Chapter One
The mattress looked deep and thick and soft. Even the top pillow part looked thick and poofy. Max LeFevre eyed it skeptically, igniting a mini firestorm in his companion.
“Oh, c’mon, Max. For the love of--” Max’s best friend, Alexa Harte, broke off on a frustrated sigh. “We’ve been looking at mattresses all day. My feet hurt. Can’t you just pick one and be done with it? Why the hell does it have to be just right?”
He arched one brow at Alexa. “Because I’m like Goldilocks,” he murmured, carefully lying on the mattress.
Alexa sat down on the next mattress over and pulled off her high heel, rubbing her tiny foot vigorously. “No, you’re the fucking Princess and the Pea,” she grumbled.
Max chuckled. “That is truer than you know.”
He wriggled around on the mattress, trying to get comfortable. Lying on his side, the mattress was great. Lying on his back was the problem. None of the mattresses he’d tried were good enough. They’d been to three stores before this one. He’d tried every mattress in each of the stores, searching for the one that would let him lie on his back.
“That is a wonderful mattress, sir!” a salesman exclaimed enthusiastically as he strode confidently toward them across the sales floor. Frowning fiercely, Alexa slammed her high heel on and stood up. She straightened her spine, bringing herself up to her full five-feet-one inches.
“You can leave. We don’t need a salesman. He’s just gonna try every mattress in this store, and if he finds one that he wants, we’ll come find you so you can have the sale.” She stared defiantly at the salesman, almost daring him to try his sales pitch on them.
Wisely backing down, the salesman threw up his hands. “Sure, lady. No need to go all pit bull on me. I’m Charlie. If he wants to buy a mattress, I’ll be over there.” He gestured vaguely to another part of the store and then took off in that direction, disappearing from view.
Max rolled onto his side, feeling much more comfortable the moment he did. He propped his head up with one hand, his long hair flowing over his shoulder and down onto the mattress. “Pit bull. Hmmm. Y yy ou know, that’s a pretty good nickname for you, Alexa.” He gazed up at her, allowing the corner of his mouth to turn up in a mischievous smile.
She sat back down on the mattress and pulled off her shoe again. “You ever call me that and I’ll deck you, pretty boy,” she muttered.
Max laughed and rolled onto his back one more time. The mattress was comfy… for about three minutes. Then it dug into his back. He rolled up to a sitting position and looked over at Alexa. Her eyes widened.
“Not this one, too?” she groaned. “It’s the most expensive mattress in this store!”
Max shrugged. “If it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work. Doesn’t matter how much it costs. I just have to be able to lie on my back on it.”
Alexa put her shoe on. “I give up. We’ve been to the best mattress stores in town. No one has a mattress that suits you.”
Before Max could reply, a bright flash startled them both.
Alexa threw her hands up in front of her face. “Arghh!” she exclaimed with a grimace.
Max saw the gleam of her fangs for an instant before she retracted them. Being the best friend of a vampire meant he’d gotten used to her fangs dropping every time something startled her. Max knew it was just a defensive mechanism, but other people often didn’t. Luckily, the salesman hadn’t seen them or he really would have thought she was a pit bull.
Alexa peered between her fingers, obviously looking for the poor soul who had been stupid enough to try to take Max’s picture. When she spotted the girl, she stalked over to her.
Max watched the scene in silence, slowly counting to himself. Whenever he and Alexa tried to do normal stuff like shopping, someone inevitably recognized him. Within minutes, a crowd of women would be
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