Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Hazel didn't know what to do with herself. She definitely wanted to have sex with Jayden. A lot of sex, but she wasn't a person who thought that she'd be all that sexy, so she didn't have any clue how to initiate sex. She thought that she was pitiful, a grown assed woman that didn't have a clue what to do about sex.

"You're thinking very hard about something. Tell me what it is, and I'll be your knight in shining armor. I know. You can be the damsel that is taken to the highest building around here, and me, as my gorilla, can carry you around. What do you think?" She decided that the truth would be the best way to handle this. Otherwise, she was going to flub things up between them. So she told him. "What is it, honey? I mean, I'm here for you no matter what is going on."

"I'm not at all sexy. I know that. I mean, that's what I was led to believe. I have tiny breasts and a tiny pair of nipples that, even when they're hard, no one notices them. If I can nurse my own children, I'd be thrilled, but I don't think that they'll get enough from me." He told her she was being silly. "I am not. I've always been the practical one in my family. But there is more. Do you want to hear it?"

"By all means, tell me why you're not at all sexy." She thought that he was making fun of her, but she didn't know him well enough to judge him. "Go on."

"That's another thing. I don't know anything about you. I believe that we're mates and that I love you, but I don't know if you've just caught me on a good day or what happened when he said we were going to live forever together. Aren't you afraid of getting sick of me? Night after night, day after day?"

"No. I don't believe that I ever will. Are you finished with telling me what you conceive as faults?" She said that she was only just getting started. "All right. I'll not interrupt you anymore. But know this, there is nothing that you can say to me or describe to me about yourself that I'm going to agree on. I think that you're the most beautiful creature ever born. But do go on trying to convince me."

"I think that you're making fun of me. Is that right?" He asked her why she'd think that. "I don't know, because your eyes are all sparkly, like you're trying very hard not to laugh at me. I know what I look like. Better than you do."

"I'm sure that you do. However, I would be the judge of any flaws you profess to have as I'm not jaded about your body." She huffed at him and told him he was being goofy. "Goofy? I don't believe anyone has used that word referring to me in all my life." He then told her how much that he loved her.

"I love you too. Very much so." She stood up and paced the room. She felt his eyes following her, but she didn't care at the moment. She had to think, and sitting still or even standing still wasn't helping her. "My mom never loved my dad. I don't know that I ever did, either. Love my mother, I mean. I was born late in their lives, so they'd already been set in their ways before I came along. Mom was better with me when I got to be ten or so. She said that my being a baby seemed to have her thinking that we'd never be close. Are you close to your grandparents?"

"I am. All of them. As you might have figured out, we're all a close-net group. When Dallas graduated from college, they packed up their bags and decided to see the world. It didn't bother us so much while they were gone, as we knew that in a few weeks, they'd be back. And with something that they'd gotten us while away." She asked him what sort of things. "Grandma Simpson once got me a signed baseball from a team in Cincinnati. I still have it. Grandda Dixon got me some beautiful stamps one time. I never use them. I have them as well, too, but I believe they're in a safe at my parents' home."

Jayden laid back on the bed they were on and smiled at her. He then told her about some of the trips that he'd gone on with his grandparents. Smiling, he told her how he had kept up the tradition, all of them did, and wherever they went as adults, they picked up a Christmas ornament for their tree.

"Up until a few years ago, Mom would put up seven trees so that we could display the ornaments that we picked up for ourselves. But it wasn't long before a single tree wasn't going to be enough. After that, we had to pick out five of our favorites and hang them on the family tree. It's been hard to do for us. We loved them for the memories that they would hold for us." Hazel asked him if he'd be willing to keep that going with their own family. "I would. Letting them pick them out when they get older, I've already thought that I'd take a picture of each one and then put them into an album with their reason for picking it. If that's all right with you."

"It is. Oh, Jayden, that's a wonderful idea. We'll start with our first Christmas this year and go from there." He nodded, and she finally sat next to him on the bed. It was a soft bed, one that she'd used before when visiting her parents before the divorce. "I don't remember the last time we bothered to put up a tree. Mom would have kept right on doing it—she actually does at her apartment, but it will be epic when the two of us get to share the holidays with not just your parents but you're grandparents as well."

