Three dollars and some change

Another one of those scenes that won't leave me alone.



Summary: Anita's in a quandary. It's 3 a.m., she's hankering for some male companionship, and she has absolutely no idea how to pull this off (Set immediately after "Killing Dance").
Disclaimer: The Anita Blake universe belongs to Laurell K. Hamilton. I'm only borrowing and will return them at the end of the fic.
Rating: PG-13 for language and implied sexual situations (Yes, a fic called "Booty Call" can be PG13. As you can guess, it stops before the good part.)
Characters: Anita, Jean-Claude
Word count: 2,324
Fandom: Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter (master list here)
fanfic100 Prompt: 081 -- How?



I shouldn't be this nervous. It was a simple question, wasn't it? All I needed was a yes or no. If it was a no, I'd go home and slip into bed and hide under the covers for the rest of my life--

Stop it! I ordered myself, checking my reflection in the car visor's mirror one last time. I'd had a busy night at work. In the car's dome light, it looked like I had managed to get all the dirt off. My makeup was smudged, but I'd repaired most of that with a handful of fast-food napkins in my glove compartment. I wasn't looking like a cover girl, but I looked okay.

Getting sick of sitting in my car with my stomach flip-flopping, I stepped out of my car. It was late enough that I was able to find a parking spot near Guilty Pleasures, where Jean-Claude was working tonight.

I hoped he was still in his office. I hoped he wasn't busy. I hoped he was as horny as I was tonight.

It had only been a couple of weeks since we'd first slept together. We'd had a few dates, which had all ended with several hours of hot sex. It was a bit overwhelming for a girl who'd been chaste for so many years.

So overwhelming, in fact, that I was on my way to jump his bones right now.

I wasn't exactly comfortable with this. Funnily enough, not all of my problems were with Jean-Claude being a vampire, and that alone showed up how far I'd fallen. The problem wasn't Jean-Claude. The problem was me.

I wasn't a virgin before I slept with Jean-Claude; I was engaged in college, and I'd slept with my then-fiancé for about six months. We'd both had classes and other complications, so we hadn't really had that much time together. Plus, we'd both been virgins and the sex didn't exactly start off in a great way. We'd gotten better as we went along, practice making perfect and all that.

But I'd never wanted my fiancé as much as I wanted Jean-Claude right now, and that was freaking me out.

Steeling myself, I quickly hopped up the stairs to the front door of Guilty Pleasures. Buzz, the vampire bouncer, raised his eyebrows, but let me in without a word. I guess they'd been told to not ask the boss's girlfriend for the cover charge.

Stephen was gyrating up on the stage, mostly unclothed. I averted my eyes and quickly crossed the floor to the backstage door. Most of what I'd seen of Stephen was well-muscled lithe limbs, skin gleaming under the lights. Make that a whole lot of skin. The crowd seemed to appreciate the show, whooping it up and tossing cash at the stage. I really didn't want to think of Stephen like that, and it was weirding me out. I hurried on.

There was another vampire guarding the backstage door, to avoid letting in any rambunctious fans. He gave me a questioning glance, but let me through.

Backstage, the sound was muffled, giving me a chance to think and reconsider. This was a stupid plan. Jean-Claude was probably busy. We had a date for three days from now, dinner in a swank restaurant. I should just pick up the tattered remains of my dignity and go home and pretend I never--

"Ma petite?"

Shit. I slowly turned around. Jean-Claude was standing at the end of the hall, dressed in one of his typical lacy shirts, with skin-tight leather pants covering his long legs. He looked like sex on wheels, and I think I stopped breathing for a moment as a wave of lust rushed over me. If it was possible, I think I might have burst into flames.

"Is everything all right?" Jean-Claude asked. He sounded concerned, but his walk toward me was seductive as anything I'd ever seen. "I did not expect to see you tonight. Did something happen at work?"

"No, everything's fine," I said quickly. "Perfectly fine, all the way." I forced a smile onto my face. I was here, I may as well see if I could actually go through with my plan. "How are you?"

