Mooncusser Cove Page 13

  Jerrod hesitated for a moment. “Well, yes. I guess I am.” Dammit!

  "I suppose you have every right to be angry with me,” Vesper said softly.

  "Look, if you are who you say you are, then you've been screwing townsfolk for centuries, and I don't know where I'm going to fit in. Besides as your Paladin protector."

  "Come on, Jerrod. I've never been promiscuous. I survive by feeding on the sexual energies of others. Sexual energy can be expended in more ways than by intercourse. I'm a ‘psy vampire,’ to use modern terms. I've taken blood, too—I don't deny that. But opening the B and B is going to make it so that I won't have to troll for teenaged boys ever again. I'm also hoping that this amazing attraction you and I have is going to develop into something long term. Don't you feel it?"

  Jerrod nodded. “I do. I feel as though we belong together. And it's not just sexual. You stimulate and awaken parts of me that have been asleep for a very long time."

  "Like the lyrics to ‘Witchy Woman'?"

  Jerrod laughed. “Yes. Exactly. And more. I've been experiencing déjà vu. My memories are returning. The doctors said they'd come back in time—and that some external stimuli might jumpstart the process."

  "I'm happy to help you with an external stimulus you might need,” Vesper replied.

  Jerrod laughed. “Thank God for that.” He opened the door of the post office.

  Vesper went to her box and turned the combination dial. The box was empty save for a single yellow “claims” ticket. “Like I said ... overfull.” She took the ticket to the window. “May I have my box contents, please?"

  Without so much as a “hello,” the clerk took the slip and disappeared into the back room.

  Vesper turned to face Jerrod. “So, ever do it in a post office?"

  Jerrod laughed. “No, I don't think so."

  The clerk interrupted, “Several boxes, miss. Looks like Christmas with all the parcels you have back here. Got a car? Bring it around the back, and I'll load you up."

  "Thank you. We'll be right around,” Vesper replied. She patted Jerrod on the chest. “My finishing touches have arrived!"

  "For the bed-and-breakfast?” Jerrod asked.

  She nodded. “Come on, let's get home and unwrap my new soap dishes!"

  "Oy vey, now there's something exciting to look forward to,” Jerrod teased. “Hey, what time is it?” he asked. “I don't want to miss Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum."

  "We'll beat the DeSalvos if we don't get distracted,” Vesper replied.

  "You'd better ride home with a paper sack over your head, then. You are a major distraction."

  "Thanks, Jerrod. Let's get my mail and see if we can behave ourselves for twenty minutes, shall we?"

  * * * *

  The car filled with mail and groceries, Jerrod drove away from Marshes Coomb, balancing a cup of coffee between his knees and feeling a rather large weight comprised of the eyes of onlookers and busybodies lift from his shoulders. “That is a rather stifling little town, isn't it? What are you going to do about Odd Job? Do I need to go beat him up for you?"

  "I'm not accepting mailed reservations just to keep from having to make trips into town more frequently, thus avoiding him. I'm not sure what I'll do if he actually gets up the nerve to visit the cove. And I have no idea if he's able to infect others. Damn. Maybe I can find something out on the website. I'm not sure another Shadow Lover has stuck around in one place as long as I have. The race moves around quite a bit. To avoid contaminating the locals."

  "I can pick up your mail for you if need be. I'm sure that falls under my duties as your Paladin. And I'll protect you, too."

  Vesper slid closer. “What can I do for you in return?"

  "Stop stroking my leg for one thing. I'm driving here—and trying to beat the DeSalvos home."

  "But it's such a nice leg, and they are such dirty, uncouth townies. The sheriff, especially. He wears latex and nipple clamps. I'm not even going to tell you what the librarian does behind closed doors."

  "Quit trash-talking the townies. You're being naughty, Vesper,” Jerrod replied. “I thought we were going to try and keep our hands off each other for twenty minutes."

  "It's been twelve minutes. And you want naughty? I'll give you naughty.” Vesper lowered her head onto Jerrod's lap and ran her teeth over the rise in his jeans.

  "Damn it, Vesper.” Jerrod pulled the car over.

  She lifted her head. “Jerrod, I do want you to know one thing. If we ever decide to call our affair quits, I get Moonie."

