by Lynsay Sands
Jeanne Louise just nodded in defeat. There was no way to keep it from him now. “When we still hunted, it was a handy skill.”
“So you were controlling him?”
She grimaced. “Yes, Paul, I was controlling him. I submerged his will and overrode it with my own. He won’t even remember crossing the parking lot.”
“Have you ever done that to me?” he asked quietly.
“No,” she said wearily, watching Boomer chase his tail at the end of his chain.
Paul let that go and muttered, “I didn’t know your kind could do that.”
Jeanne Louise shrugged. “Knowing we can do that would make mortals nervous, so we generally don’t tell.”
“Hmm,” he said, and then glanced at her sharply. “Jesus, you could have taken control of me and made me release you at any time.” When she didn’t comment, he asked, “Why didn’t you?”
“Because I can’t control you, Paul,” she admitted wearily.
“You can’t?” He frowned. “Why?”
Jeanne Louise shrugged and said vaguely, “It happens sometimes.”
“But you can control Livy,” he said. “That’s what you’re doing when you take the pain away and when you put her to sleep, right?”
“Yes,” she admitted.
Paul nodded and then kicked his toe into the grass, before glancing at her and saying. “You’re still terribly pale, Jeanie. You need blood.”
“I can’t bite you, Paul,” she sighed and then added wryly, “Believe me, I wish I could. I do need blood.”
“Well, then why can’t you? You drank my blood at the house and it didn’t seem to affect you adversely.”
“It’s not the blood itself,” Jeanne Louise said on a short dry laugh, and then turned to peer at him. “I can’t control you, Paul. I wouldn’t be able to keep you from feeling the pain. It would hurt, and I won’t hurt you.”
“Ah, I see,” he said with a nod of understanding, and then grimaced. “Well, perhaps it’s what I deserve for kidnapping you in the first place.” He peered at her solemnly and said, “I really don’t want you having to feed off of others because of what I did. Hurt or not, I’d rather you bit me than feed on innocents around us.”
“Paul,” she began unhappily, but he interrupted.
“I’m serious, Jeanie. I would rather suffer the pain of your bite than have you bite others. So . . .” He tilted his head away from her, exposing his neck to her again. “Go on. Get it over with.”
Jeanne Louise frowned at him, then shook her head and peered away, but her eyes quickly slid back. Damn, she was hungry. Her stomach felt like it was boiling with acid. And the muscles all over her body were beginning to cramp and ache as the nanos sucked blood from them to carry to the main organs. And if she didn’t feed it would only get worse.
“Not here. The car,” she said abruptly and stood to walk back toward his vehicle. Silence reigned behind her for a moment and then she heard Paul murmuring to Boomer to wait where he was and take care of business, he’d be back for him in a moment.
Jeanne Louise got into the backseat behind Livy. She left the door open for him, and slid along the seat, her mind racing over what she would have to do as she watched Paul approach. His steps slowed as he neared the car, some reluctance showing, but he straightened his shoulders and continued.
“The door,” she murmured when he slid onto the seat next to her, one foot still outside on the ground.
Nodding grimly, Paul pulled his foot in and eased the door closed, and then tilted his head, offering his throat. Jeanne Louise rolled her eyes and immediately climbed to straddle his lap.
Paul jerked in surprise and grasped her arms. “What—?”
“Relax,” she whispered, mindful of Livy asleep in the front seat. “I only know of one way to make it not hurt without controlling your mind.”
“How’s that?” he asked uncertainly.
By infusing him with pleasure. If he was experiencing the shared pleasure life mates enjoyed, he would be less likely to suffer the pain of her fangs sinking into his flesh. Jeanne Louise didn’t tell him that, though. She simply leaned forward and kissed him.
After an initial stiffening, Paul relaxed under her caressing mouth and began to kiss her back. The moment he did the passion from earlier exploded between them. Jeanne Louise sighed her relief into his mouth and slipped her arms around his shoulders, her body instinctively pressing closer as her mouth opened to him. Paul accepted the invitation at once, his tongue thrusting out to caress hers even as his hands came up. One moved to her back, urging her closer still, while the other caught in her hair and tilted her head to a more comfortable angle.
