Trent (5 page)

“Why?” He looked at her then, and it twisted
up her heart to see him like this. Broken, she thought. Her son was broken. “Trent,
why do you think this girl would be better off not loving you?”

“I’m not a nice person. I don’t know how to
be friendly. I have no friends to speak of but family. And most of the time,
I’m sure you want to bash my head in. Or slap me around a bit.” He winked at
her and smiled. “She had Dad eating out of her hand in only a few days, and a
vampire that risked coming out in the sunlight to save her. I don’t know how to
be that person she needs.”

“Oh Trent, what the hell are you thinking?” He
looked at her, and she wanted to hit him and hug him at the same time. “As your
mother I hate to say this to you when you’re down like this, but get up off
your ass and fix this. I don’t care if you have to hire friends to figure this
out. Go to this girl on your hands and knees, but you fix this with her. You
will never get another chance at happiness if you don’t go and find her.”

She stood up, and so did he. When he looked
like he was going to say something she put up her hands. It was time to cut the
strings with him, and no better way to do that than to simply cut them.

“You have two hours to get your things and
move back to your own home. I’m not going to be picking up the pieces when this
all hits the fan. Go and sulk or whatever it is you’re currently doing to find
your mate away from me. Or don’t find her.” She turned her back on him to go
into the house, her heart breaking with each word. “I didn’t raise you to be a
coward. And from where I’m standing, not only are you that, but you are wasting
your life too.”

As soon as she entered her house, she turned
to the stairs and ran up them to her bedroom. Closing the door behind her, she
leaned heavily against it and let the tears fall. Christine knew as surely as
she was standing there that she’d done the best thing for her son, but it
didn’t lessen the pain of it.

An hour later, feeling no better about what
she’d done, Christine went to see if he had left. TJ was standing at the bottom
of the stairs waiting for her, and she was worried that something had happened.
When he slammed his hand down on the banister and told her he was mad at her,
she paused in mid-step and waited.

“You ran him off.” She pointed out that he’d
told her to. “Yeah, I did, but not by telling him that he wasn’t welcome here.
You know how mad he was when he left here? Powerful, let me tell you.”

“Did he tell you that Joe is his mate?” That shut
him up. “I see. So all you know is that he left here mad and not any of the
details. Well, Trent James Calhoun the fifth, I’m not going to stand for you
treating me this way. You have less time than your son had to get out of my
house. Leave here right now.”

“You’re kicking me out of my own house?” She
told him she was kicking him out of her life too. “You can’t do that. I’m your
mate. You can’t...what do you think you’re doing?”

“What I need to.” She walked down the steps
and to the door. After opening it, she looked at her husband. “Get out of here
before I hurt you. And you know that I will too.”

“Honey…Christine, you don’t—”

“Don’t you dare honey me, you overbearing
jackass. I did what I thought needed to be done. I came down here for support,
after doing what we talked about. You hear one thing from our son, one small
part of what we talked about, and you get mad at me. Well, I got news for you,
I slapped him too. You want to do that to me as well?” He told her that he’d
never hit her. “No, but you’ll hurt my heart without any provocation, won’t
you? Get out of here, TJ. I don’t want to see you right now.”

As soon as he left, still trying to sweet
talk her, she went to her office and sat behind her desk. Christine had no idea
what she was supposed to do now, but she knew that she wasn’t going to be
pushed around. Reaching for a tissue, she wiped at the tears just as her cell
phone rang. Right now she didn’t want to talk to any of them and turned her
ringer off when it stopped. Then for good measure, she turned the entire phone
off.

“Stupid men. I wish we’d had all girls now.” Looking
at the last family picture that had been taken of them all, Christine stuck her
tongue out at it. Crying harder now, she turned her back on the picture and
everything else that she had to do today and felt sorry for herself. It was
something that she rarely did. “Like that’s going to solve a damned thing.”

The laugher made her turn and then stand. The
man standing there hadn’t been invited in, and she wasn’t sure what he wanted. “Can
I help you?”