Jayden closed his eyes, and she wondered if he was going to go to sleep. It was nearing midnight now, and Hazel knew that he had a couple of meetings in the morning with the banker as well as an attorney to go over some of the stocks and such that she had inherited.

"Are you falling asleep? Do you find me that boring?" She screamed when he pulled her across his body. Smiling down at him, she asked him what his plans were now that he had her in bed with him.

"You've no idea what I want to do to you right now. Actually, what I've wanted to do to you since I first met you." He buried his mouth at her neck and nipped. Jerking his head up, she knew she was lost. "I'm so sorry, baby, but I don't think that I'm going to be any good to you. I've been hurting for you for a long time. Forever, it seems."

She bit his throat as gently as she could, and his hot blood filled her. His skin was stretched tightly across his throat enough so that she could actually see his pounding pulse.

His hands slid up under her skirt, and she felt him slide his fingers deep into her. Crying out just a little, she knew that he was trying very hard to not take her hard. She wasn't sure how hard that was going to be but Hazel did need him.

Reaching between them, she cupped his cock through his pants. Christ, she wanted him right fucking now and lifted her head to tell him. But he pulled away, and she nearly tumbled over when he stood over her near the bed.

He tore at his pants, and she watched as he freed his cock. It was thick and covered in a thick cream that had her mouth watering. When she reached for him and wrapped her hands around him, he groaned. Before she could taste him, he picked her up by her ass again and took them to the floor.

"I need to be in you." She nodded as he pulled her skirt up over her hips. "Christ, I've never wanted a woman this badly before. I'm sorry if I hurt you, love, but you're all that I need right now."

He tore her panties from her and moved to her entrance. When he hesitated, she pulled him down to her mouth and kissed him. As soon as he slammed into her, she pressed her mouth over his open wound and suckled. The moment that his blood touched her tongue, she felt her body responding to things that she'd never thought of before. As soon as he filled her, she knew that he was much too large for her body and loved every second of him taking her.

Pain seared through her, and she cried out against his throat. When he started to lift off her, she wrapped her legs around him and felt his cock jerk inside of her. He moved slowly now. The pain was now being replaced by the most incredible pleasure. She knew what was building, knew that her own release was close, and she sealed the wound at his throat with her tongue and moaned when he pinched her nipple through her bra and blouse.

"Come for me. I want…no Christ, I need for you to come." He tore the buttons open and shifted her bra down over her breast as he sank his teeth into her nipple. Even as he fucked her, he reached down and tilted her ass upward, and she came apart.

Crying out, he lifted his head. His command for her to come again brought her, and his body stiffened above her as he joined her. She pulled him down and sank her teeth into his pounding pulse as he filled her.

Hazel felt his second climax even as his first finished. Lifting her head from his throat, she opened the vein at her wrist. Not having any idea why she knew to do that, Hazel offered it to him, wondering as she did what she was doing. Then his mouth took her, and she cried out again, a climax that rolled over her like a warm summer storm. As soon as he lifted his head from her wrist, she knew what they'd done.

"Christ, you're my mate. My love and my forever. I couldn't love you any more than I do right now, but I'm sure that I'll fall deeper in love with you in the next hour. I love you so much, Hazel Dixon. More than I thought would be possible."

She must have dozed off at some point. Jayden wasn't in the bed with her, but just as she was ready to go look for him, he came out of the bathroom. Snuggling up to him, she was a little sore. Jayden told her that he was sore as well and needed to rest. Almost as soon as he kissed her forehead, she was out again.

When she woke later, she knew that it was nearly noon. Not having any idea how she knew that, looking at the clock by the bed told her it was almost eleven. If not for the sun shining through the windows, she would have thought it was night. As it was, she needed to get up and go to the bathroom. However, getting out from under Jayden proved to be nearly impossible.

"Where are you going?" She said that she had to use the bathroom. "Oh, all right. But come back here, please. I'd like to tell you how much I love you. I do. I honestly love you with all my heart and body."

"I can't have sex again." He told her that they'd made love. "All right. I like that term better, anyway. But I'm sore. Everywhere."

