He was right, damn him, so she decided on a different tactic, eager to see just what this little surprise visit was all about. With a wave of her hand, Isabelle rid herself of her ankle length sheath, leaving her naked and aroused before him. He had grown even harder, even more unforgiving of her than when they were pitting their skills against each other all those decades ago. She knew he had the potential to be a great leader. Too bad she couldn’t rid him of that damn moral streak that had kept him from becoming the perfect pet. But she wasn’t afraid to try seducing him back into her arms.
“As you can see, I’m well, despite the ordeal you put me through. Remember how much fun we used to have together?” Cupping her breasts, she idly toyed with her nipples, her eyes eagerly waiting to see his reaction.
Her tall, slender body remained the same as Damien remembered. Her breasts were large, her legs long and her pubis still bare, leaving nothing to the imagination. Playing along, even though just the thought of touching her again made him nauseous, he stepped toward her, wrapped his arms around her waist then lowered his hands to palm her soft ass. “You are sin wrapped in a hell of a package, that hasn’t changed. I wonder what else hasn’t changed,” he murmured in a seductive tone as it took every ounce of his considerable willpower not to wrench her neck. The move would only enrage her.
“I’m just as you remember, maybe even better.” Running her hands over him, she relished the feel of having him at her mercy again, tried not to grin in triumph when he bent his head to nibble on her ear. She never imagined it would be this easy, especially after he had found his mate. One part of her remained suspicious at his easy compliance, but her body was ready to accept him back without qualm. “Touch me, Damien. It’s been too long.”
Even if it wasn’t impossible for him to feel anything but revulsion for this conniving bitch, especially after having Abrielle in his life and his bed, he had allowed himself to be drawn into the black mire of her obsessive cravings once and vowed never to do so again. Wanting to find out what he came here for as quickly as possible, he kissed her, distracting her enough to retrieve his small dagger. With his mouth grinding down on hers the way he remembered she liked, he ran the blade lightly across her thigh, her deep shudder and soft moan telling him that her penchant for pain hadn’t changed either.
“That’s good, darling,” she murmured against his mouth before moving back and looking down at the thin stream of bright red blood running down her leg. “Now lick it clean,” she ordered him in a hard tone, her eyes glittering with perverted lust.
Damien glanced down, not totally surprised to see the wound healing right before his eyes. He had been afraid her ability to heal quickly had improved since he last saw her, which meant she would be almost impossible to kill. Almost.
“I don’t think so. You see, I prefer a much….sweeter taste nowadays.” Before she could retaliate, vent the rage that had her eyes glowing and her fangs looking sharp and lethal, he grabbed her hair and snarled into her face, “I let you drive me to the brink of madness once. I’ll meet the dawn before I allow you to get your claws into me again, bitch. Stay away from me and mine,” before dissolving quickly.
Isabelle’s fury knew no bounds, and she spent the rest of the night hunting up new victims to replace those she had lost, looking for the worst cretins she could find to turn into puppets whose sole purpose will be to rid her of the brethren once and for all. But she would make sure they returned Damien to her for her to dispose of personally.
Chapter Twelve
Jacob lounged in the comfortable chair, his eyes on Grace as she finished up reading to a group of five year old girls. Brownies, she called them, explain
ing it was a club for young girls and one of their activities was a trip to the library. He had arrived early to pick her up and found he enjoyed just watching her, especially when she was relaxed and unafraid as she was now, her face animated as she read to the kids, her eyes sparkling with pleasure instead of cloudy with wariness when she was alone with him. She hadn’t acknowledged his presence, but he knew her body would have responded when he arrived, telling her he was near. Apparently she could ignore the demands the closeness of a mate imposed better than he could. Sitting in a public place with a hard-on the size of frigging Montana was extremely difficult to ignore or mask. He really should have jacked off before coming here this evening, but he was tired of attempting to ease his painful lust with his hand only to come down from the pleasure of an orgasm to once again find himself unsatisfied, still needing what his mate couldn’t, or wouldn’t provide.
Date night, he thought derisively. How in hell had he and Damien let Abby talk them into this? When Abby got something into her head, there was no arguing with her, and she had insisted courting Grace was the way to win her over. Jacob hadn’t ‘courted’ a woman since Elizabeth, hadn’t wanted or needed to because he had not been interested in forming any type of relationship with a woman except his mate. He had seduced and bedded more women than he could count in the past century and a half, almost all of them easily forgotten once he moved on. It had taken him little time to fall for his fiancée, Elizabeth, even shorter time to find a way for them to slip away from their chaperones and gently rid her of her virginity. It had taken him years of celibacy and decades to get over losing her and he knew he would never be willing to settle for anything less than what he had once had.
Because he was to the point of desperation, ignoring Jon and Luc’s snickers, he had agreed to accompany Damien and Abby and take Grace out tonight. Payback’s a bitch, he had warned the brothers, reminding them that it was inevitable that their time was coming.
