup artists away who tried to slather more foundation and powder onto her face. When he started with the 'engagement' plan, he knew all the right things to say and the perfect things to do in front of the media and to Marguerite's family. Seemed her parents needed to stay another day and checked out the validity of the engagement before they were satisfied Marguerite was in good hands. Slightly, he regretted the lies Marguerite and he waved to her close family and friends but he knew it was for a good cause. If the kooky family of hers thought Marguerite's engagement to him was in fact real, he betted almost all of them would gossip and get the word out and somehow the news might have reached far enough for the slimy bastards to come out from hiding.

To him, he suspected the organization of men wanted another chance to get to Marguerite and the other freshies and by announcing a grand wedding, assumptions of vampires and accompanying freshies would be there in attendance, the men would go mad with excitement over it. A chance to take out freshies and vampires in one area, the organization of men would descend on the place. The second set of freshie killings a few days ago cemented Josef and Mick's guesses of the murders were more than a two man job. One of the recent murdered freshies from the second set had fought back against his assailants and even caused a bit of blood spillage from the attacks. When Mick came back to Josef, he attested to the smell of more than one assailant's blood spilled in the murder location. The accompanying second of the latest set dead freshie was killed in the same hour as the first freshie. This meant the living two original freshie murderers had called in reinforcements. When reinforcements are called in, then it made things a lot trickier. Thus the whole engagement and wedding plan came to fruition.

Now as he and Marguerite waited for an investigative reporter, also known as, a gossiper in Hollywood, Josef took a few more minutes in analyzing Marguerite once again. The past few days in front of the public, Marguerite soared in the role of a love-struck fiancée who adored and could not wait to get married to him. Behind closed doors, she stayed in her room with Phantom, watched a slew of horror movies and made plans for the backpacking trip.

He disliked the fact she planned a trip to visit Europe. Did she not understand the problems she caused when she was not around him? The fact his blood simmered and burned when she was in the vicinity and when she was away, his mind raced with thoughts of her in another man's arms burned his stomach never seemed to show physically on his face long enough for her to catch on. No matter she offered her elbow to him again soon after the engagement announcement but she kept a guard up he guessed she never noticed whenever the cameras were turned off.

Soon, his thoughts were interrupted by the clearing of the reporter’s throat and Marguerite reaching out to clasp his hand. When she merely touched him in that manner the desperation to kiss her inner wrist and whisper sweet nothings in her ear overcame him. More and more he felt detached from Sarah and gravitated more and more towards Marguerite and it scared him more than he wanted to admit.

"Marguerite, how long have you and Josef been dating before the two of you became engaged?," the reporter asked, sat back, and waited for his 'fiancée’s’ answer.

Marguerite looked towards him, smiled the smile that urged his basic instincts mark her as his own, and answered, "Josef and I started to see each other the first week of January. I can remember it and yet I cannot remember the exact date. I was busy with getting ready for school and somehow Josef showed up in the middle of signing up for spring classes. Remember, Josef," she inquired as she threw the question towards him.

Another thing he admired. She entranced the people around her with her warm demeanor but knew when to become an Ice Princess. A woman had to be in Los Angeles, a place where money and sex talked but souls and pride walked. He jumped into the interview with the opening Marguerite had for him and explained how the two of them lost what time was when having fun with one another. He made sure to throw on the charm and even a hint of sensuality into the mix.

"Now, I heard your new fiancee had an unfortunate incident at her old apartment. Now can you tell us how that felt, Marguerite or should I say Mrs. K?," the reported asked as she waggled her finely trimmed eyebrows.

He looked towards Marguerite and the condition she was in now. The cast had been replaced once more and this time only a wrap dressing covered her left wrist. Doctors found her bones healed up nicely with no problems at all. Bruises and cuts healed even better and only a light scar on her lower lip showed of the attack to her face. Even glancing at her face, he had the insatiable urge to hunt down the men himself and bleed them dry for the blood she shed in her struggles.

During the interview, he reached over every few minutes and whispered in her ear. Most of the time, he whispered, "Cannot wait to get out of here", "Phantom needs another bath, he smells like death", "I want your blood", "Need a pizza", just the randomness phrases he came up with. Nonetheless, Marguerite portrayed her reactions to his words as if he said erotic and teasing remarks. However, he wanted to place a real blush on her cheeks and the next time he leaned over in the interview, he whispered, "I want to burrow beneath your skin and stay there."

