Page 20 of Vein & Vow (The Bouchers #1)

Chapter 19

Reese

“W here the hell is my hairdryer?” I called, riffling through one of the boxes that covered the living room. “It’s not in the bathroom box.”

“How would I know?” Beau called back. “I didn’t touch it.”

“Well, maybe if you’d let me pack my shit instead of hiring a moving company,” I grouched. “I’d be able to find things when I need them!”

“I wasn’t in any shape to pack your apartment, and neither were you,” Beau pointed out as he wandered into the room.

It had been nearly two weeks since Beau had been shot, and as he passed by in nothing but a loose pair of jeans, I marveled at the smooth, healed skin. He didn’t even have a scar to remember what we’d gone through that day.

Part of me thought that it was strange, but I was mostly just glad that the visual reminders were gone. I still saw his body sliding to the floor whenever I closed my eyes. I didn’t need to think of it every time I saw his bare chest.

“I can’t find it anywhere.” I sat back on my heels, looking around at the half-empty boxes. A lot of things in my apartment had been ruined, but I still had too much stuff to fit in our suite of rooms.

“Have you checked the bathroom?” Beau asked dryly, pulling a yogurt out of the fridge. “That’s where normal people keep it.”

“I already looked in there,” I shot back, heading for the bathroom anyway, just to be sure. “It was at the apartment. I didn’t bring it here.”

“I think you’re wrong,” he called.

“Shit,” I muttered, finding it under the sink.

“I knew it was in there,” he said smugly, raising his voice so I could hear him.

“Fuck off,” I said quietly.

“You’re welcome,” he replied, still in the kitchen area.

I couldn’t help but laugh as I pulled the hair dryer out and plugged it in. He was such a pain in the ass.

The last two weeks had been hard. Not only had Beau been a terrible patient, pushing himself every day even though it freaked me out, but I’d had nightmares every night that left me exhausted all day long. It was probably a good thing that I’d given up my job because there was no way I would’ve been able to work.

Learning to live together with the added benefit of trauma and serious medical issues wasn’t for the faint of heart, but we’d managed it. Beau irritated the hell out of me, and I drove him crazy half the time, but we’d started to lean into it. It was us. He was still the first face I wanted to see when I woke up and the last I wanted to see before we slept, so I figured we’d be okay.

Mordecai and Helen had left once they knew that Beau was on the mend, planning to meet up with their sons to warn them about the theory that new mates were being targeted. Matthias and his mate had already met up with Danny and planned to meet them back home in Montana.

Matthias didn’t know where Charles was, but he had met him. He said it was the happiest he’d ever seen Zeke. He also said that Charles’s sister was protective, and there was no way that they would’ve split up.

The Boucher brothers were still trying to track her passport. Charles’s passport hadn’t turned up.

“We’re just going to dinner,” Beau said, leaning against the doorway as I blow-dried my hair. “You don’t need to do that.”

“It won’t dry by the time we leave,” I explained patiently, meeting his eyes in the mirror.

“We have a couple of hours. Think of all the other things we could be using that time for,” he said, moving into the room.

“Origami?” I asked innocently, turning off the hair dryer so I didn’t accidentally blast him in the face with it. “Checkers?”

“We’re leaving that thing here when we go,” he replied, ignoring my joke as he wrapped my damp hair around his fist.

“That would be inconvenient,” I blustered as I blindly set the hair dryer on the counter. “But you did say we could buy anything we forgot at home.”

“I like it like this,” he murmured, giving my hair a soft jerk.

“It’s wild,” I countered, arching into him. I’d never get sick of the way his body surrounded me, one hand on my belly, his feet bracketing my own.

“It’s you,” he argued. “Fucking chaos.”

“I seem to remember you not liking chaos,” I reminded him with a moan as his hand slid up my torso.

“I’m embracing the chaos.” His hand slid from my breast and trailed down the skin of my stomach before sliding under the hip of my panties. “Why the hell are you wearing these?”

“Because you like them,” I replied, shimmying my hips to help him pull them down.

“Bullshit,” he countered.

“Because we’re going to dinner with your family,” I conceded. “And I’m wearing a dress.”

“So?”

“So, I’m not going commando around your parents.”

