Lynsay Sands - [Argeneau Family 15]

by One Lucky Vampire

  “Look, this is—really, I—we’re being rude to Melly,” she said desperately.

  “Nicki, this isn’t good. You haven’t fully got over Rodolfo. I don’t want to see you hurt again,” Joey said quietly.

  Nicole shook her head. She really didn’t want to get hurt again either, but after getting over her humiliation at knowing that Dante and Tomasso were the ones who had put her and Jake to bed after they’d passed out in the shower, Nicole had sought the men out and asked them to tell her about life mates. They’d said that life mates were made for each other. That Jake would never cheat on her, never hurt her, and never abuse her because he couldn’t risk losing her. That losing her could very well mean losing his sanity and humanity and going rogue. She didn’t understand how that could be the case, but those promises were tempting and—

  “Nicki?” Joey said with a frown. “I really—”

  “We’re being rude to Melly,” Nicole interrupted, and this time followed it up by moving away and settling on the couch to offer the other woman a smile. She didn’t want to discuss this with Joey. She didn’t want to think about it at all. She was giving Jake a chance and that was that. The only other thing she could do was pray that Dante and Tomasso were right, everything would work out, and she wouldn’t get hurt again.

  “Well,” she said with forced cheer, smiling at Melly. “Joey tells me you’re a model, Melanie.”

  “Yes.”

  Nicole hesitated, but when she didn’t add anything else, said, “That must be exciting?”

  “Yes.”

  Again, the girl didn’t follow up with any experiences or how it was exciting. She didn’t seem to grasp the concept of a conversation. Person A spoke and then person B responded … with more than a flat “yes.” Or she just couldn’t be bothered, Nicole supposed, and glanced to her brother for help.

  That was a mistake. Rather than help get his girlfriend talking, he went right back to the conversation they’d been having, and hissed, “I’m worried about you.”

  “I’m fine, Joey, really,” she assured him with a touch of exasperation. He was like a dog with a bone.

  “But they said you were sick when I called,” Joey said with a frown. “Were you? Or were they just not letting me talk to you? If they’re making you do something you don’t want, or are here against your wishes, Nicki, we can leave now and—”

  “No, no,” Nicole assured him quickly. “It’s nothing like that. They—I—” She blew her breath out on a sigh. Either she told him that Dante and Tomasso and whoever the woman was who’d answered one of his calls had lied, which would just freak him out further, or she lied to him now. As much as she hated to do it, her lying now seemed the best option to calm him down. Joey was already freaked out and suspicious, unreasonably so and she had to wonder what Dante or Tomasso had said or done to cause it.

  “I’m fine now, but I wasn’t … myself the last few days.” Nicole smiled as she finished that, proud of herself. She hadn’t had to lie, after all. She really hadn’t been fully herself while Marguerite, Dante and Tomasso had been playing with her head.

  Joey frowned. “Well, what was wrong? Was it the flu, or what?”

  “Oh, just some—” she waved vaguely, and finished, “thing. I’m fine now though.”

  “And these men who are here?” Joey asked.

  “You know who Jake is, and Dante and Tomasso are his cousins. They’re visiting from out of town. Jake was very sick for several days and they came to make sure he was all right.”

  “He was sick too?” Joey asked with surprise.

  “He was very sick,” she assured him.

  “With what?” Joey asked suspiciously.

  “He had a bad reaction to the chemicals in the hot tub,” she said, and then frowned and murmured, “Which reminds me, I need to get someone in to empty, clean, and refill it.”

  “I’m bored.”

  Nicole glanced to Melly with a start at that announcement.

  “I want to leave,” she added, and Nicole was sure her jaw dropped to the floor. The woman made the announcement like she was some royal princess and expected everyone to start jumping to please her … which Joey did. Much to Nicole’s amazement, her sometimes selfish and annoying brother was immediately on his feet, and moving to take her hand to help her up.

  “Okay, we’ll go, baby,” he said soothingly.

  Nicole stood uncertainly, eyes wide. “But Jake is making coffee and—”

  “I don’t drink coffee,” Melly reminded her.