Jean-Claude stared at me for a long minute. "I am well, ma petite, thank you for asking." He held his hand out. "Would you care to join me in my office?"

I took a deep breath. Jean-Claude was my boyfriend now, so I could hold his hand if I wanted to. It didn't matter if it was in a darkened hallway, with the loud bass muffled by the walls until it was like another heartbeat, pounding over my skin. Slowly, I reached out and wrapped my fingers around his palm, my body tingling as his cool fingers turned in mine. I didn't trust myself to speak as Jean-Claude gently pulled me down the hall to his office.

The door closed behind me with a click, and still I didn't know what to say. Jean-Claude brought my hand up to his lips and kissed the back of my knuckles. Startled, I pulled back when I felt his tongue on my skin. Jean-Claude laughed silently at me as he made his way across the room and leaned against the edge of his desk.

I could do this, I told myself. Jean-Claude had been trying to get me in his bed for years, and now that he had me there, he wouldn't object to a little quality time, right?

"What can I do for you?" Jean-Claude asked. His voice slid around me like silk, making me shiver. "You tell me it is not for business that you are here, so I assume it is for pleasure?"

That was exactly it, but for some reason I flipped into the same defensive mode I'd used with Jean-Claude for years. "Maybe I just wanted to see how you were, nothing wrong with that, right?"

"Of course not, ma petite," Jean-Claude agreed. The smile faded from his face as he watched me. It was unnerving, having that much attention on me, and I didn't know how I was supposed to react. "But you have never simply come to visit me, so I have to wonder what has generated this visit. Did something happen to you at work?"

"Why do you keep asking that?" I asked. "That's the second time."

Jean-Claude blinked once, his midnight-blue eyes indecipherable. "I was simply wondering if you were involved in an incident tonight." He touched his throat. "You have dirt on your neck, and on your nose."

"What?" I spun around and hurried over to the mirror. Sure enough, there was a bit of dirt along the left side of my nose and on my neck. I must have missed it in the bad lighting of the car. "Fuck!"

Jean-Claude appeared at my side, a box of tissues in his hand. I snatched a few from his hand and rubbed at my face. "I take it you are not hurt, then?"

"I'm not hurt." Only humiliated at coming to see my sophisticated and picture-perfect boyfriend, while looking like I'd been rolling around in the mud. I gave one last rub at my neck. The mud was gone, but so was my self-confidence. I maneuvered around Jean-Claude to drop the tissues in the wastepaper basket beside his desk. "I'm sorry I bothered you, I'm going home."

Jean-Claude caught my arm as I tried to leave, spinning me around into an embrace. The hand I put out to steady myself ended up on Jean-Claude's hip. "You are not going yet, ma petite," Jean-Claude murmured, sliding his arm around my waist.

I pushed at him, to no avail. "Let me go."

"Only once you tell me why you came to see me tonight."

I stopped struggling and glared up at him. "This isn't funny."

"Oh, I agree." Jean-Claude looked at me for a moment, then released me. A large part of me wanted to run away, but I also wanted to stay. Even with all the missteps and embarrassment I'd dealt myself tonight, being around Jean-Claude made me feel safer than I'd been in days. I didn't understand it, but could probably blame that on the three vampire marks from Jean-Claude I had recently taken. Usually when vampire powers were messing with my head, I freaked out, but not now. Maybe I didn't want to freak out. Maybe I wanted him to make me feel like this.

I stayed where I was, pressed against Jean-Claude.

"Seeing you tonight is quite possibly the best thing that has happened to me all week," Jean-Claude continued, gently pushing my hair over my shoulder. "You cannot fault me for wondering what brings you to my side."

My eyes dropped to Jean-Claude's shirt. I shrugged.

"No matter," Jean-Claude said, running his thumb over my cheek. "Even seeing you for a few moments brings light into my night."

"Stop sweet talking me," I told him. "It's not going to work."

