"I'm here, baby." He went to her bedside.

"I want to speak to your father."

Before Almonzo could relay her request, Samuel walked over and sat in the ladder-back chair brought in for the doctor.

Tabitha propped herself up on two pillows and stared at Almonzo. "Alone." Her voice held firm for a weak little dehydrated vixen.

Almonzo nodded and left without a word.

Samuel's gentle smile put Tabitha at ease. Then, her words almost drew tears from a hard man.

"Father," she began, her tone sincere and filled with the knowledge that she loved him as her own flesh and blood. "I want you to know and I need you to understand me..."

He quickly took her hand and tried to stop her. "No, child. You don't have to apologize to me."

"Yes, I do." She felt her chin and mouth quiver. She fought it with determination. She didn't want to weep. d.a.m.n her tears for trying to stop her from saying what needed to be said. "I want you to know I didn't give my blood willingly. I haven't told Almonzo everything about this because I knew it would only breed anger. I want you to know and someday, I will tell him the whole truth."

At first, Samuel's gathered brow bothered her but in an instant the worry left his expression. "My darling child, my sweet, sweet daughter-inlaw, Almonzo knows." He took a deep breath and then released it slowly. "Tabitha, all of the girls Darian Sabbat and his brothers took were put through torture in one form or another. I didn't want him to talk to you about it, but he knows and when you're ready to talk, he'll be ready to listen. He was warned not to push you until you are ready."

Her tears came then. "Will you listen?"

Samuel reluctantly nodded. "When you're ready, I'll listen."

"I'm ready now, then." She dabbed her eyes with a corner of the sheet and began telling her tale of a house of horrors to a man she trusted. Her lips moved over the syllables with gentle caution and a few times she backed up a bit before she allowed herself to speak freely.

She didn't tell much because a lot of what she remembered seemed distorted. She remembered the torture and the pain wasn't something she wanted to relive with her father-in-law but the events leading up to and thereafter exposed Sabbat and his family for criminal acts. "It wasn't Darian who inflicted the true torture of the women but one of his supervisors and I later discovered, he in fact, saved me."

After she touched on the main events, she quickly added what she knew about their labs and their intentions to ruin the undead among them, "In order for the poison to be effective, the blood must be perfectly tainted. I believe, and this is just my opinion, Sabbat may think tainted blood is what will kill those families who take in the virgin brides."

Samuel looked at his daughter-in-law. "Tainted?"

"Yes, after the...the..." it pained her to say it, "torture, he gives the women a choice. They can either give their blood freely and he'll have it drawn using conventional methods or they can choose to be satisfied. Some actually give in to the need he drives them to feel and choose to gratify themselves with s.e.x and, of course, they expect him to feed off of them. He still has their blood drawn through conventional means because if he feeds off of them, he can't save their blood. Of course, you know all of this, I'm sure."

"I didn't realize he tortured the girls with continual s.e.x acts."

She immediately blushed, suspecting the medication the doctor administered now encouraged her to talk about something she'd be well served to save for her husband. She suddenly felt uncomfortable and quickly changed the subject. "I know some of the girls they took, if it would help you, I can supply their first names and a brief description."

"It would help. Thank you." Samuel stood and moved the chair against the wall. "I'm going to let you rest. I'll travel soon. You take care of that little one until you see me again." His gentle smile lingered a little too long and she saw his eyes glisten. Maybe they watered with knowledge. Perhaps love. Either way, she felt the kinder love of a father.

"I hope you know I'd never hurt my family."

He patted her arm. "I know and you need to realize that you have not damaged us whatsoever...or put us at a risk we can't handle."

She slowly closed her eyes but immediately opened them again when she heard him move away. "Father?"

He turned slightly.

"I love you. I really love your family too. I love your son. I love him with all my heart and I will love his children until they want to run away from my love."

He didn't really nod. His head just moved slightly forward and his jaw set as a lone tear left the man's eye. "I never doubted it for a minute."

Almonzo pa.s.sed the older man in the doorway. He heard Tabitha profess her love for him and it was enough said, and yet, perhaps, never enough.

He watched over her. She felt him while she drifted in and out of sleep. Constance came and went throughout the day and once she woke up to find a baby doll on her pillow. Constance returned an hour later to retrieve it. She felt the baby doll needed to be with its mother-the mother in question, of course, being a girl with coal black eyes and blacker hair who used all twelve years of knowledge to talk to her sister-in-law about motherhood.

