I watched him pleasure her for long moments, sharing their joy as he settled on his stomach between her legs and touched his mouth to her pussy, tasting her, loving her. Warmth surged through me and with it tenderness. I loved them so much, had fallen so quickly for both of them, and now they were such an integral part of my life, I couldn’t imagine living even one day without them.
Soon, Jason wouldn’t have to leave us at night anymore. We would have a house together where we would build a family, the three of us and the one yet to come. The rings symbolizing our devotion to one another would be worn openly and life would go on as it was meant to, me and Jason and Gianna, together forever.
Chapter Five
The next month passed far too quickly.
Marco sent me daily reports on Selena for the first week after her imprisonment. She seemed cowed, subdued, so I asked him to send me weekly reports until my next duty night. I went up once, just to reinforce the lesson I’d meted out. Elizabet and Marco sat in as I explained in detail exactly what I would do if I ever saw Selena near my wife again. The cold man cackled gleefully as she shrank slowly into herself, receding a little more with every word I uttered.
The reaction satisfied me immensely.
Tech’s men’s basketball team made it to the Elite Eight before being eliminated in a closely fought game with UConn. Gianna and I watched all three tournament games at a crowded sports bar near our apartment. Jason did great.
Ok, I was still pretending to know what was going on courtside, for the most part. I mean, I caught a lot more over those few games than I had during the regular season, maybe because I was getting used to the game’s rhythms or maybe because Jason spent a lot of time discussing basketball. Eventually, some of his knowledge had to rub off on me, right?
On the other hand, my increased understanding could’ve been because my wife was whispering explanations into my ear. How shameful was it that Gianna knew more about basketball than me? I cheered when she did, listened carefully to her commentary when I got lost in the subtleties of the game, and stored every play in my memory for careful analysis later.
Every time Jason came to the free throw line, she and I joined our left hands together, a silent show of support for our third partner. As a bit of luck, it must’ve worked. He hit nearly every shot and got in a lot of playing time in between.
We barely saw him for those two weeks. He just didn’t have time. I did track him down on campus every few days and gave him a taste of my blood. Our bond was too new for him to do without. I couldn’t risk it withering while he concentrated on building a possible career.
At last, though, the day rolled around when basketball was over for the season. By April Fool’s Day, Jason was spending every night at our apartment. We took turns cooking, cleaning, and shopping, depending on who had tests or excess homework, and usually ended up studying before crowding into our double-sized bed together, draped over and around one another as we made love or slept.
We studied real estate ads online in our spare time. Jason, being the most organized, started printing likely candidates off and placed them in a folder where we could all add notes as we came and went. On the front of the folder, we made a list of must haves and nice to haves. A three bedroom house was a no-brainer, though four would’ve been nice. Two bathrooms was a necessity. A two-car garage was a plus. We knew we wouldn’t get everything we wanted, though we hoped to find a house with everything we needed.
Jason and I were already looking for summer jobs to supplement our household income, which at the moment consisted entirely of my allowance as a pet. Gianna hadn’t been pleased when we’d ixnayed her taking a job. Neither one of us men wanted her working while she was pregnant. It wasn’t the physical strain so much as the risk of having her out in public unprotected. I talked her into shifting some of her planned fall semester courses to the summer instead. She’d likely be out most of the fall anyway, what with having and taking care of the baby, at least until he or she was old enough for me and Jase to assume some of the responsibility.
Spring break was right around the corner. This year, it fell during the week after Jason’s first night at Elizabet’s. I made an executive decision. We would spend the first two or three of those days exploring bank-owned and foreclosed properties. If we couldn’t find something we wanted, then the day after we ran out of those, we’d see a real estate agent. I even picked out a couple with good reputations based on recommendations from my parents, their friends, and a couple of my professors.
When I’d first thought of marrying Gianna and taking Jason as my favorite, I’d had no idea how much work putting together and maintaining a household took. There were so many details to plan, so many things to account for. With all of us working together, though, life was running along pretty smoothly.
I didn’t hear from Devin at all in that month. It’s not that I didn’t think of him. Of course, I did, but he’d made his choices and now we both had to live with them. I didn’t know what would happen between us, didn’t even know what road we were on. All I knew was that I missed his friendship, missed his touch, though the latter longing dwindled a little every day. It would never fully die. Don’t know how I knew that. I figured it was kind of like your first love.
Actually, I guess it was exactly like that. Dev was my first love, in a way. I’d always remember him well, no matter what, but I didn’t want to have to remember him. I wanted him to be a part of my life, even as my rational self reminded me that we don’t always get what we want.
The night before Jase and I were to go to Elizabet’s, Gianna claimed the dining room table for a class project, leaving me and Jase to study on the couch. He fidgeted and squirmed, sat forward, then back. Tapped his highlighter against a page until I was ready to tackle him. I’d never seen him like that before. Frankly, it would’ve been funny if I hadn’t understood. Jason, my loveable, laid-back, self-possessed giant of a favorite, had a bad case of nerves.
The third time he dropped his book onto the floor, I said, “Settle down. You’ve been with Elizabet before.”