  “Well, he’s boiling water for you,” Nicole said grimly.

  “I don’t care. I want to leave.” Melly said simply and then turned to Joey and demanded imperiously, “Take me shopping, Joey.”

  “Of course,” he said quickly, taking her arm to usher her to the stairs. “I’ll buy you something shiny and pretty.”

  “And expensive. It should be expensive to make up for this,” Melly informed him.

  “Of course,” Joey assured her.

  Nicole stared after them with amazement as the couple descended the stairs out of sight. She couldn’t believe what she’d just seen and heard. Good God—

  “She must give one hell of a blow job.”

  Nicole jumped and turned at that dry comment from Jake. He stood behind her, hands on hips, a disgusted look on his face. Eyes wide with amazement, Nicole asked, “What?”

  He shrugged, his mouth twisting. “Well, it’s true. She must be beyond amazing in bed for Joey to put up with that crap. She’s a bitch and he grovels and panders to her like a peasant in the presence of a queen.”

  “Yes,” Nicole agreed on a sigh, glancing out the large front window as Joey ushered Melly to his car in the driveway. “She’s perfectly horrid.”

  “Hmm.” Jake nodded, watching the couple as well. They both simply stood there, silently watching until Joey had Melly in the car, got in himself, and backed out of the driveway. As the car drove out of sight along the road, Jake announced, “The coffee should be done and the cake is sliced up. Want some?”

  “Oh yeah,” Nicole said with feeling, turning to lead the way into the kitchen.

  “I cut four slices,” he commented. “I thought slices rather than bringing the cake out would help prevent Melly from eating three or four slices to purge.”

  “I guess we’ll just have to have two slices each,” Nicole said, brightening somewhat. Chocolate always helped, and she suspected it would take two slices to help rid her of the bad taste in her mouth. She couldn’t believe Joey was with that horrible woman. Melly was rude, and arrogant and—Really, Nicole couldn’t think of a single nice thing to say about the woman … except, “She’s beautiful.”

  “She would be if she kept her mouth shut,” Jake responded dryly as he fetched two cups and began to pour coffee. Then he added, “Actually, no that’s not true. She’d have to stop thinking too. I was trying not to listen, but could hear her thoughts plain as day and not one of them was pleasant. What she actually said was the cream of the crop. That was just selfish stuff. The rest was nasty, critical crap.”

  Nicole tore her gaze away from the four plates with cake on them that sat on a tray on the kitchen counter, and peered at Jake curiously. “You were trying not to listen? You make it sound like her thoughts are a radio playing. Don’t you have to actually read people’s thoughts?”

  “Sometimes,” he said with a shrug. “It’s different with different people. It’s—” He stopped, frowning as he carried the coffees to the table. Nicole suspected he was trying to figure out how to explain it and waited patiently. As she did, she picked up two of the plates, grabbed a couple of forks and followed Jake. They were seated and fixing their coffees with cream and sugar before he continued.

  “Okay, close your eyes and imagine you’re in a room full of people. At an art show maybe, a big art show and everyone is standing around talking,” he said.

  Nicole took her spoon out of her coffee, set it on the edge of her plate and closed her eyes. The scene
he suggested immediately sprang up in her mind. A room full of people, drinks in hand, circulating, talking, laughing …

  “Now, hear their voices. Some are louder than others, right? I mean you can stand in the middle of the room and while most of the talking is just an indistinguishable murmur, you can catch bits of conversation from others more clearly. There’s a sudden burst of laughter to your right. Someone to your left is saying in a high, distressed voice, “Oh my God, I can’t believe he did that to me.” Behind you a sharp angry voice is saying, “What a bitch.” Someone else is telling a joke in a too-loud voice that’s clear as a bell above the rabble and so on.”

  “Okay,” Nicole murmured when he fell silent. She could picture the whole scene pretty clearly, and imagine the conversations.

  “Well, that’s what it’s like for me with people’s thoughts,” he explained. “Most of the time, when I’m out in public, there’s a constant buzz of people’s thoughts and to actually hear a specific person’s thoughts I have to focus on them, block out everything else and concentrate on what they are thinking. That’s reading them.”

