Present Tense (Out of the Fire #3) - Candace Blevins Page 0,76

returned home. I go back once every three or four years, but just for a day or two. My life is here now. Still, the first year I lived here, with just a tree and nothing else, it seemed sad.”

“My family went all out as well,” said Fabio. “Maybe not as much as we’re doing here, but the house wasn’t as big. When Collosa wanted to buy stuff to decorate multiple rooms, it sounded good to me.”

She’d tried to ask Eunice about his family once, and he’d changed the subject. He knew so much about her — it was probably a good idea for him to share a little. If he didn’t, she might go looking.

“I’m on the other end of the scale,” Eunice told her. “Christmas wasn’t...” He shrugged. “I lived in what you’d probably call a commune. Hundreds of us in a gated community — mongoose shifters. Family was huge, but not Christmas. We abjured anything commercial. Lived off the land, made our own clothes, raised pigs and sheep and chickens, enough to feed ourselves and trade for grain to make bread with, and for the few vegetables we brought in.” He looked around at the decorations and liked the way they made him feel. It got him ready for Christmas morning, and Christmas day. “I didn’t think I’d like this, but it helps us feel like family.” Another shrug. “I’ve gone out in the world and become part of it, so I’m not fully accepted when I go back. My family still loves me, but I’m... suspect, I guess. This is my family now. Turns out, I like Christmas.”

“Cats are loners,” Fabio said. “But the family came together at Christmas. It was always special for me. I got to see grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins. Also, there was lots of presents, and food. What wasn’t to love?”

“We do tons of food here,” Collosa told her. “I’m told some vampires grow to love the way their daywalkers’ blood tastes after Thanksgiving, and after Christmas.”

Eunice didn’t want to go there, but his thoughts jumped to it anyway. What would it be like to feed her Christmas dinner through his blood?

Fuck, what was wrong with him? He wasn’t feeding a damned vampire.

But this wasn’t a damned vampire. This was Kelsey.

He’d killed the vampire who’d mind-raped him. No vampire would ever take over his mind and turn him into a motherfucking marionette again.

Eunice was working on the tree when he felt the energy in the room change behind him, and he smelled arousal shortly before lust filled the room.

And somehow, he knew Kelsey was drinking in the lust he smelled. Again, he had to wonder why he was so keyed into her, but he set it aside. He was, and that was fine. He liked knowing when she rose, when she fed, when she felt weak.

He turned to see what was going on, and he couldn’t help his smile. Collosa was behind Kelsey, playing with her ass with one hand, the side of her neck with the other. Fabio was in front, kissing her and pinching the fuck out of her right nipple to hold her still. His knee was between her legs, and she was humping his thigh.

The three of them had gone from zero to a hundred in a matter of seconds, and he liked knowing Kelsey could put everything aside and sink into sex so easily.

He finished the box of ornaments he’d been working on, and sat in a chair in the corner to watch. Usually, the three of them would be all over a woman who was fine with it, but he was the official spotter, so he couldn’t join even if he wanted to.

As soon as the thought went through his mind, he realized he was using that as an excuse to not have to face facts.

He wanted to join them.

Twenty minutes later, when Collosa was fucking her doggie style and Fabio was fucking her throat, he was tempted to grab some nipple clamps and add them, but he was the spotter. It wasn’t an excuse today. It was his responsibility.

Anther twenty minutes, and Fabio was in her ass while Collosa pounded her cunt, and she begged them to let her come.

Eunice realized he needed to have a discussion with Etta about whether she trusted either of the other men to act as spotter if he wanted to have sex with Kelsey.

No. Not if. When.

He had no idea what it was going to look like, but