Jacob Michaels Is... The Omnibus Edition: A Point Worth LGBTQ Paranormal Romance Books 1 - 6

by Chase Connor

  Obviously, that part of the memory would have been helpful to have before I had gone to Jason’s house to deliver the wad of cash.

  Remembering that Lucas had wanted to protect me from what might happen if the pack thought I was in the way was important, too. Lucas wanted to protect me from bad things, just as I wanted to protect him from bad things. We were both fighting similar battles but on different fronts. If we weren’t careful, a battalion of soldiers was going to separate us while we were distracted. But Lucas had no idea what battles we were fighting. He didn’t have his memories back like I did.

  Water flew as I reached up to slap myself on the side of my head in rapid-fire succession, my teeth gritting together as I willed myself to not get emotional. I was so confused and disoriented and…I felt like a giant ass. Everything that had happened—before Jacob Michaels and after Jacob Michaels—was entirely my fault. But then again…there had only been one other choice at the time. Sure, if I had thought out my wishes a little better, worded them better, maybe there would have been more, or better, choices. Since you can’t always change the past—even with magic—I had to admit that I had royally fucked things up.

  Just as I was set to slap myself in the head again, a modified type of self-flagellation, Ernst peeked his head out of the linen closet. I sniffled roughly, making sure that my emotions were in check before I looked over at him. I was going to make a joke about “knocking first,” but Ernst seeing me naked was nothing new. The joke would have fallen flat, especially with a Kobold.

  “Hey, Ernst,” I said blandly.

  “Are ya’ okay, Rob?”

  “I’m fine.” I gave him my best ‘Jacob Michaels’ smile. “I just fell asleep for a minute and tried to drown myself.”

  I capped that off with a laugh that I hope sounded genuine.

  Ernst smiled pitifully at me.

  “Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine.” His little ears wiggled as his eyes lit up. “The mistress is in-a rather righ’ state, though.”

  “Isn’t she always?” I snorted.

  “She, uh,” Ernst looked around, “she’s dow’ in the cellar diggin’ at the dirt, Rob. Cursin’ and-a diggin’.”

  Without meaning too, I burst out with laughter. I had to put a hand over my mouth in an effort to stop myself. Thinking about Oma flipping her lid, the realization of the well actually being gone, and digging at the dirt like a crazy old hag made me want to laugh until I died. Before I knew it, tears were coming to my eyes from trying to keep myself from laughing. Ernst smiled oddly at me as his ears wiggled. Finally, I was able to calm myself down and push the visual of Oma digging at the cellar floor out of my head.

  “Well, Oma’s gone ‘round the bend.” I shrugged. “We all knew it would happen sooner or later, Ernst.”

  “I ‘spose.” Ernst replied. “She wen’ dow’ there right after he showed up.”

  Ernst hooked a thumb over his shoulder in the direction of my bedroom.

  “He…?”

  My eyes widened as I stood quickly from the tub, water splashing everywhere as I reached for my towel. Ernst leaped out of my way as I dried myself hastily and rather poorly, then wrapped the towel around my waist. I dashed for my bedroom, prepared to face whoever had the nerve to come to Oma’s house and enter my bedroom without my permission. When I tore open the bathroom door and stomped into the bedroom, my right hand already feeling warm, my eyes immediately began looking for my target.

  “Hey, babe.”

  I jumped as Lucas’ voice came from my bed. He was laid out on my bed comfortably, only in his boxers, reading a book. I looked over at Ernst, an irritated look on my face. Ernst shrugged and ushered me away. As he was closing the bathroom door behind me, I saw him grab a towel and start mopping at the water on the floor.

  “When did you get here?” I asked stupidly.

  “Ten minutes ago?” Lucas shrugged, not looking up from his book. “Mrs. Wagner said you were up here taking a bath, so I thought I’d wait. She had a shovel in her hand, and it’s after dark, so I figured it probably was best to just wait up here instead of getting in her way.”

  He laughed lowly at the thought of Oma and her shovel. I couldn’t give him an explanation without telling him more than he needed to know.