"To be honest, I am as well. I think that if we were to make love right now, I'd be testing the immortality of my kind." She giggled and got out of the bed. Standing by the nightstand that was on her side of the bed, Hazel had to hang onto the little stand when a wave of dizziness swamped her. When the bed moved, she was thrilled that Jayden came to keep her from falling. Just holding onto her, she felt immensely better. Once she was moving, she did feel better but she did wonder if something was broken about her. Every muscle hurt like she'd been doing a marathon and had run full out for several hours. Smiling up at Jayden, he kissed her and told her that now she had to hold onto him. She was still laughing as she made her solo trip to the bathroom on her own. Christ, she wondered again if she'd ever recover enough to want to have sex…make love again.

~*~

Jayden was going over some of the contracts that his brother had left on his desk. He didn't know a great deal about what the wording was telling him, but he was only looking for mistakes and loopholes. There were plenty of those. He just didn't know if it was all right to have them in the contract since it favored the family more than it did the business that Waylon was trying to buy.

"What are you frowning about?" He looked up at Hazel when she spoke. Jayden didn't know how long she'd been sitting across from him, but obviously, it was long enough that she was looking decidedly comfy in the chair. He told her. "I can have a look at it if you want. Also, you do know that we have, you and I, and by extension, the family, have attorneys who work for us. They can go over this for Waylon and figure it out a good deal faster than you or I could."

"I didn't know that, but mostly, I'm looking at flaws. He said that it's fresh eyes when looking at it. I'm not sure that flaws are what he wanted. There are fifteen misspelled words in this contract, and it's making me want to get out a red pen and mark it all up." She told him that she'd not recommend anyone signing it. "Just like that? You wouldn't sign this because of that?"

"If they're not going to take their time spelling things correctly, then they'll easily fall behind in whatever Waylon is working with them about. I would imagine, too, that once he signs this and the deal is closed, they'll suddenly realize the ‘mistakes' and want to redo the contract. That will give them plenty of time to make changes other than the spelling. I'd not do it." He put the paperwork down and smiled at her. "You're just not going to have him sign it on my word?"

"I trust your word over anything else. So yes, I'm going to tell him that it would be a mistake to sign anything with this company." Putting the paperwork that his brother had brought him in the file, Jayden leaned back in his chair and asked her what she'd been doing this morning. "I'm about finished up here. I don't have an appointment with the banker until three, so would you like to go and get some lunch? My treat."

"Sure. Then, while we're out, we can stop by the thrift store that I frequent and see about buying all their coats. I do that a few times a year, and I go in and buy out certain items that I can donate to the schools. Last year, we gave away nearly nine hundred coats." He said that his grandma Dixon did that, too. "I thought that we'd have a good deal more in common than loving the same family. By the way, there are some things that we have to talk about concerning my grandmother's estate. The charitable money is going to go into an account as soon as I find something that can watch over it. Do you think that either one of your grandparents or both of them would like to do that for us?"

"My grandparents, both sets, would love to do that. Grandma Simpson was just telling me the other day how she wished that the mayor would get off his ass and approve the funding that is needed for the playground equipment at the grade school. It's the same equipment that was there when I went to first grade. Not only is it dangerous, but I think that they're just waiting for a lawsuit to happen when one of the kids gets hurt." She told him that was one of the projects that she'd been looking into. "Good. Believe it or not, they're all here. The grandmas are in the kitchen, figuring out what they can eat or not eat that the cook is making. I think that it's mostly my grandda trying to get himself an early lunch without having to miss the meal itself."

They both laughed, and that had been what he was going for. When she stood up and stretched, he felt his cock do the same. Hopefully—like he thought that was going to be a thing—he would never get tired of her, but right now, he was still just a little sore after yesterday.

"We can take them with us if you're up to it. I heard your grandda Dixon has a thing for the hot veggie subs they have in town. I've never had one, but I'm to understand that it's about the best thing on the menu." He told her what was on it, including the hot pepper cheese that make it spicy but not hot as in baked at all. "I don't know that I'd like super-hot. I don't mind a little heat, but that sounds really out of my league."

His grandparents decided that they'd go with them to the sub shop. The place was run out of the house of one of the people in town. They'd converted the kitchen that was at the side of the house into a nice little place for them. It had been doing such good business that she, Hanna Markets was able to purchase some used picnic tables and some chairs for people to use while waiting for their food. He loved sitting out under the umbrellas and talking to people that came and went.

