by I. T. Lucas
As everyone prepared to leave. Tessa offered her hand to Kian. “Thank you for granting Jackson’s request. It must’ve been a difficult decision to make.”
Kian shook what she’d offered. “You’re welcome. Don’t make me regret it.”
“I won’t.”
They said their goodbyes and Bhathian escorted them out to the car. It was still strange to think that he and Eva were Nathalie’s parents. They all looked more or less the same age. The bigger question, however, was where had Nathalie and Bhathian been for all the years Tessa had known Eva?
Chapter 39: Eva
Eva glanced at Tessa through the rear view mirror. The girl must’ve been mad at her to sit in the back with Jackson instead of the passenger seat the way she’d done on the way to the keep.
She had said hardly anything on the drive home.
Or maybe she just preferred his company. With her head resting on his bicep, and his arm wrapped around her shoulders, they looked like a young couple should.
It warmed Eva’s heart.
Thanks to that boy, Tessa was healing. Not that Eva thought Jackson had such a profound therapeutic effect. But he gave Tessa a strong reason to fight her way back from her self-imposed stasis, and blossom into the woman she should’ve become if not for the trauma she’d suffered.
And to think Eva had tried to scare him off.
Good thing the boy was stubborn and not easily intimidated. Heck, she doubted there was anything he shied away from. To get what he wanted, Jackson had approached two of the most intimidating people Eva had ever met—Amanda and Kian.
He fought for Tessa, and in turn she fought for him.
These kids were meant to be.
Fate, or God’s will.
Eva shook her head. Poor Tessa was so angry at God that she proclaimed herself an atheist. Maybe when her life got better, her beliefs would change. Eva wasn’t going to say anything, though it always astonished her how others didn’t see God’s hand in everything around them—from the smallest blade of grass to the universe at large and all of its wonders.
To each her or his own. Belief wasn’t a rational thing, even she was ready to admit it. Where Eva saw God, others saw evolution and natural selection. In her mind, there was no contradiction, but others disagreed, sometimes vehemently.
When did people become so intolerant of others’ opinions?
Closed-mindedness was the new epidemic.
Nowadays it was more acceptable to talk about one’s sex life than discuss religion or politics.
Though soon, with all the gender and non-gender brouhaha, that too would become a controversial topic.
And anyway, doing it was better than talking about it.
Eva smiled as she saw Bhathian leaning against his car, waiting for her outside to see her home safely. Now that was a proud example of the male gender. There was nothing ambiguous about him. Just the way she liked it.
“We are here, kids.” It felt so good to finally talk freely with Tessa and stop pretending that she wasn’t old enough to be the girl’s grandmother.
Bhathian pushed away from his car and walked over to open her door. “What took you so long?”
She took the hand he offered. “Unlike you, I’m a safe driver.”
He pulled her into his arms and kissed her hard. “I was in a hurry.”
“Were you now?”
Behind them, Tessa and Jackson exchanged a few hushed whispers, promises of talking the next day and some sweet endearments.
“He is good for her,” Bhathian said.
Eva agreed.
Jackson walked Tessa to the door and kissed her cheek goodnight like a boy from Eva’s girlhood. Adorable.
He walked up to them. “Thank you for being there for Tessa and me.”
Bhathian clapped his back. “Any time. You make me proud, Jackson.”
The boy looked uncomfortable. “Thank you. Though I’m not sure what I’ve done to deserve it.”
Bhathian smiled. “You’re a mensch.”
“What is that?”
“Look it up.”
“I will. Goodnight.”
Jackson and Bhathian did the manly hug and clap thing, and Eva put her hands on the boy’s cheeks, kissing each one. “Goodnight, Jackson.”
They watched him walk to his car before getting inside. Maternal instincts were a weird thing. Jackson could handle himself just fine without any help, and yet she felt responsible for him.
“I can’t wait to get you in bed,” Bhathian whispered in her ear as he opened the front door for her.
She answered with a coy smile.
There was no one in the living room, but the familiar sounds coming from the kitchen meant that Tessa was there, making tea.
“Wait for me upstairs? I think Tessa needs to talk.”
Bhathian’s shoulders sagged. “How long will it take?”
“It might take some time. Just get comfortable on the bed.” She stretched to nuzzle his ear. “Naked.”
The smile was back on his face. “Yes, ma'am.”
In the kitchen, Tessa sat with her elbow propped on the table, her ear against her palm, dunking her teabag in and out of the mug in slow motion.
Eva sat at the other end. “Do you want to talk?”
“What’s the deal with Nathalie and Bhathian? Where have they been through all the years I’ve known you? Have you been seeing them on your trips? And why the sudden decision to move to be next to them?”
Eva sighed. “It’s a long story. But I can give you the gist of it. Bhathian was a one-night-stand, or a hookup as you kids call it today. He knocked me up with one try. I was forty-five, looked the same as I do today, but didn’t know I was immortal. A Dormant who transitioned without knowing it. Bhathian didn’t realize I was an immortal either. When I found him a month later to tell him that I was pregnant, he offered to pay for an abortion.”
Tessa gasped. “He didn’t.”