  “So…you just stripped down and crawled into my bed like you own the place, huh?” I chuckled as I tucked the towel into itself so that I wouldn’t have to hold it in place.

  Lucas frowned and looked up, his eyes finally landing on me. They lit up immediately, seeing me standing there, still damp and essentially naked, straight from the bathtub.

  “Well,” Lucas smiled widely, “if I had known this was how you’d greet me, I would have gotten here a lot sooner.”

  “You smooth talker.” I teased.

  Lucas pulled the flyleaf out and used it to mark his place in the book before setting it on the bedside table. Then he patted the bed suggestively, his eyes hungry as he stared across the room at me.

  “That’s your side now, is it?”

  “Well,” Lucas shrugged slightly, his eyes burning with desire, “you always sleep over there, so it just seemed logical to me. Just like at my house. You sleep on the right, I sleep on the left.”

  “Did you always sleep on the left, or did that become a thing once I came along?”

  “I slept in the middle before you came along.” He said simply. “But I prefer the left.”

  I nodded. “The right side is better than the middle for me, too.”

  “Did you sleep a lot in the middle while you were off being Jacob Michaels?” He asked.

  “When I slept.”

  “How do you sleep now?”

  “Better.”

  Again, he was smiling and patting the bed.

  “You’re not too worn out from work?” I grinned at him as I pulled the towel from around my waist, leaving myself bare before him so that I could dry my hair better. “I mean, teaching kids and working in the hardware store is bound to tucker a guy out.”

  Lucas’ eyes danced all over my body as I stood there, running the towel roughly through my hair. I was pretty sure that he licked his lips at least once. When my hair was no longer dripping, I ran the towel over my body and tossed it in the direction of the hamper in the corner. Then I stood there, staring at Lucas, naked and completely comfortable.

  “You should have done at least one nude scene in one of your movies.” His Adam’s Apple bobbed as he stared at me. “Even skinny as hell, you’re sexy.”

  “Maybe I did do a nude scene.” I shrugged. “You don’t know.”

  “It never made it into a movie.” He replied. “I’ve seen all of them.”

  “I’m sorry.” I teased.

  “I’m not.”

  “Even though there were no nude scenes?”

  “No.” He shook his head, his eyes coming to rest on mine. “I’m glad I’m the only person who gets to see you like this. I love seeing you like this.”

  “How was your day, dear?” I crossed my arms over my chest and smiled lasciviously at him.

  “Who cares?” He gestured for me to come closer.

  “Don’t make me feel cheap.” I turned my nose up playfully. “How was your day?”

  “Doing work and waiting for the hours to pass so I could see you again,” Lucas said. “I was worried I would work too long and miss the chance, so that was stressful. But I’m here now. Come to bed.”

  “Nothing exciting or funny?”

  “Nothing more exciting than this.”

  “Funny?”

  “Nothing funnier than you making me work this hard when you know you don’t want that.” Lucas smiled. “So, why don’t you get in bed? Now.”

  “I love it when you’re demanding.” I cooed as I sauntered towards the bed as sexily as I could manage.

  Lucas used his elbows to pull himself up further on the bed until he was sitting up, his back against the headboard. When I reached the end of the bed, I climbed on, one knee, then t
he other, kneeling at the foot of the bed and looking up at my boyfriend as he stared hungrily back. Slowly, I walked towards him on my knees and came to straddle his legs. Lucas reached out with his hands to grab my hips and pulled me towards him faster, obviously unable to wait for me to perform the action on my own. I gasped as his fingers dug into my hips, then laughed as my body was smooshed against his.

  “I’ve been waiting all day for this.” Lucas looked up at me as I knelt over his lap, then he leaned forward to kiss my bare chest.

  I sighed. “Sounds like a reasonable way to spend your day to me.”

  “Mmmm,” Lucas responded as he nibbled and sucked at my flesh, and I reached up to run my fingers through his hair. “Di-oo-iss-ee-all-ay-oo?”