“There is no need for you to worry, my dear
lady. I have not invaded your home; I could never do that anyway. I am here to
speak to you about our children. Joe is...she is very upset with me, and your
son, I’m afraid, has hurt her. Perhaps unintentionally, but he has all the same.”

“Your child? You mean Joe. I guess...all
right, you only think of her as your child. I’m sorry, I’m a little upset at
the moment. Also you should know, my son isn’t any happier with me. I have
resorted to violence, and I’m not proud of myself over it.” He laughed again. “I
don’t think this is the least bit funny. And how is it you’re here if you say
you’ve not invaded my home?”

“I am but an image that I can project where I
need to be. It is still bright in the day for me, but I wanted to speak to you
on Joe’s...well, not her behalf, but here I am for her. I fear that if she knew
that I was here, she would be a great deal madder at me than she is now. I have
pointed out that you have but one chance in life to find your other half, and
she is wasting it by hiding out with me.” Christine told him she’d said the
same to her son. “Ah, so we are thinking alike. I knew that you were a brilliant
woman.”

Christine wasn’t sure about that. She had
thrown out her mate too. “What is it you think we can do? And just so we’re on
the same page here, I’m not going to shove them in the same room and hope they
come out on top of this.”

“My dear, that is precisely what we must do. The
nature of the beast, so to speak, is for him to claim his mate. What better way
to have that happen than to toss her to the wolf?” She sat back down at her
desk and thought about what he was proposing for them to do. “Joe is ready to
leave when I do, if I do. But now that she’ll be living here for the long term,
I’ve changed my mind. I have told her, and this was just an idea that I had dancing
around in my head, that I had to think about things. I would like to finish this
with Mr. Ford. He has become somewhat of a nuisance to me and my household. But
short of killing him, which might happen anyway, I need to make sure that he
does not follow me to the next place, nor does he hurt my Joe.”

“Trent said you told him you loved her.” He
said that he did. “Love her, or are you
in love
with her?”

“At one time, many years ago, I thought to
take her as my own, change her into what I am so that I might have someone to
call mine. But as the years went by and her loyalty to me grew, I knew that the
only thing that I could do for her was to keep her safe. Changing her into a
monster, such as I am, would not have served any purpose but to stem my
loneliness. But she has kept that at bay simply by being who she is. So I have
taken her into my heart, but only as a father would a child.” He smiled at her,
and Christine thought it the saddest thing she’d seen, even more so than her
own son’s sadness. “She saved my life and that of another man even though she
cared for neither of us. Offered up her life giving blood to save me after
begging for a man that was killed soon after when another wanted the scraps that
he’d pulled from the trash. So yes, I do love her, and might be just a little
in love with her, but not the way I think that your young Trent can love her.”

“I’ll do it.” Nodding and feeling good about
this now, she asked him what she had to do. “I can’t hurt them, neither of
them. Joe has come to mean a great deal to me, and Trent is my baby boy. I know
that he’s far from being a child, but he is mine.”

“I understand that more than you can know, my
dear lady. But all that we need to do is get them together. I’m sure that
nature will do the rest.” Christine hoped so. She wanted her son happy. “Now.
We must think where to lock them in. It should only be for a small amount of
time. A few hours at most.”

“Trent needs to take a vacation, doctor’s
orders, and I know just the place he needs to go. There is a lovely cabin just
up the mountain on our property. I can have it readied for them in a couple of
days. You can tell Joe that you want her to hide out from this Ford person.
She’ll do that, won’t she?’ Noah said that she would, for him. “Good. I’ll
start on that now. I’ll let you know when I’m ready. I’ll tell him that he has
to remain there for a week. He’ll do it. He needs to suck up a little to get
back in my good graces. I think this will work. I really do.”

So it began. When Noah left her, Christine
thought that she had to do one more thing before she got the house ready. And
that was to make up to her mate. She’d treated him terribly, and she knew it.
Reaching out to him, Christine started crying.