“Pity,” he muttered as he dropped to his knees behind me. “I like it when you’re bare.”

The first swipe of his tongue had me rising onto my toes, my hands sliding along the top of the counter until they smacked into the wall. I groaned in disappointment when his mouth lifted away, but I should’ve known he wouldn’t leave me. Wrapping his hand around the back of my thigh, he shoved it upward until my knee was braced on the countertop.

“Stay right there,” he ordered.

“I don’t take orders from you,” I gasped, my back arching painfully as he dove back in.

The feel of his lips and teeth and tongue brought me close to the edge so quickly that my head spun. I was right there—so close—when he pulled away again.

Seconds later, he was on his feet behind me, thrusting inside so forcefully that my arms strained as I held myself in place.

“Made for me,” he whispered into my ear, his lips trailing down to my neck as he lifted my torso. “All mine.”

“Maybe you were made for me,” I moaned, grinding my hips against his. He felt so much deeper after I’d straightened. “My soul was probably here longer than yours.”

Beau smiled against my neck as our eyes met in the mirror. “I like that explanation better.”

“God, you feel good,” I whispered, dropping my head back against his shoulder as he glided in and out of me.

His teeth pierced my skin, and I came, the waves of pleasure throbbing with my heartbeat as his hand covered my mouth. Biting down, I let his blood trickle into my mouth, and my orgasm intensified. By the time his orgasm ended and his hips stilled, I was a quivering mess.

“Your hair’s dried,” he informed me as he gently pulled out.

“I look insane,” I stated, staring at my messy hair in the mirror. It was huge.

“You’re gorgeous, Reese Matthews,” Beau argued, kissing my shoulder blade as he pulled up his jeans.

“You know,” I said nonchalantly, throwing the hair dryer back beneath the sink. “I’m not committed to that name.”

Beau paused behind me. “What do you mean?”

“You know, Matthews. It’s not like I have any emotional attachment to it.”

“That’s good to know,” he said slowly.

“So, I could change it.”

I knew the instant he realized what I was saying.

“Are you asking me to marry you?” he teased, raising his eyebrows.

“I’m saying I would be open to it,” I corrected, turning to face him. “You know, if at some point?—”

“How about tomorrow?” he asked seriously. “We’ll do it before we get your passport. Danny will be here to pick us up.”

“Not tomorrow,” I blustered, rolling my eyes. “If we get married, I want a dress and all that.”

“You do?”

“Is that so surprising?” I griped, my cheeks heating.

“A little,” he replied, catching me as I tried to escape. “You can have your dress, baby. You can have whatever you want.”

“Forget it,” I grumbled.

“Fuck that.” He immediately dropped to his knees.

“What are you doing?”

“I was going to propose like a human,” he replied, leaning forward a little, his hands on my hips. “But when I got down here, you smell so good.” My entire body broke out in goose bumps as his hot breath drifted over my sensitive skin. “And I don’t know what to say.”

“Yes, I’ll marry you,” I answered anyway, holding back a grin.

“You want my last name?” he asked, resting his chin on my belly.

“It’s better than Matthews.” I shrugged. “Reese Boucher sounds pretty good. It’s French, right?”

Beau laughed.

“What? Wait, your dad’s not French.”

“No, he’s not.”

“Then why does he have a French last name?”

“He thought it sounded best,” Beau said with a shrug as he led me out of the bathroom. The amusement in his voice made me even more curious.

“Explain,” I demanded, stopping by the bed so I could pull my dress on.

“He didn’t have a last name,” Beau replied, grabbing his shirt.

“Oh.” I paused to watch him dress.

Beau’s eyes met mine. “But for a time, he was known as Erik the Butcher.”

It took a moment for his words to sink in.

“Erik Boucher,” he continued with a flourish.

“Holy shit.”

Beau nodded.

“Your dad is really fucking old.”

He grinned.

“How is this my life?” I breathed, walking back into the bathroom to grab my underwear.

“Leave them off,” Beau ordered.

I ignored him and pulled them up my legs. “Our kids are going to ace their history tests,” I informed him as I walked back into the bedroom. “You know that, right?”

“We’re having kids?”