  Jerrod laughed. “That was my intention the entire time. I thought you were old, Vesper. Older than the hills—and that with a puppy to look out for, you'd have left me alone. However, I've actually became quite attached to my little girl. I won't give her up without a fight."

  "I am older than the hills. And I do hope my problems aren't going to stop you from writing your book. I needed a Paladin, but I had no idea that you..."

  "Don't worry about it, Vesper. As for stopping me, you're not. You are inspiring the thing,” he replied. “So quit being such a macabre muse and lighten up."

  She sat up and teasingly kissed Jerrod's ear, then slipped her tongue in. “Tag. You're it. Come get me."

  "Jesus, woman! I'm driving here!” Jerrod laughed.

  "Put it in park,” Vesper ordered.

  "What? Now?"

  "Yes, now,” Vesper replied. She slipped her shirt over her head and flipped over the front seat into the back.

  Jerrod pulled a little farther off the road and slid the car in park. He turned off the ignition and opened the driver's-side door. In the breath of a moment it took him to open the driver's-side back door, Vesper had stripped. “Well, what have we here?” he asked.

  "I don't know what you see, but I see a woody to match my Woodie,” Vesper replied.

  Jerrod stripped, leaving his clothes on the gravely shoulder. He slid atop Vesper.

  Her legs closed around his hips. She crushed her mouth to his, urging him to enter her sans foreplay, moving her hips against his, trying to coax him inside. “I need you inside me now, Jerrod. Right now,” she begged.

  Jerrod returned her hard kiss. He maneuvered his member within striking range and plunged into Vesper.

  She bucked under the sudden thrust.

  He plunged again and held his course.

  Though he knew he could orgasm after a few solid strokes, he moved slowly, deliberately. He ground his pelvic bone into hers, teasing her clitoris from its sheath. Vesper gripped his ass with her long fingernails and tried to force him to thrust harder and faster by pushing against his hips with her legs.

  "Jerrod! I want it so bad! Please! No teasing!” she cried.

  Jerrod shook his head. “I want to take a long time with you, Vesper. The DeSalvos can wait."

  He'd been pumped dry by this woman over the last twenty-four hours. With a little bit of willpower he could hold back for quite awhile. He planned on making her wait, too.

  He pulled away and slid off onto the running board. “What are you doing?” Vesper asked.

  "This,” he replied pulling her closer to the edge of the seat. He positioned her legs over his shoulders and dropped one foot to the ground to steady himself as he perched on the running board, his head buried between her thighs.

  Vesper's flesh pulsed with readiness. He slipped two fingers inside her. She pushed against them. He pulled them out.

  "Damn!” Vesper cried. “Please! Just do it!"

  Jerrod ignored her and sucked her clitoris into his mouth.

  She clawed at his head, holding it fast against her. She was close to coming. He could sense that the dam was about to burst.

  Jerrod pulled away and wiped his face with the back of his hand.

  "Jerrod, please...” Vesper whined. She reached between her legs with her own right hand and began masturbating. Jerrod let her. He gave his erection a few solid strokes. He had a lot of time left on the meter.

  "Roll over, Vesper. Put that sweet ass of y
ours up in the air,” he ordered.

  Vesper did as instructed. She slid her right hand back between her legs, continuing to manipulate her clitoris as Jerrod slid into her. He grabbed her butt cheeks and spread them as he moved deeply to and fro in her vagina. Vesper worked her clitoris in rhythm to his trusts.

  "You're going to come, aren't you?” Jerrod teased.

  She was breathless. “Yes. Yes!"

  "Not on my watch,” Jerrod replied. He pulled away for a second time and stopped Vesper's probing fingers.

  "Oh, my God, Jerrod! Let me!” Vesper whined.

  "I don't think so. At least not yet.” He reached across her and withdrew a cellophane-wrapped English cucumber from their shopping bags. Hard and cold.

  "This is the perfect instrument to bring your temperature down.” He slid the cucumber along the crack of her ass.

  Vesper moaned. “It's cold. I like it."

  He teased her anus with the tip of the long, green veggie.

  "Yes, if you want to. Yes!” Vesper replied.

  Jerrod chuckled. “You are up for anything, aren't you?"

  "Yes,” Vesper whispered.

  Jerrod inserted the cucumber into her vagina, working it like a dildo. Vesper responded, just as he knew she would.