I’m so terribly sorry. I love you with all my
heart, and I’m so sorry.
He told her he was as well.
I love you. And right now
I need your help with Trent and Joe.

Anything, love. Anything you need.
She hoped so. What
they were about to do was terrible but necessary.
Can I come home now? I’m
so sorry for what I said to you. You were right, as usual, and that is what
gets me all riled up. I’m so sorry.

Chapter 3

“I’ll be back in two days to hang out with
you. In the meantime, you’re to take it easy and not do much more than just
fish and chop wood if you want.” Trent nodded at his brother. Sterling had told
him he’d bring him up here, but he couldn’t stay until the weekend…not that he
didn’t want to, but could not just yet. The weekend was three days away. But Trent
had to do this. It was the only way that his mom would forgive him. “You don’t
have your cell on you, do you?”

“No. I had to leave it with Mom.” That was
another thing that he had to do. One day a week he had to turn off his cell
phone and his computer and not use them at all. He thought perhaps that was
going to be the hardest. “I don’t want to die, Sterl. I came close. If this is
what I need to do to make myself take it easy, I can do this. Besides, Mom was
pretty pissed at me the other day, and I need to make her happy.”

“Yeah, she was. Don’t ever do that again,
okay? Nor are you allowed to have another heart attack. No matter how minor.
You scared the shit out of all of us.” Trent told him that he wasn’t planning
on it. “When I come up, I’ll bring us some food, along with a few beers. We’ll
hang out, catch a few fish, and then be better men for it. I’ll read up on how
to bait our hooks.”

Trent didn’t even know how to fish. He’d had
to look it up on the Internet yesterday when his mom told him what he had to do
here. He looked down at the camera—a real one—and wondered if she’d believe him
if he told her that it didn’t work. To have to take pictures of his fish when
he caught them was going to be difficult, because he was sure he was never
going to catch any.

When they were boys, their dad had brought
them up here to relax, but Trent had never really thought of it as a place to
relax. There was always something that had to be done. Wood to chop, though
they never seemed to burn it. Branches needed to be picked up. Again, there
seemed to be no use for them. And then there was the added bonus that the place
had no television or radio. At least indoor plumbing had been added when he was
about five, and there was power to the house. He’d hated it from the very
beginning. But he now knew that he had missed the point of the venture with his
dad and brothers.

Only after they stopped making the trip did
he get why they did it. His dad, not much of an outdoorsman either, had wanted
them to do things together. Manly things, he guessed. But all it had ever done
was make them dread it. Much like he was dreading this now. But he also knew
that he had to let things go...rest. And the only way he might be able to do
that was to simply get away from it all. And though he didn’t want to be here,
it was the best place for him.

Trent was actually looking forward to having
no phone service. Also the lack of television. What he wasn’t going to enjoy
was that he was the only one around for miles. He was terrified that he’d have
another attack and no one would be there to help him. His mother told him he
would be fine. Trent wasn’t so sure. Sometimes in the middle of the night he’d wake,
feeling the pain in his chest so badly he thought for sure it was happening
again.

After they unloaded the truck of his clothing
and the food that he’d had to bring, Sterl sat on the front part of the wrap-around
porch with him as the sun went down. It would be pitch black out soon, and Trent
was sort of worried for his brother driving in it. Not that he couldn’t handle
it, but he still worried about him. Trent seemed to worry about a great many
things concerning the wellbeing of his family these days.

At a little after ten, his brother said he
had to go. “You call to me if you need me. I’ll be here as quickly as I can.” Trent
told him he would. “You’re going to be fine, Trent. Mom just wants you to take
it easy for a little while. Hell, we all might have to take turns if this works
out for you.”

“You never know. You might come back and I’ll
have decided to live here.” Not likely, but Sterl laughed. “Be careful.”

When he was alone—and out here he really was
alone—Trent sat back on the porch and looked out over the lake. It was a
beautiful place, and the real sounds of nature beat the canned experience on
the CDs he’d recently been listening to. They were said to help you relax. Trent
had wanted to break the CD after ten minutes.