Jeanne Louise moaned as his tongue lashed hers, and then gasped as the hand at her back slipped around to find her breast through her muddy blouse. His hand kneaded the tender flesh and then began to tug at her blouse, trying to draw it down to reveal her bra. Jeanne Louise helped, quickly undoing her buttons and then groaning as he jerked the cup of her bra aside so that he could touch the nipple unhindered.
When he broke their kiss to run his lips and tongue across her cheek to her ear, Jeanne Louise murmured eagerly and turned her head, offering it to him, then she tilted her head back, offering him her own throat as his mouth trailed down that. Paul didn’t stop there. He found the hollow of her collarbone and sent shivers shimmying through her by nibbling there, then licked his way down her breast to her nipple.
Jeanne Louise rose up slightly on his lap as his mouth closed over the hardened nub, her hands clutching at the hair behind each of his ears to urge him on. Hunger was rushing through her, a blend of his passion and need, hers and her need for blood. Jeanne Louise was briefly torn by the conflicting desires, but when she tilted her head back on a moan and felt her fangs slide out to prick her tongue, she raised her head abruptly to peer down at him.
Paul’s heart was beating in time to her own, his own need causing a hardness beneath her legs that was pushing against her with every shift of their bodies. Jeanne Louise ground herself down on the hardness, bringing a groan from his mouth that reverberated around her breast and then he tore his mouth from the nub he’d been lavishing and raised his face.
The hand in her hair tugged her down as Paul sought her mouth again, but Jeanne Louise turned her head at the last moment and went for his throat. Her fangs sank into the soft flesh even as she again ground her pelvis against his hardness and Paul cried out, a sound muffled by her hand over his mouth. It was a cry of ecstasy not pain, but she couldn’t risk Livy waking at this point, and Jeanne Louise kept his mouth covered as she fed, her pleasure in the act following the same connection as the shared pleasure and suffusing him.
Paul bucked beneath her, his hands catching her hips to hold her in place as he ground himself against her in frantic need. She ground right back, the passion and pleasure in feeding comingling and overwhelming them both. Jeanne Louise was so caught up in the moment that she might have overfed and harmed him had someone not pounded on the window next to them.
“For Christ’s sake, get a room. This is a family park,” someone barked, their voice muffled by the window.
Jeanne Louise raised her head on a furious snarl and turned to glare at whoever had interrupted her meal, but the person, an elderly man, had already continued on, shaking his head and muttering about perverts and the youth today.
She scowled after him, then glanced to Paul to see the dazed look on his face. Then Jeanne Louise twisted in his lap to peer over the front seat to Livy. Fortunately, the man’s rude interruption hadn’t woken the child.
Sighing, Jeanne Louise turned back to Paul and frowned at how pale he was. She’d taken too much blood. It wasn’t a dangerous amount. Still, it was more than she should have and he’d need time to recover. Realizing her fangs were still out, she retracted them, then eased off Paul’s lap and glanced out the window. It was dark enough she could barely see Boomer where he remained tethered to the picnic table. She felt better though. Her headache
was a dull ache again rather than a hammering, and many of her cramps and aches were gone. Her stomach was also just roiling now rather than taking an acid bath. She would need more blood to be back to full throttle, but Paul couldn’t spare it.
The thought made her glance to him. He was slumped on the backseat, his head back and eyes closed. Jeanne Louise suspected he’d fainted. Leaving him for now, she slid out of the car and started back to the picnic table to collect Boomer. She was just coming around the car when she noticed a man untying Boomer’s leash from the table. Jeanne Louise put on immortal speed and rushed forward, making the man jump when she suddenly appeared at his side.
“Oh.” He blinked with confusion and glanced around. “Is he yours? I was just checking on him.”
Jeanne Louise’s eyes narrowed. He was lying. He’d planned to take Boomer. He was one of those bastards who stole animals from backyards and playgrounds and sold them for animal experimentation. He’d been driving by with a van full of pets he’d stolen, but the sight of Boomer, seemingly unattended, had seemed too good to be true and he’d stopped to collect one more.
