In Blood and Worth Loving 2: Lost Without You Read online

  After two more fast dances, they returned to their table.

  “Would you like anything else?” he asked.

  She glanced at the table. Neither one of them had done more than pick at their food but she found she had no appetite. “No. I think it’s time to think about calling it a night.” He nodded and signaled for the maître d’.

  His failure to try to talk her into staying disappointed her.

  After settling the bill, he slipped an arm around her shoulders.

  She bit her lip, hesitated, and then tentatively put an arm around his waist, under his jacket.

  At her car, she moistened her lips before looking up at him. “I had a good time tonight. Thanks for—”

  “I’ll follow you home,” he told her.

  She met his gaze and decided not to waste her time telling him that wasn’t necessary. Besides, she liked the idea he wanted to see her safely home.

  “Okay.” She extended her hand for her keys.

  He reached in his pocket and placed a key fob in her palm.

  She stared down at it. “You gave me your fob by mistake,” she said.

  He shook his head. “I thought you might like to drive my car,” he said.

  “Yes?”

  “Yes.”

  “I’d better not.”

  “Why not, sweet?”

  “Money is really tight. My budget isn’t going to stretch to cover any damage I might do it.”

  “Can’t you drive?”

  “Of course I can, but even a scratch on this will cost a small fortune.”

  “Money isn’t tight for me.” He bent his head to brush his lips against her neck. “If you manage to do any damage, I’ll repair it. Drive it home without any worries or fears, sweet.”

  “You’re sure?”

  He nodded.

  Smiling, she walked over to his car and slipped in.

  He leaned down to tell her where a few key components were before he walked over to her car and got inside.

  She took a deep breath, adjusted the driver ‘s seat, and started the car. She drove slowly for the first mile before the joy of driving such an expensive and powerful car kicked in. Then she settled back and enjoyed the remaining drive.

  The small ranch home she’d bought after her divorce from Michael was located on a quiet, tree-lined cul-de-sac.

  They parked in her two spots on the side of the house before getting out of their respective cars.

  She walked over to him and extended his key fob.

  “Did you like driving it?”

  She nodded. “Oh, yes.”

  “Good. Then keep it.”

  “What?”

  He slipped her keys back into his pocket. “I’ll have Rayna draw up a bill of sale or whatever is necessary to make our exchanging cars legal.”

  “You can’t be serious.”

  “Oh, but I am.”

  “You can’t possibly want to drive my four-year old car.”

  “You’re right. I don’t. I’ll donate it to one of Rayna’s worthy causes.”

  “I’m not going to keep your car, Jay.”

  “Why not?”

  “Even if I wanted to, I couldn’t afford the upkeep.”

  “There won’t be any besides gas. It’s only two months old.”

  “Jay—”

  “I’ll tell you what. Keep it for a week and see if you change your mind.”

  “I can’t!”

  “Of course you can. It’s fully insured and I’m not going to take no for an answer.” He took his key fob, pushed it into her handbag, and turned her towards her house. “End of discussion.” The thought of driving his car for the next week overcame her remaining reluctance. But she was not going to keep it. “Fine. I’ll keep it for a week.”

  “Great. Now I’ll see you to your door, sweet.”

  As they approached the entrance door, she saw two vases of red roses on the top step.

  She let out a happy laugh and turned to grip the lapels of Jayvyn’s jacket. “Thank you.” After a slight moment of indecision, she stretched on her toes and pressed a quick kiss against the corner of his mouth.

  He smiled. “Let me carry them inside for you.”

  “Thanks.”

  Inside her front door, he sat the roses on the hall table before he brushed his fingers against her neck. “What time shall I pick you up tomorrow?”

  “Tomorrow? What do you mean?”

  “I mean we’re having dinner tomorrow night.”

  “It’s Saturday.”

  “And?” He grinned. “Let me guess. You don’t eat on Saturday.”

  “I do, but—”

  “Why don’t we say five-thirty?”

  “Why don’t we say you haven’t asked me and I haven’t said I want to see you tomorrow.”

