by Linda Mooney
He had been three when he had been kidnapped. His ship had landed five years ago.
“You were on that ship for sixteen years?”
Jeb slowly nodded.
“But…” She sniffed. Hurriedly she went to the bathroom for some tissues to blow her nose. When she reentered the bedroom, he hadn’t moved. “But you told me the Are-Arra?” Another nod. “You said they ate your people. How did you manage to survive that long without being eaten?”
“We were sold as slave labor first. When one of my people became too old to procreate, or too weak to work, they were eaten.”
“Oh, God … I’m so sorry, Jeb.”
He gave her a forgiving smile. “You have nothing to be sorry about.” Holding out a hand, he gestured for her to join him. “Come. I want to make love with you. Let me show you how to turn on the Ruinos male you claim to want to spend the rest of your life with.”
Chapter 15
Blood Line
“It’ll be daylight soon.”
Her voice was barely audible, even to his heightened sense of hearing. Running his tongue over the back of her neck where he had learned she was sensitive, Jeb smiled when she shivered lightly at his touch. “I still have a few more minutes,” he leaned down to whisper in her ear.
This last time they had ended up on their sides. He readjusted his arms around her waist, keeping her perfectly fitted against him, her back to his front. His manpipe nestled in the valley of her buttocks, firmly but seductively trapped.
The sheet beneath them was slick with the product of their labors, but at the moment neither of them cared. They were tired. A good tired.
“You didn’t get enough sleep,” Hannah murmured.
He felt her lift his arm to examine his hand. She put one of his fingers with its thick claw into her succulent mouth and began to tease it with her tongue. His body immediately reacted, causing her to gasp in surprise when she felt the rod beneath her bottom lengthen in response. Hannah moaned as his erection tried to find its way back between her thighs. Jeb chuckled and ran a thumb over one still semi-erect nipple. She groaned louder and arched her back. Catching her earlobe with his spiked teeth, he was careful to nibble it gently until she tilted her head against his shoulder so he could reach her mouth.
Her kiss was moist and intoxicating. Pulling away slightly, he answered, “I’ve gone without sleep before. Don’t worry about me, Hannah. I will spend all day today reliving last night … and dreaming of what tonight will bring.”
She started to say something but he silenced her with another kiss. When they finally pulled apart, she snuggled back into her earlier position and went back to examining the uniqueness of his hand and fingers.
Jeb closed his eyes, pressing his forehead into her wealth of sunny-yellow hair. Last night had brought him more joy and completeness than he had ever felt in his entire life. Within Hannah’s orgasms he had experienced the fusing of their two entities. She was his blood mate. His life partner. As incredible as it was to believe, he had no doubts.
“How do you file down these nails when they get too long?”
“Rock is a natural file. Limestone or sandstone works best. Why? Do I need to tend to them?”
“They look intimidating.”
“You should see our females if you want to see intimidating.”
“No, thanks.”
She continued to study his skin and the razor-like ridge that ran along the top of his arm from wrist to shoulder. He had similar ridges lining his spinal path and down the backs of both legs. Fortunately he could control whether they lay flat or rose upward like wicked-looking spikes.
Impulsively she kissed his palm. Hannah’s scent of satiation enveloped them both with its papery smell. To Jeb the entire cabin was thick with it. Drawing in a deep breath, he savored her satisfaction on his tongue.
He had to stop trying to place Ruinos restrictions upon their union. He had to cease believing that their being together was an impossibility simply because they were of different races. There was no way anyone would be able to convince him that they didn’t belong together. Blood line or no blood line.
Lifting his knees, he caught the back of her thighs and raised them slightly as he readjusted their position. Behind them he could tell the sun was rising. He didn’t have much longer before his body would be locked into form, his skin frozen into shape for the day.
Sighing heavily, Jeb started to move away when Hannah asked, “This is pretty. What are these little sparkly lines?”
“The what?” He felt her fingertips running down the inside of his arm. It tickled, and he grinned. “That’s my blood line.”
“Huh?” She leaned back slightly to look at him.
