“Hey!” Ethan and Ian objected.
Jack laughed at them as Dougeagerlynodded his agreement.“Well she is,” he told them, biting on his lip as he attempted to keep from laughing at them.
“That’s good to know,” Ethan mumbled.
“Oh, she’s your favorite too, and you know it!”
Ethan grinned as he ran a hand through his hair again. “What is this, break time?” Mike demanded as he strolled over to them. “Someone could have told me.”
“Trust me, this isn’t a break that you want to be involved in,” Jackmuttered.
“Why is that?”Mikeinquired.
“We were talking about Isabelle cleaning the house.”
Mike grimaced as he shrugged his shoulders. “It needs a goodcleaning;we’ve been over here so much that it’s filthy,even by our standards. Leave her be, she’s upset about Julian. They both could have been killed.”
“Both?” Stefan askedin surprise. “It was Julian that was hanging inside the pit.”
They turned to look at him, their faces hard, and their eyes dark. “She never would have let go of him,” Ethan said, shuddering slightly. “She’d have followed him into that pit first.”
Stefan opened his mouth to protest thatstatement;no one would follow someone else to their death, no matter how much they cared for the person. Then, he thought about Isabelle hanging into that pit, holding on to her brother for dear life. She wouldn’t have let go, he realized with a start. A shiver of fear raced up his spine as he recalled the dangerous spikes at the bottom of that pit.
Suddenly he understood why the people gathered around him were so determined to make sure that she was happy, why they capitulated to her wishes. He didn’t know anyone else that would have gone over that edge. They would have tried to save Julian, yes, but fear for their own life would have caused them to release him before they went over too. It was a shock to realize that he actually respected and admired her for it. He couldn’t recall a woman he had ever felt that way about.
“It’s a good thing you were there,” Ethan said.
Stefan turned to look at him, nodding briskly. They had already thanked him more than enough for his liking. “Yeah,” he replied absently. He still didn’t know why he had gone back to the house yesterday, but he had felt a sudden, compelling urge to make sure that everything was all right. He had run into Willow along the way.
“So, how serious is it with you and Jess?” Ian asked with a sly grin.
Stefan snorted. “Not at all, why?”
He shrugged as his gaze wandered out to the field. “She’s pretty hot, but I thought because you guys were dating and all that it was serious. I know I don’t stick around with one woman.”
Stefan laughed softly as he ran a hand through his hair. “Neither do I, but when you get to be my age onenight standsbecometiring.It becomes a little more convenient to just stay with one woman for a little while.”
Ian grinned. “Tiring? I think not.”
Stefan laughed as he shook his head at him.“Oh, trust me, they do.” He knew how Ianfelt;he had felt that way in the beginning, for over two hundred years actually. Then, things had changed, and not for the better. Stefan forced his mind away from the past,itwas better forgottenanyway.Heforced himself tofocus his full attention on the disbelieving faces surrounding him.
“Never!” they all declaredloudly.
They couldn’t even put a dent in the amount of women that he’d had,sothere was no point in trying to tell them that they were wrong. That thingswould changefor them. They would learn it eventually. “Well if you want a turn at Jess...”
Ian’s eyes widened as he smiled slyly. “Thanks, but no.She’s sticking around here a little too long for my liking.”
“There’s the queen of clean now,” Jack muttered.
Stefan’s gaze darted instantly toward the house. Isabelle had come outside and was making her way toward the group gathered on the lawn. The gold highlights in her dark hair flashed in thebrightlight. Her long, bare legs were delicately curved,and gleaming in the sun as she swiftly covered the ground toward the quartet on the lawn.
To his amazement, he found himself growing even harder as he admired the gentle sway of her hips, the soft bounce of her full breasts. She stopped by her sisters, and one of the twins dropped their legs down for her to sit at the endof the chair. She bent forward, revealing the soft curve of her back, and a patch of creamy skin that caused his mouth to water.
Isabelle closed her eyes and took a deep breath as she allowed some of the tension in her shoulders to ease. She was stiff, tired, achy, and absolutely filthy from attacking the house with a vengeance. The bathrooms were done, the kitchen cleaned, the living room dusted and vacuumed. She only had the mound of laundry left to get through, and the dusting in the dining room. She desperately needed a break though, and some fresh smelling air.
“You look beatIssy,” Abby said gently.
She nodded tiredly and shifted her weight as the plastic of the chair bit into her upper thigh. Giving up on being able to get comfortable, she slid off the chair to sit on the cool, refreshing ground.Her fingers instinctively curledinto the prickly grass. Inhaling deeply, she savored the fresh scent of the air, and grass, as the sun beat warmly down on her. She tilted her head back to get the full extent of its soothing rays, a soft smile playedover her mouth. She inhaled again and sighed softly as more of the tension she had been living with finally began to ease.