He scrubbed a hand over his precisely cut hair and grimaced. “That was…different.”
I gave a half laugh. “Sex is sex, Jase.”
“No.” He flopped back against the couch, slumping into the worn upholstery. “Not now that I know what her blood could do to me.”
“Marco warned you before you drank from her the first time.”
“Yeah, but still. Taking her blood threw me for a loop. What if I freak out and turn the way you did?”
“Jase, man, that ain’t gonna happen.” I scooted closer to him and took his hand. We didn’t do that often, I guess because we were guys. I loved him, loved being with him, but it was kinda weird to hold his hand. “You’ve mostly had my blood. It’s strong enough to bond us, but not nearly strong enough to turn you. Elizabet’s blood is more potent and so is Marco’s, but it takes a lot more than what you’ve had to ignite the turn.”
His thumb rubbed along the skin of mine, back and forth. That small gesture held a lot of meaning, how nervous Jason really was, how he depended on me to support him and love him and do right by him.
“A big reason why I’m so far along in the turn is because I was pushed a little too far and my mind sort of created its own refuge out of the blood I’d taken.” I rested my left hand over his, matching our fingers so that our rings aligned, two gold rings, two platinum ones. Love and friendship. “That’s not going to happen to you. You’re stronger than I am.”
“No,” he said.
I cut him off. “Yes, you are, not just physically either. Look at how far you’ve come.”
“That’s discipline, Eric, not strength.”
“Maybe, and maybe it’s just part of who you are. A good part.” I squeezed his hand between both of mine. “One day, you’ll become a vampire and rule at my side, just like I hope Gianna will choose to do.”
His eyes met mine, the normally clear blue clouded by emotion. “What
if I decide not to turn?”
He was thinking of Marco. We both were. Jason knew, as Marco and I did, that having such a powerful man become a vampire wasn’t necessarily a good thing. “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”
“Swear you’ll support whatever decision I make.”
“I so swear.” I pushed myself up and pressed my lips to his, sealing the vow. “Though I can’t promise not to try to change your mind.”
His mouth quirked into a half smile as his expression cleared. “I can live with that.”
The next night, we dropped Gianna off at her parents’ house. William and Lucia Brady weren’t exactly happy to see me. Though more than a month had passed since I’d married their eldest daughter, they weren’t ready to forgive me for getting her pregnant before the union had been blessed.
Gianna hadn’t forgiven herself for it either. Contrarily enough, she also hadn’t forgiven herself for using an IUD and having sex with me in the first place, but there you go. Catholics love to wallow in guilt, from the oldest, most devout grandmother to the youngest sinful child.
Jase and I had to leave before Gianna’s baby sister came home from track practice. Emily was a younger, more vivacious version of her sister. She and I had hit it off from the get-go, though I suspected she had a major crush on Jason and would be more upset at missing him than me. I mean, I was just her brother-in-law. Jase’s position on Tech’s basketball team put him on the same level as a rock star.
The Bradys loved their basketball.
Jason drove us to Elizabet’s in his truck, carefully following the directions I gave. We didn’t speak a lot on the drive between the Brady household and Elizabet’s. The two residences weren’t that far apart, but that wasn’t the problem. Jason was so on edge over the night ahead, I almost felt sorry for him. I tried to console him with tales from my own first night, the crowds and my social awkwardness, passing out under Elizabet’s touch, but stopped when his hands went a little shaky on the steering wheel.
And he was the people person of our little family.
We made it to Elizabet’s in one piece. Jason parked at the front entrance and grabbed our bags. When I reached for mine, he shook his head. “I’m supposed to carry them.”
“You’re not my servant,” I said, mildly considering how pissed I got when he acted like one.
“I’m your favorite,” he said, and that was the end of that discussion.
People who thought vampires always had the upper hand hadn’t met a vampire’s favorite. And hell, I wasn’t even a full-on vampire yet. What would Jason be like when I made the turn?
I glanced at him out of the corner of my eye as we walked up the wide rock stairs leading to Elizabet’s home. I was pretty sure he’d be damn near insufferable by that time. Kinda like Marco, except not as forbidding.
Humperdink met us at the door.
Yes, my favorite liveried servant was really named Humperdink; well, surnamed anyway. He was the one who’d greeted Dev and me on my first night at Elizabet’s (the first night I remembered, anyway), and the one who’d directed me to a cab when I’d been under the stifling influence of the cold man, and the one who’d led Marco to Zane the night I’d taught the other pet a lesson about staying away from Gianna. I think Humperdink made a point of being the one to greet me, just to see what trouble I’d stir up next, or maybe he liked me. On my last visit, he’d invited me to call him Dinky in a voice so solemn I hadn’t been able to tell if he was serious or not.
I introduced Jason to Humperdink, who took our bags and the keys to Jason’s truck, and directed us to the parlor where Elizabet, Marco, Elizabet’s vampire daughters, and a handful of pets awaited the call to supper.
Elizabet rose from her seat on a delicately crafted antique loveseat as soon as we entered. Jason took her hand when we drew near and pressed a kiss to her palm. She beamed at me. “Oh, Eric. He has such lovely manners. Would you be terribly angry if I stole him away from you?”
