Page 45 of Blood of the Damned: Thorn
“You’re gonna have to get Elouise to change her travel arrangements,” Dacian insisted, dread rolling off his tense body.
Thorn stared at his panicked brother, finding some amusement in the situation—it was that or start rocking in a corner. “How do I do that when she's on a boat halfway around the world?”
“She’ll have plenty of time to get here!” insisted Dacian, slapping his hands on Thorn’s desk and leaning over it threateningly. “Make it happen. I’m not gonna be there when…” he shuddered, his skin looking decidedly gray.
Thorn couldn’t help it and chuckled. It was all too much, the hysteria bubbling inside him. “You will because family sticks together.” They were Dacian’s words said long ago when he had talked both Calvert and Thorn into starting the family business together. They had been less enthused, but Dacian had been persuasive with his ‘family stick together’ speech. Thorn was not above using the same tactic when it came to Ledger.
“Those girls are family. The first vampire babies born to this family in centuries. Are you willing to risk their safety? Risk my mate?”
“Fuck!” The following sound of Dacian’s teeth grinding together was the answer Thorn needed.
Thorn looked at Calvert, who remained silent. “Will you help?”
“Do you have to ask?”
No, he didn’t, not usually, but since he’d informed him of Ledger’s pregnancy, Calvert had been more withdrawn thanusual. “In this case, yes.” He couldn’t read Calvert as he held his gaze.You’ve been… different since Ledger arrived.
Come on, you know why. Do I need to say it again? I’m jealous, fucksake. And I hate feeling this way.
What—
No, I don’t need placating. I’ll do whatever you need me to.He continued speaking aloud when Dacian nudged his shoulder, frowning. “But you need to talk to Ledger ‘bout all this.” He pointed between them all.
“Seriously, how do I do that?” He used a fake smile. “Ledger, just to let you know, those two baby girls are gonna eat their way out of you. Oh, and I’ll need my brothers present to keep you calm while they do it.”
He threw up his arms, getting up as his body thrummed with so much anxiety that he couldn’t sit still when he needed to have this conversation and had no way out of it. “Like it’s that fucking easy,” he growled, his fangs making an appearance.
“Don’t go fang on me, asshole. Ledger deserves the truth,” grumped Calvert, giving him stink eye.
Stewing in his own juices, Thorn had lost track of time and was more than a little perturbed when Ledger arrived home via a taxicab laden with bags and beaming like a ray of sunshine after a shower. However upset Ledger had been when he left, Thorn had talked himself into telling Ledger the truth, but one look at the sunny smile and all his good intentions fled.
“Look what I got!” Ledger gushed, shoving the bags at Thorn and going to the trunk with the driver. “There was this store in town and at first I thought it was a disaster, then after a tiny meltdown, Connie let me use the restroom and I discoveredall these beautiful clothes.” He turned to Thorn, hands full of shopping bags, not making a whole lot of sense. “I just had to have all of them.” He danced—or that’s what it looked like he attempted to do—on the spot, swinging the bags and his big belly. “I went a little wild, but they fit! Okay, maybe not all of them initially, but Connie is a whizz on the sewing machine, and she altered them for me.”
He continued to gush his enthusiasm while paying the driver, who looked rather bemused at what had to be a fifty-dollar tip.
“We’ll need to go back to town on Thursday to collect the rest.”
Thorn eyed what he held, and the bags Ledger had, his lips twitching. “The rest?”
“Of course, I have to replace my entire closet. Nothing fits, and I can’t keep using your shirts.”
“I like you using my shirts,” he replied, following behind Ledger, admiring the floaty top that swirled around his hips. The slacks he’d worn were now replaced with what looked like a stretchy version in a softer material.
“I do, too, only I need to look the part at work. Be professional,” he insisted, like Thorn was arguing with him.
“Of course, Sweetling,” Thorn replied, a smile growing as Ledger, for the first time in days, was enthusiastic about something.
The sense of happiness was contagious and gave Thorn a charge of electricity to a certain part of his anatomy.
Ledger had reached the top of the stairs, looked over his shoulder, and winked saucily at him. “If you play your cards right and help me make room in the closet for these new things, I could have some energy left for something else.”
Ledger’s energy levels fluctuated a lot and that meant catching him at the right moment for more than snuggles, so Thorn by-passed Ledger so fast that if he'd blinked he would have missedit. Thorn had the closet space ready before Ledger had entered the bedroom, his own clothes sitting in a heap on the floor.
Ledger eyed the closet, a wicked glint appearing as he dropped the bags by his shoes. His gaze shifted to Thorn, travelling over his nakedness and the arousal growing with the way his mate was looking at him. The passion came at him in heady waves, like a caress to his cock while Ledger reached for the hem of the floaty top and pulled it over his head.
A pretty pink flush gave him a glow that made him look sexy despite the roundness of his full belly. Turgid nipples and an ampleness to his growing breasts added to the erotic appeal, and all Thorn wanted to do was taste.
Ledger stroked his hands up over his belly, towards where Thorn’s gaze remained on his full breasts. “Taste me then.”
