by Jasmine Walt
Dorius strutted in my direction. "A mate? Is this true Marcus? Is this woman a suitable mate? I thought you were just…"
Dorius was not reacting the way I thought he would. He looked way too cunningly excited.
"She's screwed," Zaire remarked. "He's had her in a mind-lock since he met her."
Resi grinned at her.
"Yes, she's a possible mate, Dorius." Marcus' chest puffed out noticeably. "And we both know what that means."
Okay, I needed to put a stop to this. God, I hated being treated like a piece of prime beef. "Hold it. Just hold it. How many times do I have to say that I am NOT interested?"
"Yeah, right," Mom said. "She's acting like a stracciamanici, anybody else believe her?"
Dorius burst into laughter, shaking his head. "Marcus, Marcus, Marcus, fifteen hundred years and look at the first thing you pull out of the gutter."
Dorius turned to me. "It's just a matter of time, Susan. Your mother hit the nail on the head. You are sexually insatiable. A true Blood-Mate cannot resist. And the strength you could bring to our clan is a moot point if you are convicted of infringements."
He turned back to Marcus. "I'd say this certainly disqualifies you from mediating anything I or the council decides on this case."
Marcus smiled. "I will not stand down unless voted to do so, Dorius. Until then, Susan will remain in my custody. Shall we all head for Miami?"
Custody? I sure as hell didn't like the sound of that.
"Who's in who's custody?" JoAnn asked as she walked into the kitchen with bags draped all over her body. She had a backpack on each shoulder, a duffle bag in one hand, and was pulling a suitcase with the other.
I let out an exasperated sigh, drawing a smile from Resi.
Mom grunted, shaking her head at my sister. "JoAnn, what in the name of hell do you have in those? We're just taking a short trip, for Christ sake. I'm not carrying any of those, so don't ask."
"Just the necessities and you don't have to be so nasty," she said, giving Mom a dirty look, and then turned to Dorius, dropping all her bags. "Don't worry about me." She made two fists out of her hands and shoved them in Dorius' direction. "I won't put up a fight. I hate all this blood and guts stuff. Cuff me up."
Once again, JoAnn was not on the same page as the rest of us.
"Let's all move in the direction of Miami. The council waits." Dorius waved his hand at the door, a smile on his face. "JoAnn, there is no need for handcuffs." Paul picked up Jeni's small duffle bag and they headed for the front door.
Marcus changed the subject as we all left the house. "I take it they've found the boy?"
"Yes, he's being held for tonight's meeting," Dorius answered, clearly not happy with the question.
30
"Five more miles till we hit I-75. Anyone need anything before we hop on?" a faceless voice floated through the speakers from the black Suburban in front of us. I knew this because every time someone spoke, a number flashed in red on the monitor mounted on the dash, marking their place in the line of vehicles.
"We will wait until the first rest area. It's usually quiet this time of night," Dorius ordered from number three SUV, behind us. Resi, Zaire, and another immortal were all aboard that equally large gas-guzzler.
"I have to pee," JoAnn informed us from number four. Camillio and another Rogue Hunter were the unfortunate lost souls accompanying Mom and JoAnn for the next three and a half hours.
"She can wait. I got an empty coffee cup here if she gets desperate," Mom shouted and everybody heard JoAnn slap her.
"We're good back here," Paul announced from number five with a bit of amusement in his voice. I heard Jeni and Gibbie in the background singing. It sounded like, "Ebony and Ivory" but I wasn't sure. They were in Paul's Corvette, the only car that looked out of place and the only one that wasn't black.
The immortals in the last Suburban made no comments so we all headed for the on ramp.
We looked like the 'Dark Shadows' cast and crew on a road trip as we all came to a stop before the tollbooth entrance. The driver of the first car pointed back at the five cars behind him. They had a heated conversation for a few seconds and then the tollbooth guy, looking an awful lot like Jack Nicholson, stepped out like a puppet on a string and waved us on.
We all began to roll forward, windows up, moving at a safe funeral procession speed of ten miles per hour.