Tabitha's exhaustion encouraged sleep. When she finally woke up for longer than a minute, hunger hit her. She stretched before she opened her eyes. When she looked over at him, she smiled easily again.

"I love you." Almonzo said it so naturally and yet for her to tell him the same, an inner struggle began.

"I know you do." She motioned him over to her by extending and retracting her forefinger. "Come here and show me."

"Are you serious? After the sick-stunt you pulled?" He chuckled as he slid next to her on their king-sized bed.

His hand ran over her stomach and she thought the caress felt heavenly. Closing her eyes, a sigh left her lips. "Promise me when I'm fat and round, you'll still rub my belly?"

He growled as his lips moved to her middle. "I'll do one better. I'll kiss it every morning and every night and even go in for an inside-out observation."

She smacked him on top of his head. "That's sick."

"Baby, it's slick. It is not sick." His hand went between her legs and his palm cupped her warm p.u.s.s.y. "d.a.m.n, I hate that you wore panties to bed." His hand immediately moved to her hip and he yanked the string lose. "Thongs never serve a purpose. They only look pretty. You do that better nude."

His hand went to the other side too. Snap! The material fell away as if it never existed. "Now, then, what can I do to please you?" The pad of his thumb ran over his own bottom lip before he moved it to hers. Back and forth, he worked toward feeling the complete texture. She bit down playfully and her tongue darted in and out over the nail.

He moaned lightly. "You're the evil one aren't you?"

"I'm trying to learn fast."

"Then practice on me."

Her hand slid down to his c.o.c.k and wrapped him in a gentle tug. "How about you teach me something new or we experience something new to us?"

Almonzo froze in his own skin. "Really? Like..."

Blue-hot eyes simmered with s.e.xual hunger. "I asked the doctor about all acts of pleasure." She tempted him with a kiss and then rolled over to the nightstand. "I noticed you bought something for me."

She retrieved a package of a.s.sorted lubricants from their bedside drawer. "I take it you had good intentions to use these on me?"

"You certainly know how to get a man's attention."

She bit down on her lip and sighed slowly. "I know how to inspire one man's erection. That's not a problem." She moved her palm back around the size of Almonzo's c.o.c.k. Squeezing him into her palm, she slid with him as he moved gently into her hand, enjoying her soothing hand job.

"Are you going to let me do what I think you're going to let me do?"

"I don't see why not. Something tells me you've waited a long time to f.u.c.k my a.s.s." She laughed as soon as the proclamation fell from her lips.

"Baby, if you really knew when I first thought about it, I'd be in a lot of trouble." He moved over her and just her words hardened him to another stiff size. One that would not diminish easily now with promises handed over as a true gift.

"You'll have to swear you'll be gentle."

"I'll be gentle but never a gentleman when you're in my bed." A hungry growl left his lips as he lowered his voice. "I promise if I'm not it's only because you beg me to take you hard." His hands dropped to her cami, working it up high over her head.

Instantly, his mouth went to her nipple. He rolled the little nub with his tongue and then bit down to play with it between his teeth. He sucked it in and blew imaginary circles around it before he simply devoured her with a need he wanted to find fulfilled soon.

Her hands fell into his scalp and she began to work her fingers through his curls. "Almonzo?"

"Hmmm?" He licked lightly over her breast before he peered up at her. "What is it, baby?" The look in her eyes made him stop altogether.

"I love you." She felt tremendous relief, for some reason, just by saying those three little words.

"Oh, sweet mercy h.e.l.l." He held his palms over his heart for theatrics. "It sounds better to hear you say it to me rather than overhear you tell my father."

Before she could protest or scold him for eavesdropping, he captured her lips and punished her for refusing to use them sooner. He kissed her sweet mouth into a natural pucker and then he danced with her tongue because he knew how to take the lead in any oral exploration. "You are going to be so happy you made me a loved man."

"You are impossible."

"No, I'm good. I'm d.a.m.n good." He moved in between her legs and urged them apart, using both hands to spread her open. "Tell me you at least know how f.u.c.king hot I am for you." He ran his c.o.c.k gently against her leg.

"Hmmm...I see," she agreed as first one finger, then another tested her. Her little hips began to move with the invasion.

"Want more, don't you, baby?" He bit hard on his lower lip because, if he didn't, he might bite her instead.

Her hips arched forward and allowed her to press against his hand as he asked for a better compliment. "By the end of the night," he began to scissor his fingers inside of her, moving with the stretching sensation he felt under his touch, "you can just refer to me as Mr. Wonderful." He chuckled as he watched her face dance with amus.e.m.e.nt.