The place had been his parents’ home when
they had first married. Back then it had been one bedroom with a large living,
kitchen, and dining area all in one. An outhouse had been out back, and there
had been no running water or power. But that had all changed recently.

Trent had known that his parents had made some
updates, but he’d not known how extensive they were until now. It was as good
if not better than the home he’d just bought. And a good deal bigger. It was
huge now, even by cabin standards.

There were eight big bedrooms, each with
their own bathroom, a large eat in kitchen, plumbing, and running water to the
entire house and some places out on the beautiful deck. The living room boasted
a large fireplace and air conditioning for the hot hazy days of summer. The deep
freeze, according to his mom, was full, and the walk-in pantry was fully
stocked. He did wonder how long she expected him to stay.

The place was set for him to live here for
the rest of the summer should he want to, but he didn’t think it would come to
that. He really did have some things that he needed to take care of in town,
but in order to make his mom happy, he was here for ten days. Ten long and
lonely days, not counting when Sterl came to see him.

Going in around midnight after watching the
deer roam around for a bit and hearing every sound that was made in the woods
beyond, he made his way to the master bedroom. It had, according to his mom,
the nicest mattress. He decided to take a long, hot shower and hope that it
would relax him enough that he’d be able to sleep. Sleep wasn’t his best friend
of late.

His business was hurting a little from the
sting of walking away from Ford Enterprises. Not anything that they’d not
recover from; billing hours mostly. But he knew now that his brother had been
right. He’d come to learn that Elijah knew a great deal about business, and had
he turned to him at any point, they might have been able to foresee the issues
with Ford before it had all gone to shit. That was on his list of new Trent
laws…listen to his family and let them do more for him. Even at the risk of
driving him crazy.

Pulling a towel from the rack, Trent simply
dried himself off as he made his way to his cases that were on the bed, not
bothering with the soft pants and boxers he’d brought into the bathroom with
him. But the sight of Joe in his room had him holding the towel tightly in
front of his naked body.

“I think there’s been a mistake.” Not as far
as Trent could see, but he said nothing to her. “I was told that I could hide
out here and not have to worry about Mr. Ford trying to hurt me. I don’t think
anyone knew you were going to be here.”

“He won’t. Ford will never touch you again so
long as I’m alive.” His voice sounded thicker even to him. “I was taking a
shower. I didn’t hear you come in.”

“I should leave.” Trent took a step toward
her and she took one back. “I don’t want to be here with you. You...I have no
more use for you than you do me. It was a mistake, my coming here.”

“I’m sorry about the other day.” She didn’t
move when he took another step toward her. Trent tightened his grip on the
towel when he felt his cock hardening beneath it. “It was never my intention to
frighten you like I did. I only wanted to touch you. My wolf, he can be a
little aggressive when he sees something that he wants.”

“You should back up.” He didn’t, but took two
more steps toward her. She moved back, and when her back hit the door behind
her, Trent closed the distance between them. “Don’t touch me, Mr. Calhoun. I’m
not what you think I am. I’m not even sure you didn’t have it right when you
said we’d been set up.”

“My mate. That’s who you are and no one, not
even my father, could have tricked me into that.” He ran his fingers down her
cheek with his free hand and thought there wasn’t anything softer than her
skin. “My wolf scared you, didn’t he? When he recognized you as our mate, he
scared you. I’m sorry about that.”

“He did no such thing.” He nearly smiled at
the indignant sound in her voice but didn’t. She licked her lips then, and he
watched in fascination as her moist tongue traced along the very flesh he
wanted to taste. “You’re too close to me. Could you please back away? We can
talk in the other room, but not here.”

“Why not here?” Trent leaned down to her
mouth and brushed his lips over hers before taking her lower lip into his mouth
and nipping at it. “Is it because this is the bedroom? Or that I’m naked here
in this room with you? Am I scaring you now, Joe? Do you want to run from me
again? If you do, then my wolf is going to take me and I’m going to let him run
you down. He’d like that, to chase his mate and tear your clothing off to taste
you.”

