Until the Sun Falls from the Sky (45 page)

Stephanie hung out until Avery arrived that afternoon then she immediately took off.

This was how I knew Avery was my protector.

The only thing I knew they were protecting me from was what Lucien commanded Edwina and Stephanie to look out for before he left. In fact, he had a load of commands.

“She rests and she doesn’t speak. Got me?” was his first.

His second, “No phone calls. No visitors. She doesn’t go near any door and she doesn’t go outside.”

His third, “She doesn’t sleep, not even a nap, not without me in the house. Not just today,
everyday
. Am I understood?”

He could, of course, have told me these things. However, it was very likely I’d give him lip which was probably what he was trying to avoid.

Instead, I spoke directly to his mind.

Seriously bossy vampire!
I snapped.

His head jerked toward me. I figured I was in trouble but his lips twitched, he walked right into my space and that’s when I got The Kiss.

I had the sneaking suspicion Lucien was providing protection for me not because my own flipping dream nearly killed me and he needed someone around to keep me awake. But because there were other, more dangerous menaces from which he needed to keep me safe.

I didn’t want to go there but I couldn’t anyway. Lucien was gone before I could form a word in his mind.

It would have to wait for that night and the good thing was, it would delay “the joining” something which, I had to admit, I was looking forward to rabidly. In fact, if I let myself think about it for more than two seconds, I’d start panting and my legs would get restless.

It also scared the hell out of me mainly because just thinking about it made me pant, what would happen when
it
happened? Would I spontaneously combust?

I had a pad of paper in my hands on which I was meant to write whatever I wanted to communicate. I was doing this even though I tested out my voice in the bathroom and, seeing as my throat felt better (because Edwina kept giving me throat lozenges), my voice sounded almost normal. Edwina gave the pad to me and if I even opened my mouth, her hand would shoot up, palm facing me and then she’d point at the pad.

At that moment, instead of using it to communicate, I was doodling on it.

Then I felt Avery’s eyes on me. Mine slid to him.

He smiled.

Really, even though he was somewhat weird-looking, he was also very attractive.

I ripped the doodling sheet off the top, wrote him a note and passed it to him.

He read it and shook his head, handing the pad back to me, “I’m not a vampire, Leah.”

I wrote another note and passed it to him.

He did the reading thing and gave it back to me. “Yes, I’m immortal.”

Wow!

I was guessing!

My brows shot up.

“Maybe you should –” Edwina started, all of a sudden there, standing behind the couch looking a little worried.

Avery lifted a long knobby knuckled quieting hand and Edwina was silenced.

“What?” I asked and Edwina gave me a look.

I wrote
sorry
in big block letters on the pad and showed it to her.

Her head tilted to the side. She winked at me and fluttered back to the kitchen.

Avery spoke. “She’s concerned. As you’re in the life, you’re entitled to know about vampire culture. But other cultures are kept from you. They’re secret as the vampire culture is secret from all mortals outside of it. In other words, I can’t tell you what I am.”

My eyes went wide then I wrote on my pad and turned it to show him.

“Yes, Leah, there are other cultures, other kinds of immortals,” he paused then continued, “and other creatures.”

This was news. Seriously nutty, outrageous news.

I wrote on my pad again and showed him. He read it and smiled.

“I trust you to keep my secret, little one.” Only Avery, who was seven foot tall and mammoth, would be able to get away with calling
me
“little one”.

He went on, “Though, if anyone ever knew I told you, I’d be sentenced to death.”

I felt my eyes bug out in horror and he laughed and continued, “We take our secrets very seriously.”

I wrote
no kidding
on my pad. He read it and chuckled again.

Then I wrote
why?

“Do the words ‘angry villagers’ mean anything to you?” he asked, trying to make it a joke but I didn’t take it as such.

I felt my heart hurt like it did last night when Lucien explained the world he was forced to live in. Not only hiding his magnificence but also being roundly and kind of sickeningly used and misunderstood.

I wrote angrily on my pad again and showed it to Avery. When he read it, his face grew soft, his big hand came out and he tugged a lock of my hair.

Then his gentle eyes looked deep into mine and he whispered, “Not all mortals suck, Leah.”

His words washed over me and I smiled at him. It was shaky, my heart still hurt but I was glad he didn’t blame me for whatever tortures his people endured from my people, either advertently or inadvertently.

The phone rang. Edwina answered it then brought it to me.

“Lucien,” she said and my heart skipped an irritating beat. I took it and put it to my ear.

Then I didn’t know what to do, his command was no talking.

Could I do long distance, mutant vampire abilities, telepathic communication?

“Leah?” he called.

I was silent.

“You can talk, sweetling,” he said softly.

I was relieved. Then I was cross.

“You know, it totally sucks that I have to wait for you to let me speak,” I informed him waspishly.

He chuckled. Damn the vampire!

I ignored the chuckle.

“Did you manage not to get arrested today?” I asked.

More chuckling. But, I noted, no answer.

“For my peace of mind, I’ll take that as a yes. So, did you break any laws?”

“Leah –”

I cut him off with, “Speeding ticket?”

He burst out laughing.

I fumed.

“You’re sounding better,” he commented after his hilarity died down.

“Like I said this morning, I’m fine.”

“You’re fine because you’ve rested your throat all day,” he returned.

