Born to Bite (18 page)

“I was busy trying to find something to pack this in while he was making it. It took me a while. I finally found the cooler in the garage, but by then he’d made and wrapped everything,” she explained.

Nodding, Armand set the container aside and picked up the bagged blood. He handed her one and then took the other himself and they started with that. The moment that was done, Armand opened the two drinks, handed her one and then handed her a sandwich as well, and they began to eat. They were both silent at first as they concentrated on eating, but Eshe was also concentrating on trying to come up with a way to bring Rosamund into the conversation so that she could ask about the dead woman’s family. She was still thinking when halfway through the meal, Armand said, “Tell me about your first life mate.”

When Eshe blinked at him with surprise and hesitated, he pointed out, “I’ve told you about my wives, but we’ve never talked about your husband or past.”

Eshe glanced down at the sandwich she was eating, and then asked, “What do you want to know?”

“You told me how he died,” Armand murmured, “but how did you meet?”

“I was very fortunate,” Eshe said quietly. “I was only thirty when I met him.”

“And how old was he?”

“Twenty,” she said with a smile, and then answered the original question and said, “He was one of my father’s soldiers.”

“Immortal?”

Eshe shook her head. “He was mortal.”

“So was Susanna,” Armand said quietly and then added almost guiltily, “It’s much easier with us both being immortal.”

Eshe nodded with understanding. “No difficult explanations needed.”

“How did Orion take it when you explained?” Armand asked curiously, and Eshe gave a laugh.

“How do you think?” she asked dryly and grimaced. “He was horrified at first. We lived in very superstitious times. Orion was positive I was some soulless demon. It didn’t help that we had to feed off the hoof back then,” she pointed out dryly.

Armand nodded. “Susanna had trouble with that issue as well. Nowadays it’s a little easier, but in earlier days they had to love you deeply and trust you fully to get past that part of it.”

Eshe nodded.

“I gather he got past that though?”

Eshe hesitated and then admitted, “Well, my father kind of helped with that.”

“Your father, Castor, helped with Orion?” he asked curiously. “What did he do? Sit him down and talk some sense into him?”

“Not exactly,” Eshe admitted reluctantly, and then sighed over her own reticence. She would tell him eventually anyway. Grimacing, she admitted, “He was going to wipe his memory and send him away, but the idea so crushed me that when he read Orion’s mind and saw that aside from being a possible life mate, he had really come to love me before he knew what we were, Father changed his mind. Instead of wiping him and sending him away…which would have left me to search for a new life mate for possible centuries…” she pointed out.

When he nodded, she continued, “Father took us both out into the jungle, chained Orion to the ground inside a hunting hut he’d built long ago, and then told me to change Orion’s mind using everything I had.”

“And?” Armand asked curiously.

Eshe shrugged. “I used everything I had. Fortunately, his love for me outweighed his fear and he came around. It was a close call though. At one point I felt sure my father would have to wipe his memory and send him away, but it all worked out in the end.”

Armand was silent for a moment, and she knew he was curious about what she meant by “everything she had,” but then he simply said, “And you got to spend eight centuries with him, you said?”

She wasn’t surprised that he sounded envious. He’d lost his Susanna so quickly.

“Yes. As I said I have been very fortunate,” she murmured, almost feeling guilty for her first life mate’s longevity. She was silent for a moment and then simply blurted, “Did you know Rosamund’s family as you did the Harcourts?”

Armand was obviously surprised by the abrupt change of subject, but answered, “Yes. Not for as long though. I only met them about two years before Rosamund and I married.”

“Were they happy about your marriage?” Eshe asked, more out of personal curiosity than in an effort to further the investigation.

“Yes. They knew it was what Rosamund wanted and trusted me with her well-being.” His voice turned grim on the last part, and Eshe reached out to cover his hand with her own.

“You’ve had some bad luck, but it wasn’t your fault,” she said, trying to ease the guilt she could see in his expression.

“Well.” He smiled faintly. “Perhaps some of your good fortune will rub off on me.”

