Finding Hope: A Reverse Harem Paranormal Romance, page 4
A smile graced her lips, and then she burst out into a hysterical fit of laughter. “You, need my help? You must be joking.”
“No, unfortunately, not joking.”
“You have to be. Thank you, Hope. I really needed a laugh. Things have been so dull around here.”
“I’m serious, Francesca, I really need your…oh.” I stopped talking when a man and woman came into the living room. The woman was completely naked from head to toe. I looked away, my cheeks on fire. “I’m sorry, I didn’t realize you had company.”
“Yes, you just walked into my home unannounced, thinking I had no life. I have people to please, Hope. Well, more like people to please me.”
“You could have said something.”
She snickered. She was enjoying my uncomfortableness. She walked over to the man and woman. She caressed the woman’s arm and looked into her eyes. “Get dressed. Forget our glorious encounter. Go home to your family, and be happy.” She was compelling her. She did the same to the man.
They walked out of the room to do as they were told. Like they were puppets. Compulsion was such a dirty trick.
Francesca’s eyes met mine and no doubt she could see the disapproval on my face. “What? Never had a threesome before?”
“I don’t really care about your sexual preferences. You should just do it with people that are willing.”
“I didn’t compel them to have sex with me.” She was insulted by the accusation. “They came here of their own free will. Some people like to have a good time and experiment sexually. Sorry I forgot I was talking to the virgin werewolf.”
“You don’t know the first thing about me or my sex life.” For some reason I felt the need to defend myself against Francesca’s insults. I shouldn’t care what she thought. But I did.
I think it had something to do with the fact that she had been with Wyatt too. There was a time when Wyatt loved her. He looked at her the way he looked at me once upon a time.
I didn’t used to be this jealous type of girl. I hated that I had become this way, but I liked Wyatt too much to not give in to my feelings.
“Or lack thereof.”
“It just so happens I have had sex. Thank you.”
She smiled. “Well, isn’t that refreshing. You and Knight finally shared vanilla love.”
“It was with Wyatt, actually.”
There I went again. I just couldn’t bite my tongue. This was absolutely none of Francesca’s business.
She narrowed her eyes at me. “Wyatt? Now that I find surprising. You never cease to amaze me, Hope Sinclair.” She rolled her eyes. “Speak of the devil now.”
The front door burst open and slammed against the wall. “Hope, you’re really starting to piss me off!”
Starting?
Wyatt came into the room and walked right up to me.
“Sup, Wyatt?”
“What the hell are you doing here?”
“I imagine the same thing you’re doing here.”
“I thought you were smart.”
“Excuse me?”
“The things you keep doing are bordering on stupid.”
“Wyatt, don’t call me stupid.”
“I said the things you’re doing are bordering on stupid.”
“Same difference.”
He nodded his head. “Not really.”
“Aww, look at you two,” Francesca said. “Do you want me to give you a moment alone?” She winked at Wyatt and smirked.
Wyatt huffed and looked down at me. “Not everything needs to be shared, Hope.”
“What do you two want? I’m quite busy.”
“Destroying the place?” Wyatt said. He grabbed a bra from the top of the floor lamp and made a face, throwing it at Francesca.
“That’s not mine,” she said. “You and I both know I’m much more endowed.”
“I don’t really care about your boobs Francesca,” I said. “We’re wasting time. We need to talk about your brother.”
That piqued her interest right away. “What about my brother?”
“He’s back.”
The look of shock on her face told me she had no idea, which meant he still wasn’t contacting her either.
“So you didn’t know,” Wyatt said. “I guess little bro isn’t happy with you.”
“No, I didn’t know.”
“He turned Jade.”
“He what?” She came closer to me. “Into a vampire?”
“What else?” Wyatt said.
“Shut up,” she said, holding up her hand to Wyatt. “Do you know that for sure? She wasn’t just compelled?”
“No, she was a vampire. Speeding bullet, blood sucking, evil looking vampire.”
Francesca sighed. “I’m sorry. I like Jade. I’m so sorry that she has to go through this. She’s an amazing girl.”
“Was,” I said sadly.
“What do you mean?”
“Your brother turned her into a monster. It’s like she’s not even Jade.”
“I guess he really has turned into our father. No doubt he used the same techniques on her that he’s used on him countless times. A new vampire is easy to manipulate. They’re confused and capable of believing anything. Especially if they’ve been starved.”
“You think Kane starved Jade?”
“He may have.”
I didn’t want to imagine what she’d been through these last few months. God, it was like Stockholm syndrome. She must have been terrified and all she had was Kane to guide her through it.
It was no wonder she was following his every word and command.
“How do we fix her? How do we fix Kane?”
Kane was doing terrible things, but I knew that deep down he wasn’t a terrible person. There was a time when he helped me.
He gave himself up to his father to try to help me. I felt responsible for what Kane was like now. If there was a chance I could save him, I would.
“You don’t. It took Kane over a century to become a better person. Darkness is in his nature. He’s just like our father. He fought it for a long time, but he’s apparently succumbed to his true nature.”