“At some point,” I replied distractedly. If Erik was old enough to have no surname how old was Mordecai? Or Sven?

“You knew he was old,” Beau said consolingly, laughter still lacing his words.

“Yeah, yeah.”

I searched the dresser for a pair of socks and went searching for some boots to wear in my plethora of boxes. The entire process was a nightmare. We couldn’t live out of boxes but there was nowhere to store any of my stuff.

“This isn’t going to work,” I announced, pulling the top half of my body out of a box that I’d only found one boot in. “We need to build some shelves or a closet or something. I’m going to lose it.”

“What are you missing?” Beau asked, walking out of the bedroom fully dressed. “I’ll help you look.”

“My boot.”

“Which box did you find it in? The other one is probably in the same—” His words trailed to a stop as I glared.

“It’s not just the boot. I can’t find anything in this mess, and I don’t have anywhere to put anything.” Frustration made my eyes sting as I stood up and looked around the room. “This isn’t working.”

“Do you want to move?” he asked quietly.

“I know this is a thing,” I replied, waving my arms at the room. “Vampire families live together, and I get that. I understand it. It’s nice. But we don’t fit here. What if we have kids? Where are we going to put them? I don’t even have anywhere to put my shoes .”

“Hey,” he soothed, stepping over boxes to reach me. “I hear you.”

“I can’t find anything,” I huffed, relaxing against him. “This sucks.”

“Why don’t we build our own house?” he asked after a moment. “Would that be better?”

“Are you serious?” I asked dubiously, jerking my head back to look at him.

“We’ve got plenty of land,” he replied. “My parents have always said that if we wanted to build once we had mates that?—”

“Yes,” I answered.

“It’ll take a while,” he warned. “We won’t be able to get started until we’re back from Europe.”

“Yes,” I repeated. If we built on the Boucher family land, we’d still be close, and I wouldn’t feel like I was tearing Beau away from his family—but we’d have space and privacy. I would’ve thought of it myself, except I’d never been in the position to just nonchalantly decide to build a freaking house.

“It doesn’t help the situation now,” he said, looking around at the boxes.

“Shelves,” I said, giving him a squeeze. “That will work for now. Plus, once we leave, I won’t have to look at it anymore.”

“True,” he said, reaching into a random box. When he pulled back, he was holding my other boot.

“How the hell did you just do that?” Dropping onto the couch, I pulled them on.

“I saw it when you were looking in that box earlier.”

“Figures.”

“Hey, did you ever talk to Rena again?” he asked as he grabbed his phone off the table.

“About the baby thing?”

“Yeah.”

“She’s determined,” I said with a shrug as I pushed myself to my feet. “She said she’s tired of waiting for a relationship. She’d rather pick some sperm from a catalog.”

“Just like that?”

“I think she’s been considering it for a while,” I replied.

Rena had just mentioned it to me the week before, but I knew she’d been preparing for much longer than that. I wasn’t even surprised by the decision. She’d always wanted to be a mother.

“Brave of her,” he said, walking over to pick up my coat from where I’d flung it over the back of the couch. “You ready?”

“We still have time.” I glanced at the clock.

“My mom mentioned doing drinks beforehand since Sven and Alice are leaving tomorrow.”

“Oh, sure. Give me a minute.”

It took longer than a minute, but Beau waited patiently as I found a sweater and slapped on a little makeup. The minute I tried to tame my hair, though, he walked straight into the bathroom and towed me back out.

“I have to pull it back or something,” I complained as he pulled me straight through the suite and out the door.

“I love it like this,” he countered, pausing to kiss me. “Leave it.”

“You’re awfully bossy about my grooming habits when you wouldn’t even let your beard grow in,” I chided as we went downstairs.

“It itches when it’s growing in.”

“Poor baby.”

“You want me to grow a beard?” he asked seriously.

“I mean, I wouldn’t mind feeling it between my thighs,” I mused.

Beau’s eyes widened in glee, and I nearly tripped over my own feet.

Goddammit.

“Hello, Erik,” I said quietly, just to test the waters.

“Hey, Reese,” he called back. “We’re in the living room.”

“Fuck,” I muttered.

“They can still hear you,” Beau said unhelpfully.