“I sincerely hope so, Armand,” she said huskily, and then cleared her throat and looked away when she noticed that his eyes were focused on her mouth, and the silver glow was growing in his eyes. “Where are her parents now? Do you still have contact with them?”

“No.” He cleared his throat and said, “They moved back to the States just before Rosamund died. She was their fourth child. The others were all born in the States and lived in the South there. They decided they didn’t like the winters and moved back that way.” He smiled wryly. “They sent several letters urging us to move down there.”

“But you didn’t?”

Armand shrugged. “All my farms were here…I did consider it, though, so Rosamund could be closer to her family and Jeanne Louise could have grandparents, but then Rosamund died.”

Eshe nodded solemnly and popped the last of her sandwich into her mouth. It seemed Rosamund’s family would not need to be found and questioned then. They hadn’t been around during any of the deaths and couldn’t know anything helpful.

“Oh good, Bricker sent dessert too.”

Eshe glanced to Armand to see that he’d opened the plastic container. It contained two slices of something layered with a chocolate bottom, a creamy center, and then a creamy chocolate top. He handed her a piece and took the other for himself.

“Mmm,” Eshe said as she took her first bite. “Delicious.”

Armand nodded with agreement, eating the treat in two large bites. Eshe shook her head with amusement but a moment later wished she’d been as quick when she felt a drop of liquid hit her hand. It was quickly followed by a second and a third large drop.

“Crap,” she muttered, glancing skyward to see that the clear, starry sky overhead was no longer clear. Storm clouds had moved in quickly while they’d been distracted eating and talking, and were apparently eager to dump their contents down on them. Eshe had barely had that thought when the heavens opened and it began to pour.

“The shed,” Armand said as they scrambled to their feet and began collecting the remains of their picnic. Eshe had no idea what he was talking about until he grabbed up the hastily packed cooler, caught her arm, and rushed her through the storm to the closest building, one much smaller than the others.

Eshe hurried inside, eyes sliding around the darkness as Armand followed and pulled the door closed behind them. He too then turned to survey their shelter.

“What is this place?” Eshe asked curiously, noting a small table and chairs and the lumpy old couch against the wall. It barely fit in the small building.

“I’m not sure,” Armand admitted. “It was here when I bought the place five years ago. I think it was a fort or something for the kids of the last family, but I don’t know what it was originally used for.”

“So that couch has been sitting out here for at least five years?” Eshe asked, imagining all the little rodents that had probably scampered across it, or possibly even nested in it.

“We shouldn’t have to wait long,” Armand murmured. “Storms that come on this quick and hard usually move on just as quickly.”

Eshe nodded in agreement, and then watched wide-eyed as he set down the cooler and took out the blanket he’d stuffed inside when packing up. She was glad his back was to her as he spread the blanket over the lumpy couch. She knew he expected they could sit there and wait for the storm to pass, but Eshe wasn’t keen on the idea. While she’d roughed it at a time when today’s roughing it would have been considered the lap of luxury, she was definitely a city girl now and had no intention of sitting on the couch…even for him.

When Armand finished and started to straighten and turn toward her, she quickly swiveled on her heels and began to pace the tiny interior.

“Come sit down,” he urged quietly. “We shouldn’t have long to wait.”

“I’m fine,” she assured him.

“Eshe,” Armand murmured and was suddenly beside her, taking her arms to turn her to face him. She could see that his expression was concerned as he peered at her, and it confused her until he asked, “Are you afraid of storms?”

Eshe was about to shake her head when he suddenly said, “If so, perhaps I can distract you.”

She froze then as his mouth descended on hers. Perhaps it was the rain, or the fact that he thought she needed calming, but this kiss was different from any of the others they’d enjoyed. This kiss was soft, gentle, and sweet…at least at first, and she melted against him with a small sigh as her mouth opened for him, and then moaned in protest when he broke the kiss to whisper, “You’re soaked through. We should take this off.”