Taking control of the man, she made him hand over Boomer’s leash, then had him lead the way to his van. It was only ten feet away. He’d just pulled over to the side of the road when he’d seen Boomer, Jeanne Louise read from his mind. She had him open the back doors of the van and found herself peering over two rows of cages inside. There were eight of them altogether, four lining each side of the back of the van, and each holding at least two animals apiece, some cats and some dogs.
Mouth tightening, Jeanne Louise made him pull out his cell phone and place an anonymous call to the police that a man with a van full of stolen goods was parked by the park. She then had to glance to the sign at the entrance to the park to be able to make him report which park.
After making him put his phone away, Jeanne Louise caught him by the front of the shirt and jerked him down so she could sink her teeth into his jugular. He groaned as her fangs slid into his skin, but this groan wasn’t one of pleasure. She didn’t bother masking the pain for him, though he wouldn’t remember suffering it. She was still masking his memory.
This time Jeanne Louise deliberately took enough blood to put the man into a faint. She then turned with him and released his shirt so that he fell into the back of his van between the rows of cages. His feet were hanging out between the open doors, but she didn’t bother about that and simply walked back to the car, leading Boomer.
When Jeanne Louise opened the back door of the car, Boomer hopped in and curled up next to Paul. She then eased the door closed and got in the driver’s seat. She was feeling pretty good now. She would drive the rest of the way to Ipperwash and let Paul sleep and recover.
When Jeanne Louise pulled out of the parking lot a moment later, a police car was pulling up behind the van of stolen pets. The sight made her smile with satisfaction. There would be a lot of happy people getting their beloved pets back tonight. It totally negated any guilt she might have felt for biting the creep.
Seven
“I’m thirsty, Jeanie.”
“I bought some snacks when I checked us in, sweetie. I’ll give you a drink as soon as I get you and Boomer into our motel room. Okay?”
Paul blinked his eyes open as a click followed that soft voice. The click had been the car door closing, he saw, as he raised his head and glanced around in time to see Jeanne Louise leading Livy and Boomer to an open door in a long, low white building in front of the car.
Giving his head a shake to clear it, Paul sat up and rubbed his hands wearily over his face. He was exhausted, and not sure why at first, and then he remembered being at the park, offering his neck to Jeanie and her leading him back to the car. He distinctly recalled her climbing onto his lap and . . .
“Jesus,” Paul muttered under his breath as what had followed ran through his head. They’d kissed twice now, and both times had been like nothing he’d ever experienced. It was as if his body exploded with desire when his lips met hers. He just went up in flames . . . and all his common sense apparently went out the window, because he’d been ready to strip her clothes off and take her right there in the backseat with Livy asleep in the front. The only thing that had stopped him was . . .
Well, Paul acknowledged, he didn’t actually recall what had stopped him. He remembered their bodies grinding together, he remembered letting her nipple slip from his mouth so that he could claim her lips, and then . . . she hadn’t let him kiss her. She’d turned her head and—
Paul raised a hand to his neck with a frown. He thought she might have bitten him, but he didn’t remember feeling pain; just an overwhelming pleasure that had rushed through him in seemingly endless waves. And then he’d woken up to the sound of his daughter and Jeanne Louise speaking softly.
The door opening beside him drew his attention, and Paul glanced that way as Jeanne Louise bent to peer in at him.
“Are you okay?” she asked, eyeing him solemnly.
“You bit me?” It came out as a question, because he wasn’t really sure. Her grimace told him he was right though.
“I got a little carried away and took more blood than I intended,” Jeanne Louise said apologetically. “How do you feel?”
Paul considered the question. How did he feel? A little weak, a little tired, and horny as hell as he recalled the passion they’d shared. He was ready to go another round with her. If she was hungry, he was more than happy to feed her. In fact, his mind was drawing up their conversation about biting spots and how the genitals were a good spot because it left no marks. He’d volunteer to try out that one in a heartbeat, he thought dryly. But he could hardly tell her that, and could only think it was a good, Goddamned thing that she couldn’t read his mind.