  Nicole nodded slowly.

  “But,” he added, “There are other people out there, who think more loudly than others, or whose thoughts are sharp and distinguishable from the general rabble. For them you actually have to try to block their thoughts, but it’s like plugging your ears when someone’s shouting at you, it usually still gets through.”

  “And Melly is a shouter with her thoughts?” Nicole asked, finding this information fascinating.

  Jake grimaced and nodded. “Her thoughts are deafening. I couldn’t even hear the murmur of Joey’s thoughts with hers screaming at me.”

  Nicole picked up her coffee and took a sip, thinking about what he’d said and then she frowned. “It sounds … noisy,” she finished, but wasn’t satisfied with the word. “I mean, you’re saying that not only do you hear actual sounds when you’re out in the world—and all of them since you say your hearing is superior—but there’s also the constant hum of people’s thoughts?”

  “Unless I’m alone,” Jake said, and then added, “Or alone with you.”

  Right, he couldn’t read her, she thought.

  “That’s one of the reasons why a life mate is so special,” he said quietly. “To avoid the constant barrage of sound and thoughts, an unmated immortal has to isolate themselves and too much isolation can lead to an immortal going rogue. But an immortal with a life mate can find peace while still enjoying their company. They don’t have to isolate themselves, and the peace they find with that life mate recharges their batteries and allows them to better handle being out in the noisy world. A life mate is soothing.”

  “I see,” Nicole whispered, and she did. She now understood how a life mate would be special. But she grinned suddenly and teased, “So I’m kind of like a tranquilizer for you.”

  Jake blinked with surprise, whether at the suggestion or because he was surprised to find it true, she didn’t know. But then his eyes began to glow and he admitted, “Kind of. But more a cross between a tranquilizer and Viagra.”

  Nicole felt her face flush. It wasn’t with embarrassment. She recognized that silver glow in his eyes. The more passion he experienced, the stronger the silver was in his eyes. She didn’t know why that was, but was aware of it and knew his thoughts had shifted to more carnal matters. And that knowledge had her own thoughts heading in that direction as well. Her body was beginning to tingle, her nipples were hardening, and the familiar dampness was growing between her legs.

  Damn, all he had to do was look at her and she got wet … like some upside-down version of Pavlov’s dogs, Nicole thought.

  “The chocolate cake is good,” Jake said suddenly.

  Blinking, Nicole glanced down at her cake. She hadn’t even tried it yet.

  “But you taste better,” Jake added.

  Nicole stilled, and then slowly raised her head to peer at him. Oh yeah, his eyes were on fire now … and so was she. How the hell did that happen so fast? No kissing, touching, nothing. Just a couple words and she was ready to go.

  Jake picked up his plate and coffee and carried them to the island, then returned to stand beside her. Nicole tipped her head back, expecting him to kiss her, but instead he caught her chair and turned it so she faced him. He then scooped her up and set her on the table where his cake had been moments ago.

  “These have to go,” Jake announced, reaching for the button of her jeans. “You should wear skirts and dresses,” he added conversationally as he slid the button free and started on the zipper. “It would make things much easier.”

  “I’ll have to buy some,” Nicole said breathlessly as he slid the zipper down.

  Jake woke up slumped at the kitchen table, his head in Nicole’s lap, exactly where he’d been when he’d passed out. Damn, this life-mate sex was intense, he thought, sitting up and giving his head a shake to try to wake up fully. Pounding and the sound of some power tool caught his attention, and he glanced toward the kitchen door, but the sound seemed to be coming from the main floor.

  Wondering what was going on, he started to stand, but then paused as his gaze fell on Nicole again. She was flat on her back on the tabletop, bare from the waist down and legs spread, knees on either side of him and dead to the world. Despite having just woken up from a post-coital fainting spell, the sight was tempting. Although, it hadn’t really been coitus, he supposed. Maybe he should move on to that now, Jake thought, his hands sliding up her legs of their own accord.