"My mom told me that this place is helping a woman feed her four grandkids that live with her. Do you know why their parents aren't in the picture?" Jayden told her what he knew, which was about as sad as it could be. "So she just dropped her kids off one day and told her mother that she had to raise them? What was her reasoning behind that?"

"She was too young to have had kids in the first place. I think that she was sixteen when she had her first child. Then she popped out three more, not my words but her mom's after that, and she didn't want to have to settle down. She had a boyfriend that didn't want to be around someone else's kids. I had a feeling that, at some point, one of the kids was his, but he didn't want it. I don't know. Anyway, she thought that she was much too young to be saddled with a bunch of kids that she didn't want. So one day, Hanna woke up to having her grandkids sitting out on the porch with a note telling her that they were hers to do with what she wanted. And that she could bury them in the back yard for all she cared. So her daughter, Cherry, is in prison right now for all kinds of things that were in the letter. While she works at the prison, the money comes to Hanna. It's not nearly enough, so she opened her little shop and started selling sandwiches to the folks here in town."

Maria joined them and picked up an order that she'd placed earlier. When she sat down to eat with them, it was Maria who decided that Hanna needed to expand. But, as he told her that they'd all been telling her that forever, she went to speak to the woman while helping make the subs during the lunchtime rush.

While working, the two women started talking about the expansion. Maria, like he'd seen her do before, was talking to Hanna like the expansion was a done deal. But Jayden knew the woman better and knew that she'd either do it or not, but it would be her decision and not that of some pushy woman. What she called Maria. It was funny for him to watch too stubborn women talking about business.

"You do know that you can about double your income if you were to get further into town, don't you? That would be nice when the kids start going to college." Hanna told Maria and the rest of them when they started helping that they'd better be getting a scholarship like the first grandson had gotten.

"I love them to pieces, I want you to know that, but I was hard on them. I made them study and make sure that they went to school when they were supposed to. It's paid off. All of them, including Richard, are on the honor roll each grading period, and like I said, Jeff is going to the state college with it being nearly free because of his grades. I think that I did all right for an old woman who doesn't have a high school education." Hanna laughed. She'd been saying that for years to him and his brothers. "Besides, I'm going to need help when they start going away from here, even as little as I am."

"I'll work for you." To say that he was surprised at Maria's statement would have been an understatement. "I'll work with you. I need a job that gets me out of the house before I become a couch potato and grow sprouts. And I'll pay upfront for the expansion if we can become partners."

While making sandwiches and cashing people out, the two of them spoke about all the things that Hanna was going to need in the way of the expansion. Also, what it would bring in as an income for the other woman. It was funny, really. Up until a few weeks ago, he'd been happily walking around town thinking that things were perfect in their little space on this earth. Now, he was seeing things that he and the others should have been caring for all along.

When the lunch rush was over, and orders started coming in for dinner subs, he was impressed at the system that Hanna was using. He was also very impressed with the kids that she'd been raising on her own for the last ten years. They were waiting tables by cleaning them off once people left and making sure that the napkins, a roll of paper towels on each table were ready for the next group. While she was selling sandwiches hand over fist, the youngest, Richard, was making sure that the trash wasn't getting away in the wind and that people had what they wanted to drink. He was just eleven years old and seemed to have a knack for upselling everyone he spoke to.

He and his grandparents walked around town with Hazel. She pointed out things that she was going to get a jump on to make improvements around the little town. Grandda Dixon told her that she'd be better served if she didn't mention stuff like that where people could hear her. They'd be giving her suggestions out the waa-hoo that would have her broke in no time. He also cautioned her about the mayor. While they were talking, one of the shop owners came out of their store to have a word with him.

"You tell that brother of yours, Waylon, not to go into business with that man down the street. He's been bragging, so you know that he was going to make that kid not have a clue what hit him." Jayden didn't tell the man that he'd already decided not to do business but asked the man what he knew. "You remember that man? He always wore himself a red shirt and one of them bandanna things tied around his neck. He had himself a dog, too, that would wear the same thing as they walked down the street. You remember him, don't you, Mr. Jayden?"

He didn't, but that didn't stop the man from describing him the same way a couple of more times before he just gave up. Jayden asked him what about the man and his dog. Nearly laughing at the man's expression of exasperation, he cleared his throat and told him that he'd ask his mom.