I smiled and dropped a kiss to her cool cheek. “You can borrow him whenever you like.”
Jason cut an amused glance at me out of the corner of his eye. “Do I get a say?”
Elizabet laughed. “Of course, dearling. Please forgive our little game. I would never take you without your master’s consent, or yours.”
“And I would never deny you, if you asked.”
His words startled me. Sometimes I forgot how urbane Jason could be, in spite of his youth and background. His parents were sugar beet farmers in Minnesota, though both had college degrees and had pushed their children to educate themselves. Jason often deliberately played up his background to hide his innate intelligence and budding sophistication.
I introduced him around beginning with Elizabet’s vampire daughters, first to Selena, who kept her eyes down the entire time and flinched whenever I spoke, then to Marlena and Therese, and finally to Alice who, like her storybook counterpart, had blonde hair and big blue eyes.
She rested her hand on Jason’s and smiled prettily at him. “You play basketball for Georgia Tech, do you not?”
He nodded, careful to keep his eyes pinned to her face, a trick I’d schooled him on the night before. All that lovely vampire skin spilling over the top of Alice’s dress was a temptation only the strongest could deny. “Do you like basketball?”
A faint blush tinged Alice’s cheeks. “A little.”
I raised an eyebrow at the loss of composure. Alice was a sweet woman and had always been kind to me, but I’d never known her or Marlena or Therese to reveal emotion outside of the socially pleasant mask we all wore here. The flush on Alice’s face sent a bevy of questions running through my mind. Had someone on Jason’s team caught her fancy or was she merely being polite to my favorite?
Only one way to find out. “Maybe next season, you could come to a game. I bet Jason could arrange for you to meet the team, if you’d like.”
The blush deepened as Alice’s eyelids fluttered downward, hiding their azure glow.
Bingo.
Jason and I exchanged glances, his as curious as mine. The only teammate of his that I knew personally was Gregory Dumont, a stoic African American from whom the cold man cowered, though I knew most of the others by sight merely from watching Jason’s games. If I’d been certain I could get away with it, I would’ve probed her mind to see where her interest fell. I thought really hard about trying it anyway, my curiosity was that strong. Having such a close tie between Alice and Jason might prove fortuitous down the road.
Humperdink appeared in the parlor’s doorway while I straddled the fence, caught between one path and the other, and announced the meal Elizabet’s cook had prepared. As we filed out, I stored the intriguing tidbit about Alice in the back of my mind, ready to pull out when I had time to explore the possibilities.
Chapter Six
Our numbers were so few, we all crowded around the middle table, with Elizabet and Marco at the head. Through we, I shared my thoughts about Alice’s possible crush on one of Jason’s teammates with him. Without my having to ask, he maneuvered the seating so that he sat by her throughout dinner, and flirted and charmed his way into her good graces.
He was shaping up to be a great favorite. God, I adored him.
After the meal, I led him to the Red Room and explained right off about the spells woven into the room’s walls. As Jason and I undressed, I kept my mind off my former roster mate and the memories he and I had made in this room. Devin hadn’t bothered to show up. I don’t know why. All I knew was that my patience was close to running out. With Jason and Gianna to care for and the baby on the way, should I really be expending so much energy chasing after someone else’s heart? I was beginning to think not, though I wasn’t quite ready to give up Devin’s love and friendship yet, especially not his friendship. I didn’t have so many friends that I could afford to lose one.
A reluctant smile tugged at my mouth. That’s exactly the attitude that had landed my favorite in my lap.
Jason’s
hand snaked out and found my nape. “What’s so funny?”
“You’re supposed to be able to tell.”
“Too anxious tonight.” He tugged me close, closer, until his warm, nude skin brushed against mine. “Tell me.”
“I was thinking about our friendship, how I invited you to come over because I don’t have a lot of friends and thought you might be a good one.”
“You were right.” His hands skimmed down my back and up again, over and over, soothing himself as much as me. “Do you regret it?”
“What? Having you in my life?” I shook my head. “Not for a minute. You?”
“Unh-unh. Sometimes I wonder if you resent sharing Gianna with me, though.”
I laughed. “Are you kidding? She adores you. Think she’d skin my hide if I chased you off.”
His hands came to rest on my shoulders. “Do you adore me?”
“Jase,” I said softly. “Of course I do. You know that.”
“Mostly.”
I sighed at the insecurity in his voice. How could he even believe I didn’t love him? “Come on. Into bed with you.”
“Not a kid,” he groused, though he dropped down on the bed and sprawled across it on his back.
I tumbled after him and rested my chin on his massive chest. “Still nervous?”
“A little.”
“It’ll be ok. You’ll see.”
“So you say.” His mouth quirked up into a half grin. “I’m wound so tight right now I might come before we get started.”
I glanced down at his dick, erect and firm and lovely, and ignored the tug of my own desire. The more I came to this room, the easier it was to control what it did to me. Or maybe the strength gathering around me like dust around a forming planet made that control easier to find. Either way, my need wasn’t nearly as great as his. “Want me to help you with that?”
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