“Fine,” Paul said finally, realizing she was still waiting for an answer.
Jeanne Louise hesitated, then leaned in to pick up the Walmart bag from where it now lay by his feet. She then backed out and gave him the room to get out.
Paul did at once, unbuckling his seat belt and unfolding himself from the backseat to straighten beside her. He held on to the door though, when the world did a slow spin around him. She’d definitely taken too much blood, he acknowledged. Perhaps he should hold off on offering himself up for another meal. At least until he’d eaten something.
“Do you need a hand?” Jeanne Louise asked worriedly.
“No,” Paul murmured and cautiously released the door, then pushed it closed and glanced around. “Where are we?”
“Ipperwash. It’s too late to look into cottages that might be for rent, and I saw this motel so I stopped.” She glanced around too. “It will do for tonight. We can look into cottages tomorrow.”
He nodded, and turned to walk slowly toward the open door Jeanne Louise had entered earlier with his daughter. The memory made him ask, “How is Livy?”
“Headache free at the moment, thank goodness,” Jeanne Louise murmured following him to the door. “She’s also hungry and thirsty. I gave her some juice and a chocolate bar to tide her over until morning.”
“A chocolate bar?” Paul asked with a wince.
“It’s all that they sell in the office,” Jeanne Louise said apologetically, and then assured him, “I’ll put her back to sleep once she’s finished.”
Paul relaxed and nodded.
“I got you some juice and a chocolate bar too,” Jeanne Louise said as he reached the door to their room and peered around. It was your standard motel room done in neutral shades of brown on beige. There were two queen-sized beds and Livy was seated on the nearer one with Boomer curled up beside her. The girl was getting chocolate all over herself as she ate an Oh Henry! bar.
“There’s dog food in with your clothes,” Paul said, turning with the intention of taking the bag and feeding the poor mutt. It was well past Boomer’s dinner hour.
“I’ll get it,” Jeanne Louise said, closing the door behind them. “Go drink your juice and eat your chocolate.”
Paul hesitated, but then left her to it and headed across the room to the bedside table where three or four chocolate bars and two bottles of juice sat. He grabbed a bottle of orange juice, opened it and drank it while watching Jeanne Louise dig out the dog food and the two small dog dishes he’d also thought to purchase.
Boomer was off the bed and at her side, tail wagging, the moment she opened the dog food. Jeanne Louise poured some into one of the dishes, then set the bag of food aside and carried the other dish into the attached bathroom to fill it with water. By the time she’d finished and placed the water beside the food dish for Boomer, Paul was done with his juice and reaching for a chocolate bar.
“Jeanie, can we go to the beach?” Livy asked as Jeanne Louise straightened.
“In the morning, pumpkin,” Jeanne Louise said, her gaze skating over Paul before she took in Livy’s chocolate-covered state. His daughter had finished her chocolate bar, but appeared to have more chocolate on her hands and face than she’d managed to eat. He smiled faintly and glanced back to Jeanne Louise in time to see the grin that claimed her face before she turned away to go back into the bathroom.
“Jeanie says we’re in upper watch,” Livy announced, smiling at him.
“Ipperwash,” Paul corrected gently as he opened his chocolate bar.
“Yeah,” Livy agreed. “And she says we’re going to swim and collect shells, roast weenies over the fire and stuff too.”
“Hmm,” Paul murmured around his chocolate bar and nodded, but then frowned as he suddenly wondered how Jeanne Louise had rented the motel room. She didn’t have her purse and his money was in his wallet in his back pocket. He could feel it.
“Here we go,” Jeanne Louise said stepping out of the bathroom with a damp cloth and heading for Livy.
“Jeanie?” Paul asked after swallowing his bite of chocolate bar. “How did you rent the room?”
She stilled briefly in cleaning up Livy and then glanced to him. “The motel owner was willing to take cash. I told him you’d pay in the morning.”