Camillio's frustrated voice floated out of the monitor from car four, over muffled yells and the loud rapping of hands on bulletproof glass. "How far to that rest area, Dorius? I had to put the glass window up behind the seat. JoAnn is putting up quite a fuss."
"Damn, Mom, this system is F'n'-A!" Zaire announced from car three. "I think we need to get one of these babies in the Jeep."
"I would like to discuss the importance of finding a Blood-Mate, Susan." Marcus smiled at me, clearly trying to ignore the chattering monitor.
"Mom, you okay up there?" Resi asked. "We haven't heard a word from you?"
I reached up and pressed a red switch. "Can you guys keep all of the women away from the little red switches on the monitors, please?" I asked, smiling back at Marcus.
"There's one on each seat Ma'am. Sorry," someone said.
"Great, and now he just gave-" I started.
"Hey, this is cool," Mom said. "Look JoAnn, a button to talk on the car thingy, right under the arm of your chair."
"I have-"
"You have to hold it down, dummy. Like this. See," Mom said.
"-to pee."
"Can you hear me out there? JoAnn is a pain in my ass," Mom yelled from the dash. "Stop at the next pee hole before I have to knock her out!"
"Put that thing-"
"Take your hand off the button and use this-"
"-down. I am not peeing-"
"I'm gonna slap you. Let the button go."
"-in a coffee cup. There's still coffee in it."
The swift erratic sounds of slapping hands bounced around my head.
"Can we shut that off?" I meekly asked Marcus.
Marcus chuckled. "I'm afraid not. Dorius is quite unhappy with the seating arrangements as it is. I really don't think we should press our luck."
"Big wheels, keep on turnin'-"
I slammed the red switch on. "Mother, this is not a karaoke bar! Get your hand off the red switch!"
"I need to pee!" JoAnn yelled.
Camillio said, "Where's the damn rest stop?"
"-proud vampires keep on burnin'-"
"Nan, I just love you," Jeni laughed.
During one of the entertainment lulls, Marcus decided to begin his queries again. "Do you understand what a Blood-Mate is, Susan?"
"I suppose you're going to tell me whether I want you to or not, so have at it."
"First of all, there's the attraction. Do you feel an attraction for me? An uncontrollable attraction?"
"Yes, but that's because it's been four years since I've had good sex. So don't go flattering yourself."
"Ummm… four years. It's been twelve-hundred years for me. The most important thing is-"
"Christ, one-thousand and two-hundred years? Are you freaking kidding me? Hell, are you sure it still works?" I suddenly felt the need to do something, anything for this poor man, immortal, whatever.
"We'll be taking the next exit into the rest stop up ahead," Dorius announced.
"It's about time!" JoAnn yelled.
"It's about time," Camillio grumbled.
"You're family knows they don't have to eat or drink like a human, right?" Marcus asked as the first car pulled up in front of the restrooms and the rest of us filled in spaces alongside.
I rolled my eyes. He smiled.
There were only two other cars in the rest area and one was pulling out. I opened the door.
"Need any help?" he asked, watching two immortals take places outside the women's restroom.
"I think I can handle it." I walked away, my granny undies just begging to be tossed in the trash.
Twenty minutes later we were on our way again, the speaker on the monitor blessedly quiet. I kicked off my sandals and pulled my feet up under me in the seat. I seductively adjusted my dress well above my knees, put the seat back, closed my eyes and turned my head to the window with a big smile on my face.
"I would really like to take a more active part in your orgasms, darling," Marcus said.
I shot a glance in his direction and he shot back a wicked little smile.
"Oh, now that is just not fair. I didn't ask you to come to my room last night and put your hands and teeth all over me."
He chuckled. "Oh, so we're going to play that game again, are we?"
I gave him a nasty little smile of my own as I innocently asked, "What game?"
"Are you trying to seduce me at seventy-five miles an hour, Susan? I do have cruise control, you know."
"That's your game, Fang-Face."
"I like Dream-Boy better. Can we agree on that love name?"
"In your dreams."
"No darling, in yours."
