"I'll like it better once it's on the floor." Jerry leaned down to kiss my nipples through the sheer fabric and pulled first one and then the other into the warmth of his mouth. His fangs were a delicious torture as he ran them around the sensitive tips. I explored his chest, then pushed my hands into the back of his jeans, loving the flex of his hard muscles.
"Told you I heard something up here." Lily's voice made us jump apart. "Just the old man and his lady getting it on."
Jerry turned and hid me behind him. His daughter and two vampires I didn't recognize stood in the doorway.
"Lily. We didn't want to crash your party downstairs." Jerry reached down and grabbed my blouse, handing it back to me. I shrugged into it.
"Hey, Glory. Don't worry, Dad. We won't cramp your style. Just thought someone was breaking in." Lily turned around and said something to the men. They all laughed. "The guys and I were about to call it a night. Just go back to doing what you were doing."
"Maybe you should introduce us to your new friends." Jerry glanced back to make sure I was buttoned back into my blouse, then strode over to the door. He'd had issues with Lily's former friends. That's why he'd invited her to move in with him.
"This is Matthew and his pal Red." Lily waved a casual hand toward me. "My dad, Jeremy Blade, and his main squeeze, Glory St. Clair."
"Hey." The guys offered Jerry a fist bump, which he ignored. He was busy assessing them. Since they weren't drunk or stoned or cursing a blue streak I guess they passed muster.
Jerry just nodded. "It's fairly close to dawn. What are your plans?"
Lily grinned. "Well, Matt here is spending the night and Red is taking off. That was the plan, unless . . . Red?"
The men took one look at Jerry's stony face and straightened from their slouches. They made quick excuses and backed toward the stairs.
"Now what did you do? What mental message did you send them?" Lily cursed and threw up her hands. "I'm an adult, you know. I can do a threesome every night if I want." She turned and hurried down the stairs after the men. "I need my own place, Dad. This isn't working for either of us. Ask Glory."
"She's right, Jerry. The woman is several hundred years old. She can't be treated like a child." I walked over and wrapped my arms around his waist.
"I'm not treating her like a child, Gloriana. I'm asking her to value herself. You think I couldn't tell she only picked up those men tonight? She holds herself too cheaply." Jerry ran a hand through his hair. "Where's her pride?"
"You're right. And she's playing a dangerous game, bringing strangers into your home. But good luck playing the father card. She needs time to get used to you, Jer. Lily didn't even know you were her biological father until recently." I hugged him. "Maybe you can teach her to appreciate her own worth."
"Why in the hell does she act like this in front of me?" Jerry stared out at the hallway where Lily had disappeared. "Threesomes? I really didn't want to know that."
"She's hurt, Jerry. Confused. Since Mac died and she found out he wasn't really her father, Lily seems determined to punish her mother for lying to her and you for not figuring out she was yours. This wild behavior is the only way she knows how, I guess. Embarrassing you, an honorable man." I kept my arms around him and laid my head on his chest.
"I try to be. And I would have claimed my child, if I had known she was mine. But Mara lied to all of us-Mac, me and Lily. Guess it's no surprise my daughter is a bit of a handful with that cold bitch for a mother." Jerry ran his hands up and down my back but was obviously still thinking.
I didn't bother to hide my smile. At last Jerry was admitting what I'd known all along. Mara was a cold, manipulative woman and not for him. Yes!
"Just rent Lily her own place. Let her develop a decent relationship with you over time and things will smooth out." I looked up and traced his frown with a fingertip. "Maybe some of your honorable ways will rub off. And she'll get tired of the game playing."
"I can only hope. But those men. I didn't recognize them. Where did they come from? I should have asked questions, not let them take off like that." Jerry ran his hand up my back, then around to fondle my breast, but I could tell his mind wasn't on his work.
"And alienate Lily even more? I don't think so." I blocked my thoughts. Matt had had the blond surfer-dude looks that I'd recognized instantly. I'd have bet the castle that he was one of Ian MacDonald's bodyguards with a night off. Just Lily's luck that she'd hooked up with one of them. Or was it? I'd mocked the Campbell-MacDonald feud, but maybe Ian had his own thoughts on that rivalry.