  I laughed loudly at Lucas’ attempt to talk while devouring the flesh of my chest as his hands ran down to cup my ass firmly.

  “Did I miss you, too?” I asked, leaning down to whisper in his ear.

  “Mm.”

  “Yes,” I said. “I missed you all day.”

  “Do you still love me?” He pulled away from my chest long enough to ask, his eyes looking up at me suddenly.

  “What kind of question is that?” I ran my fingers through his hair as I gazed down at him. “You know the answer to that.”

  “Remind me.” His hands slid up to my lower back.

  “Of course, I still love you, Lucas.” I shook my head in disbelief. “I’ve always loved you. I’ll always love you.”

  “I love you, too.” He replied quickly.

  Leaning down, I let my lips find his as my fingers continued to rake through his hair gently. Suddenly, it occurred to me that I had gotten hard very quickly and was pressing into Lucas’ stomach. He obviously didn’t mind in the slightest as he returned my kiss.

  “I’ve always loved you, Rob.” Lucas sighed as I pulled away from his mouth. “And I’ll always love you, too.”

  “How can you be so sure if you don’t have all of your memories?” I was only half-teasing.

  “You’re sure.” He shrugged. “Why can’t I be?”

  I had no answer for that—at least no answer that wouldn’t give away more information than I was prepared to provide.

  “My memories wouldn’t change my mind about it anyway,” He said, then, for good measure, added: “That’s one of those things I just know, Rob.”

  Staring down into Lucas’ eyes, I suddenly realized there were some things I just knew, too. Like when Lucas was telling the truth. Though, it wasn’t difficult to figure out, since he almost always did. Hearing him say the things he said made me realize a fundamental truth about our relationship, what was going on around us, and what was to come. I made a decision.

  “We still haven’t gone on an official date,” I said softly.

  He smiled up at me.

  “You won’t feel like a real man until I’ve bought you dinner and movie tickets?” He teased.

  “I can pay my own way.” I flicked his nose gently. “But a real date would be nice.”

  “Okay.” He grinned happily. “Where do you want to eat and what movie do you want to see? I’m assuming one you’re not in?”

  I laughed gently.

  “Actually, a friend of mine has a show at a dinner club in Toledo on Friday. Lounge? Heard of it?”

  Lucas indicated that he had. “You make new friends quickly.”

  “She’s an old friend of the family,” I replied with a wink.

  “Then she’s an old friend of mine.”

  “Maybe we could go see her perform?” I suggested. “Then…a moonlit stroll along the Maumee? Maybe walk the birding trail out by Cullen Park?”

  “All alone with you in the dark under the moon?” He grinned.

  I nodded.

  “Sounds more romantic than dinner and a movie.”

  “A lot more romantic.”

  “Then it’s a date, babe.” He kissed me.

  Chapter 11

  There is a peninsula out by Cullen Park on the north side of Toledo. It’s more like a skeletal finger of land that juts out from the Cullen Park and Docks area, pointing into the Maumee Mooring Basin towards Grassy Island. It isn’t big enough or stable enough to allow vehicles to drive onto it, but it has an excellent birding trail—which is essentially just a trail for walkers or joggers. I suppose it is good for spotting birds during the warmer months, but as far as I was aware, most people used it as a simple walking trail to get in a bit of exercise. Of course, I didn’t know of anyone who would venture out onto the trail late at night, other than Lucas and me. Of course, everything about our lives was strange, so taking a moonlit walk along an unlit path on an unnamed road on an unnamed finger of land was not that unusual.

  As I had suspected it would happen, Carlita put on a show worth every bit of the cover charge at Lounge. Of course, Carlita had given mine and Lucas’ names to the manager (Rob Wagner, not Jacob Michaels, thank goodness), so we didn’t have to pay the cover. It would have been worth it if we had, though. For nearly thirty minutes, Carlita treated the audience to one of the funniest comedic monologues I’d ever heard. She interacted with the audience (luckily, sparing Lucas and me, although we were sat up front and center), made quips, told jokes, and had everyone roaring with laughter from her off-color jokes.