“He did because he thought I was a human. As you learned today, immortals have to guard the secret of their existence, which means they can’t have real relationships. Sooner or later a partner will start noticing things and get suspicious. Not to mention the different lifespans. Anyway, I told him no thanks and left. I found a nice man who I believed would be a good father to my child and married him. For a while, everything was fine, until I could no longer attribute my unchanging looks to luck. I didn’t know why I wasn’t aging, and I invented all kinds of crazy scenarios like the government experimenting on me without my knowledge and stuff like that.”
“You must’ve been scared.”
“I was terrified. People would pay a fortune to get their hands on a fountain of youth. I would’ve been dissected like a lab rat. Worse, they would’ve gone after my child and dissected her too. Things between me and the man I married went sour, and we got divorced. I hung around as long as I could, using makeup and baggy clothing to look older. But as soon as Nathalie left for college, I ran. I missed her every day since, but I was convinced that I had to stay away to keep her safe. I let her believe I was dead.”
“Ouch.”
“Yeah. It hurt. I was walking around with a big hole in my heart. But God hadn’t forsaken me. Apparently, Bhathian never stopped looking for me, but since he met me while I was working undercover and using an alias, he couldn’t. When he met Andrew, who had a high-security clearance, he asked him to try and find me. Andrew had access to government data and found who I was. From there it was easy to locate my ex-husband and my daughter. But not me. Bhathian and Nathalie got closer, she and Andrew fell in love, and they kept looking for me. There was only one thread they had to follow—my government pension. But I was very clever at hiding. I donated the pension to an orphanage in Brazil. Bhathian traveled all the way there only to discover that my trail ended at that orphanage. He left me a letter in the hopes that I would come back. I did, got the letter, and the rest is history. I discovered that I’m not the only immortal, and more importantly that no one is look
ing for me and my mutant genes.”
“That’s when you decided to move here?”
“Yes. I wanted to be near my daughter.”
“What about Bhathian?”
Eva ran her fingers through her hair. “He was a stranger to me, and I was angry at him for the way he reacted all those years ago.”
“But it seems like you guys are really into each other.”
“Bhathian is convinced I’m his destined mate. I’m sure Jackson will explain that nonsense to you. The immortals believe that there is only one person who is their true love match. Finding her or him is considered the greatest blessing one can hope for. Most never do.”
“That’s sweet. Very romantic.”
“Yes. And it’s also bullshit. But Bhathian believes it and tries to convince me that we are fated mates. I’m enjoying his company, but that is all. I’m too old to believe in mystical love.”
Tessa lifted a brow. “How about just plain love?”
“I’m not sure I know what it is. I know mother’s love, but not romantic love.”
“Do you miss Bhathian when you’re away?”
“I do. But that doesn’t mean anything.”
“You’re wrong. If you miss him, and if being without him makes you feel hollow inside, then you love him.”
It was on the tip of her tongue to tell Tessa that she knew nothing about love and shouldn’t dispense advice on something she’d never experienced. But it would’ve been unnecessarily hurtful. Besides, the girl obviously had feelings for Jackson, maybe even loved him.
“I’m used to being alone, and I need my space. True, sometimes when I’m away, I miss Bhathian, but other times I want him to go home so I can have room to breathe. I’m not ready to share my life with another. I may never be ready. Having Bhathian as a boyfriend is good enough for me.”
“But it’s not for him.”
“I know.”
“What if he despairs and decides to move on?”
She hadn’t thought of that. But it was a viable concern. Would she be sorry to see Bhathian go?
Yes, she would.
But then, contrary to what Bhathian believed, committing to him didn’t guarantee that he would never leave. Fernando had been a perfect example of that. By cheating on her, he’d left her even though she’d been the one to file for the divorce.
“He can leave even if we are married. My husband, Nathalie’s adoptive father, was unfaithful despite claiming he loved me. There are no guarantees in life.”
Tessa snorted. “You’re telling me? But I know that fear of being hurt can rob you of the best things in life. Letting it rule you means that whoever hurt you is still doing it because you’re stuck behind the protective shield you’ve built for yourself. My fear and my pain will never go away because I can’t forgive those who wronged me. And still, I try to push through it. You, on the other hand, can forgive those who wronged you and move on. You can forgive your ex-husband for being weak, and you can forgive Bhathian for making a mistake he regretted from the moment he’d made it. When you do, you can open your heart for love.”
Words of wisdom, no doubt. There was one problem with what Tessa had said. Fernando and Bhathian weren’t the only ones Eva had to forgive. She needed to forgive herself first, and that was going to be much more difficult.
Chapter 40: Bhathian
Bhathian got in bed and flicked the television on, flipping channels until settling on a rerun of Cosmos. It was one he’d seen before, but that show never got old, especially with Carl Sagan’s unique style of narration. Bhathian turned the volume up.
With his hearing, it was hard to avoid eavesdropping on Eva and Tessa’s conversation. Sagan helped.
The episode was nearly over when Eva came up.
Bhathian flicked the television off and dropped the remote on the nightstand. “Tessa must have had a lot of questions.”
“She did, but not the ones I expected.” Eva pulled her blouse over her head and draped it on the back of a chair.