Of course Matt was good-looking and buff, just Lily's type. Red was probably one of Ray's bodyguards. So he'd volunteered to show Matt around. Surely it was all a coincidence. They'd probably met Lily at N-V, the only club in town now that encouraged vampires to hang out. I'd question Lily on my own later, not about to share my worries with Jerry.
I did what I always did when I wanted to distract my guy. I slid down to my knees and headed south. Oh, yeah. Not all of his thoughts were on his wayward daughter. I soon had him moaning and picking me up to carry me to his king-size bed.
It didn't take long for us to shed our clothes until we were naked, skin to skin. I sighed when Jerry kissed a path down my body, using his tongue and fangs to drive me wild. The dawn was too close for us to do much more than take each other in conventional ways. But it was enough. When I lay sated on his wide chest, I kissed his lips, then sat up so I could look into his eyes.
"I didn't hear Lily come back. Did you?"
Jerry smiled. "Who can hear when you're working your magic, lass? I went deaf, dumb and blind for whole minutes there." He ran his hands down to my hips and pulled me tight where we were connected. How could he possibly still be hard? Yet he was.
"Guess she found a safe place to spend the day." I sat up and moaned as he pushed deep inside me. "I know I have."
"You can always feel safe with me, Gloriana." Jerry reached up to hold my breasts. "And you're right. I need to find Lily her own place. Trust her to live on her own and take care of herself. She has for hundreds of years."
"Fledglings like Penny and even Ray just don't understand what it's like to have lived so long. Have so much history together. Especially like you and I have." I stopped moving, feeling like maybe there was something important I needed to say here. A message for me and maybe Jerry if I could just get it out.
"Aye, we do have that. I've certainly lost count of how many times we've lain like this." Jerry pulled my head down and gave me a kiss that touched my soul as much as it touched my lips and my tongue. By the time he drew back I'd lost the words I wanted to say. "Being with you never fails to please me, to make me want more of you, Gloriana. Other women never hold me like this, keep me in thrall. You are my soul mate, as they say. Do you believe in such a thing?"
"Jerry. Jeremiah. Of course I do." Tears blurred his face below me as I pressed my hands on his broad shoulders. He moved again, seemingly determined to take me higher one more time before the sun rose and sent us both into the death sleep. I felt the tension coil inside me, the thrill, and the impossibly intense pleasure that was almost pain. He was right. Neither of us ever failed to feel this. It was more than sex, more than a physical connection. It was two becoming one. I screamed his name as the waves broke and I felt his release inside me surging strong and sure.
How I wished I could have given him a child. A beauty like Lily. Or a strong son to stand by his side against dangerous enemies. But turning vampire ended all hope for me ever having children. Had killed his swimmers too. Lucky for him he'd sired Lily before he'd been turned.
Death pulled at me, trying to claim me. But I resisted, needing to hold him against my heart. Needing to press my lips to his for one more moment. I loved this man, seemed to have always loved him. Yes, he commanded me. But in some ways I commanded him. We would call it a draw if this were a game, neither of us the loser. I smiled as I fell on top of him and let the darkness claim me.
"I can't meet him here." Penny paced around the living room. "No amount of air freshener can mask the smell of those rats. And I change the litter in their cages several times a night!"
"I know you do." I looked her over with a critical eye. Hair shining and bouncing in the new layered cut that still hit her shoulders but curved toward her jaw to flatter her round face. Her black sweater was a wrap that did nice things to her figure. The tie at the waist promised a man that if he tugged he'd get an even better view of the cleavage, courtesy of a new push-up bra she'd picked up at the mall. Her black and yellow print skirt stopped above her knees at just the right spot to show off surprisingly trim legs. And, yes, I'd talked her into some heels, but they weren't so high that she'd fall on her face when she walked. Her pacing was practice.
"So you're meeting him in the shop again. How'd you explain that?" I put my hand on Jerry's shoulder. He'd driven me home and I'd nagged him into making our Saturday-night date into a "let's follow Penny" excursion. Not that we were telling her that.
"I told him we were repainting. In honor of my moving in. That things were a mess." Penny wobbled for a moment, looked down at her shoes, then sighed. "Maybe I should change into my flats."