The reaction he managed out of Marguerite was priceless. Quickly, she turned her head to him, eyes wide as saucers, cheeks flooded with the rush of blood, and even he heard her heart thumped itself around in her chest. Seemed he was not the only one affected as well.

Briefly, he wondered whether Marguerite felt the same way whenever he was around her. His inner voice made itself known with whispering the troubles of involvement with humans much less one with an extended family. The old saying of marrying the girl and the family applied to this situation.

"Josef, later," Marguerite whispered back as he found she bounced back quickly from his comment. It was her lips which gave him inkling she felt something for him. Through the rest of the interview, she constantly chewed on the corner of her bottom lip, a sign from what Marguerite's sister revealed showed her interest in someone. He saw it

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Once the interview ended and the woman, thanked us for sitting down with her, I was ready to leave. This was the fifth interview in the past three days and one of the least favorites of mine. Melanie Starr, good porn name if the gossip gig fell apart, continued to ask about our sex life and if Josef made me feel like a virgin for the very first time. Yes, people, she quoted Madonna's, 'Like a Virgin', in the interview. Answering questions about the sex life we supposedly had with one another was tricky.

Most of the time I changed the subject on sex altogether. When Melanie insisted over and over, I buckled my seats and went on the ride. I mentioned there was a sex swing in the bedroom and there was one point I asked for a ménage a trios but Josef hated sharing me with another man.

[Begin I]"What? I would think any guy would jump at the chance though with two woman tag-teaming him in bed but what can I say, I wanted to see if he was jealous as his ex-girlfriend's told me." [End I]

When it came to ex-girlfriend's, I let Josef take the lead on it. However, my jealousy stirred up when he named off a few women he was involved with before 'falling for me'. I know I should not have but hearing a list of bedmates, including a few supermodels and actresses made me skin crawl. Plus, Josef had not mentioned to Melanie the other ex-girlfriends of his as far back as four hundred years. He could have outrivaled Casanova and Don Juan, hell, he could have taught Don Juan and Casanova the way of the woman.

These unhealthy jealousy thoughts were unusual for me. Rarely, had I become a jealous girlfriend. One of the things I prided myself on was the fact I never batted an eyelash whenever other females came around my boyfriends. Plus, to be honest, I was never the faithful type of girlfriend. Let me explain, if I knew my boyfriend started to see another or was a player, I had the right to see other people; that way, if the relationship went kaput, at least I had a back up. Yes, yes, place my reasons up to comparison and I was merely a cheater as well but I have my reasons and everyone else to their own.

Either way, now I was jealous over the women Josef mentioned but I held my tongue and managed to get through the rest of the interview. When Josef whispered in my ear and mentioned he wanted to burrow under my skin, genuinely, he shocked me. Various images ran rampant in my mind. An image of Josef pressed against my skin, hands cupping the sides of my breasts and face planting himself in the valley of my cleavage brought heat to my face and in other places. Even the sight of Josef wrapped in only the bed sheets, hair tossed from a night of more than just sleeping in the guest bedroom, and a grin given especially to me caught me by surprise as another haunting fantasy.

Naturally, whenever I was aroused or intrigued at the prospect of someone, I chewed my lip and that was when Melanie honed in on more sizzling questions. Josef took the initiative and rolled with the punches. One of the reasons Josef caught my eye. He knew what the public wanted, dished it out, but stepped back to leave a bit of mystery for the audience to want more next time. After learning more about him, he intrigued me more than the mystery and thriller novels I usually bought as soon as the author published the next in the series. Josef, a character onto himself rivaled the male protagonists and antagonists in every morning and nighttime fantasy I had for the past few weeks. Even after the disaster with James at my birthday and the several calls I made to him, where he told me he hated the fact of bad timing on meeting me, we decided to stay friends. He even joked if the engagement fell through for me to call him up and have him take me out for another date.