Lifting my chin, I swanned forward like they hadn’t just heard me talking about Beau’s potential beard between my thighs. The older couples were seated around the room, and all of them greeted us as we walked in. It was fine—everything was fine—until Alice inconspicuously toasted me with her glass and tilted her head toward Sven. He had a full beard.

I felt my face go up in flames.

“Reese and I are going to build a house,” Beau announced as he pulled me toward a chair across from his parents, tugging me onto his lap once he’d sat down. “Is that still on the table?”

“Of course, Bjorn,” Erik replied. “We’d love that.”

“I was thinking at the end of the lane,” Beau said, glancing at me. “What do you think?”

“Where we drove?—”

Beau nodded.

“It’s pretty out there.”

“Plus, you’ll already have a driveway,” Erik pointed out.

“What kind of house would you like?” Mattie asked quietly as the men discussed the steps they’d need to take to get the property ready. “Two story? Ranch?”

“I have no idea,” I confessed, feeling a little strange. Did she care that we were moving out? “We just don’t have enough room right now.”

Mattie winced, and I felt like an ass. “When we built the house, we didn’t plan very well. We knew the boys would need their own space, but we didn’t anticipate their mates and the things they’d bring with them.”

“I don’t have much left,” I replied. “But it’s enough to make walking around the living room pretty impossible.”

“I can imagine,” she said kindly. “Well, start thinking about the kind of house you’d like to build. Once the two of you are home from Europe, you can start planning.”

The conversation went on, with Mattie and Alice giving tips about what I didn’t want to forget when picking out the details of our new place. Apparently, a laundry sink should be nonnegotiable, and we needed to make sure that we had enough electrical outlets in the kitchen. My mind spun as they went on and on about shit I would’ve never even considered or cared about. I was just about to cry mercy when Beau’s head snapped up.

“Danny,” Erik said, rising to his feet.

“I thought he was getting in tomorrow,” Sven said. “Did he tell you he’d be here early?”

“No,” Erik replied, striding toward the door.

As Beau lifted me off his lap, I looked at each of them. Something was wrong.

“You’re sure it’s Danny?” Mattie asked worriedly as she followed Erik to the front door.

“Yes, I’m sure,” Erik replied, striding out onto the porch.

I was glad for the coat Beau had carried downstairs as I pulled it on, following him outside. He took the porch steps in one leap.

“Beau?” I called.

Without answering or pausing, he held out his hand. The moment I gripped it, he tugged me along faster.

“Why does it matter if Danny’s here earlier?” I asked in confusion as I practically jogged to keep up with him. “We knew he was coming.”

“He was supposed to stop in Montana for the night,” Beau replied as lights shone through the trees. “If he came straight here, something is wrong.”

“What could be wrong?” I persisted. “Why wouldn’t he have just called?”

Beau didn’t have time to answer before Chance and Danny came striding quickly through the trees.

“Get back to the house,” Chance ordered, quickening his pace as he came toward us. “Back inside.”

“What the fuck?” Beau barked.

“Get her back inside,” Danny ordered, jogging toward us.

Beau’s arm wrapped around me, and he nearly lifted me off my feet as he hurried us back to the house.

“What’s going on?” I asked, scanning the darkness around us. I hadn’t been worried when we’d walked into the dense trees because Beau was with me, but now that we were trying to escape them, my heart was racing.

“It’s fine,” Danny assured me, swinging his head from side to side. “We just need to get back inside.”

“Inside,” Chance called to his parents as we reached the driveway.

Our feet hit the porch just as Erik stepped back inside the house, and I was jostled between the brothers as they ushered me in behind him.

My throat felt thick with fear as I got a good look at Danny and Chance. They looked like they hadn’t slept in days. Chance’s long hair was pulled back in a messy French braid down the center of his scalp, and he had dark circles around his eyes. Danny hadn’t shaved in at least a week, and his red beard was scruffy. They looked like shit.

“What’s going on?” Erik asked, wrapping his arm around Mattie.

“We found them,” Danny said baldly. “We tracked the sister back to fucking Baltimore.”

“They went back?” Beau asked doubtfully.

“She did,” Chance replied. “By the time we caught up with her, they’d separated.”