"Show me what that tongue of yours can do and we'll see if you earn the t.i.tle there, big guy." Her legs fell open even wider and her hips rotated upward.

He covered her p.u.s.s.y with his promises. "Maintaining my wife's needs will always be my main priority." He lowered his mouth to take the first taste. Swiping once wouldn't be enough. He already smelled the sweet smell of honey s.e.x and if she wasn't ready for him, she would be by the time he finished working her into a l.u.s.t-filled cave of pure, sweet pa.s.sion. Then by G.o.d, he'd find out what her tight little a.s.s could do for a man his size.

That was when someone started pounding on their door.

Chapter 21

The pounding wasn't going to go away. Almonzo's chin rested above her p.u.s.s.y on her pelvic bone. Her hand moved restlessly across his head as he shouted at the would-be intruder standing on the other side. "d.a.m.n it to h.e.l.l! It's after dawn. That means I get to have time with my wife without interruptions! Go the h.e.l.l back where you came!"

Tabitha's eyes were heavy. d.a.m.nation, they should be l.u.s.t-filled with nothing but erotic need on her naughty little lips. After all, his were dripping with every taste of what she'd already ridden out as foreplay. If eliminating her desire for him soothed her tired little body, it only worked to motivate him more. And undoubtedly, after tasting her on his lips for a good half-hour, he d.a.m.n sure possessed a hard incentive to finish what he'd started here.

Bang! Bang! Bang! "d.a.m.n you Almonzo! Open the f.u.c.k up!

Almonzo detected the urgency and finally moved away from her. "f.u.c.k it." He stood up and walked over to the door and opened it to find a wild-eyed Orlando.

"Get dressed. Now! It's Father." With a cell phone pressed to his ear, he motioned him back upstairs. "I'll meet you both in the pod.

Almonzo nodded and reached back to grab his pants. By the time he started up to the main foyer, Tabitha was only two or three feet behind him. Not a word exchanged between them. Maybe they already knew what to expect. Maybe silence spoke to them in a thousand different languages. Only one seemed loud and clear. Trouble loomed. Heartache would be found. Just one or two more steps forward and in the family pod, they would discover the fate Samuel Spenser met with her helpful hand.

Marion's eyelids were swollen with grief as she cried into the phone. "Are you sure? Why? Why now when we are just starting to see our boys start their own families? No. No. No!"

Orlando stood at his mother's immediate left and his wife stood behind her chair. Natasha's hand rested easily on Marion's shoulder. Almonzo searched his brother's face for answers and he appeared resigned to the fate they were going to be forced to accept.

Almonzo listened to his mother's cries become more frantic.

"I can't do this without you. I cannot. I will not. Negotiate, Samuel. That's what we do. We are Spensers. d.a.m.n you, I said you will not give up! Samuel, listen to me! Listen to me now!"

Almonzo reached gently for the receiver. "Mother, give me the phone."

She clung to the phone with a death grip. "No! I will not let you talk to him. He's dying. He's dying without me there to hold him. The very least I can do is hold onto him now with my words." She jerked away from Almonzo and when she did, shrugged her shoulder away from her daughter-in-law.

"Mother, let him have the phone," Orlando coaxed. "We have to know what we're up against and we won't know if you don't give one of us the phone."

"Go away! Leave me alone with your father! Leave me!" Her raging eyes pierced through each of her boys and their chosen wives. Orlando motioned for Almonzo to go into another room and pick up an extension. He quickly returned with a handheld.

"Don't you pick up that phone," Marion threatened. He didn't have a choice so he ignored her.

"Father?"

"Son." He received the same monotone in return.

"Talk to me, Father. Tell me what you see."

"I see bars all around me, son."

"Okay, let's hang on here." Almonzo spoke with compa.s.sion. "What else do you see?"

"Death, son. I see death." Samuel Spenser didn't know the word quit, yet his voice shook with a profound certainty that his end came near.

"No, let me talk to your Father," Marion interrupted. "I want my moments with him to be well spent. Please, Almonzo. Please let me go to his grave with him."

Her whimpering hurt to hear but as painfully as her tears fell, more important issues were pending. His mother didn't understand but perhaps later she would see why talking to him, understanding what he'd been through, needed to be heard.

"Mother, please!" Orlando stepped out into the hallway. "Tate! I need something for Mother now!"

Almost instantly, Tate appeared with a sedative. Marion wasn't even aware her son injected her with the serum. It didn't matter. She only wept more.

"Father, stay with me. Where are you?"

"Barcelona."