"I do not know what you mean, ma petite," Jean-Claude whispered, leaning down and pressing a soft kiss against my cheek. My breath came out in a shaky rush at the gentle touch.

Jean-Claude drew back and looked down at me, a peace in his eyes that I didn't understand. Maybe it was because he hadn't automatically assumed the worst of me, but I found myself opening my mouth. "I just... I'm not good at this," I confessed, toying with a button on his shirt. "I thought, maybe if you weren't busy, we could... but then there was the dirt and me being all defensive and I'm obviously not suited to this, so I should just go--"

Jean-Claude stopped me by touching a fingertip on my lips. "Maybe we could do what, ma petite?"

I bit my lip. I tried to tell myself that it was okay to say this out loud, that it was okay to want this. Jean-Claude wasn't going to laugh at me. "You know."

Jean-Claude arched an eyebrow in visible disbelief. "I know what?"

I poked a finger at his chest. "You know. Sex?"

Jean-Claude caught my finger and pulled my hand up to his mouth. "Ma petite, I have learned to never assume anything when it comes to you," he breathed, kissing each one of my fingertips in turn. "You came here this evening to ask me if I wanted to have sex with you?"

I blushed. Some fallen woman I was turning out to be. "Yeah. But I just kept messing things up."

"Hush," Jean-Claude said quietly. "You have messed up nothing." He cupped my face in his hands, making me look at him. There were so many intense emotions on his face that I didn't know what to say. "That you wish to be with me..." His voice trailed off, and I was confronted with something I didn't know how to handle. Jean-Claude at a loss for words. "I have missed you, ma petite."

"We had a date only a few days ago," I reminded him. He smiled at me wickedly, and I relaxed. I could deal with the old teasing Jean-Claude so much better than the new emotional one.

"So long without the touch of your skin, ma petite." Jean-Claude ran his hands down my back to rest on my waist. "Any time apart is too long."

My heart started beating faster. "I can't stay long," I warned him. "I've got an early morning meeting and I have to get some sleep so I don't kill Bert."

"Ah," Jean-Claude said. "Is this what they deem a 'booty call'?"

I glared up at him. "Stop making fun of me."

"I am not doing that at all," Jean-Claude protested. He grinned so widely that his fangs peeked out from behind his lips. "Whatever the name, this sort of encounter has existed for centuries, but I must confess that I have never looked forward to it as much as I am tonight."

"Really?"

"Oui, ma petite." Jean-Claude moved his hands down over my hips. "In any event, as you came to me, this night is lady's choice. Whatever you wish, that is what we will do."

I raised my eyebrows. "Anything? At all?"

Something ran through Jean-Claude's eyes, even as he nodded. "Anything you desire."

Anything I wanted, I could do to Jean-Claude. The possibilities seemed endless for a moment, until I giddily remembered one thing in particular. "There is one thing."

"What is it?"

I smiled up at Jean-Claude, feeling a little bit wicked myself. "I've got an idea." I took his hand and pulled him over to the couch, where I made him sit. Instead of sitting beside him, I tapped his knees apart and knelt between his legs. "I've heard that guys like this."

"Are you doing what I think you are?" Jean-Claude asked, as I undid his belt.

I gave him a look. "You're the sex expert, and you have to ask that question?" I undid the top button on his pants. I'd only done this a few times, as my ex-fiancé had been really uncomfortable when I went down on him, but I had liked it, a lot. "Unless you don't want me to?" I gave him wide eyes as I said that, and the tiniest hint of a pout.

Jean-Claude laughed shakily as my fingers trailed across his lower stomach. Just as I thought, he wasn't wearing any underwear under those leather pants. "Ma petite, you amaze me."

I went up higher and pulled him to me in a kiss. I was getting better a French kissing a vampire. "If undoing your belt is amazing, then this will only get better," I said breathlessly when we broke the kiss.

"I have no doubt."

"Good." I gently slapped his thigh. "Help me get these pants down a bit, we haven't got all night."

Jean-Claude's eyes sparkled. "As my lady commands."

We stopped talking.