by Unknown
“I know. I just don’t want to upset him.”
“You know what I think? I think you need to tell me why you’re hurting inside,” she urged, rubbing her cheek on his bare chest. “It might make you feel better.”
He sighed, realizing that she wasn’t going to give in anytime soon. “I was just thinking about the stars. When I was a little kid, my mom would take me out to the tree house that my dad built for me. We would camp out and curl up together. She would make us hot chocolate, and together we would look at the lights in the sky for hours. I was just missing the comfort she used to offer, and how I took all her love and gestures for granted.” He absently played with a strand of Jolie’s hair.
Jolie reached out to Jacques. “He’s hurting and lonely.”
“What can we do for him, mon amour?” asked Jacques.
“I think I have an idea. Will you be okay with it?” She relayed her plan to Jacques, and he immediately sent her love and warmth.
“But of course, mon amour. He’s our family and part of us.”
“You miss her don’t you?”
“Yeah, she was a great mom. She was always there with cookies and a hug when you needed one. It’s like she always knew,” he said, sighing.
“How did she die, if I may ask?”
Brogan took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “She had cancer. My dad was sick after he had his stroke, and she was so busy worrying about him that she never thought to go to the doctor herself. By the time she found out that she was dying, it was too late for her. Unfortunately, it ate her alive. It didn't take my dad long to succumb after she was gone. When mom left, he had nothing to live for.”
It broke her heart that he felt abandoned.
“I sold it all, taking anything with sentimental meaning, and got out of the house. It was too painful to go there, after they were gone. It became an empty shell without them. I used to go over for coffee three times a week, and to check on them. I cut the grass, helped my mom with her grocery shopping, and kept them both company. Now, I feel like I’m missing purpose in life.”
Jolie sat and listened to the sadness in his voice. Her heart was weeping for the pain that he was experiencing.
Jacques called to her, “Bring him. He hurts.”
“Will you come with me?” she asked.
“Where are we going?” he asked, taking her hand trustingly.
She said nothing but just led him down the hall to her and Jacques’s room. She opened her door and saw her mate waiting there. He had gotten dressed and was sitting on the bed in a pair of silk pajama bottoms. She was touched that he had considered Flynn’s feelings.
“Stay with us tonight.”
“No, I can’t,” he said, pulling his hand away. “I’m going back to my room.”
“Please stay, mon ami,” said Jacques from the bed. “We want to give you peace.”
Brogan was confused.
When he came with her, he never expected an invitation to sleep with them. His heart was pounding, his palms were getting sweaty, and his mind was racing.
It was hard not to think back to that first moment when he woke up against Jolie. She had been so cold, but there was more. His hand had found the soft, luscious flesh of her breast, and since then, he was obsessed with it.
With her.
It was hard to admit that he was infatuated with a dead woman who was mated to a dead man.
It was crazy.
Wasn’t it?
“We were getting ready to retire for the night. Stay with us,” she urged, taking his hand in hers as she led him to the opposite side of the bed from Jacques.
“I don’t understand,” he said, staring down at her. It was a lie, he completely understood, but he wasn’t sure what to do with all of it. Here was a beautiful woman, offering him a place to sleep beside her.
Could he keep his hands to himself?
Did he want to?
“We want you to sleep here with us. Please stay. You're hurting, and we can’t stop feeling it in our hearts.”
He just looked at her, and then back again at Jacques.
If he was waiting for some sort of reaction from the vampyre, he was getting nothing. In fact, the man’s face was like carved granite.
“I don’t know if I can,” he said honestly.
The other fear brewing in him was the fact that they felt so cold and dead. It wasn’t easy to wake up beside a corpse and essentially, that was what they were when they were gone to death. It was a little scary, and he was man enough to admit it.
“Try, and we’ll go from there,” Jolie reassured, sitting him down on the side of the bed. When she pushed him back onto the pillow and climbed up the middle, between her heart and her soul, Flynn looked nervous.
Before he could object again, she pulled the silky sheets that smelled like lavender up over them.
He was beyond tense.
“Relax, Flynn. Why don’t you think about camping and the stars?” she suggested, getting him to calm a little.
Yeah, that was easy for her to say.
His body was reacting to the scent, the feel, and the sounds around him.
Just when he thought they would go to death, she cuddled closer, pulling Jacques against the back of her, so he was spooning her. Without hesitation, her leg went over Flynn’s lower body, and her hand was on his chest.
It was hard to concentrate.
Jolie turned her head to accept a kiss from Jacques, and then faced the skittish male in their bed.
“Jolie…”
“Shhhh… go to sleep, Flynn,” she urged, leaning into him and laying a kiss on his lips. This time, it wasn’t as chaste, and she could feel his body react.
What could he do? He was trapped beneath her leg and his libido wasn’t exactly disappointed. He only hoped his brain was going to like when she went cold.
Taking her hand, he closed his eyes.
Jolie and Jacques listened to him breathing deeply, and when he was finally asleep, she turned her face and winked at her mate before whispering into his mind.