  It cooled her down, all right. Until Jerrod rammed himself into her rear-end.

  He barreled into her, his member filling her rear with its searing hardness in startling comparison to the cold hardness of the cuke just a few layers of skin away.

  "I'm going to come, Jerrod."

  "Yeah, so am I.” He withdrew and pulled the cucumber away. “Roll over. I want to nail you."

  Vesper giggled. “A little rotisserie sex?"

  "Yeah, and you're about to get one Hell of a turn on the spit."

  Vesper stretched out her legs and rolled over onto her back. “I'm so ready for you."

  "Promise?” He reached for a bottle of water from a grocery sack and quickly rinsed his penis. The chilled water didn't diminish his erection in the least.

  "Jerrod ... please...” Vesper moaned.

  "Yes, ma'am.” He slid his thick member into Vesper, then collapsed his weight onto her. Nothing like good, old-fashioned missionary position.

  Just like she promised, the moment the tip of his penis vanished inside her sizzling flesh, the first surge of orgasm hit.

  A low, guttural sound rose from her throat as the shock wave of her long-awaited climax took hold. Jerrod joined in the chorus a moment later as he came searing and deep.

  "I needed that,” she replied softly.

  "Yeah. I didn't know I did, but man, I did,” Jerrod mumbled, tossing the tainted cucumber into the tall grass.

  "What? No cucumber salad with dinner?” Vesper asked. She slipped out of the car.

  Jerrod laughed. “No salad."

  Standing naked in the cool breeze, they embraced. Just in time for the DeSalvo Brothers’ truck to pass by. The driver beeped his horn and waved his baseball cap out the window.

  Vesper felt herself blush from head to toes.

  Jerrod smiled broadly and waved back. “Well, there's an interesting second impression if ever I've made one,” he commented. “Come on, Vesper. Let's get dressed and get home."

  Vesper slipped on her clothing. “I need a shower. Or maybe a nice vinaigrette dressing to go with..."

  "Don't say it,” Jerrod teased.

  Vesper replied rather sheepishly, “Bad joke, huh?"

  "Yeah, bad joke. I like cucumbers. Next time we'll have to try to get all our veggies home intact,” Jerrod scolded.

  "I'd hate to see what you would have done to me if you'd bought a bunch of carrots!” Vesper laughed at her own joke and settled into the passenger side.

  * * * *

  Fifteen minutes later they rounded the bend leading to Vesper's beach.

  Jerrod pulled up alongside one of the brothers DeSalvo. Vesper rolled down her window. “Measure from two feet left of that large boulder over there to the crook of the cove."

  "That's at least a half-mile,” Art DeSalvo replied.

  "We want a walkway from the mansion that leads to a deck at the crescent overlooking the spit and lighthouse. I'd prefer Trex decking, too."

  "Pricey,” DeSalvo replied.

  "Just give us a materials estimate, Art,” Vesper replied. She turned to Jerrod. “Honey, would you please park the car ‘round back after we unload it?"

  Vesper hopped out of the car, conscious that the DeSalvos were reacting to her as most townie men did. With lolling tongues and partial erections. But not for much longer. She pulled a box out of the car. “I'm going to have guests. Guests!"

  "Home meal delivery at its best. Better than UPS,” Jerrod teased.

  "Brown has been very good to me over the years. I always laugh when I hear their advertisement: what can Brown do for you? If they only knew. It's better I dine on a UPS delivery driver once than a human a hundred times, and kill him or her,” Vesper replied.

  "Her?” Jerrod asked. “You do women?"

  Vesper nodded. “I've done what I need to do to stay alive. Would you go glare at the townies and get them off my property,” Vesper replied, her back to Jerrod.

  "Why? Do they make you hungry?” Jerrod asked, catching up to Vesper.

  Vesper choked. “Oh, God. No. They make me gag. Their odor is so foul. Like dishwater trapped in a sink for a week."

  "Such an analogy! I hope I smell better than that!"

  Vesper smiled. “You do. Trust me."

  Chapter Fifteen

  Vesper drew a bath, desperate to soak her aching bum. No Man's Land had taken a beating. Her privates felt raw and tender, her belly full and her lips bruised from the hard kisses she'd shared with Jerrod. Then there were those purple bruises along her rib cage from the shopping cart push-bar. “I think I cracked a rib,” she sighed as she slid into the steaming tub.

