“I cut four slices,” he commented. “I thought slices rather than bringing the cake out would help prevent Melly from eating three or four slices to purge.”
“I guess we’ll just have to have two slices each,” Nicole said, brightening somewhat. Chocolate always helped, and she suspected it would take two slices to help rid her of the bad taste in her mouth. She couldn’t believe Joey was with that horrible woman. Melly was rude, and arrogant and—Really, Nicole couldn’t think of a single nice thing to say about the woman . . . except, “She’s beautiful.”
“She would be if she kept her mouth shut,” Jake responded dryly as he fetched two cups and began to pour coffee. Then he added, “Actually, no that’s not true. She’d have to stop thinking too. I was trying not to listen, but could hear her thoughts plain as day and not one of them was pleasant. What she actually said was the cream of the crop. That was just selfish stuff. The rest was nasty, critical crap.”
Nicole tore her gaze away from the four plates with cake on them that sat on a tray on the kitchen counter, and peered at Jake curiously. “You were trying not to listen? You make it sound like her thoughts are a radio playing. Don’t you have to actually read people’s thoughts?”
“Sometimes,” he said with a shrug. “It’s different with different people. It’s—” He stopped, frowning as he carried the coffees to the table. Nicole suspected he was trying to figure out how to explain it and waited patiently. As she did, she picked up two of the plates, grabbed a couple of forks and followed Jake. They were seated and fixing their coffees with cream and sugar before he continued.
“Okay, close your eyes and imagine you’re in a room full of people. At an art show maybe, a big art show and everyone is standing around talking,” he said.
Nicole took her spoon out of her coffee, set it on the edge of her plate and closed her eyes. The scene he suggested immediately sprang up in her mind. A room full of people, drinks in hand, circulating, talking, laughing . . .
“Now, hear their voices. Some are louder than others, right? I mean you can stand in the middle of the room and while most of the talking is just an indistinguishable murmur, you can catch bits of conversation from others more clearly. There’s a sudden burst of laughter to your right. Someone to your left is saying in a high, distressed voice, “Oh my God, I can’t believe he did that to me.” Behind you a sharp angry voice is saying, “What a bitch.” Someone else is telling a joke in a too-loud voice that’s clear as a bell above the rabble and so on.”
“Okay,” Nicole murmured when he fell silent. She could picture the whole scene pretty clearly, and imagine the conversations.
“Well, that’s what it’s like for me with people’s thoughts,” he explained. “Most of the time, when I’m out in public, there’s a constant buzz of people’s thoughts and to actually hear a specific person’s thoughts I have to focus on them, block out everything else and concentrate on what they are thinking. That’s reading them.”
Nicole nodded slowly.
“But,” he added, “There are other people out there, who think more loudly than others, or whose thoughts are sharp and distinguishable from the general rabble. For them you actually have to try to block their thoughts, but it’s like plugging your ears when someone’s shouting at you, it usually still gets through.”
“And Melly is a shouter with her thoughts?” Nicole asked, finding this information fascinating.
Jake grimaced and nodded. “Her thoughts are deafening. I couldn’t even hear the murmur of Joey’s thoughts with hers screaming at me.”
Nicole picked up her coffee and took a sip, thinking about what he’d said and then she frowned. “It sounds . . . noisy,” she finished, but wasn’t satisfied with the word. “I mean, you’re saying that not only do you hear actual sounds when you’re out in the world—and all of them since you say your hearing is superior—but there’s also the constant hum of people’s thoughts?”
“Unless I’m alone,” Jake said, and then added, “Or alone with you.”
Right, he couldn’t read her, she thought.
“That’s one of the reasons why a life mate is so special,” he said quietly. “To avoid the constant barrage of sound and thoughts, an unmated immortal has to isolate themselves and too much isolation can lead to an immortal going rogue. But an immortal with a life mate can find peace while still enjoying their company. They don’t have to isolate themselves, and the peace they find with that life mate recharges their batteries and allows them to better handle being out in the noisy world. A life mate is soothing.”
“I see,” Nicole whispered, and she did. She now understood how a life mate would be special. But she grinned suddenly and teased, “So I’m kind of like a tranquilizer for you.”
Jake blinked with surprise, whether at the suggestion or because he was surprised to find it true, she didn’t know. But then his eyes began to glow and he admitted, “Kind of. But more a cross between a tranquilizer and Viagra.”
Nicole felt her face flush. It wasn’t with embarrassment. She recognized that silver glow in his eyes. The more passion he experienced, the stronger the silver was in his eyes. She didn’t know why that was, but was aware of it and knew his thoughts had shifted to more carnal matters. And that knowledge had her own thoughts heading in that direction as well. Her body was beginning to tingle, her ni**les were hardening, and the familiar dampness was growing between her legs.
Damn, all he had to do was look at her and she got wet . . . like some upside-down version of Pavlov’s dogs, Nicole thought.
“The chocolate cake is good,” Jake said suddenly.
Blinking, Nicole glanced down at her cake. She hadn’t even tried it yet.
“But you taste better,” Jake added.
Nicole stilled, and then slowly raised her head to peer at him. Oh yeah, his eyes were on fire now . . . and so was she. How the hell did that happen so fast? No kissing, touching, nothing. Just a couple words and she was ready to go.
Jake picked up his plate and coffee and carried them to the island, then returned to stand beside her. Nicole tipped her head back, expecting him to kiss her, but instead he caught her chair and turned it so she faced him. He then scooped her up and set her on the table where his cake had been moments ago.
“These have to go,” Jake announced, reaching for the button of her jeans. “You should wear skirts and dresses,” he added conversationally as he slid the button free and started on the zipper. “It would make things much easier.”
“I’ll have to buy some,” Nicole said breathlessly as he slid the zipper down.
Jake woke up slumped at the kitchen table, his head in Nicole’s lap, exactly where he’d been when he’d passed out. Damn, this life-mate sex was intense, he thought, sitting up and giving his head a shake to try to wake up fully. Pounding and the sound of some power tool caught his attention, and he glanced toward the kitchen door, but the sound seemed to be coming from the main floor.