“Thank you, mon amour.”
“He needed peace tonight, and I’m glad we could offer it to him.”
“I love you, Jacques. I’m lucky to have you,” she said, snuggling against Flynn in bed. “It’ll be dawn soon, I need to rest.”
“Call death, my love. I’ll be right behind you.”
Jolie reached out for the darkness, letting it seep into her body. The last thing that she felt was Jacques spooning her close, and Flynn holding her hand.
With that, she stopped fighting and released her last breath.
Jacques listened to her die and observed Brogan’s easy breathing. With a sweep if his mind, he searched the house, locked the doors, and protected his family.
In the afternoon, Chloe would be there to pull them from death so they could start their day.
As he slipped under, he immediately began the search for his mate.
Brogan knew when they were both gone, and he opened his eyes. The room was bathed in a faint glow from a single lamp across the room. He was well aware that they left it on for him, so he wouldn’t wake in the dark.
They didn't need the light, but he may.
Glancing over, he couldn’t help but watch them in death. With gentle fingertips, he first touched Jolie’s arm and then Jacques’s.
It was as if he expected their eyes to pop open.
When nothing happened, he took it one step further. He lowered his face to hers and gently stole a kiss. Yes, it was one sided, but he didn't have the nerve to do it while they both were awake.
Truth be told, he still feared Jacques and his reaction.
“Thank you,” he whispered, as he closed his eyes and slowly fell asleep himself.
His last thought as he drifted off was that he should be cold as the heat left their bodies, but instead he felt nothing but warmth and love.
Like he belonged.
∞ Chapter Twenty-One ∞
Sunday After
noon
Jolie could feel death falling away as she reached out with her mind to find Jacques. In the abyss, he was right behind her, struggling to escape the dark. Taking a deep breath, it was one more victory for them against the one who owned their existence.
Trying to focus and not rustle the bed, Jolie opened her eyes to search for the other man beside her. She could see that Flynn had moved during the morning at some point, but thankfully he was still there.
It was a start.
When Jacques took a deep breath, she called to his mind again. “Good afternoon, my love.”
“Hello beautiful. How is our detective?”
“He seems to be asleep still,” she replied, as her mate leaned up on his elbow to peek over Jolie’s shoulder.
“We should leave him to rest. Could I interest you in a shower?”
“Mon amour, I thought you would never ask.”
They both slid carefully out of the bed to escape into the bathroom. Jacques locked the door, ogling her with a glint in his eyes. “You look delicious right now.”
“Do I?” she asked, as she began dropping clothes to head into the water.
It wasn’t easy not to focus on every single motion that she was making as she walked away from him. Jacques’s body reacted as it always did. It was screaming in want, and it expected him to comply.
Immediately.
“I need you, Jolie,” he said, stripping and following her. He watched her slip under the spray, and he licked his lips in anticipation. As if on cue, his fangs tore into his mouth as he saw the pulse in her neck beating. There was no doubt what he needed as he followed Jolie into the cascading water and reached for her slick skin.
“Wash my back, Jacques,” she said, handing him a bottle of shower gel and a sponge. Jolie watched him pour the gel all over the sponge and foam it up. The simple action made her heart thump in her chest.
It had felt like weeks since she had touched him.
Moving her hair, so he could get to her back, Jolie reveled in the sponge sliding over her shoulders and down her spine. When his hand rand across her bottom and to her legs, she was lost.
“Now my front,” she purred, as he lifted an eyebrow and bared his fangs.
“Who am I to argue, Mistress?” he replied, stepping even closer, as he ran the soapy sponge up the front of her body.
His breath caught as the lure of her blood just beneath the skin called to him. Suddenly, he could hear his own breathing getting quicker.
Jolie waited for him to focus on her, and when he was lost in the moment, she ran her hand over his erection. He hissed as his control snapped.
It was just what she had wanted.
Pulling her close, he kissed her like he was starving and only she could feed his need.
“I have to have you now,” he admitted, as she rubbed her body against the front of his, making him burn hotter than any flame. He really thought he was going to combust.
“Jacques,” she whispered, as he lapped the beads of water from her neck. With his tongue, he traced the one that had escaped. If anything, he was driving her mad with his careful attention to that one little drop. When he followed it to the tip of her breast, sucking it into his mouth, her whole body quivered in lust.
“Please,” she whispered, as he drove her wild with his truly excellent oral skills. When his hand slid down between their bodies to stroke her, she nearly shattered apart. It took everything to hold on as she threw back her head and moaned his name.
“Jacques, please,” she begged again, as he continued to drive her closer to the edge, ignoring her pleas. As his fangs slid across her sensitive flesh, the fire erupted in the pit of her stomach, threatening to swallow her whole.
He ignored her. Not because he didn't want to give her the moon and stars, but because he was too far lost in the sensation of her body shaking around his.
Just as she began to fragment apart, he knew that he needed more. Moving wildly, like some crazed beast trapped in the mating of his species, he pulled her roughly into his arms.
