Caitlin grabbed paper plates, napkins and forks from the storage room and carried them to the long table she had set against one wall for the small, catered barbeque buffet she had delivered each day. The sudden warm tingling on the inside of her thigh, right where her red crescent shaped mark was startled her and had her pulse leaping with excitement before she remembered her guys were gone. That area had been dormant for the past few weeks, the same as it was before Jon and Luc entered her bar for the first time. What the hell, she muttered irritably as she rubbed her bare thighs together under the calf length peasant skirt she wore. The same skirt and blouse she had worn the night at the cemetery when she had discovered she had fucked two vampires. Ignoring the reaction that did nothing but remind her of the pleasure she had known for so briefly, she finished setting the plates and utensils at the end of the buffet table then headed across the room towards the bar only to be brought up short by the sudden pressure in her nipples and the warm, slick gush of moisture filling her neglected pussy.
Her soft cry was accompanied by the sound of the back door opening. The fact that it was broad daylight out dashed the small burst of hope filling her. Expecting the food delivery, she called out in a shaky, disappointed voice, “I’m ready for you.”
“That’s good to know, darlin’,” Luc drawled from behind her.
“As long as it’s us she’s ready for and not someone else,” Jon added with a wide grin when Caitlin spun around with a priceless look of surprise and pure pleasure on her face, her crystal-gray eyes widening in shock.
“Oh, God, it’s really you?” she whispered incredulously as she drank in the sight of them.
Folding their massive arms across their equally massive chests, they both gave her mock scowls, but it was Luc who asked, “Expecting someone else?”
And that quickly, Caitlin went from ecstatic to angry. Wherever they have been for the past month, it hasn’t been a hardship. They looked the same, identically handsome with their thick, collar length sandy hair and dark chiseled features. She took one shaky step toward them, demanding with a catch in her voice, “Where the hell have you been?” Another step had her questioning, “Why didn’t you let me know you were okay?” The next step had her admitting tightly, “Do you know how worried I’ve been?” The last one had her whispering achingly, “Oh, God, I’ve missed you!” then flying toward them with her arms stretched out, confident they would catch her.
“Shit, Cat,” Jon muttered as she buried her face in his neck, her tears running down his shirt. It was poignant as well as telling to see their feisty, independent woman so vulnerable.
Luc wrapped his arm around her, drawing her to him, telling her softly, “You have to know we wouldn’t have left if we had a choice. Tell me you know that, Caitlin.”
Pulling back, she looked at them out of tear drenched eyes, Luc’s amber eyes demanding an answer, Jon’s hazel eyes drinking her in, then noticed the way they were rubbing their palms down their jean clad thighs. As she registered the significant reaction of their marks, her gaze flew to the bright sun shining through the front windows, a warm, yellow glare that both men seemed to be lapping up.
“What’s going on? How can you…” She took a step back as both of them slowly crowded her until her back came into contact with the bar, the lustful intent gleaming in their eyes making her lose track of what she was saying.
“We’ll tell you what we’ve been able to discern shortly, but for now, let’s just say you’re not going to get to stay almost thirty for decades. I’m afraid you’re going to have to age right along with us.” Luc cut off her gasp with his mouth as Jon went to his knees before her, lifting her skirt and ripping away her panties.
Caitlin remembered the unlocked doors and that she was expecting her lunch delivery then quickly forgot about the risk of an audience when Jon lifted her right leg over his shoulder and put his mouth between her legs. Luc followed by releasing her mouth and pulling down the elastic front of her blouse to bare her breast for his mouth. Their dual assault on her senses was both familiar and new, but her reaction was the same. Within moments of Jon’s lips latching onto her clit and Luc’s closing over one turgid nipple, they had her arching her head back and crying out in bliss, her body convulsing with pleasure only they could give her, pleasure she now had a lifetime to enjoy with them.
Grace took her lunch outside, needing the warm afternoon sun on her face to chase away the chill inside her that seemed to never completely thaw. Taking a seat on a bench that overlooked the small pond in the park next to the library, she watched a few geese take flight, wishing she could fly away from her pain as easily. She didn’t know what she would have done these past few weeks since Jacob disappeared from her life as unexpectedly as he had entered it without Abby and Caitlin’s continued support and friendship. United in grief and understanding, they had clung together at first in the hope that their men would return, then in speculation as to where they were and what they were going through that was keeping them apart, then finally in devastating despair when they had to consider that they were gone for good.
