Chapter Three

Martin wore a broad grin on his handsome face as he stepped aside to allow Vanessa entrance into his home.  “I thought you’d never get here,” he said as he pulled her into his strong embrace and kissed her long and hard. His brown eyes hinted of twinkling light when he finally released her so that he could search the depths of her own large brown orbs.  “You still haven’t told her, have you?”

Vanessa shook her head. “She’s so frustrated with Nick not thinking she’s ready yet.  I haven’t had the heart.”

She reached around to squeeze his backside. 

He jumped away, laughing, and teased, “Where have you been all my life?”

“So, where is it?” she asked as she scurried into the depths of the house like an excited school girl. “Is it down in the basement behind some secret door?”

“You make it sound so mysterious,” he chuckled.

“Isn’t it?” she asked.  “I mean, you hide your body so that crazies can’t destroy it while you leave it to go to an alternate reality.  If that’s not the makings of a mystery, I don’t know what is.”

“Do you want to see it?” he asked.

She giggled as she wrapped her arms around his neck. “Now, that’s the silliest question I’ve ever heard, sexy man.”

 “So, you think I’m sexy,” he reiterated in a deep, throaty voice.

“As do you,” she chuckled. “That’s one of the things I like most about you. Confident men are hot.”

He kissed her again. This time it was long, slow, and incredibly sensual.  His hands supported her backside as she wrapped her shapely legs around his waist.  Their lips never parted as his strong arms carried her while his powerful legs climbed up the grand staircase to his bedroom.  He fully intended to show her his secret room, but not until his needs were satisfied.

When he reached his bedroom, he slowly lowered her to the floor.  Standing just far enough away from her to allow him a proper view of her voluptuous body, he slowly worked at the buttons in her shirt.  She closed her eyes and reveled in his feather-light touch as he removed her shirt and bra.   His lips consumed her as he slowly backed her against the bed. She sat on its edge and he gently pushed her back so that he had clear access to the fastenings of her jeans.  He removed them with one swift and smooth motion.

The sun beams filtering through the oversized window near the bed mingled with his golden-brown hair, giving a halo effect, as his lips moved from one sensitive part of her body to another.  After teasing her just enough to drive her mad with desire, but not bring her to the height of passion, he flopped onto his back next to her and said, “Now, your turn.”

She smiled, wickedly, as she straddled him and began pulling his tee shirt over his head. “Gladly.”

****

Heloise pulled into the long drive of the rental home that she’d secured just that morning.  She’d worn a disappointed scowl since Nick sacrificed a moment to comfort her over the loss of her mother before asking her to leave. Had he been privy to the truth about her relationship with her parents, he’d have let her go without an ‘I’m sorry’, let alone a comforting embrace.  Fortunately, she’d managed to keep that part of her past buried to the point that very few knew or remembered it.

She’d hoped the news of her mother’s passing would have gotten her closer to him than it did.  Even so, he clearly held feelings and memories of their time together to have reacted so dramatically to seeing her. It pleased her to think that nearly a century had passed since he’d caught her in bed with Alfred and he still wasn’t over it.  His love for her must run deeper than she imagined.  What other explanation could there be for him to still be so angry?

She was aware of the bonding that was put on Alison’s and Nick’s family genealogy by the elders, but Nick didn’t have to sacrifice himself into marriage to that mousy thing.  She may not be of royal blood, but she’d been openly adopted by a family of high ranking.  Marrying her would bring no shame to Nick or lower him in status in any way.  She knew his pride was damaged when Alison’s mother chose to marry a mundane instead of obeying the council’s wishes by marrying him, but he needed to just get over it.  It was better to have escaped being shackled to a woman who so vehemently didn’t want him. After all, marriage in shadow land was permanent.

Martin could just as easily take that mousy princess as his bride; as could Nick’s other cousin, Alfred. 

Alfred and Nick may have been close at one time, but that ended when Nick caught her in bed with Alfred. It was her fault, of course, but that didn’t stop Nick from walking away from Alfred and the dynamics between them being destroyed. 

