his hand. “Unfortunately, she didn’t pair it with a chicken leg or you could’ve had a snack.”
Holly snorted out a laugh, blocking it with the back of her hand before it could echo off the marble. Slipping the card into a pocket of his jacket, Venom nodded ahead. “That elevator—it’s coming up from the basement garage and is programmed to stop for us. Mr. Battersby has invited us up.”
“How nice.” Holly folded her arms and stared at the doors without saying a word. She wasn’t bothered he’d kept Chicken Leg Breasts’ card. “I thought you had better taste than that.”
“Really? She has big eyes, soft lips, and enough curves for a racecourse.” A shrug. “Fits the bill for pleasurable sexual release.”
Holly turned very slowly to stare at his insanely perfect profile. “You’re laughing at me.” She could feel it.
Leaning close, his lips curved, he slipped the receptionist’s card into a pocket of her hoodie. “You make it so easy, kitty.”
Holly hissed at him just as the elevator doors opened. The well-dressed matron on the other side, her skin near Venom’s brown but her eyes like Holly’s, looked taken aback. “I say, young lady. Didn’t your mother teach you manners?” was the stern question, followed by an intense second look. “You’re Daphne’s second oldest.”
Holly prayed desperately for a sinkhole to open up under her feet and swallow her whole. No such luck.
Groaning inwardly, she stepped into the elevator with a silent Venom.
How in the bejeezus did her mother know everybody? It wasn’t as if she was rich and swanky like this matron with her necklace of gleaming black pearls and a handbag that probably cost five grand. She looked like she was getting back late from an upmarket party. Daphne Chang, in contrast, ran a little deli beside the dress shop run by Holly’s dad. Yet that damn deli was like a pot of honey that drew every single nosy matron in the city.
The elevator doors closed, cutting off all avenues of escape.
“Yes,” she said, putting on her sweetest manners. “I’m very pleased to meet you.”
The matron gave her a considering look up and down and just shook her head, before turning her attention to Venom. That he was a vampire—a very dangerous vampire—seemed to escape her. Or maybe she didn’t care. At a certain age, Daphne Chang’s friends seemed to stop giving a flying fuck about anything. In a very ladylike way, of course.
“Lovely suit, young man,” she said, her tone warm with approval. “So nice to see young people who care about their appearance. My Everett used to wear a suit very well.”
Her eyes landed once more on Holly’s jeans, painted canvas trainers, and hoodie. Not saying a word—loudly—the matron stepped out of the elevator two floors below their destination. “Hissing, my dear. Really.”
The doors shut.
And Venom’s shoulders began to shake. She punched him in the side but it had zero impact. “Shut up. I’m going to be getting a call from my mother at the crack of dawn.”
“The hoodie is an insult to clothing, but I like your shoes.”
“I swear I’ll stab you if you keep going.”
Laughter still lingering around his lips, Venom put his hand on her lower back as the elevator arrived on their floor. He glanced right. “There. That looks to be Mr. Battersby’s apartment.”
The door opened at that instant, the vampire who stood within the doorway a compact and dapper man of maybe fifty with short silver hair and a skin tone that fell between Holly’s and Venom’s. He was wearing an old-fashioned smoking jacket. Deep blue velvet, it boasted lapels of black satin. Below the jacket, Walter Battersby wore silk trousers in the same black, along with fancy slippers of dark gold that curled up at the tips.
Unlike Kenasha, he pulled off the flamboyant outfit with aplomb.
“I’m afraid you caught me just as I was retiring for the night,” he said genially when they reached him, holding out a hand to Venom.
The men shook before Battersby turned his cordial face to Holly. “And who might you be, my dear?”
Holly smiled her “matron smile,” dead certain he hadn’t needed to ask that question. “Just Holly.” She wasn’t quite sure what to make of Walter Battersby. He didn’t set off her creep radar, but he was dangerous, of that she had not a single doubt.
“Ah, Holly.” No surprise in the pale hazel of his eyes, his features so even and unremarkable that Holly had the thought this man could blend in anywhere, become anyone.