“What did she want to know?”
“About you, me and Nathalie.”
“That’s surprising. I was sure she had a thousand questions about immortals and Dormants and what it all meant to her. What did you tell her?”
Eva sat down on the bed and unstrapped a sandal, dropping it to the floor, then the other one. “Our story. More or less.” She popped the button on her silk trousers, pulled them down, and got up to drape them over the blouse.
As usual, what was under her clothes was fancier and sexier than the outer layer. This time the matching set of bra and panties was light blue. The back of the bra was a lattice of strings, and so was the back of her panties.
He whistled. “Is that new?”
Eva lifted her arms and slowly turned in a circle. “You like?”
“You know I do. But I like you even better naked.”
“Give me a minute.” She ducked into the bathroom.
He waited with bated breath.
A few minutes later she emerged, striking a pose with one hand on the door frame and the other on her hip. A vision of female perfection, she took away what little breath remained in his lungs.
He patted the bed. “Come here, beautiful.”
She sauntered over and climbed. Kneeling, she looked down at him. “How do you want me, lover boy?” She cupped her breasts, thumbing her perky nipples in slow circles.
He patted the bed again. “On your belly.”
“Oh yeah? And what are you going to do to me?”
“You’ll find out.”
“Ooh, what could it possibly be?”
She did as he asked, lying on her belly and stretching her arms over her head.
As Bhathian got up to his knees and regarded the beauty sprawled before him, he wished he had Dalhu’s talent so he could paint a picture of her in that pose. Her hair, dark with a reddish undertone, spilled in thick waves over her shoulders and down to the white pillowcase. Her back, smooth and creamy, was muscular but not overly so. Her legs were shapely and long. And that ass, flaring gently from her narrow waist, heart-shaped and plump, was so perfect that he wanted to worship it with his mouth.
But first, he was going to give his lady the treat he’d been planning on. The lotion he’d put under the blanket was all warmed up from being pressed against his body. He pulled it out and squirted a generous dollop into his palms, then straddled Eva’s thighs and went to work.
“Ahh.” She moaned. “That feels wonderful.”
He kneaded the tight muscles below her shoulder blades. Eva carried so much tension in her body. He was going to massage all of that away until everything was loose and Eva was relaxed.
“I’ve died and gone to heaven,” she murmured into the pillow.
Bhathian chuckled. “I don’t hear such loud moaning from you when we are making love. Should I be offended?”
“Just keep doing what you’re doing, and I promise to moan even louder later.”
“You’ve got yourself a deal.” He moved to her shoulders.
“Ohh, yes, just like that, don’t stop.”
Bhathian couldn’t help the laugh that bubbled up. “What will the neighbors think?”
“Fuck the neighbors.”
If his Eva was saying fuck with such ease, then he was doing a good job. She was loosening up.
“I don’t want you to fuck the neighbors. Just me.”
“Ha, ha.”
He moved down and started kneading her butt cheeks. “That’s my favorite part. Your ass is a work of art.”
“But I have no sore muscles there.”
“And I should care because?”
“No reason. Just saying.”
He played with her ass a little longer, sneaking a few feathery swipes down her moist labia folds, then moved down to her thighs, then her calves, and finally her feet. Each little toe at a time.
“You’re spoiling me.”
“You deserve to be spoiled, love.”
He felt her
tense. “Did I say something wrong?”
“No, but I think I’m ready for the front.”
Tight-lipped as usual. Getting Eva to talk was harder than getting information out of prisoners of war.
“Okay. You can turn over.”
She did, her arms flopping lazily down her sides. “I feel boneless.”
“Good. Now spread those lovely legs of yours a little.”
He lifted one leg and pulled, stretching it, then repeated with the other. With Eva’s puffy petals beckoning him, it was getting harder to focus on the massage. All he wanted to do was to dive in there and lick her all over.
Eva lifted a hand and put it on her belly, then let it slide down to her center, her fingers parting her folds. “I think I need a little massage here. I feel achy and needy.”
Bhathian couldn’t refuse an invitation like that. The rest of the massage could wait for later.
His fingers replaced hers on the seat of her pleasure, and he rubbed gently, gathering some of the dew seeping from her core and spreading it over the sensitive bundle of nerves.
As promised, Eva moaned loudly and lifted to meet his fingers. When he didn’t react fast enough, she grabbed his hand and guided one finger inside of her.
He pushed in, then retreated and came back with two, eliciting another throaty moan.
“I see you like the massage, love.”
“I like your hands on me.”
Ahh, music to his ears.
Bhathian dipped his head, adding his tongue to the play, and Eva went wild, bucking under the double assault and clutching at his head.
His fingers and tongue unrelenting, he went faster and faster, building up her pleasure until it crested in a powerful tidal wave.
Eva’s body sagged, and he cupped her gently, coating his palm in her copious juices.
His woman was easy to please. Sexually, but not otherwise.
Chapter 41: Eva
The climax combined with the massage Bhathian had given her banished the last traces of stress she’d held in her body, and Eva felt as if she was floating even though the bed was firm under her. It was more than a post-orgasmic float. It was nirvana.