“Where is Charles ?” Mattie asked.

“She wouldn’t say,” Danny replied, scratching at his beard angrily. “But she had quite a lot to say about everything else.”

“They’re far more organized than we thought,” Chance said, falling back against the wall. “She knew so much shit. Zeke told them all the things he’d figured out before he went back to his unit. They were supposed to hide until he could get back, but then he never came.”

“Why would he leave his mate?” Sven asked in bewilderment.

“Because he was convinced that someone in command was telling tales. There was no other way that humans would even know that a Vampire had found his mate unless they were getting official records.”

“I didn’t report it,” Beau said in confusion, pulling me tighter against him. “That can’t be how they’re finding out because I didn’t report Reese.”

“I did,” Mattie said softly.

Beau let out a huff of air like he’d been socked in the gut.

“He wasn’t sure if it was someone in the United States command or in Europe command, but since they were working together in South America, he thought he could poke around a little,” Danny said, shaking his head.

“Someone is leaking classified information to the humans,” Erik said slowly, like he was letting it sink in.

“That’s not even the most interesting part,” Chance said bitingly, tearing the rubber band out of his hair. “The head of all this, they’re pretty sure that it’s that billionaire with the tech company that’s cozying up with the president.”

“Unlimited resources,” Beau said, pinching the bridge of his nose.

“What’s the one thing money can’t buy?” Alice asked rhetorically. “A long life.”

Fear covered me like a suffocating blanket. Money like that made people invincible. The Bouchers were wealthy, but the man they were speaking about had more money than he could spend in a hundred lifetimes. He could just keep sending people. No matter how many times Beau stopped them, they’d just keep coming.

“Where is Ambrose?” Beau demanded.

“She’d only agree to take one of us to get Charles, and she refused to fly,” Danny said angrily. “She’s more paranoid than Matthias, I swear to the gods.”

“And she agreed to take Ambrose ?” I asked in disbelief. Out of the three brothers she could’ve chosen, he was the least personable. It wasn’t that he was rude. He just wasn’t as outgoing as the other two.

“Well, yeah,” Chance drawled. “Since she’s his fucking mate .”

“Oh,” Mattie said, her eyes widening.

“We might not want to report this one,” Danny said tiredly.

Erik snapped something at Danny, but I wasn’t paying attention. My thoughts had looped back to the realization that one of the most powerful men in the world was kidnapping Vampires and their mates. Did Charles and his sister have proof? What exactly had Beau’s baby brother found before he was killed?

I didn’t realize that I was breathing heavily until Beau’s hand wrapped around the lower half of my jaw and tipped my face toward his.

“What?”

“They’re never going to stop, are they?” I asked, fear tightening like a band around my chest. “What are we going to do? How can we live our lives if they’re just out there waiting for us?—”

“No one is going to touch you,” Beau promised, backing me into the corner by the door. “Do you understand? No one.”

“They’ll just keep coming. There will always be someone willing to take that job.”

“We just have to cut off the head of the snake, my love,” he murmured, leaning down until our noses were almost touching. “And if Zeke’s information is right, we know who that is.”

“What do we do now?” I whispered, wrapping my hands around his forearms.

“Nothing,” he whispered back. “You’re safe inside this house. So, I’m going to order dinner in, and then I’m going to fuck you?—”

I slammed my hand over his mouth as I glanced over his shoulder at the people crowded in the foyer. “Shh.”

He kissed my palm and pulled his head away.

“And we’re going to wait for Ambrose to bring his mate and Zeke’s mate home.”

If someone had told me a month before that I would be standing in the foyer of a mansion, staring into the beautiful brown eyes of my mate, surrounded by family, and feeling safer than I’d ever been in my life despite all that had happened to us? I would’ve laughed in their faces.

Family was a joke. Mates were something from tabloids and fairy tales. Safety was an illusion.

And then suddenly, because a surly Vampire decided that he wanted to see a blood bank for himself, my entire world had shifted.

He’d changed my life.

“I could go for some Thai food,” I said, sinking against his chest.

“She comes out swinging,” he murmured against my lips.

“Love you.”

“You’re the beginning and the end, Reese,” he whispered back.