“Yes,” Eshe whispered, raising her arms when he began to tug her T-shirt upward. She shuddered as it came off over her head and then shivered a little when he moved to lay it over the blanket-covered couch. He then quickly removed his own soaked T-shirt before turning back to warm her with his hands and body.

Eshe moaned as his arms went around her, her back stretching and arching her breasts against him as his hands slid over her naked back, and then he kissed her again and the gentle moment passed as passion rose up through both of them as wild and violent as the storm crashing outside. Eshe tangled her hands in his hair, her mouth becoming demanding even as his did. Her body met his push for push so that they ground into each other almost feverishly, and then Armand suddenly tipped her back onto the couch. Eshe didn’t even notice let alone care; her attention was on what Armand was doing as he bent to undo and remove her jeans. They had been tight to begin with, but were almost impossible now they were wet. When they finally came off, her cotton panties went with them. Armand tossed them over the back of the couch with their shirts and then scooped her up and settled on the couch with her in his lap, his mouth claiming hers as his hands began to play over her body.

Eshe moaned, groaned and gasped by turn into his mouth, her body writhing against his as his fingers moved over one breast, then another before dropping between her legs. He caressed her then with a purpose, driving them both mad with desire until she couldn’t take it anymore and pushed his hands away.

“What—?” Armand began, but cut off the end of the question when she slid off his lap. The moment she was upright, Eshe caught him by the hand and drew him to his feet so that she could drop to her haunches and undo his jeans. She got as far as pushing them off his hip so that his erection sprang free and then paused to press a kiss to it before finishing removing the jeans. Armand didn’t give her the chance to fold them over the couch with the other clothes, but suddenly sat down again and drew her onto his lap so that her knees were on either side of his hips.

Eshe would have dropped to sit on him and take him inside her then, but Armand stopped her, catching her by the hips, keeping her upright.

“Such long legs,” he murmured, his voice a hungry growl, and Eshe glanced down, realizing that his face was a bare inch higher than her pelvis, positioned as she was.

She peered at him through the darkness, and then realized that it was silent. The rain was no longer thundering down outside. It had been a short, hard rainfall. Licking her lips, she whispered, “The storm has stopped.”

“No. It hasn’t,” he assured her, and shifted to slouch down on the couch, then urged her forward with his hands on her behind and pressed his mouth to the core of her. Eshe sucked in a gasp of air and squeezed her eyes closed, her head going back and hands knotting in his hair as he found the center of her excitement. Pleasure exploded inside her and then receded, only to be replaced with another stronger wave, along with an echo of the first as his tongue rasped over her. She felt his hands clench on her behind as he too was struck by her pleasure, and then she wasn’t aware of much other than the passion flowing between them as he drove them both crazy.

When her legs began to shake, Eshe cried out and braced her hands against the wooden wall behind the couch and pleaded with him to stop and not to stop all in the same breath. Just when she didn’t think she could take much more, she felt him press a finger up inside her and screamed as her body began to buck helplessly. She heard Armand roar with his own orgasm and felt the sound vibrate against her body. She started to collapse then as darkness swept in to claim her.

Armand woke to utter darkness and complete silence, and his face cuddled between Eshe’s warm breasts. Smiling to himself, he eased her up a bit so that he could shift to a more comfortable sitting position, and then paused as a creak sounded outside. He glanced toward the door and listened briefly, but no other sound came and he decided it had been an animal of some description, a raccoon or possum. And probably an upset one if they were presently inhabiting its home, he thought with a smile as he settled Eshe back down on his lap.

The action made him bite his lip on a moan as he unintentionally rubbed her over his lap and his body leaped with excitement. It seemed he couldn’t get enough of the poor woman. He would exhaust them both with his needs at this rate, Armand thought, but found that didn’t stop the erection that was coming persistently to life.

Asleep or not, Eshe appeared to still be connected to him in her thoughts. She moaned sleepily and shifted against him, sending another shaft of excitement through him that had him sliding his arms around her back and hugging her close in an effort to still her. But that just pressed her breasts against his chest and stirred even more sensation in them both. It also began to rouse Eshe from sleep, and she issued a little sigh and shifted on him again.