“She said rub!” Izzy snapped, sending the bastard a murderous glare that had Cloe biting back a smile as the large man hurried to do just that. Izzy released a drawn out sigh as she relaxed back on the floor, her arm folded beneath her head, her eyes closed and a small smile tilting her lips up as they worked her muscles.

“Where did you learn that?” Christofer asked as she used her thumbs to work out a particularly nasty knot in Izzy’s back.

“I took a few extra courses when I was in school,” she said, following the direction of the knot until it hit the scar tissue decorating Izzy’s hip.

“Is this going to help her?” Chris asked, gently rubbing his mate’s hip.

She hated making promises, but one look at the expression on his face told her that he needed to hear something, anything that would give him some semblance of hope. “It should help relieve some of her pain,” she promised, praying that she was right.

“Can I help?” Marc asked as he walked into the large foyer.

She opened her mouth to say no, but something in Marc’s expression told her that Chris wasn’t the only one punishing himself over Izzy’s injury. “Actually, I could use some help. I was thinking of walking into town and picking up some oils that might help her. You can be my escort as long as it’s fine with your parents.”

“It’s fine. Just make sure you’re back before dark,” Ephraim said, walking into the foyer with a baby in each arm.

“When are we going?” Marc asked, standing tall and looking like he was ready to take on the world.

He really was such a sweet kid. He was also too serious for a kid his age. In the last week here, she hadn’t seen him playing any video games, watching television, playing outside or having a friend over. He was always looking after Izzy and Jessica, making sure they were taken care of. He did so much, too much for a kid.

“Give me an hour?” she asked, shooting Marc a smile.

“One hour,” he agreed solemnly, appearing as though he carried the weight of the world on his shoulders.

“Chris, could you make sure that Izzy soaks in a hot tub for at least thirty minutes?” she asked, moving to stand up when Izzy made a desperate grab to stop her. “The hot water will help your muscles relax,” she promised Izzy as she gently pried the woman’s fingers off her arm.

“Fine,” Izzy grumbled as she released her hold on Cloe and allowed Chris to pick her up. “You may carry me to my room and draw my bath for me,” she said on a bored sigh as though she were somehow doing Chris a favor.

“Little slave driver,” Chris said, chuckling as he leaned down and kissed Izzy on the forehead.

“I don’t believe I gave you leave to kiss me, good sir,” Izzy sniffed haughtily, folding her arms over her ample br**sts as she looked away, making everyone in the foyer smile, but not for the reason that Cloe thought. It had been long time since Izzy was able to tease her mate and smile about having to be carried around. They took it as a good sign of things to come.

*-*-*-*

“Do you want me to go with you?” Christofer asked as he followed Cloe into their room. Not that she really had a choice in the matter. He was going no matter what, but he liked to make her think that she had a choice.

“Do you want to go with me?” she asked, eying him curiously as she picked up her backpack.

“Of course,” he said, lying his ass off.

He wanted to spend time with her. He just didn’t want to do it in another small-minded town. It had been close to three weeks since he was last forced to spend time with humans and he would have been more than fine with turning that three weeks into an eternity, but it seemed that Cloe had other plans.

“Hmm, you don’t sound very excited,” she noted as she searched through her bag.

“I’m ecstatic,” he said dryly as he watched her bend over.

“You could check out the art supply store,” she suggested, shooting him a quick glance over her shoulder.

“I could,” he said absently as he eyed the pile of drawings he’d done since this whole thing started, still wondering if his new life was going to have room in it for his first love.

He needed to protect Cloe, to make this world safe for her and that was going to take a great deal of training and time to accomplish. His desire to spend every waking moment escaping through his art had started to diminish over the past few weeks. He still loved to draw, took great pleasure from it, but that overwhelming need to lose himself in his art just wasn’t the same anymore.

Not since Cloe became the center of his world.

“We have forty-five minutes to kill,” Cloe suddenly announced with a coy little smile that he knew too well.

“What do you have in mind?” he asked just as casually as he shifted to make room for his growing erection.

“Well,” she began, kicking off her shoes, “we could go for a walk.”

“We’re walking to town in forty-five minutes,” he said, kicking off his shoes.

“True,” she said with a slight nod as she reached for the hem of her shirt. “We could go for a swim,” she suggested, pulling her shirt off and revealing a very sexy baby pink bra.

“We probably wouldn’t have enough time to change,” he pointed out, removing his shirt and tossing it aside.

“True,” she sighed, nodding in agreement as she pulled her socks off. “I guess we could watch some television.”

“There’s nothing good on television,” he said, having absolutely no idea if that was true or not as he pulled his socks off and tossed them aside.

“That’s true,” Cloe nodded, looking thoughtful as she undid her jeans and shimmied out of them, giving him a view of her matching panties. “We could go train for a while, I guess,” she said, crawling onto the bed and leaning back against the pillows.

“We could,” he murmured as he unsnapped his jeans, “but then we’d probably lose track of time.”

“This is true,” she said, bending a knee as she spread her legs apart so that he had a good view of her dampening panties. “Well, I’m out of ideas,” she said as she absently traced her fingertips between her br**sts, down to her belly, back and forth she moved her fingers while she made a show of trying to figure out just what they should do for the next forty minutes.

“I have an idea,” he said, pulling down his zipper.

“Oh, and what’s that?” she asked, sounding breathless as she watched his every move.

He reached into his pants and pulled himself out. “You could peel those pretty little panties off and show me how wet you are.”

“I could……,” she said, looking thoughtful even as she started to do just that. “But, I’m really not sure how that would help us kill forty minutes.”

“Cause while you’re sliding a finger inside your sweet little pu**y, I’m going to tell you just how badly I want to f**k you.”

Chapter 52

Oh, God……..

He was going to make her spontaneously combust.

She felt herself become wetter as his words registered. Her eyes were locked on that large c**k standing at attention, begging for her mouth and God help her, but she wanted to crawl over to him and worship it.