“So you’re just going to give up on him?”
“No. I’ll give time to have his tantrum and hopefully in another century he’ll come to his senses.”
“A century? We don’t have a century. He wants to torment me and this town. And what about Jade? She’s stuck with him.”
“Which makes her a lost cause too. Hope, I’ll give you a little friendly advice, even though we’re not friends. Forget about Kane and Jade. Leave town. Hell, leave the country. Your life is a blink to Kane. Live your life and hope that he never finds you.”
I glared at her. That wasn’t going to happen. Maybe she was right about Kane. I might not be able to save Kane. But I was sure as hell going to save Jade.
“Thanks for nothing.”
“What she said,” Wyatt said as he followed me out of the living room.
“What? You two aren’t interested in a threesome?”
I didn’t dignify her with an answer. Neither did Wyatt.
I had to get out of that house. Kane’s house. I couldn’t breathe in there.
Every day I was finding it harder and harder to breathe. I was being backed into a corner. Everyone wanted me to leave town and I was starting to come to the devastating conclusion that maybe they were right.
Chapter 9: Wyatt
Hope slammed the door to my house as soon as she got through the front door. I stopped and shook my head. This was all Francesca’s fault. Her and her stupid brother and father.
Of course they would be trouble. They were related to her. It must have run in the family.
I opened the door and shut it behind me. I found Hope in the living room looking at the fireplace. She was sitting on the floor with her knees hugged up to her chest.
“Leave me alone, Wyatt.”
I sighed at the scratchiness of her voice. She had been crying. I already suspected on the way home, but she was good at hiding her feelings from me. A quality we had in common.
I hated to see Hope cry. I hated that Francesca made her cry.
I mean, she was stating the obvious, but she didn’t have to be so mean about it.
“Hope, we need to talk.”
“I said leave me alone. That means I don’t want to talk.”
“Hope, you have to stop doing whatever you want. You can’t be roaming the town and visiting people like Francesca. She’s not on your side.”
“She’s Kane’s sister. She’s the only person that might know him well enough to be able to stop him.”
“You’re thinking she’s a good person. She’s not, Hope. She’s only out for herself.”
She shot a look at me. “No offense, Wyatt, but you’re a bit biased, her being your ex-girlfriend and all. You can’t stand her.”
“For good reason. She’s the devil.”
“Yeah, so is her father and brother. She’s the perfect person to help.”
“If she wanted to, which she doesn’t. So drop it and drop trying to save Kane. You’re the one that needs saving.”
“Wyatt!” She got up. “Take me home.”
“No.”
She stopped and looked at me angrily. “Wyatt, I don’t want to be around you right now. Take me home.”
“No.”
Her lips pursed and she went towards the door. I appeared in front of her. “Get out of my way. If you don’t want to take me, I’ll walk by myself.”
“What the hell is wrong with you? Do you not get that there is a psychotic vampire on the loose and…”
“He doesn’t want me! Kane doesn’t want to take me, he wants to torment me and all of my friends. He wants to watch me suffer first, so don’t worry. I think we’ve got time before he takes me with him. But hey, you probably won’t have to witness that because he’ll more than likely kill you to hurt me too.”
She took deep breaths and was on the verge of crying.
I looked into her eyes, my hands coming up to rest on her shoulders to get her to look into my eyes and really hear me.
I couldn’t compel her, but I could make her listen.
“I’m not gonna let that happen and neither is anyone else that cares about you. Hope, I’m not going to let anything happen to you or any more of the people you care about.”
“You can’t promise that.”
“No, I can’t. But I can promise you that I will do everything in my power to take Kane down.”
“What about his father?”
“First thing’s first. Kane needs to be controlled. And we need to get your friend away from him.”
“We don’t even know where to find her and we haven’t been able to use a locator spell on her.”
“Something tells me it’s not going to be hard to find Jade going forward. I think now that they’re out in the open, they’re staying that way.”
“I want to save her, Wyatt. She didn’t deserve this.”
“I know. She didn’t. Neither do you.” I smiled down at her. “We’ve got this, Hope. You’re not helpless. You’re a strong witch, capable of great things.”
“Don’t forget a werewolf.”
I rolled my eyes sarcastically. “I try to forget that part.”
She laughed and my heart swooned. Her laughs were so rare these days that when I did manage to get one to escape her lips it sounded like an orchestra was playing. She had such a beautiful laugh. It was tragic that she didn’t laugh more often.
Hope looked up at me, her eyes gazing down at my lips. I knew that look, and I knew I should tell her to stop. She was in a vulnerable state.
I was by no means a good guy, but when it came to Hope, I couldn’t do anything to hurt her.
“You’re sad.”
“When am I not these days?”
“We shouldn’t. I don’t want to take advantage.”
“Oh, shut up.” She stood on her toes and pressed her lips to mine. I didn’t have it in me to stop myself from picking her up and kissing her back.
She wrapped her legs around me. I held her up against me and devoured her soft lips.