I glared at him and turned to the window again. I felt him watching me, my heartbeat accelerating as we drove along the highway with a car full of vampires in front and behind us. I was playing this for all it was worth. I mean it's not every day a woman gets to tease a man that hasn't had sex in twelve-hundred years. And I felt very comfortable doing it at seventy-five miles an hour in full view of the others.
I was totally in control until he put his hand on my knee, sliding his fingers up my thigh in front of a trail of fire. I worked at ignoring his hand, while I watched the scenery fly by my window.
He started rubbing the soft skin on my inner thigh and I was getting dangerously close to asking him to pull over. That was not going to happen. Before I totally lost it, I took his hand and placed it on the steering wheel. "Not this time, Marcus."
He let out a long sigh. "Susan, you tucked your legs up under your cute little ass, no longer incased in panties, and you have no bra on. You adjusted the hem of your dress, sent the smell of your wet little love nest wafting toward my nostrils and I assumed you wanted me to fondle you again."
I shut my mouth, tight lips pressing together, dropped my feet to the floor with a thud, and angrily pushed down the hem of my dress. I stole a glance at his zipper and was happy to see a very large lump trying to burst from his illegally tight pants. "You mind watching the road and that ditch you're getting dangerously close to?"
"I can pull over. I'm sure the others will understand," he said.
I tried to stop the throbbing in my damn clitoris. The frigging thing was not listening to me, again. "I was just trying to…"
"I am fully aware of what you are trying to do. You have accomplished the task quite satisfactorily as you just witnessed by glaring at the way my pants have become dangerously snug for my body."
"Good. I wanted you to see how it feels to get that close to…"
"However, you seem to be in quite an uncomfortable state yourself."
"So you turn me on. Not the first time that a man has done that, Marcus."
His body tensed as he spoke, "Have you ever had sex with an immortal?"
"No."
He relaxed and chuckled. "I can't wait to show you what it feels like to be fully sated. It's just a matter of time, Susabellaluna."
Okay, so now I was pissed. He was puffing up like a blowfish. "You know, I really hate that name. I mean I really do. I sure would appreciate you dropping it from your vocabulary."
"I know my beloved. Moreover, I hate getting all hard and ready for you just as much. Shall we call a truce?"
I was going to, at some point, get control of my bodily functions so I could enjoy making him just as miserable as I am. "Damn it, Marcus. I do not like being controlled…" I glanced at the bulge in his pants, thinking how much I'd love to get my hands on it. "…and why do you have to be so…so…"
"You have my mind wandering with a need to taste you again. All of you this time. Can I tease you with my tongue, darling?"
Ho-boy! My breath caught in my throat at his brash words, but not so brash that I didn't give some serious thought to his offer and immediately regretted the vivid image of his head between my legs. I sucked in a deep breath. "Okay, I realize it's been a long time for you, but that kind of talk is not something…. Let's just not go there since you have both hands on the steering wheel and we're moving at, what…" I glanced at the speedometer. "…seventy-five miles an hour?"
His mouth formed a small circle that made me want to stick something of mine into it and he patted the edge of his seat on the other side of an upholstered compartment.
"You really have to stop treating me like I'm your pet poodle, sweetie." Suddenly I was annoyed, again. He kept jerking me from lust to anger in a heartbeat. I wondered how he'd feel on the other end of the leash.
He whistled softly, beckoning me, his damn hand tangoing with the storage compartment at his side.
"Why do you keep thinking that's going to get you the reaction you're looking for?" I said, all sugar and spice. "And how come you haven't just controlled my mind to get what you want?"
He laughed at me with twinkling eyes that were just begging to be kissed closed. "Unfortunately, I can't. That's how I knew we were possible mates. It's one of the benefits. Neither of us can control each other's actions. And no one else can control us if we are in a mind-lock. Which we are, and we will stay that way."
Okay, so with that little bit of information tucked nicely in my mind, I could play the sultry little redhead. I thought maybe it was time to teach this immortal a lesson. I slid across the seat and placed myself on top of the leather compartment between us. He pulled me into his lap, facing him, with the steering wheel in my back.