James, if only he came around sooner before the chance meeting with Josef, things might have been different, I thought solemnly. Still, even if I met Josef later in life, yearnings for Josef would still have happened and I would have hated to break James's heart for it. Yes, I had a wandering eye when it came to relationships but I made sure never to harm someone I cared for but there were always exceptions. The sleaze bag that came between the friendship of Ashlee and me deserved the karma which came his way. Last I heard of him, the ass caught herpes and another ex of his made scathing remarks on don't date him.com site on his faults. What made me laughed were the comments on his junk. He always overcompensated on his small friend.

"We have another interview in a few hours. How about I drop you off at the house, make sure Phantom is not tearing up the furniture, and I do this next interview alone?," he asked as he checked his phone while we headed towards the private lot for his Porsche. It was nice of him to put the offer on the table but left in the house where everything belonged to him was not a good idea. Once more, De La Cruz clan known for snooping and nosy people were accustomed to searching through other people's items to find out secrets and truths.

With Josef, his words should have placed me at ease but his body language told another story. His hands fiddled with his sunglasses and eyes strayed towards his expensive watch. Second thing I found out about Josef in the days after the engagement announcement. Everything he owned an instrument in the play he performed in front of audiences. There were times I wondered what his childhood life was like. He easily could have passed off as eighteen if he wanted and last I heard from Beth and Mick, Josef was in his early twenties when he turned. It was feat onto itself for the fact people lived fast and died young four hundred years ago. People dropped dead quickly of the flu or even a small paper cut because of non-existent medical assistant. Plus, doctors never washed their hands and used leeches or bloodletting to help with illnesses.

Crossing my arms over my shoulder, I gave him the classic You-are-hiding-something-from-me look he found out all on his own on the night of my birthday. "Do not bullshit me, Josef. What is going on?," I asked as I stopped at the passenger side. Somehow, I felt I should not have asked him the question but the way he conveyed his words made me anxious at the answer.

"Oh, what vulgar words you use," he replied as he boxed me against the car door. The sleek lines of his body pressed against my own through my clothes jumpstarted my heart into a faster tempo. The past few days had gone by in a whirl and it was not until now my feelings for Josef caught up. With the interviews and plans for my European trip pushed back to next summer as a result of the engagement, my mind never stopped on the emotions for Josef. The only thoughts I had concerning Josef was keeping up the facade of a relationship and whether he needed a squatter in his house. Even in the fake relationship we placed in front of the world, there was a natural use of words and actions towards him in front of everyone, even to my own family.

Somehow, my father accepted the engagement between Josef and I. He even encouraged Josef to take an even bigger active role in my life and support me harder in my studies. Josef merely smiled and mentioned he would not let me go off the path. Hopefully, my father would understand and not try to kill Josef once the whole charade ended. The charade would end once the freshies disappeared from the face of the earth and I wondered how far this supposed engagement would go.

"Josef," I pressed harder as I placed my hands on his chest. A ploy to get him to move out of my personal space. Instead of moving back, he gripped my wrists and pulled me closer. Now that brought back a few memories if I remembered. If he started to lean his lips towards mine then it was all deja vu.

"The interview for tonight is to announce the engagement is being pushed up. We are going to get married this weekend," he replied simply.

"This weekend?," I asked as my jaw dropped open. It took Josef fingers placed under my chin to close the jaw back up. If the engagement was being pushed up, the Melanie reporter would have mentioned in. In my head, I went over the interview and found subtle hints being dropped. Melanie kept asking about the venue and what time the reception started. I thought it was interesting she kept questioning the hour of the wedding because the event would not fall for another few weeks.

"Yes, this weekend. There is word the assassins have called in more reinforcements than I thought before. Have the wedding this weekend, their plan will be thrown off and a half-ass one will be put into place because of it. The sooner we have them wiped out, the sooner this nightmare will end," he said beneath his breath. Out in this private parking lot, we were not given much privacy. There was the other people who worked in the building littering by, all wanting to get the latest gossip on us.
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Yep, that is how I am going to leave things. Busy with Pride Festival in San Francisco but I hope to get the next chapter up. Hope you enjoy this one. Somehow, I am trying to keep to Josef's characterization to Moonlight. I step into his shoes and try to make him as much as Josef as he can be. Review and read. Next chapter shall be on the wedding or supposed and hopefully this is where the whole revealing of feelings will occur.