She’d spent the last decade with Alfred and knew firsthand how drastically he’d changed.  He was no longer the cousin Nick grew up to think of as a good friend.  He had a side to him that could make the evilest of devil’s pale.  She had no doubts that Alfred wouldn’t blink an eye over stealing Alison right out from under Nick’s nose.

From the little she’d seen of Alison, she was a meek and mousy little thing. She questioned if the poor girl would hold up in a sexual relationship with Alfred.  She thought about the nights when she questioned if she’d survive his tastes in the bedroom and actually felt sorry for the girl.  Not sorry enough to cease with her plans, though.  She wanted Nick back, no matter the consequences.

She shook her head.  If there was one thing that Nick needed to learn, it was to not trust anyone. Absolutely no one.  It was a lesson she’d learned at the tender age of six years old, so many years ago, when her mother and father decided she was too much of a responsibility for them and they tried to leave her behind in Shadow Land.  Fortunately, she’d managed to perfect transporting herself from realm to realm and no longer needed their assistance.  Otherwise, she would have been condemned to live in the alternate reality of shadow land; appearing ghostlike on the earthly plane without a physical body of her own.  Even if it did mean she had to mix and mingle with mundanes, there was plenty in this three-dimensional reality that she enjoyed, and shadow land lacked.  She had no desire to leave it.

When she managed to reenter her body, she snuck away to the home of a more stable shadow walker family to ask for help.  She’d traveled on foot for most of the night to get there; a cold, scared, and hungry little girl.  Fortunately, the story of her parent’s abhorrent attempt to abandon their responsibilities had already reached this family’s ears.  They welcomed Heloise with opened arms and adopted her as their own.   Sadly, the emotional damage was etched deep into the fibers of her being.  From that day forward, Heloise remained guarded and mistrusting. When she realized Nick was unaware of the story and believed her adopted parents to be her birth parents, she decided not to correct him.

She didn’t even trust herself.  Not really.  After years of hinting, begging, and nagging at Nick that she wanted to get married, he’d finally proposed.  Not twenty-four hours later, she was struck with commitment remorse.  She questioned if she had what it took to be a married woman.  True, she’d been faithful to Nick, but the fact that she was free to see other men if she chose was a comfortable safety net. 

Consumed with panic, she’d been drinking heavily when Alfred showed up looking for Nick. He’d heard that Nick finally proposed to her and wanted to both congratulate and tease him. She couldn’t explain, even to herself, why she wasted no time seducing him.  It wasn’t because, like all Jackson men, he was gorgeous.  It wasn’t that his features so closely resembled Nick’s that they could have been brothers instead of cousins.  It wasn’t even because she knew that Alfred harbored an infatuation for her ever since she’d hooked up with Nick.  It was something inside of her inebriated mind that told her that she needed to sleep with someone other than Nick, just once, before she was bound by marital commitment.  Alfred just happened to be the one who was in the right place at the right time. 

She never loved Nick, but she was comfortable with him.  She missed that feeling.  Had she been able to do things over, she would have worked on conquering her commitment phobia instead of acting irrationally with Alfred.  After all, she was the one who pushed for marriage.  It didn’t make sense; not even to her. 

Seeing how beautiful Alison was while sensing her bond with Nick triggered a jealousy in Heloise that she didn’t know existed.  If she was destined to spend her life in lonely misery, it didn’t seem fair that Nick would spend his in lovers’ bliss.  That’s what it felt like, too.  A damned lovers’ bliss!   Could she and Nick have had such a bliss?  He loved her, and she liked him. Would that have been enough?  She had to find out.

Since going back to Nick would require that she leave Alfred, and, since Alfred so closely resembled Nick in looks, he seemed the best choice for Nick’s replacement with the little princess.  When she’d broached Alfred about it, he was   understandably agreeable.  Not only would marriage to the little snit give him unequaled status in shadow land, but it would be a ‘one up’ on Nick.  Over the century, she’d learned just how deep his resentment for Nick actually ran.  It was almost frightening.

First, she needed to do something to separate Nick and Alison.  If she managed to get Alison to go with Alfred, she wouldn’t be in trouble with the elders.  She just needed to come up with a workable plan to do it.  With a smug smile, she gave thanks that the elders weren’t the only ones with magical skills.