They still kept in touch periodically with the other mates who had returned to their homes, all of them grieving for their loss. Returning to her apartment had felt alien to Grace, the small one bedroom place she had taken such pleasure in making her own no longer feeling like her home. She had to finally admit t
hat it was Jacob who made the plantation feel like home, not the place. To help take her mind off her loss, Grace has been working overtime, volunteering to go to pre-schools and do reading time with the younger children as well as assisting high schoolers with research papers. By the time she got home, she was too tired to eat much and consequently has lost over ten pounds the past few weeks. Who knew, she thought wryly, that all she had to do to lose weight was lose the only person who gave meaning and purpose to her life. She regretted now, more than ever, the lost time it had taken her to accept Jacob as her mate, to allow herself the chance to feel pleasure after Mason had caused her so much pain. If she had it to do all over again, she would have jumped at the chance to be his the minute he had stormed to her rescue.
Leaning her face back, she closed her eyes against the glare of the sun, ignoring her sandwich to welcome the slight thawing of her senses. The distant sound of a motorcycle reminded her of the rides Jacob had given her on his Harley and the pleasure that could be found from straddling the heavy, vibrating machine. She frowned when the mark on her neck became much warmer than the rest of her, a soft, familiar throb that coincided with the sound of a motorcycle coming to a stop and turning off.
Grace refused to open her eyes, refused to give in to the compulsion to look for Jacob when she knew he wouldn’t be there despite what her body was telling her as it slowly came alive with pulsating arousal she had only felt when near her mate. A sob escaped her as she felt a presence in front of her, a presence that had her struggling not to look, had her body on fire with an aching need she had only experienced with one person.
Jacob stood before her, drank in the sight of her. Her peaked nipples were easily discernible through her pink blouse, the flare of her hips in the flowered, knee length skirt a temptation he was hard pressed to ignore. Her blonde hair shone brightly as it curled around her shoulders, but those bright blue eyes that he loved to drown himself in were kept hidden from him by her closed lids. “Open your eyes, Grace.”
Her heart skipped a beat and her eyes flew open in shock at the sound of that familiar, deep voice. With a disbelieving cry, she came off the bench and wrapped herself around him, too afraid this was an illusion to let go. “You have to be real, you just have to,” she sobbed over and over, the feel of his arms coming around her as hard as his cock poking her stomach her first clues he was here again with her in the flesh. “Oh my God!” she gasped as she pulled back, adding incredulously, “It’s daylight!”
Jacob smiled down into her stunned face. “I had the choice of going towards the light or returning to you, Grace. It was a no brainer for me.”
All her questions and confusion were wiped away when his mouth covered hers. Moaning, she arched into him, the ache in her nipples easing somewhat as she rubbed them against his chest, his mouth just as hard and demanding as she remembered, the stroke of his tongue just as arousing as his hands clutching her ass.
“Can you get away for the afternoon?” he asked her when he finally found the strength to release her soft mouth.
“I’ve accumulated so much time off by working overtime I can take all the time I want. Where are we going?” she asked eagerly as she pulled her phone from her purse and sent Clare a text that she was taking the afternoon off.
“Let’s head back to the plantation.” Jacob grabbed her hand and all but pulled her across the grass to where he had parked his bike at the curb. Just like the first time he picked her up at the library, he secured a helmet on her head and settled her behind him, only this time he also wore a helmet. He was no longer infallible and wasn’t going to take any chances with this new lease on life he has been given.
The feel of her soft body pressed against him had him teetering on the edge of his control before they left the city and when he felt her soft lips caressing his neck, her crotch rubbing against his ass, he knew they weren’t going to wait until he reached Damien’s property. A few miles outside city limits, he pulled into a copse of trees, jumped off the bike, made short work of disposing of their helmets and had her back in his arms, rocking his cock against her, mimicking what he intended to be doing in a few short minutes.
“Now, Jacob,” Grace demanded, her urgency and need conveyed in her tone. “Please. It’s been so long.”
“Too fucking long.” Jacob turned her and bent her over the seat of his bike, urgency plowing through him, the need to restake his claim had his cock rock hard and aching. Flipping up her skirt, he shoved her panties down, grabbed her hips and sank his cock into her slick, welcoming heat. The immediate clutching of her vaginal walls around his dick, sucking his orgasm to the surface without delay threatened both his composure and his sanity.
Grace’s body welcomed him back with an explosion of pleasure so intense her world exploded in a fireworks display of color that erased the bleak darkness of the past weeks and welcomed the brightness of a new future.
Damien decided to walk the last few blocks to the Book Nook, enjoying the feel of the spring warmth on his skin for the first time in almost two hundred years as much as he was savoring the anticipation of seeing Abrielle again. He had been shocked to feel his body slowly disappearing after they had vanquished Isabelle, and even more stunned to emerge from a black abyss into a peacefully calming white aura. Being given a choice to follow a being he had no name for into that light had been an excruciating temptation that came in a close second to returning to Abby and the chance to live out the remainder of his human life with her.