“Jake isn’t here to be a cook/housekeeper.”
Nicole nearly leapt out of her skin at that deep rumble as she entered the kitchen. Whirling, she stared at Dante Notte. The man stood two steps behind her, apparently having followed her from . . . well, somewhere. The living room, probably, she thought, but hadn’t noticed him.
“You were busy thinking about bouncy bed with Jake and how to avoid it,” he offered helpfully.
“To avoid getting involved with him,” Tomasso added, stepping into view behind his twin.
Nicole flushed and turned sharply away to walk to the refrigerator. “Please stop reading me.”
“It’s hard not to. New life mates are often rather loud with their thoughts,” Dante explained.
“And in other ways,” Tomasso muttered, and Nicole felt her blush deepen as she recalled screaming her head off with pleasure, not once, but three times now. She supposed that explained why her throat was sore.
“My apologies,” she said stiffly as she opened the refrigerator door in search of something to drink. A bare second later though, she frowned and glanced to the men. “What do you mean, Jake isn’t here to be my cook/housekeeper? That’s his job.”
“That’s what you think,” Tomasso said with amusement.
“What do you mean, that’s what I think?” Nicole asked, scowling.
“Well, you think he’s here to be your cook/housekeeper, while he thinks he’s here to be your bodyguard,” Dante said with amusement.
Nicole’s eyes narrowed. “And which is true? Why did Marguerite bring him here?”
“Because you’re his life mate,” Tomasso said as if that should be obvious.
“You’re telling me that Marguerite thought I would be a life mate to Jake and—” Nicole began.
“She knew you would be a life mate to Stephano,” Tomasso corrected.
“Marguerite has a certain gift about such things,” Dante informed her quietly. “She has put together several life mates over the last few years.”
“Well, I’m pretty sure she has it wrong this time. I—” Nicole began but Dante interrupted.
“Please try to remember that we can read your mind and know when you’re lying . . . even to yourself,” he said solemnly.
Nicole slammed the refrigerator door closed with more violence than was necessary and walked over to sit at the table. Propping her elbows on the table, she dropped her face into her hands and scrubbed her eyes almost painfully with the heels of her hands. She did it hard enough that she almost saw stars.
“You know Marguerite is not wrong,” Dante said quietly, settling at the table on one side of her as Tomasso claimed the chair on the other side. “Jake told you that he cannot read or control you and that the lack of those abilities is a sign of a life mate. But that aside, you enjoyed the life-mate shared pleasure, and even if you didn’t know that was another symptom, you knew it was special enough to mean something.”
Nicole grimaced. Yeah, she’d known that was pretty special. Not only had she never experienced anything like it before, she suspected it wasn’t even possible, at least between two mortals. Still, she shook her head. “I—”
“You’re afraid,” Tomasso interrupted before she could spout whatever lie she’d been about to spout to both herself and them.
“Fear is to be expected after what you’ve been through,” Dante said quietly, placing one hand on her arm. “But Jake is not Rodolfo . . . and this is not a normal situation.”
“Maybe, but . . . I don’t want to make another mistake,” she burst out, flopping back in her chair to escape the support he offered with his touch.
“The nanos got it right,” Tomasso said with amusement. “She resists help and support just like Stephano did when he went all Pinocchio on us. They’re alike.”
“Yes, they are,” Dante agreed dryly, but said to Nicole, “If you don’t want to make another mistake, then trust the nanos. They don’t make mistakes. Neither does Marguerite. The couples the nanos put together last. Centuries.”
“Millennia even,” Tomasso put in.
Nicole glanced to him with surprise, but it was Dante who said, “Our grandparents have been together for millennia.”
“Pretty much forever,” Tomasso said dryly. “And they’re still going strong.”
Nicole stared at them uncertainly. “But I hardly know Jake.”
“You haven’t known him long,” Tomasso agreed.
“But we know him,” Dante said quietly. “We’ve known him all his life and he’s a good man.”
“A little stubborn and bullheaded at times,” Tomasso said.
“But he’s always honest,” Dante added.
Tomasso nodded. “He doesn’t drink, or take drugs either.”
“He’s honest and fair,” Dante assured her, and then added, “He’s considerate too. He was always trying to help out with whatever was going on while growing up, whether that was clearing the table after a big family dinner, or reroofing a neighbor’s house.”
Both men fell silent briefly, allowing her to think that over, and then Dante said, “Nicole, I promise you, the only mistake to be made here is not giving him a chance.”
“If you don’t trust your own judgment, trust the nanos,” Tomasso added.
Both men stood and headed out of the room then, but when Dante paused at the door and glanced back, Tomasso, who was behind him, was forced to stop as well, as the other man said, “But the two of you need to be more careful in future. You could have drowned in the shower if you’d fallen with your face up and mouth open. As it is, you have a nice bruise on your cheek.”
Nicole instinctively reached for her cheek, wincing when she touched the swelling there.
“Try to keep the bouncy bed to a bed,” Tomasso added with amusement.
“But at least avoid any water bouncy, whether it’s tub or shower. And definitely no outside bouncy this time of year,” Dante said grimly. “You’d freeze to death before you ever regained consciousness.”
“Definitely no outside bouncy,” Tomasso agreed.
Groaning, Nicole crossed her arms on the table and dropped her head to rest it on them, hiding her face, which she knew was now bright red. It didn’t stop her from hearing the men chuckle gently as they left the room.
At first, Jake thought it was night when he woke up, but then he noticed the sliver of light creeping around the edges of the blind and readjusted his thinking. By the looks of the light it was late afternoon on the day after his waking from being poisoned. He hoped. It was possible it was the day after that. It was hard to tell. He and Nicole had made love and passed out three times. It could be one day after telling her about immortals or two. All he knew for sure was that he was alone in the bed.
That realization immediately made worry rear inside him. He didn’t mind that Nicole had left him alone in the bed, so much. But he was worried about how she was taking what had happened between them. Had it anchored her as Dante and Tomasso had suggested? Or was she now freaking out and wishing she’d never set eyes on him?
Tossing the sheet aside, Jake got quickly out of bed and looked around for his jogging pants, only to recall that he’d shed them in the bathroom during the little episode outside the shower. As he’d kissed and sucked at her neck while caressing her, she’d moved so deliciously against him, he’d wanted to feel Nicole’s bare flesh against his erection and had quickly pushed the joggers off his hips. That was all he’d had to do. They’d fallen to the floor on their own from there . . . and then he’d woken up in bed without them.