  “Okay. We’ll make it six. I’ll see you tomorrow night, sweet.” He drew her into his arms.

  Ignoring the voice of reason that urged her to push him away, she linked her arms around his neck and lifted her face with her lips parted.

  Cupping his palms over her ass, he pulled her close, grinding against her.

  She licked her lips and eagerly awaited the feel of his mouth on hers.

  Instead of taking the lips she offered, he continued to grind against her as he sucked, licked, and nipped at the side of her neck.

  A jolt of desire thundered through her, searing away all commonsense. With her panties wet and feeling as if she were on fire for him, she hungrily rubbed her pussy against him.

  He inhaled and stepped quickly away from her. “I’m not a boy who can’t control himself, but if you get me hot, I’m going to expect you to satisfy me. So don’t start anything you’re not prepared to finish tonight, sweet.” Mindless with need, she gripped his ass and ground herself against him again, hoping to feel his cock hardening against her.

  “Shit! Stop that or I swear I’m going to spank your big ass until it stings and then fuck it and your pussy so hard and so deep you’ll think I’ve branded you as mine. And if that asshole comes around again, he’ll discover the pussy he thought was his is now all mine to eat, fuck, and suck until your pussy will cream every time I look at you.” The hot lustful words spoken in a brusque voice shocked her back to her senses.

  She gasped and jerked away from him, her cheeks burning. “Jay! Please.”

  “Please what? Fuck you?”

  She shook her head, but she ached to feel his cock sliding inside her.

  “I could easily change your mind.”

  There was no damn doubt about that. “Please don’t try, Jay.”

  He bent his head to press a long, hot, blistering kiss against the side of her neck before he abruptly lifted his head, and quickly left.

  Trembling with frustrated need, Cayenne locked the door, set the alarm, and stumbled into the bathroom.

  Feeling the need to wash her desire for him away, she took a long cool shower before slipping into bed.

  Feeling the need to wash her desire for him away, she took a long cool shower before slipping into bed.

  * * *

  When he left Cayenne, Jayvyn called Toni.

  She answered immediately. “Darling, where have you been? I’ve been calling you all night.”

  “I had my ringer off.”

  “Why?”

  “Never mind where I’ve been or why I didn’t answer. I’m on my way to my condo. Meet me there?”

  “Of course.”

  He arrived first. He undressed and showered before he sat nude in the darkened living room waiting for her.

  “Do you have company, darling?” she asked as she let herself in with her key.

  “No.”

  “Then who’s wreck is that parked in your second spot?”

  “I traded cars with a friend. Now that’s enough talk,” he said, rising.

  Within seconds of her arrival, he had her stripped and pressed against the closed entrance door. He thrust his cock deep in her tight, hot ass while he sank his incisors
into the side of her neck.

  “Oh, yes!” She moaned, reached back to pull him closer. “My ass is yours, darling. Take it and enjoy it.” He kept her against the door for nearly two hours, alternatively fucking her ass and her pussy. With each deep thrust, he struggled to reach a level of satisfaction that would alleviate some of the incessant hunger he’d felt since meeting Cayenne.

  Although he came several times, when he finally slipped out of her, his hunger for sexual intimacy was unabated. Damn. He stalked into the master suite to the take another shower. As he stood under an onslaught of cold water, he found it difficult to dismiss thoughts of Cayenne.

  He could hear Toni slipping into his bed. She couldn’t give him what he needed or wanted and he felt no pressing need for her presence. Alighting from the shower, he dried off, and stalked back into the bedroom.

  Toni lay posed on his bed with her legs parted.

  He could see moisture on her pussy lips. The scent of her arousal filled the air.

  She smiled at him. “Come join me, darling.”

  He crossed the room to sit on the side of the bed. Clearly, she still felt as horny as he did. “I’m going home,” he told her.

  She narrowed her gaze. “Isn’t this home?”