He was probably right. That and Edwina’s obsessive administration of throat lozenges. I didn’t share either of these tidbits of knowledge with him.

“I’m on my way home,” he informed me.

“Goodie,” I said with saccharine sweetness but I felt my pulse race.

I ignored my pulse. Lucien ignored my grumpiness.

“Have you eaten?”

“Edwina’s making dinner now.”

“Good. I’ll be home in five minutes.”

“You know,” I said chattily, “you don’t have to call when you’re five minutes from home. We could have had this extremely pressing conversation five minutes from now, when you
are
home.”

“Yes, my pet, but I worried about you all day and found I couldn’t wait five minutes more to assure myself you were all right.”

That took the bitchiness out of me. Mainly because his words made me feel really,
really
good.

And that scared me silly or, in this case, it scared me right back to bitchy.

“Stop being so nice,” I snapped.

“Why?” His voice held a burgeoning chuckle.

“Because I don’t know what to do with it,” I replied.

His voice turned velvet. “Tonight, I’ll teach you what to do with it.”

My womb (and parts south) rippled and it felt
great
.

Moving on!

“See you soon,” I told him.

“Soon, pet,” he replied and then disconnected.

I hit the button to turn off the phone, ignored my still rippling female parts and announced to the room, “Lucien says I can talk and he’ll be home in five minutes.”

Edwina flitted forward, wielding a throat lozenge. “One more, dear, just to be on the safe side.”

I caught Avery’s amused grin as I took it and popped it in my mouth even though I didn’t need it and I didn’t want it. She was concerned. It made her feel better. I wanted her to feel better and, furthermore, I wanted her to be my new Mom so I didn’t want to scare her off with Leah Attitude before she took on the role.

The attitude would come later, the first time she told me to behave myself which would happen, no doubt about it.

Lucien had been wrong. He wasn’t home in five minutes. He was home in four. It was embarrassing to admit but I watched the freaking clock.

To hide the fact that I’d had such a girlie, obsessed with a hottie vampire who was going to
join
with me that very night thing, I didn’t bother to rise from the beanbag when he came in.

I should have known better.

He hooked the keys on the holder, nodded to Edwina’s greeting, shook hands with Avery and then came direct to my beanbag.

“Yo,” I said, looking up at him.

Mistress Cool.

His mouth twitched. My female parts rippled.

Before I knew it, I was plucked out of the beanbag and found myself in Lucien’s arms.
Not
like a normal, give your concubine a hug upon arriving home.

No.

He had my legs wrapped around his waist, my arms automatically went around his shoulders to hold on and his hands were at my ass.

His head tilted back to look at me and he murmured, “How was your day, sweetling?”

“I wrote everything I wanted to say on a pad of paper all day,” I answered. “Do you know how annoying that is?”

“Was it that difficult?” he asked, his black eyes dancing with suppressed humor.

It wasn’t.

“Yes,” I answered huffily.

I got another lip twitch, one of his hands left my ass, slid up my back and tangled in my hair.

“Your torture’s over,” he muttered before pressing down on my head so he could kiss me.

Not
a normal, because you have company, give your concubine a seemly peck on the lips upon arriving home.

No.

A full on, mouths open, tongues dueling, ravenous, feasting
snog
.

I was panting when it was done and I’d totally forgotten Avery and Edwina
existed
much less they were in the room.

I’d like to take you upstairs right now,
his mind told mine and his voice sounded deliciously hungry in my head.

One could say, at that precise moment, I’d like that too.

I decided not to speak.

Then he asked, his voice in my head sounding both sweetly intimate and even more sweetly teasing,
Throat lozenges?

I couldn’t help it and I didn’t know why I couldn’t but I giggled.

Edwina,
I answered.
All day. I’ve had six hundred of them at least.

His eyes were on my mouth, his mouth was grinning.

Ah,
he murmured in understanding.

Avery cleared his throat. “I think we’re missing something.”

I looked at Avery then at Lucien before I pushed against his shoulders and placed the blame squarely and publically on him.

“You’re being rude.”

His brows went up but he dropped me to my feet and curled me into his side with an arm around my shoulders.

“You’re staying for dinner?” Lucien asked Avery and I marveled that even a courteous invitation from Lucien sounded like a command.

“Leave now and miss Edwina’s cooking? I’d rather…” Avery started, I tensed and Lucien’s and Avery’s heads snapped toward the front door.

“Company,” Avery muttered.

Reflexively, my hand lifted, fingers fisting in Lucien’s shirt at his stomach as I looked up at him.

This was wussy behavior, I knew, but we hadn’t had a lot of luck with the front door. Usually, someone at my front door meant a call to the handyman.

Lucien’s head was cocked and I knew he was listening.

Then he mumbled, “Fucking hell.”

“What?” I asked.

His eyes caught mine. Then he said, “Buchanans.”

He said this right before there was an imperative and constant knocking at the door, confirming Lucien’s words.

Only Aunt Kate could knock on a door like that. It was her signature. Even when she was coming over for a cup of coffee and a gab, she eschewed doorbells and knocked on the door like she was Queen of the World and how dare the lowly commoner inside not anticipate her arrival, sweep open the door and throw rose petals at her feet.

“Aunt Kate,” I whispered.

“Kate,” Lucien agreed.