She was aroused. He could smell it, and his
wolf was as thrilled as he was about it. She moaned slightly when he touched
his fingers to her throat then down over her shoulder. Trent wanted to take her
now, against this wall, only to toss her to the bed and take her there too. But
he also knew that he didn’t want to scare her again. Never again.

“You need to back away from me now.” Her hand
touched his arm, and he felt her heat. When her fingers curled around his arm,
as if to hold onto him, he leaned in and took another taste of her lips. “This
is going much too fast for me. I know nothing about you.”

Instead of answering her, even if he could
have, he dropped his towel and let it fall to the floor between them. As he lifted
her up by cupping her ass, her legs wrapped around his hips. Her body molded
against his like she’d been made to fit there, which, in a way, she had been.

He needed her. Wanted to mark her as his
mate, make love to her until he couldn’t move. But he didn’t want to hurt her,
and possibly scare her into not trusting him. He rocked into her heat, feeling
her need as she rolled her hips toward his. Moving his mouth along her throat
to her pounding pulse, he nipped her there.

She came then, her body holding his tightly
in her grip as she cried out her release. Pulling her to his body, he made his
way to the bed and laid her over it. His cock was tight with the need to
release. Precum dripped from the tip, and he fisted his cock so he could get a
grip on himself. But when she sat up, her body still clothed, Trent nearly
cried out when she licked his crown and held him in her mouth.

“I want to see you.” Nodding, she lay back on
the bed and started to unbutton her blouse. “Now, baby. I need you now.”

Pulling her from the bed, he staggered
slightly when her weight fell against his. Trent loved having her body close to
his, and kissed her again while he reached to the bottom of her blouse and ripped
it from her. Next were her pants. Sliding his hand down into the top of them,
he gripped the material hard, trying not to think about how her ass was right
there for him, and tore them from her as well. When she stood in only her
panties and bra, he took a step back.

“Christ.” She was more beautiful than he’d
ever imagined. And over the last several days he’d imagined her a great many
ways. When she cupped her breasts, her nipples spilling from the top of the
bra, he knew that if she touched him now he was as good as dead.

“I’ve never had sex before. I’ve thought of
it often.” He nodded, watching as she played with her breasts. When they were
naked, the bra shoved up over them, he whimpered when he saw her thick nipples,
hard as stone, being tugged on by her hands. “I’ve given myself pleasure
before. I love coming, don’t you?”

“You’re killing me. Let me see all of you.” She
nodded and pulled her bra off and dropped it to the floor. “Panties. Please,
take them off before I do it for you.”

“I don’t know why I want you so badly, do
you?” He told her again that she was his mate, his other half. Trent wasn’t
sure if he was making sense, but he was watching her fingers dance down the
front of her body. “Will you give me pleasure too?”

“Yes. As much as you want.” When she bent at
the waist and stood up, her last barrier to him gone, he dropped to his knees
in front of her. “I’m going to drink from you. I can smell how aroused you are,
and all I can think of doing is eating you.”

Not waiting for an answer, he pulled her to
him and his mouth. As soon as he took her clit in his mouth, he bit down,
bringing her to a quick climax. Trent was going to feast on her, even if it
killed him. And right now, he didn’t care if he died…he had his mate.

~~~

Joe wasn’t sure what she had expected when he
brought her body to his mouth. She knew what oral sex was…she’d have to be stupid
to have not heard of it over her lifetimes. But what he was doing to her body
right now bordered on ecstasy. More than that, it had to be the best thing
she’d ever experienced. When she came twice more, his mouth eating her as if
she were a fine steak, she felt her knees weaken each time. Trent backed her
up, using his mouth and hands, and Joe fell onto the bed. Looking up at him as
he knelt between her thighs, she thought perhaps he was the most beautiful
thing she’d ever seen.