  A smile curved his lips and he began to harden when Nicole shifted on the tabletop and murmured sleepily in response to his touch. The idea of waking her with kisses, pulling her to the edge of the table and sliding into her warm welcoming body grew in his head, and Jake’s erection grew with it. Damn, even when unconscious and drooling, the woman was the sexiest thing he’d ever seen.

  “Jake?”

  Head shooting toward the door, he quickly stepped away from Nicole and rushed to the entry to peer into the living room. Dante was just stepping off the step, heading toward him.

  Jake was about to ask him to stop where he was when Dante did so on his own and announced, “Just a heads-up. Those workers you called in to take care of the pictures are done downstairs and ready to start up here.”

  “Oh.” That explained the noise, Jake thought, glancing over his shoulder to Nicole.

  “I’ll tell them to give you two minutes,” Dante said turning back to the stairs before adding, “That way you can wake Nicole and get her dressed before they come up.”

  Jake’s eyes shot back to the man, but he was already out of sight on the stairs.

  “And that is why living with immortals who can read you is a pain in the ass,” Jake muttered, turning back into the kitchen. His cousin must have read his mind to know Nicole wasn’t dressed. That or he’d already been up here before this and had actually seen it, Jake thought and scowled harder. He really needed to remember to make sure they were somewhere private before jumping Nicole. The problem was, he found it hard to think when she was near. His brain seemed to have one mode right now and that was the “Let’s get Nicole naked and …” mode. The part after the getting her naked changed with the situation, but it always involved getting her naked. Though he didn’t even seem to be able to accomplish that fully, most times. Out of the four interludes so far, she’d been completely naked only once.

  Jake didn’t wake Nicole, he merely scooped her up and carried her out of the kitchen to the bedroom. But by the time he set her on the bed she was stirring.

  “Hi,” he said softly when she opened her eyes as he straightened.

  “Hi.” She smiled uncertainly.

  “We had to vacate the kitchen. Workers were about to invade,” Jake explained.

  “Workers?” Nicole asked, sitting up and peering around with a frown. “Where are my jeans?”

  “Oh, crap. Hang on,” he muttered and hurried back to the kitchen to retrieve her jeans and panties f
rom the kitchen floor. Men were just coming into sight on the stairs as he hurried back through the living room. Jake slipped back into the master bedroom and then paused. Nicole wasn’t on the bed anymore. He relaxed when he heard the water turn on in the bathroom, and then set her jeans and panties on the bed and slid out of the room again to head to the bathroom outside his own room.

  Jake quickly relieved himself and washed his face and hands, then headed out to investigate what had been done in the house so far. He nodded in passing at the men working in the loft living room and then hurried down the large, open winding staircase to the main floor. Dante and Tomasso were settled one on each of the couches in this larger living room, working on two large pizzas that lay open on the coffee table between them. An action movie was playing on the big-screen TV at the end of the room.

  “Pizza?” Dante offered, lifting the box closest to him for Jake to consider its contents.

  “No. Thanks,” Jake murmured, his gaze moving to the sliding glass doors next to the big screen. Through it he could see a man standing beside the hot tub, watching a pump spit water out into a large open barrel.

  “Did you remind him that the water’s poisonous?” Jake asked, eyeing the man. He’d warned him when he’d called, but people sometimes didn’t listen.

  “Yeah. He’s wearing protective gear and that’s why it’s going in the barrel. He brought several of them to take the water away. He said it probably wasn’t a good thing just to pump it out onto the grass and let the ground soak it up,” Dante told him and then asked, “When the hell did you call these guys? I thought you were so busy with Nicole you wouldn’t think of it. I was going to make the calls myself.”

  “While I was making coffee when Joey and his girlfriend were here,” Jake answered. He’d put the coffee on and quickly made the calls. Quick as he’d been, Jake had barely finished when he’d heard Melly announcing that she wanted to leave. He glanced to Dante and Tomasso now. “She was something else, huh?”

  “A bitch,” Tomasso rumbled.

  “Couldn’t get away from her quick enough,” Dante said dryly. “Nicole’s brother is an idiot to put up with her. She doesn’t care about him. All she’s thinking about is what he can give her.”