“We call it a blood line. It’s our link to those we share a blood connection to.”
“You mean Simon’s?”
He nodded, kissing her temple before she turned back around. “Yeah. It’s Simon’s. If you watch, you can see his heartbeat.”
There was a moment of silence. “Yeah. It’s beating a little fast.”
Smiling, Jeb explained, “He’s moving around. Probably getting ready for the day.”
“Do you have one for your parents?”
“I had one for each of them. When they died, their blood lines were absorbed into my body.”
“Okay.” Her voice trailed away. He began to withdraw from the bed again when she wondered aloud, “So if this one is Simon’s, and there’s no one left in your family, then the other one is yours?”
Jeb froze.
Hannah felt the change in his emotion. “Jeb?” She rolled over to see his stunned expression. “Jeb, what’s wrong?”
He pulled his arm from her grasp and stared at the inner side in disbelief. There, running from wrist to elbow were two thin, iridescent lines. Blood lines.
Two. Each of them pulsing with their own rhythms.
His body began trembling uncontrollably as the truth reached inside his body with warm, fragrant hands.
“Jeb?” Her voice trembled, tears coming to her eyes. Hannah knew something was wrong. Or different. Or very, very right. She just didn’t know which.
“Oh, sweetest stars,” he murmured. No wonder Simon’s heart was beating furiously. He would have the same identical extra line on his inner arm. Proof that his brother and the woman he claimed was his life partner were, in fact, true blood mates.
Irrefutable proof to all Ruinos.
Behind him the sun began to peek through the trees. A ray of light crawled over the window’s casement.
Jumping to his feet, Jeb drew himself erect as he assumed his human guise. From the bed Hannah watched in awe, but the scent of her worry continued to powder the room.
Their connection now would only grow. Soon Hannah would be able to sense things from him that she had never experienced. Already she was alert to his reactions. As the sun solidified his body into the features of a human, he could see a curious expression cross her face as she realized he had been locked in.
“What just happened, Jeb?” she whispered, near tears.
“That other blood line isn’t mine, Hannah. It’s yours.”
Her eyes jerked down to his arm, but his human skin shielded the tiny thread-thin marks from view. “Mine?” She looked back up at him. “Is that a good thing? Please tell me it’s a good thing.”
Throwing his head back suddenly, Jeb let out a jubilant laugh and reached out to enfold her in his embrace. “It’s a miracle, Hannah! Yes! Yes, it’s a good thing. In fact, it’s something we never believed could happen, but it did!” He kneeled on the bed and took her face between his hands. “I had prayed I would find my true life partner, my blood mate. When Ruinos believe they are fated, they share their bodies, hoping to see a new blood line form between them. If the line doesn’t form, their union was not meant to be, and they part.”
“But I’m not Ruinos,” she murmured. “How could I form a blood line with you?”
“I don’t know, and I don’t care!” h
e cried out, releasing her face and throwing his arms outward. Laughing, Jeb stood up and beamed at her. “It’s happened. As impossible as I believed it would be, as impossible as Simolif swore it was…” He stopped aware of the passing time. “Hannah, I need to get ready for work.”
Before he could say more, she had jumped out of bed and was heading for the kitchen as she shrugged back into the nightgown he had tossed onto the floor last night.
“Am I going to get one of those blood lines in my arm?” she called from the other room as he pulled on his clothes.
“I don’t know. I can’t be sure of anything anymore,” he admitted truthfully. A quick glance in the mirror told him he needed to run a comb through the tangle of black curls. He threw some cold water on his face to further brace himself, then he went into the kitchen to see what Hannah was up to.
She was buttering toast when he walked in carrying his socks and workboots. Giving him a smile, she nodded. “That unshaven look works for you.”
“I didn’t feel like appearing clean-shaven this morning. Besides, you ought to see some of the other guys at the mill.” He eyed the toast and glass of orange juice.
“You can’t go to work on an empty stomach. Besides, you need to keep your energy up,” she chided him and grinned as he reached for a slice. She joined him by taking a piece of toast for herself. “Okay. Let’s say I don’t develop one of those lines. How will other Ruinos know I’m your true life partner?”