Jacob stood when the small circle of girls dispersed and Grace returned her book to the shelves, willing his cock to behave as he watched her walk towards him. Vampires did not wine and dine women, he had told Abby. Yet here he was, ready to do exactly that if it would bring him closer to making Grace his. Thankfully, he had fed before coming here, temporarily relieving at least one hunger for the time being.
Grace didn’t need to see Jacob to know he had arrived to pick her up. Her body simply infused with pleasure, the side of her neck warming, her nipples tightening as her pussy swelled with damp arousal. She found concentrating on the simple children’s story difficult, but she couldn’t blame her lack of concentration on a sleepless night like she had all day long when she found her mind wandering toward Jacob, the memory of him sitting on the bed with her, his cock in hand as she exploded in ecstasy under his intent gaze. The look of disappointment on his face followed so quickly by one of angry resentment made her wonder how long she had before his patience wore out with her and she found herself a victim again. Even with that possibility looming, she was more afraid to return home and the possibility of facing more deranged creatures alone than she was of anything Jacob might do.
Gathering her purse, she spotted him standing near the front entrance and her heart did a slow roll in her chest. Dressed in his usual black leather pants and snug black tee shirt, the man oozed sex and literally made her mouth water. He wasn’t her type, she reminded herself for about the millionth time, not that it seemed to matter. Just like the heart, her body wanted what it wanted, and there was no denying her body wanted him. If only she could get her mind on board, they both wouldn’t be suffering as they were.
“Hi. I didn’t think you’d be the one to escort me home today.” She looked up at him questioningly, wondering where they stood after last night.
“Abby thought you might be wanting a touch of normal, like dinner out and a show with her and Damien. I don’t trust anyone else with your safety away from the manor, so if you want to go, you’re stuck with me as your escort.” Jacob let her decide if she wanted to spend the evening with him or by herself back at the manor.
She couldn’t read anything by his closed expression, couldn’t tell what he wanted her answer to be, but just the idea of doing something so…human, had her almost giddy with delight. “I’d love to go out with all of you. But, what will you do? I mean, you don’t eat food, do you?” she asked curiously as he held the door for her.
Jacob took her elbow, answering with a wry grin, “We can, in small amounts. We don’t need food to survive, and too much will just come right back up again. I crave blood, and beignets, but, other than that I don’t hunger for anything else.” Except you, he wanted to say, but refused to put any pressure on her tonight.
Jacob surprised her by leading her to a causeway grey Range Rover and lifting her onto the plush, leather passenger seat. “I didn’t know you had this,” she said as she took in the high end electronics on the dash that looked completely foreign to her. Her six year old Fiat had heat and air and a radio that she rarely used. She turned a cheeky grin up to him, adding, “Boys and their toys, that never changes no matter how old you are.”
Jacob returned her smile, her joke about his age giving him hope she was adjusting. “I prefer the Harley, but Abby insisted I pick you up in style instead of like a heathen, I believe is how she put it.” Closing the door, he came around to the driver’s side, his eyes and ears looking and listening for any signs of rogues.
“I think Damien isn’t the only one Abby has wrapped around her little finger,” Grace teased him as he started the SUV and pulled away from the curb.
Jacob didn’t bother denying it since it was true. “We’re suckers when it comes to our mates,” he told her honestly. “Once you quit judging all of us by Mason’s actions, you’ll see that. We’re meeting them at Bayona’s. That okay with you?” he asked, quickly changing the subject.
Happy to switch gears, Grace nodded her head. “I’ve never been there, but always wanted to go.” Located in a two hundred year old historic Creole cottage in the Vieu Carre, better known as the ‘Quarter’, the restaurant has been distinguished as one of the top dining places in the U.S., yet she had never been there. That was a reminder of how pathetically dull her life was, at least before her abduction.
“Another new experience for you then. Is there a reason you haven’t been there before? You said you were born and raised in New Orleans, I figured you would’ve tried about everything by now.”
The French Quarter covered over one hundred blocks and was not only New Orleans’ oldest neighborhood, but the cultural hub of the city. Besides its obvious architectural and historical distinction, the Quarter offered a plethora of different experiences, but drew crowds Grace wasn’t comfortable being in the midst of and offered a nightlife she had never been drawn to. She would rather spend an afternoon touring a historic home, the French Marketplace or the famed Musee Conti Wax Museum and the evening curled up at home with a good book.
With a self-deprecating smile, she murmured, “I think, in your day, I would be called a spinster. Today I’m labeled a homebody. And no, no reason other than I don’t go out much, especially at night.”
“Trust me, if you were alive ‘in my day’, you would’ve been married and saddled with several kids before you turned twenty-five.” Eyeing her sidewise, he drawled, “Make that twenty.”