  Of course, then we were treated to a few songs, the least of which was not All That Jizz. Carlita exited stage left to a thunderous standing ovation, which I am pretty sure that Lucas and I initiated when we leaped from our seats. After the show, I expected Carlita to come out into the crowd to mingle or say “hello” to people, but she never did. I was a little disappointed that I did not get to introduce her to Lucas, though it was probably for the best. Lucas knew things, so he probably would have known that she was no ordinary drag queen immediately upon meeting her. In fact, he probably knew it just from watching the show, but he kept that observation to himself. Obviously, he knew a lot of things in my life were not quite what they seemed, so I’m sure he took all of his observations in stride. Besides, it wasn’t like his life was “normal.”

  As we slowly strolled along the pathway along the skeletal finger of land, I held Lucas’ hand in mine, our fingers interlocked, as I used my other hand to try and pull my coat even more tightly around myself. The cold didn’t seem to bother Lucas as much, but he had lived in Ohio and New York his entire life. A decade in Los Angeles and other warmer climates had left me unaccustomed to the fact that even Springtime in Upper Ohio was still essentially winter. Luckily, Lucas’ hand was warm, and the wind wasn’t blowing too hard. However, when I thought of what I had planned, even Lucas’ warm hand made me feel chilled.

  Carlita’s show was great, and she had set me up to have a reason to bring Lucas out to the Maumee so that he would not be suspicious of my intentions. Not that Lucas would have been completely put off by what I had planned, but I didn’t want him to think about it too much. I wanted to present him with his options and then just go with the one he chose. I did not want another decade to go by where we were left in limbo. We needed to either “piss or get off the pot” as Oma would say. The only way to get Lucas to quickly make a decision would be to present it to him at the Maumee. If I asked him in bed at night, and he chose, the next morning, his answer might be different. He might change his mind. I didn’t want him to waffle.

  Maybe that was selfish of me.

  At least impatient.

  But, like Lucas, there were some things I just knew.

  I knew that a storm was brewing.

  We didn’t have time to fret over relatively simple decisions.

  “You’d think they’d put at least a few lights out here, right?” Lucas asked, cutting the stillness of the dark night around us. “I mean, if we had a new moon tonight, I might not even be able to see you.”

  He chuckled

  “Hey,” I nudged him with my shoulder, “it’s romantic.”

  “And a little creepy.” He added. “There’s a reason there are no other people out here on m
oonlit strolls, babe.”

  “How do you know that?” I asked ominously. “There could be someone right behind us, and you’d never know.”

  “Stop it.” He chuckled nervously.

  “There could be lots of people just hiding beyond the trees, waiting for us to drop our guard, babe,” I added. “Maybe if we look closely, we can see their eyes shining in the moonlight, watching us walk along like a perfect little snacky-snack.”

  “Are you thinking of people or zombies?” Lucas nudged me this time. “And stop trying to scare me.”

  “I didn’t know you were so easily unnerved.” I leaned into him, pulling my hand away from his to wrap my arms around his middle.

  It made walking along the path a little awkward, but neither of us really cared all that much.

  “I don’t even watch horror movies.” Lucas sighed. “That movie you did, Eyes in the Darkness? I nearly shit my pants in the movie theater.”

  I laughed loudly.

  “Mrs. Wagner loved it.”

  “I can imagine,” I replied cheerfully. “Well, as far as I’m concerned, you’ll never have to watch another one of my movies ever. Especially a scary one.”

  “Was it scary to do that movie?” He asked.

  “Let’s not talk about that.”

  “Why not?” Lucas asked. “My memories are jumbled about the past, and I have no idea what you’ve really done for the last decade. Humor me.”

  “It wasn’t scary,” I stated simply. “The movie looks all dark and spooky, but most of the time I was on a soundstage that was fully lit. Post-production does all that creepy shadowy lighting stuff you see in the theater. All of the reactionary stuff I was in front of a green screen. I didn’t even know what the things I was reacting to looked like.”