“Don’t worry. They’ll know.” He winked at her. “You smell like me.”
Hannah paused in her chewing. “Beg pardon?”
“You have my scent upon you. And it’s permanent, I’m afraid.”
“Oh, great. And I guess Simon will say I stink like you, too?”
“When he finally meets you, yeah. Does it bother you?” He bent down to finish tying the laces on his boots.
“Are you going to call him with the good news you’ve found your life mate?”
“He already knows,” Jeb sat up and smiled. “When you said you saw his blood line pumping furiously, it was probably because he had already seen yours.”
She stared at him wide-eyed. “What do you mean, he had seen mine? Jeb, does he have my blood line in his arm, too?”
“Yes, because you have now become part of our family.” He leaned toward her. Hannah met him halfway across the table for his kiss. She tasted of strawberry jam, so inviting he had to swipe his tongue over her lips a second time. A soft moan vibrated between them.
Getting to his feet, he started for the front door when Hannah called out, “Will Simon know when we make love? I mean, if he can see our heartbeats…” She left the question unfinished.
Jeb paused with the front door partly open and gave her a loving smile. “Let’s just say he might grow suspicious when he sees both of them racing simultaneously.” Suddenly dropping the smile, he added, “There are some other qualities you may start to experience as our mating grows more frequent.”
“More frequent?” A blush tinged her cheeks, but there was a sparkle of excitement in her eyes.
He closed his eyes in a vain attempt to temper the rising heat in his blood while his manpipe grew uncomfortably cramped inside the tight confines of his jeans. Hopefully he would be able to cool both by the time he arrived at the mill.
“If you feel anything unusual, don’t be afraid, Hannah. We’re both treading on ground neither one of us have traveled before. I’ll be back this evening at the usual time. Don’t worry about cooking supper. I’m taking us out to celebrate.” When her hand flew up to her damaged cheek, he tried to reassure her, “You’re healing quickly. Don’t worry. Oh, and, Hannah?”
She stared up at him, waiting.
“I love you.”
He was gone. The door closed before she could respond in kind.
Chapter 16
Spotted
“Barkett’s. Will this be a to-go order?”
“Barb. It’s me, Hannah!”
She heard a gasp over the line. “Hannah! Praise God, are you all right? Where are you?”
“We’re in Tumbril Harbor.”
“We?” Barb gave a little girlish squeal of excitement. “You mean with Mr. Playgirl Playmate of the Year?”
Hannah laughed loudly, knowing the woman would never find out how accurate her teasing description really was. “Yes, I’m with Jeb. And we’re doing wonderfully.”
“Oh, girl, I can’t remember when the last time was I heard you laugh so freely,” her friend gushed. “So, tell me what happened. You looked like hamburger meat last time I saw you. I was terrified, but I had a feeling Mr. Morr was your ticket out of here.”
“Well, he decided not to stop in Clearwater like he’d originally planned. Mr. Bennetson told him about this lumbermill his cousin runs up here. And Mr. Bennetson told Jeb if he ever decided to come up this way and needed work, to check it out. So Jeb went over there yesterday and got hired on the spot!”
“That’s wonderful! Oh. Hold on a sec, sweetie. That’ll be fourteen-oh-four. Was everything satisfactory?”
Hannah smiled. How many times did I work the register and answer the phone at the same time? Too many to count.
She waited for Barb to finish with the customer and come back on the phone. “You still there?” the woman asked.
“Yeah. I didn’t call at a bad time, did I?” She knew it was after the morning rush, but there were always late-risers coming in for brunch.
“Nah. We just have old Mrs. Pierson and a couple of tables of tourists left. After Jeb and you left Friday, I went and told Billy what happened. He hired a new girl this morning to take your shift. So tell me about Mr. Get My Juices Flowing. Is he as sexy lookin’ under those jeans and t-shirt as we thought he would be?”
This time a giggle escaped her before she could stop herself. It was all Barb needed to hear. “I’m so happy for you!”