  She smiled softly as a faint “yip!” told her that Moonie was alive and well and ready to be let out of her corral.

  She dropped a hot washcloth over her face and slid deeper into her tub. Painful was too kind a word to use when describing how used she felt between her legs. The man uses a bit of vigor in his lovemaking, not holding back a damned thing. Christ, he's a good lover.

  As sore as she was, Vesper felt a tingle of arousal at the thought of Jerrod's hardness pounding into her. In public. For a fleeting moment she slipped two long fingers between her legs. Her clitoris winced at the slightest touch of her fingertips. The mind was willing, the flesh was not.

  As she drifted off into a relaxed state of orgasm-induced exhaustion, Vesper heard the DeSalvo's truck pull out. Good, he got rid of them quickly. There's a good Paladin. Protect. Pleasure. Pray for dark nights. She fell asleep, buried to her throat in steam and hot water.

  * * * *

  At first the sensation was light and teasing—like fingernails or the tines of a fork moving across the flesh of her arms. It moved to her belly, and grew less subtle. It didn't hurt, but the idea that it could hurt her both excited and alarmed her. The gentle tracings wandered down her legs. She wanted the raking to move to her back. That would feel lovely—a good scratching in places she couldn't reach.

  She rolled onto her belly.

  As she desired, the tines serpentined from nape to hips, delightfully slow.

  Lips touched the back of her shoulders. Jerrod, she thought. She dreamed.

  A tongue tasted her at the divot in the small of her back. It tickled.

  Teeth nibbled at her fleshy rump.

  Then the teeth bit down, clamped tight like vice-grip.

  The water colored red with her blood.

  She awoke, screaming.

  Disoriented, Vesper floundered about in the tub before regaining her wits about her. The water was clear. There was no blood.

  She stepped out of the tub and dried off.

  She picked up her hairbrush and stepped in front of her mirror.

  Every muscle in Vesper's body tigh
tened as if she were being zapped by thousands of volts of electricity. She couldn't scream. Her voice was trapped in her throat, and her eyes were fixed on a ghastly image in the mirror.

  Not her reflection—but the reflection of another.

  She coughed out his name, “Jin."

  The dark-clad youth smiled and brought a butcher knife down against Vesper's spine.

  Searing, blistering pain coursed through her as she dropped to the floor. Blood filled her lungs, and her extremities went numb and cold. The sensation of being lowered into the open mouth of a grave overtook her. She could smell the dank earth enveloping her; she could taste its bitterness on her lips.

  Crushing weight pushed against her breasts as blood and spinal fluid flowed from her. So this is how I am to die ... disabled and buried alive. To starve and wither. Can I regenerate fully enough to dig my way from this grave?

  A memory surfaced in the swirling pain engrains filling her brain. An older cousin cursed with the family that fateful night. Shortly thereafter, she had been badly injured in a carriage accident. She had recovered enough to walk upright with the help of a cane, though one eye never regained sight and her speech was slurred due to the severe injury to her head. But she'd lived. Life went on for her. She'd adapted. Will I? Vesper wondered.

  * * * *

  The ringing of her telephone awakened her. The water had grown cold. She'd fallen asleep. Her fingertips looked like prunes.

  She collected herself and stood to step out of the tub.

  A butcher knife from her kitchen block rested dead center on her bathroom floor on the same scatter rug she and Jerrod had made love upon.

  Vesper bypassed the knife and dressed hurriedly in her front room.

  It had been a long time since she'd taken note of the signs and wonders of Heaven's mysterious workings happening all around her.

  She interpreted this sign easily. It was a warning.

  The villagers were coming—and Jin was leading the way.

  * * * *

  Moonie was one happy puppy to see Jerrod. Turning circles and leaping up, the dog was quite the handful to lift out of the corral. “Come on, pup. Let's go inside and do a bit of exploring."

  Jerrod opened the front door of the manor house, holding Moonie under one arm. The dog squirmed so much Jerrod had to set her down. Moonie's little legs couldn't carry her fast enough toward the left corridor off the foyer. Jerrod followed, chuckling over the skidding dog dragging her fat little puppy belly along the hardwood floor.