  His Rittenhouse Square condo was large and luxurious, but the mansion where he and his brothers had chosen to settle down was and always would be home—at least until circumstances forced them to move on. “I meant to the mansion.”

  “Why? Is she there?”

  He tensed. “Is who there?”

  “The woman’s whose perfume you reeked of when you arrived. Is she there waiting for you?” Fems possessed an extremely keen scent of smell. The shower hadn’t done the job. He shrugged. “I don’t owe you any explanation, but if I had someone waiting there for me, I wouldn’t have called you. I’m going home to work.” He kissed her on the side of her neck and rose to dress. “I’ll call you on a few days.”

  “Give me a moment to shower and I’ll come with you.”

  He finished dressing before he shook his head. “Thanks, but I don’t want or need company.” He walked toward the door and left.

  On the drive to the mansion, he wondered if it were time to give Toni her walking papers. She appeared to be getting a little too possessive lately. Jealousy in a fem was unattractive and potentially dangerous.

  Just before he arrived home, she called and apologized. Hearing the regret in her voice, he decided he’d overreacted because he was missing Eliza.

  At home he found Conner in the living room lying in a recliner reading from the e-book reader Rayna had given him for Christmas. “Home alone?” he asked.

  Conner nodded. “Adrian, Brandi, and Rayna are spending the weekend with the Stoners.” That surprised him. Adrian and the Stoners weren’t particularly close. “Really?” Conner put his e-reader on the table beside him and sat up in the recliner. “Actually, the original invitation was for Rayna alone but you know Adrian. He wasn’t about to allow Rayna anywhere near Max Stoner without one of for Rayna alone but you know Adrian. He wasn’t about to allow Rayna anywhere near Max Stoner without one of us in tow. So he invited himself and Brandi to watch over our little girl.”

  “I’m surprised you didn’t go as well.”

  Conner shrugged. “Adrian and I discussed it and decided I’d better stay home.”

  “Why? Because the moment either Max or Sebastian Stoner looked at Rayna with lust in his eyes, you’d go ballistic?”

  Conner narrowed his gaze. “You say that as if you’d be any more open to the idea of her and Max Stoner than I would be.”

  Jayvyn shrugged. “You’re right.”

  “Sebastian is okay—I guess, but Max is too damned crazy. There’s no way in hell I’d allow him anywhere near her.”

  Jayvyn nodded. “I agree.”

  “And so did Adrian.”

  Jayvyn frowned. “Do you think we keep too tight a rein on her, Conner?”

  “She’s not a horse. She doesn’t have a damned rein, but the world is filled with crazies she needs protection from.”

  Jayvyn nodded. “I know, but I think she’s beginning to feel as if we’re a burden that impedes her love life.”

  “She’s only fifty! She doesn’t need a love life!”

  He stared at Conner. “That’s a little old for a human woman to be without a regular man in her life.” Conner shrugged. “But Rayna is no longer fully human. She has at least—what? Another hundred years ahead of her before she needs to worry about being old?”

  “But maybe it’s time we loosened up a little and let her live, Conner.” Conner sighed. “You think I’m overprotective?”

  “I know we’re all overprotective of her and I think it’s starting to take a toll. We have to let her fly a little or risk losing her.”

  “To who? To what? We’re her family and no one could love or cherish her more than we do.”

  “I know, but she wants a man in her life who we don’t find excuses to scare away.”

  “Are you saying she’s unhappy with us?”

  He saw the alarm in his older brother’s eyes. While they all loved Rayna, Conner had always been just a little more fiercely protective of her than he and Adrian. It was Conner who insisted she be home schooled and who had then taught himself everything he needed to know to become her teacher. He had done such a good job that when Rayna finally convinced him to allow her to enroll in a private high school, she had graduated first in her class and been class valedictorian.

  “No. I’m not saying that, Conner. I’m saying it’s time we let up a little. She is fifty-one now.” Conner sighed. “Maybe. I’ll think about it.”

  “Great.”

  Conner tilted his head. “How are you?”

  “I’m fine. Why do you ask?”