“We talked,” Hannah told her. “He told me he loved me, and he never wanted to see me hurt again, ever. Which was why he came for me over at the trailer park.”
“And what about you, Hannah girl? You love him, too, don’tcha?”
“Yeah. Very, very, very much.”
“Have you two, you know, done the horizontal cha-cha yet?”
“Barb!” Despite the fact the woman was over three hundred miles away, it didn’t stop the hot warmth from invading her face.
“Well? Is that a ‘Oh, God, yes!’ or a ‘Just wait, honey, ‘cuz it’s a-comin’.’?”
Hannah laughed again. “It’s a yes, and another yes, and another yes.” She had stopped trying to smother the giggles that seemed to overflow from some bottomless pit inside her. Just the mere mention of making love with Jeb was enough to get her feeling all “squidgy” again. Already she could tell her panties were becoming wet at the memory of what they had done last night. And how many times.
After Jeb had left that morning, she had cleaned up the kitchen before stripping the sheets from the bed and taking them over to the motel’s laundry room. While they were washing she had gone over to the office and had a cup of coffee with Mrs. Newburg. The older woman’s husband had been in the Marines when he was killed overseas. She had continued to run the little business on her own, with the help of a tiny South Korean woman who cleaned the rooms.
It had been a purging of sorts to tell the woman about Carl and his nasty temper. The woman had blanched when she had explained how she and Jeb came to be in Tumbril Harbor. That’s when Mrs. Newburg had given Hannah a pat on the arm and told Hannah if there was anything she could do to help, just let her know.
They had talked some more about places where Hannah might find employment until the sheets were finished. Once she’d transferred the clean load to the dryer, she had gone to the phone booth at the end of the block to call the diner and talk to Barb.
“Well, all I can say is it’s about time you had some happiness come your way,” Barb broke into her thoughts. “So … has he asked you to marry him yet?”
“Not yet,” Hannah admitted truthfully, although she knew what she and Jeb shared went far beyond a simple ceremony. Still…
Barb must have heard the reluctant pause in her voice. “Don’t tell me he’s commitment shy.”
“No, it’s not that,” Hannah hurried to assure her. “It’s a bit more complicated than that.”
Her friend made a rude noise. “And you’re buying that line? I guess deep down all men are the same.”
“You’re wrong there,” Hannah quickly corrected her. Oh, boy, was she wrong. “Jeb’s been a loner all his life. His parents are dead. There’s just him and his brother left. It’s … it’s been a major adjustment for him just for us to be living together.”
“Where’s his brother live? Any chance he’s been in the diner?”
“Don’t think so. Simon lives in Templeton.”
“Oh.” There was a brief pause while the woman checked out another customer, then she was back. “So how are you doing, other than getting deliciously screwed to the bedpost?”
“You have quite a potty mouth, you know that?” Hannah accused the woman, but laughed anyway. “I’m doing better. Fortunately Carl didn’t break any bones this time. I’m almost healed.”
“Did Jeb tell you I gave him your tips from the can?”
“Yeah. I still have the paper bag safely tucked away.” In an empty five pound coffee can underneath the kitchen sink. With nothing to do and time on her hands yesterday while Jeb was out job-hunting, she had finally gotten around to counting the bills. It had come to exactly five hundred and thirty-five dollars. “Thanks, Barb. In fact, I called to tell you thank you for everything, especially your friendship.”
“I’d do it all again in a heartbeat, Hannah girl. All you owe me is an invitation to come dance at your wedding.”
Giggling, Hannah promised. “You haven’t seen or heard from Carl, have you?” she asked, suddenly serious.
“Haven’t seen hide nor hair of him. But Duke Murphy was in yesterday at lunchtime and said the guy had been over to the emergency room to have his hand put in a cast. Said Jeb had done a number on it. Well, them muscles weren’t just for show.” There was a rustle of movement before Barb continued. “Word’s out you left him. He’s been tellin’ everyone you jumped ship for Jeb Morr. Son of a bitch wants everyone’s sympathy, but he ain’t getting it. Everybody in town knows how badly he beat up on you, and they’re not buying his sob story one little bit.”