I ran us up the steps and right into my room, closing the door behind me and dropping her onto my bed.
Her hands went up to her head from the sudden motion. “I kind of love it when you do that.”
I smiled. “I’ll be sure to do it more often.”
She lifted herself up from the bed and took off her shirt. She wasn’t the same Hope that came to Salem Point a year ago.
This Hope exuded this confidence that I found sexy as hell. I’d like to think I had a part in that, but I think it had more to do with triggering her werewolf gene. That and all the chaos that surrounded her constantly.
I took my shirt off and laid on top of her, switching our positions so that she was on top of me, straddling my lap.
I sat up and kissed her lips, running my hands through her hair, which came down to the middle of her back now.
Hope ran her hands up and down my chest, her breaths coming faster.
I unbuttoned her jeans and slid my hand into her panties. Her breath hitched at the feeling of my fingers inside of her.
I smiled. Nothing brought me more pleasure than bringing pleasure to Hope.
She held onto my neck, throwing her head back.
I could tell she was already close.
She sat forward and unbuttoned my pants.
I flipped our positions, quickly throwing my pants aside and grabbing hold of her pants and panties. I took them off in one swift motion.
I admired her body for a good moment. I would never lose amazement of how beautiful Hope was.
“Wyatt,” Hope said, her breath shaky with desire.
I took my briefs off and laid back on top of her. She wrapped her legs around my waist. I pressed myself inside of her, slowly at first.
She threw her head back and let out a moan, wrapping her arms around my shoulders and trying to pull me closer to her.
I pressed into her again, our bodies finding a perfect rhythm.
The sounds alone coming from Hope were enough to bring me close to the edge.
I never felt this way before. Being with Hope was more than just being with Hope. It was like our minds and bodies became one.
It was an exhilarating feeling and a feeling I never wanted to end.
Chapter 10: Hope
When I woke up, I was alone. Wyatt wasn’t the best sleeper and the smell of coffee told me he was already in the kitchen getting breakfast ready.
I learned more and more about Wyatt everyday. One of those things being that he was actually pretty good at cooking.
I got up and put my clothes on from last night. I went out into the hallway and ran into Christian.
“Hey.”
He smiled. “Good morning.”
“Morning.”
“Did you sleep okay?”
“Yeah, you guys have the softest sheets. I don’t know anything about thread count, but I’m guessing yours are a high number.”
He laughed. “Yes, Elizabeth won’t touch a sheet under twelve hundred.”
“Sounds like her.”
We walked downstairs and into the kitchen. Elizabeth was already sitting down at the table. Wyatt was flipping pancakes in his tight boxers. He was shirtless, but he had an apron on.
“Morning, Hope. Coffee’s waiting for you, scorching hot, just the way you like it.”
“Dear God,” Elizabeth said, looking up at Wyatt in disgust. She looked at me. “You’ve turned him into a real housewife.”
“My darling sister. Bite me.”
“Don’t tempt me. I’m already curt with you.”
“Why?”
“My night was dreadful. I know you two had a splendid time, but please, try to be considerate of the other people that live in this house.”
I sat down across from Christian and furrowed my eyebrows. “What do you mean?”
Elizabeth sighed and put down her cup of hot tea. She folded her hands and looked at me with a smirk. “Even without vampire hearing, you’re quite loud, Hope.”
I felt the heat radiating my cheeks. I cleared my throat.
Wyatt came up behind me and placed the coffee mug down in front of me. “Don’t let her get to you, Hope. It just so happens that she’s being rather hypocritical.”
“Very true,” Christian said, smiling at his sister.
“Christian, don’t take his side.”
“I’m not. Just speaking the truth.”
Elizabeth rolled her eyes. “For the record, I’m only teasing. I think it’s great that you’ve come to feel so comfortable in our home. One could say it’s practically your home too now.”
“Speaking of which, I should get home. Gemma texted me. She wants to talk about something before she has to head to work.”
“I can drive you after you eat.”
“Thanks, but just the coffee is cool. I’m not very hungry.”
“Coffee is not breakfast. We’re not leaving until you eat at least one pancake.”
I rolled my eyes.
Elizabeth was right. Wyatt was becoming a real housewife.
* * *
Wyatt stayed outside until I got inside of the house. I guess the whole overprotective thing was kind of sweet when I thought about it. Even if it did make me feel like I was being smothered. I couldn’t really blame him. He was just looking out for me.
Everyone was. I should feel grateful, not bite their heads off for it. I was afraid I might be acting like a brat.
I didn’t want to be difficult. It was just so frustrating how my life was right now.
I guess it could be worse though. I could have been killed by Kane and turned into a vampire.
I walked into the living room and found Aunt Gemma sitting next to Caleb. I furrowed my eyebrows and looked between them. “What are you doing here?”
Caleb smiled awkwardly and Aunt Gemma sent me a look of disapproval. Apparently I was being rude.
“I didn’t mean it that way.”
“I know,” Caleb said. He stood up. “How are you Hope?”
“I’m fine. How are you?”
“I’ve been okay.”