  “As you must know by now Rayna has her sights set on you.”

  “I know but that doesn’t mean I plan to cooperate.”

  “Hmm. I believe that was also Adrian’s stance and look at him now—hog-tied and happy as a pig in slop.”

  “I’m not Adrian.”

  “Meaning what, Jay?”

  “Meaning I’m not ready to settle down like he was.”

  Conner shook his head. “Surely you don’t think that will matter to Rayna?”

  “It’s time we stopped allowing her to dictate to us.”

  Conner laughed and clapped. “Well said. Now you take the lead and see you don’t fall in with her plans for you or I’m done as well.”

  “I’m not falling for her friend.”

  “And yet you’ve been sending her roses and unless I’m mistaken, you took her out tonight.” Jayvyn shrugged. “She helps relieve my boredom while I wait for Eliza to return.”

  “I thought that was Toni’s job.”

  “I thought that was Toni’s job.”

  “She’s not nearly as entertaining as Cayenne.”

  “That’s a bad sign, Jay.”

  He sprawled on one of the sofas. “Why?”

  “Finding a human more exciting than a fem—especially one as eager to please you as Toni is, means you’re half way there.”

  He closed his eyes. “I like her,” he finally admitted.

  “Oh, damn.”

  He opened his eyes and looked at Conner. “She intrigues me.”

  Conner sighed. “Pretty?”

  He nodded. “And funny and sexy and doesn’t take herself too seriously.”

  “And fond of you?”

  “Not so you’d notice—at least not yet.”

  “Ah. So you’re wooing her the old-fashioned way?”

  “I didn’t say I was wooing her at all.”

  Conner arched a brow.

  He closed his eyes. “Okay, so maybe I am—but—”

  He felt a hand on his shoulder. Opening his eyes, he saw Conner standing over him. “Believe me, I know how persuasive Rayna can be, but there’s a reason we stopped dating human women. They can be very exciting. No doubt about that, but they’r
e also needy, clingy, easily hurt, and can present all kinds of problems for us that we’re no longer emotionally capable of handling.”

  “I’m doing Rayna a favor.”

  Conner sighed and slapped his cheek. “You keep telling yourself that until you find yourself hog-tied and happily wallowing in martial slop with a woman who insists she’s not going to allow you to take her humanity from her.”

  “I’m not going to marry her and her humanity is none of my concern.”

  “Hmm. So where the hell is your car?”

  He shrugged. “I gave it to her.”

  “You gave a woman you’re not going to get serious with a $70,000 car on your second meeting? The same car you only grudgingly allowed Rayna to drive?”

  “I can do as I like with my car.”

  “I can’t argue with that assertion. So when do we get to meet her?”

  “There’s no need. She’s just a distraction.”

  “Then you wouldn’t mind if I shared the distraction?”

  He sat up slowly. “Share it how?”

  Conner shrugged. “If she means nothing to you and you’re not seriously interested in a relationship with her and she’s pretty, I might like to meet her. I’m at a loose end at the moment and—” He bolted to his feet.

  Conner stepped back, a brow arched. “Something?”

  “She’s in no state to have two of us…”

  “Yes?”

  “She’s in no shape to try to handle two of us.”

  “Okay. Then why don’t I save you from Rayna? I’ll help liberate her from her ex and you’ll be free to pursue other interests.”

  “Thanks, but I have it,” he said.

  Conner stared at him.

  He stared back.

  “I’m sure you do.” Conner clasped a hand on his shoulder. “Adrian says to give him a call when you need to talk.”

  Not if? When? “There’s nothing to talk about. I’m not going to fall in blood with a woman who thinks so little of herself.”

  “So she’s a silly, little—”

  “She needs assistance, Conner, not to be called names,” he said coolly.

  “She needs assistance, Conner, not to be called names,” he said coolly.

  “Feeling a little protective?”

  “Yes. As a matter of fact, I am.”

  “Damn! You’re going to fall harder and quicker than Adrian did. At least he put up a nominal fight.” He bared his incisors.