“Then why didn’t you wake up when I shook you and screamed?” Livy asked, her sobs lessening as Jeanne Louise took the pain away and onto herself.
“We probably just had too much wine by the bonfire,” Jeanne Louise lied. Good Lord, they must have been well and truly out of it if the girl’s shouts and shaking them hadn’t woken either of them. And good Lord, they’d both been naked and . . . well, basically in a rather compromising position. Not that Livy seemed to have noticed. Thank God.
“A scream woke you up?” Jeanne Louise asked suddenly, slow to pick up on that with the pain now pounding in her head.
Sniffling, Livy nodded. “Both Daddy and you screamed.”
“Hmm, well we must have had a bad dream,” Jeanne Louise muttered, knowing it had been their cries of passion that had woken the child. They would have to ensure they weren’t in the next room in future when indulging in . . . er . . . Jeanne Louise let the thought go. She just couldn’t think clearly anymore. This headache was worse still than the last. They were becoming more and more unbearable.
Deciding the girl had been comforted enough, Jeanne Louise put the child to sleep. Livy slumped on Boomer and Jeanie stayed in her mind for several more minutes to ensure all would be well. Then she leaned back on the sofa beside the pair and waited for her own pain to abate.
Jeanne Louise tried to think about their situation as she waited, trying to sort out if it was time to explain about life mates to Paul and that he was hers, but hard as it was to think at the moment, she didn’t get far. Grimacing, she let the matter go and got to her feet. The moment she picked up Livy, Boomer was up and off the couch, ready to follow as Jeanne Louise carried his little girl to bed. When she set the girl in the bed and covered her up, the dog leapt up onto the bed to curl at her feet. Jeanne Louise gave the loyal dog a pet, kissed Livy’s cheek, and then slipped out of the room.
Paul was still sound asleep when Jeanne Louise returned to the master bedroom. She hesitated, wondering if she should sleep on the couch so as not to disturb him, but then climbed carefully into bed beside him, easing under the covers. Once there she paused and eyed him. Paul was crashed out on top of the blanket next to her and would no doubt get cold in the night. After a brief internal debate, Jeanne Louise gently shook his shoulder.
“Paul?”
“Hmmm?” he murmured sleepily, turning his head toward her voice, but not opening his eyes.
“Do you want to get under the covers?” she suggested.
When Paul mumbled in his sleep, but didn’t seem to fully wake, Jeanne Louise shrugged to herself and left him as he was. She lay down in the bed, but found herself peering at him. Her life mate. Damn. The thought still made her shake her head and marvel. Most immortals waited centuries, even millennia to find their life mates. Few were fortunate enough to find them so young. And at just over a century Jeanne Louise was definitely considered young by most of her kind . . . a baby really. Yet there he was . . . her life mate. The one man she couldn’t read or control, and the one man she could think freely around and not guard her thoughts.
Paul was her oasis in a chaotic world where Jeanne Louise usually had to be on guard . . . and she was terrified of losing him.
The thought made Jeanne Louise turn on her side away from him and huddle under the blankets. Things were going well enough, but it was still tricky. She thought he liked her for herself, but who could say with men? He might just like her for sex and what she could do for Livy.
Jeanne Louise stilled and listened as Paul began to shift around in the bed beside her. He’d woken up after all, she realized, when the blankets lifted behind her, and had to wonder if the cool night air on his naked skin had finished what she’d started. Then his body slid up behind her, his front pressing to her back as he slid an arm around her to draw her back against him. Once he had her positioned where he wanted her, his hand slid lazily to cup one breast as he kissed her neck. Jeanne Louise released a little sigh as her body responded, but she was concerned about having fed off him and asked, “How do you feel?”
“Honestly?” Paul asked in a murmur by her ear.
“Yes,” Jeanne Louise said with amusement.
“Like I want to make love to you again, but I’m too tired,” he admitted wryly, and she chuckled at the admission.
“That’s all right. Sleep,” Jeanne Louise said sliding her hand over his arm and down to cover his hand on her breast. “There’s always tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow, huh?” Paul asked with amusement, nuzzling her ear. “Are you going to break out into song, Annie?”
Jeanne Louise’s eyes widened in the darkness. “Well, Mr. Jones. It seems you have a vein of sarcasm hidden in your sweetness.”
Paul chuckled at the words and pressed a kiss to the side of her head. “Just a little one, Ms. Argeneau. I shall try to refrain from tapping it.”
“Don’t bother on my account,” she said easily. “It makes you interesting.”
“You vampires,” he tsked, tugging her tighter against him. “You always go for the veins.”
“Hmm,” Jeanne Louise murmured. “Speaking of veins, did I hurt you?”
“Not at all,” Paul assured her, and then asked, “Are you going to try a different vein each time?”
“Hoping I’ll eventually go for a genital bite?” she asked with amusement.
“Absolutely,” he said unabashed, and Jeanne Louise chuckled softly at the enthusiasm in his voice.
“Maybe next time,” she said lightly, and then murmured, “Good night, Paul.”
“Good night, John boy,” Paul responded, and then grunted when she smacked his hand in punishment.