"You're going to get us killed," I told him, twirling his hair around my fingers.
"I have it under control, darling," he said, breathing into my neck.
Right. After twelve-hundred years of abstinence you're on top of this Markie-Boy.
He pushed my head back with his jaw and bit me. My whole body screamed, 'pull over', and son of a bitch if it didn't feel way too good. He sucked slowly, sending shivers down my body, lighting a flame that had barely had enough time to go out.
He took one of his hands from the steering wheel, slid it between my legs and began to massage me over my dress.
Oh, shit. I 'm losing it. I looked over his shoulder through the back window to find Dorius glaring at me.
"Mommy Dearest, what are you doing in Marcus' lap at eighty-miles an hour?" Resi asked.
I heard screeching tires and the 'vette broke from the line of cars, vying for a better position. Horns began to blow and Paul was gaining on us.
"Susan, get off the vampire!" Mom yelled.
"Shut up, I was sleeping," JoAnn whined.
With a sharp intake of breath, I opened my thighs wider, thinking there was an impossible amount of material between his fingers and my skin. He was slowly taking just enough blood to make me dizzy.
"Go, Mom, with your bad self!" Zaire yelled as car number three slid in between Dorius and us with a blast of horns and screeching tires.
I pulled my neck from his mouth, jumped to the other side of the leather compartment and slid my face down to his zipper, my eyes riveted to the side mirror outside his window.
"Oh, now, I don't think that is a good idea, darling," he said.
I unzipped his pants, letting a very hard erection jump out at me. "I have it under control, dear," I mocked, and then slid him between my lips.
"Mother! Aww, shit, you went down on him," Resi moaned through the speakers on the dash. "Christ, this is going to give me nightmares for months."
My eyes shot back to the window. I watched the cars in the big side mirror as Dorius nudged Paul's Corvette ahead so he was running parallel to our car. I sucked harder, like an anxious baby with a pacifier stuffed in its mouth, and Marcus groaned in a noisy breath.
My eyes flew up to Marcus' face, his penis hanging f
rom my mouth. I watched him turn toward his brother's car as he nodded at the passenger window with a smile, finger's waving.
"She did what?" JoAnn yelled.
"Oh, sweet mother of…" Marcus said, wiggling under me. "Should I pull over? Susan, oooh, sweet-blood, have mercy," he panted, breathing the windows into a fog.
"Oh, no, just keep driving, I can handle this, sweetie," I said, smiling around his hard shaft. I patted his jaw with my free hand and removed my mouth, long enough to pull my dress up.
Hearing his breathing accelerate did wonders for my ego. I grinned and tickled the little helmet with the tip of my tongue.
"Marcus, acknowledge yourself immediately or pull over, damn it!" Dorius yelled in an irritated tone, the speakers reverberating.
Pulling him deep into my mouth, I began to suck softly at first, then with more persistence when he groaned his encouragement. I was just about ready to tuck Mr. Happy back in his pants when his mouth found my wrist lying across his shoulder and he bit me again.
"Susan, what the hell are you doing up there?" Mom yelled from the dashboard.
"There is a time and place for everything, Mother!" Jeni's voice floated around my head.
I was totally losing control and I wanted him to stop drinking from me. I sucked harder. Of course, that didn't stop him. Instead, he ran his hand between my legs. "Stop," I mumbled around the head of his penis. He sucked on my wrist harder. "STOP!" I yelled, letting him slip from my mouth.
I couldn't get my arm free. I felt the blood from my wrist course through my veins into his mouth, sending thrills of hot fire to my core, longing for him to fill me. I took him in my mouth again as we sped down the highway.
"Marcus, pull over! Now!" Dorius screamed at us from somewhere. I thought I heard horns, yelling, and screeching tires, but I can't be sure.
My head swimming with blood lust, my body ready to explode, he pushed himself deeper into my mouth. He was moving frantically under my lips as he sucked from my arm.
My incisors extended and I bit down hard, trying to slow his movement. I heard his fast intake of breath and tasted blood in my mouth. He became perfectly still at seventy-five miles an hour.