Damien’s shout right before he strode angrily into the bedroom made Grace jump in startled awareness of her nudity, but she refused to shame Jacob by trying to hide. She had never been comfortable with her body, certainly not in front of her one lover or Mason, but Jacob had let her know without any doubts how much he desired her, wanted her as she was. She was also pretty sure Jacob, like Damien and Abby, wouldn’t let a little thing like privacy keep him from taking her whenever and wherever he wanted.
“Where are they?” Damien demanded, his face both livid and concerned as he came to the bathroom doorway. Jon and Luc came up behind him and glared at her with the same look.
Despite feeling herself blush from her neck up, Grace managed to reply calmly, “Caitlin needed to get to work, so Abby offered to take her.”
“I swear that woman’s not going to sit for a week when I get done with her.”
“I do believe after we show Caitlin how serious we were about her waiting for us, Abby might have some company in that department,” Jon stated angrily. While he could admire and respect her need for independence, her safety came first, and always would. Something she was going to have to come to terms with soon. His scowl turned to a grin when he looked at Jacob and quipped, “It’s about fucking time.”
Damien winked at Grace before he and Jon turned to leave then Luc gave Grace a leisurely look from head to toe, his eyes lingering on her bare pussy before shifting to Jacob. “You had a lot more restraint than I would’ve had, brother.” Turning, he left the happy couple to go in search of his own mate with a lot more compassion for what Jacob went through and less patience for Caitlin’s stubbornness.
Isabelle looked around at the scant occupants in her playroom. The five rogues she had sent after the Preston brother’s mate hadn’t returned, telling her they had failed. When the first two had returned after finding her then failing to bring her back, she had increased the team in the hopes that would suffice. She hadn’t counted on a third brethren member as backup, assuming all the others, including Damien and Jacob were too busy playing the over protective lover to come to the aide of another. She was now down to five minions, and two of those didn’t look like they were going to survive the trip down into insanity much longer. Now that all of the brethren have found their mates, even if they haven’t all fully bonded, they were a force she couldn’t take lightly. If they banded together and came after her as a group, she wouldn’t stand a chance. Her only hope would be to either take a chance that some of them wouldn’t be willing to leave their mates to confront her or to increase her supply of little mercenaries quickly and substantially and send them after the brethren en masse.
Not one willing to leave her existence up to chance, she decided on the latter. It was best to lay back for a week or two, travel abroad and bring back as many newly turned victims as possible, bring them to heel with a gluttony of sex and blood, a course of action that had never failed her except with Damien, and then turn them all loose on those damn do-gooders. Targeting those polite society labeled scum of the earth, she has found them to be cream of the crop for her needs.
Right now, her temper had lit a fire of lust in her and, striding across the room, she grabbed the hand of a young, fairly newly turned girl. She found this one giving a blow job in an alley in Dublin, high as a kite after having robbed an all-night liquor store and stabbing the owner to death. Hopefully, she wouldn’t have too much trouble finding a couple dozen more just like her.
“Come with me, pet.” Grabbing her long, stringy blonde hair, she jerked the girl’s head back and kissed her with ruthless intent before trailing her lips down her vulnerable neck and sinking her fangs into her rapidly beating pulse, careful to only take enough to whet her appetite yet not leave the girl too depleted to please her. Pulling away, she demanded, “Lick my lips,” knowing they were red-rimmed with her blood.
Glassy-eyed, the girl gladly obeyed, licking the succulent drops from the soft, enticing lips of her maker. Lifting her hands, she lowered the straps of the sheer sheath Isabelle wore, following the gauzy material down until she came to her breasts. Moaning against her mouth, she tweaked her nipples painfully just how she knew her mistress liked before sinking to the pile of cushions on the floor and covering her naked body with her own.
Chapter Seventeen
“So,” Caitlin said, waving her hand before taking another sip of her strawberry margarita, heavy on the tequila, light on, well, everything else, “your guy didn’t want to bang you right off the bat?”
“No, well, yes, he did, but he was being all noble.” Abby practically sneered the last word as she looked morosely down into her almost empty glass.
“But now he does?” Caitlin had to be persistent because Abby was proving to be an easy drunk. She was feeling a slight buzz herself after nearing the end of her second margarita, heavy on the tequila, light on, well, everything else, she thought again with a giggle. It took a lot for her to get a buzz, so she figured poor Abby was well into her cups and wouldn’t be able to tell her much more, and make sense, soon.
“Oh, he bangs me every chance he gets now, that’s no longer an issue.”
“So, what’s the problem?” From everything Abby had told her, Damien sounded like he would be a keeper if it wasn’t for the whole bite the neck, suck the blood thing. With a shudder, she finished her drink, set her glass down and leaned her arms on the bar top.
“He won’t…” Abby had enough sense to look around to see if anyone was within ear shot before she lowered her voice, leaned toward Caitlin and whispered quietly, “He won’t blood bond with me and won’t tell me why.”
“The bastard,” Caitlin whispered back, although, for the life of her she couldn’t figure out why Abby would want him to suck her blood. Can anyone say gross? “Wait a minute,” she snapped out, instantly coming to her new friend’s defense. “Does that blood sucker cheat on you?”
Abby laughed, really laughed at the outrage on Caitlin’s face. She really liked the twin’s mate, and now that Grace had made Jacob happy, she really liked her too. Right now, she really liked everyone except Damien, and until he took her blood or gave her a good reason why he won’t, he was going to remain on her shit list.
“No, he doesn’t cheat. He does need blood to survive, but he gets it from men, usually unsuspecting jerks who need some encouragement to change their ways. Tell me what it was like fucking two men,” she said, changing the subject. Tonight she didn’t want to think about what a jerk Damien was being. “How’d they talk you into it?”
Caitlin felt her body respond to the memory of that night. It had been awesome, her orgasms unlike any she had experienced before and what woman wouldn’t enjoy having four hands and two mouths all over her body? “The body wants what the body wants,” she answered her with a grin. “And my body wanted theirs. What can I say? I’m easy.”
Somehow, Abby doubted that, but all she said was, “I thought it was the heart wants what the heart wants?”
“Not my heart. It’ll want what I tell it to, and I’m definitely not giving it to two men who’re…how old did you say they were?”
“Damien said they were turned in 1865.”
“Man, did they rob the cradle.” Both women erupted into peals of laughter, making more than a few heads turn in their direction, including Bobby’s. “Hold on, I’ll get us a refill.”
“No, you won’t,” Bobby said as he came up and removed both glasses. He had been worried about Caitlin when she didn’t answer her phone
last night. He knew she wouldn’t have it on during the tour so he had tried when she should have been done and headed back to the bar, but he hadn’t heard from her until this afternoon when she called to let him know she was on her way and apologized about not helping out last night. Her excuse about not feeling well would have been believable if she had been upstairs in her apartment all night, but she had arrived with the other woman, a pretty brunette with bright blue eyes, and had stayed at the end of the bar with her for the last two hours, talking quietly. He didn’t intrude on their conversation, even though he wanted to know what was going on, but he could tell by her frowns, gasps, and an occasional shake of her head as if in denial that she didn’t like what the other woman was saying. In the last fifteen minutes, their intense discussion had taken a turn and both women started grinning more, telling him the talk had turned to sex.
“Come on, Bobby. I said I was sorry about bailing on you last night.” Caitlin felt bad enough about leaving him to hold the fort alone last night; she didn’t need his puppy eyes giving her that look.
“You’ve had enough.” Leveling his stern look on her friend, he added, “Both of you.”