Jolie could feel herself being lifted, and she was helpless to do anything but go along for the ride. She had a second to wrap her arms around his neck, before he impaled her roughly.
Jacques could have died in that moment and been completely content. The hardness of his body, finding the satiny glide, was heaven in itself. Now, he would find bliss for both of them.
It was like watching from outside his body as she continued to tighten around him. With more force, he began vigorously burying himself in his mate. “Again,” he hissed in her ear, as he trailed his lips down her neck. The spiciness of her skin called to him.
“Please, Jacques,” she begged, as she tipped her head away to give him better access to her throat. All that she craved in that moment was him burying his fangs in her flesh.
Maybe craved was a bad word.
Jolie needed it more than breathing.
As his teeth grazed her pulse, Jacques timed it perfectly, biting down and thrusting himself into her body at the same time.
Jolie shouted again, burying her face in his shoulder to muffle the noise.
He leaned her back against the wall as he continued drinking from her body.
Jolie ran her teeth across the artery in his shoulder, tasting the energy pulsing beneath his skin. She heard him beg in her mind, as he continued to drink from her.
She would give him exactly what he wanted.
Jolie didn’t even prepare him. She simply slammed her teeth into his flesh as she shattered again. It was all it took to push him over the edge with her. As he shuddered in release, the warmth overwhelmed them both.
Jacques pulled his teeth from her throat and trembled as he slid them to the shower floor. It was hard not to react further, as she continued to feed from his body.
It was official.
He was lost between reality and euphoria.
When Jolie slowly pulled her teeth from his throat, he could barely speak. “Mon Dieu,” he whispered, his eyes still closed as his mate was now lying across his chest.
“Mmmmm… Jacques. You’re so very tasty in the morning,” she admitted, as she left kisses across his face.
“I was about to tell you the same thing, mon amour,” he admitted, licking her earlobe. “We should get back to our room. Chloe and Mina will be here shortly to feed us.”
Jolie ran her fingers across his skin. “I need a minute.”
He began to worry. “Are you okay?”
Laughing, she kissed his chest. “I want to enjoy the moment with you, Jacques.”
The grin spread across his face. “Well, who am I to interrupt your afterglow? Bask away.”
Jolie laughed, stealing that one moment of peace before she had to face the day. Who knew what was on the horizon?
∞ ∞ ∞
A short time later, as they exited the shower, their donors entered the room. Chloe arrived carrying a tray of tea and breakfast for the detective as Mina followed behind.
“We’re ready to feed you both, Mistress,” Chloe whispered, keeping her voice low to not disturb the sleeping man.
Both Jolie and Jacques moved toward them to complete the daily ritual. As soon as it was done, they were once more left alone.
Jolie immediately headed to her closet to dress. She needed to feed the detective, but she knew he was uncomfortable with their nudity.
Well, more so when Jacques was missing clothes.
When she returned to the bed, Jolie found him still asleep. Climbing into the bed, she spooned against the back of him, trying to wake him up. “Flynn, it is time to rise,” she whispered in his ear. “You need to feed, and we need to plan our night,” Jolie added, licking along his ear as she caressed his body with wandering hands.
When he rolled onto his back, she stared down into his icy blue eyes, as they fought to clear away the cobwebs of sleep. “Good morning.”
“Did you sleep well?” she asked.
“Yeah, I did, and it was pro
bably better than I have in a long time,” he replied, sitting up. Cautiously, he glanced over at the other vampyre as he crossed the room toward them. Already, he was clothed in black dress pants and a silk shirt that he had left open.
“Good morning, Flynn. We would’ve let you sleep longer, but we need to make some plans for this evening,” said Jacques. “Did you sleep well?” he asked, cocking his head.
“Yeah, thanks.”
“Anytime, mon ami,” he stated, before heading to the table to pour them their drinks. He remained there as he waited for Jolie to take care of their human. It was the least he could do by offering the detective some privacy.
“Are you hungry, Flynn?” asked Jolie, touching his face with her fingers to draw his attention back to her.
“Yeah, it feels weird when you wake up already exhausted,” he said, answering her question. “Where do you want me?” he asked, once more glancing over Jolie’s shoulder at Jacques.
“Right where you are is fine, Flynn,” she smiled. Jolie reached for his mind and could feel his discomfort. “I won’t touch you too much if it makes you nervous.”
“It is not me that I’m worried about. I don’t want to make Jacques angry.”
“Again, you underestimate him, Flynn,” she replied, and opted to leave it at that.
When she climbed into his lap, he desperately tried to not think of how she affected his body. Yeah, it was morning, and he was already a hormone laden mess. Now, add to it that she was perched right over the part of his anatomy that was now doing all the thinking.
The second her mouth met his, Flynn knew he was screwed. There had to be something that he could do to not react this way. Then again, he was willing to blame it all on the energy.
Yeah, that was it.
As hard as he tried, there was no way around it. Jolie fired every one of his hormones and made them kick into overdrive. Brogan forced his thoughts to think of work, fights, and Jacques, but he wasn’t winning. He wondered how long his body could hold out.