"She'll remember him for sure." He pulled several pears off the display that they were standing by and put them in his large apron pocket. As they moved to the bench outside the shop, he listened as he was told about the man. "Round about the time you were getting out of college, this man shows up and is telling everyone how he has just purchased all the buildings on the main street, and that he was going to up our rent. None of us took any mind to him. I, like a lot of the others here, own their businesses and the buildings, and we knew we'd not sold it to him. But as the days went by then—come over here, kids. I found me some beat up pears that I'm just going to toss out."

They came quickly to Mr. Shawn and thanked him for the treat. He'd never seen the man be so kind and softly spoken to children before and thought that he was handing out food like this more often than not. After telling them that he had some items in the back room to give their momma, they said that they'd tell her right away, and she'd be back to help them. The youngest said that they'd all have to carry something as their wagon had gotten ‘stoled'.

"Well, now, you tell your momma that I'll bring it by later myself. That way, you don't have to be lugging my trash to your house." He had a feeling that Mr. Shawn was going to have a wagon that he just happened to have lying around, too. "Your daddy ever come back, Ashely? Or his friends?"

"No, sir. Not anymore, not since you took that ball bat to his head. He don't take the mail before momma gets to it either no more." Mr. Shawn told her that was good but not to tell anyone about what he'd done. "I know Mr. Jayden really good. I am just glad that you took care of him instead of Mr. Jayden. There be nothing left of him if'n he did it."

After the kids left, Mr. Shawn picked up his story where he'd left off. Telling him about the rent going up and the man who claimed to have brought the street lined with shops. He figured out for himself that Mr. Shawn wasn't going to be talking about the kids' daddy, and he was sure that they'd never find his body. Mr. Shawn was an old and very strong vampire.

"He started coming by and telling us that we'd be better served if we were to start buttering him up right away by not charging him for the things that he bought—stolen more like it. I don't know if the others did that, but when he came into my store with a cart loaded to the top and spilling over, he just winked at me and asked if ten dollars would cover it. ‘Course it wasn't going to cover it, so I flat out told him no." He looked at Jayde with a frown on his face. "I don't remember where I was going with this here story, son? Remind me."

"You were talking about why Waylon shouldn't work with the man who was trying to sell his business." He laughed and told him that getting old was a bitch. Then he told him that the man was a shyster. "How so? And so you're aware, Waylon had already decided that something was fishy about the contract and had me and my wife go over it for him."

"Good boy. You let that lady wife of yours help you out like that. And you take her word as gospel." He watched another group of kids coming down the street and stood up to get more fruit. He even picked up a couple of cans of baby formula and stuffed them into his pocket. "There are a lot of hungry kids here in this town. We do have us a pretty football field and new sidewalks, but it ain't going to put food on the table for the others that are around here. You should get on that, son. I'll help when I can, telling you who needs it most, but do it before the winter months roll around. I fear that we're going to find a lot of people around here who couldn't feed just themselves but keep warm too."

"My wife and grandparents are setting up a fund to do that very thing. Ms. Cherokee, you remember her, don't you? She set aside some of her wealth to do that very thing to the town." He said that she was a good woman and would be missed. "I know that for sure. I'm married to her granddaughter, Hazel. You should know her too, am I right?"

"I do. Pretty little thing, even when she was dealing with her daddy. Now, there is a good person to have behind bars. He should have been there years ago if you were to ask me." He agreed with the older man and then asked him if he'd been hurt by him in some way. "Well, let's just say that he'd tried. But it's my shop, and I'll give out my food if I want to when I want to, and to anyone I want. And him telling me that I'm making beggars doesn't mean squat to me."

"That's a good way to live." Mr. Shawn asked him if he thought that Ms. Markets was going to expand. "I think so with my mother-in-law's help. Are you thinking of expanding as well?" He just shook his head and watched the two women helping the kids clean up the tables. "Mr. Shawn, what is it you're trying hard not to tell me? Is Mrs. Markets your mate?"

"No. But I think that your mother-in-law is." He couldn't help it. Laughing hard enough that he had to stand up or hurt himself had the older vampire glaring at him. "You won't think this is so funny when you have to start calling me Dad, will you?"

That made him laugh all the harder. It was great that he had a mate, but for whatever reason, he was sure that neither of them was going to come together easily. And Jayden was going to enjoy every second of it.