Obsessed with Fur [3xtasy Lake 4] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Read online

  “Oh, well, no but I’ll figure out something. I’m sorry to have bothered you.”

  “Wait, don’t hang up.” He didn’t like the tone to her voice. There was desperation to it making the hair on the back of his neck bristle. “Why don’t you tell me your name?”

  “No, I don’t want to bother you.”

  “It’s not a bother. I can text Mai and let her know you’re looking for her.” He waved at his brother, who flicked the game off as soon as Jelani caught his attention. Thankfully it took only a quick look to convey that there was a problem.

  “My name is Jessica Tam.”

  “The Jessica Tam who works for Gordon Roberts?” Jelani remembered Mai telling him about Gordon’s assistant who was in a relationship with a completely obnoxious asshole.

  “How did you know?”

  “Vencel mentioned you the other day. He asked if I could drop some papers off at Gordon’s downtown office tomorrow for you.”

  “Aren’t they in Toronto?” The panic was becoming more apparent in her voice and he could hear her breathing speeding up. She was practically panting on the phone.

  “No, I’m sorry, they aren’t. They caught a flight earlier today to Montreal for the weekend.” The line fell dead, and for a moment Jelani thought that he lost the call or she hung up. “Jessica?”

  “I’m scared.”

  Jelani might not know this woman, but he wasn’t about to leave her on her own. He grabbed his coat off the back of a chair and smacked Marcario on the shoulder. Tucking the phone into the crook of his neck, he pulled on his shoes as he spoke. “I’m coming to get you, right now.”

  “It will take too long. He’ll find me.”

  “No he won’t. Is he near you right now?”

  “No, I don’t think so.”

  “Can you find somewhere to hide? Go to a public place where there are lots of people, and stay there. Do not leave for any reason, and my brother and I will come and get you.”

  “You don’t know what I look like.”

  He could hear the whooshing of wind through her phone, so she must be moving outside as she spoke, and that made him feel better. “We’ll find you, Jess. Watch for us. We’re both in jeans and winter jackets. Marcario is wearing a red hat and I’ve got a black one. We’ll be together. Do you have a coat on?” It wasn’t unusual for a woman escaping a bad situation to leave with nothing but the clothes on her back.

  “Yes, I’ll head to Nathan Phillips Square.”

  “We’ll meet you there. I’m on a landline right now so I’m going to hang up, Jess. I’ll call you back on my cell and talk to you until we get to you if you want.”

  “No, I think my phone has GPS. I have to throw it away, or he can find me.”

  “Why don’t you turn your phone off for now but keep it with you in case of emergency. You will be safe with us, Jessica.”

  “I know. Mai told me about you.”

  “Any of the bad stuff was lies.”

  She laughed and he felt a moment’s relief. “See you soon, Jessica.”

  “Good-bye, Jelani.”

  As soon as she hung up, he did as well and tossed the phone on the counter. Marcario was already standing by the door with his coat and boots on. “What’s up?”

  “Mai’s friend left her boyfriend. She sounds terrified and panicking.”

  “He has been abusing her, then.” Darkness edged the features of his brother’s face. Marcario couldn’t stand to see women abused in any way either. “Mai was afraid of that.”

  “We’re going to keep Jessica safe.”

  Chapter Two

  Jelani didn’t want to go through the bother of getting Vencel’s car. Getting around Toronto was a bitch on a good day, and a busy Friday afternoon during rush hour wasn’t a good time. It was easier to grab a cab so they wouldn’t have to find parking. Typical of November’s unpredictable weather, the freezing rain had turned into wet snow as the temperature fell and the wind whipped it around. In a few weeks, Nathan Phillips Square would be filled with people ice skating. In this weather, people were rushing around trying to get home.

  “I wish I had thought to ask her what she was wearing.” Jelani scanned the area, looking for anyone who might meet Jess’s description. He tried her cell but she’d turned it off. Marcario had texted Vencel while in the cab and got a general description of her. They didn’t want to upset Mai, so Vencel and Gaspar were keeping this from her for the time being.

  “Let’s walk the perimeter. If she’s frightened she probably stayed to the edges.”

  They made it to the other side of the reflection pool when a woman stepped out from behind one of the trees in the peace garden.

  Her hands were clasped tightly by her stomach and she took a couple steps in their direction before stopping to look around. It was obvious she was nervous by the way she constantly checked her surroundings. Jessica had delicate features that reminded him of some of the fairies in Mai’s favorite children’s book. She wore her hair pulled back in a tight ponytail that emphasized her facial features. Her eyebrows gently curved over large eyes. He couldn’t tell the color from here, but finding out felt like an imperative. Her lips looked soft and made for kissing. His fingers itched to trace along her delicate jaw and then along her lower lip.

  He grabbed Marcario by the arm and nodded in her direction. The closer they got the slower she walked, and Jelani could see the panic coloring her features. Her skin was so pale that in this dimming light she looked like an otherworldly specter. Neither he nor his brother were small men, opposite to their sister, and Jelani feared that might intimidate Jessica. Marcario stopped a distance away and grabbed Jelani’s arm to stop him from going further. Marcario had great instincts when it came to people’s moods, so he followed his brother’s lead.

  She edged closer and Jelani could almost imagine her acting like a shy animal, wanting to come close but afraid of being hurt. They saw a lot of this behavior in some of the areas they worked overseas. People wanted help but were afraid to come too close in case they were hurt further. He held out a hand and waited. Keeping his tone even and soft, he spoke to her. “Jessica, I’m Jelani. We spoke on the phone, remember? This is Marcario.”

  His brother nodded at her and gave her a soft smile as well. “It’s nice to meet you, Jessica.”

  She darted a quick look around before stepping closer to them. “You look like your sister.”

  “Yeah, poor Mai. She never was all that pretty.” Marcario grinned at Jessica’s shocked reaction.

  “That’s a terrible thing to say. She is beautiful, and I know that her men would object to you saying that.”

  Jelani continued to look around. He learned quickly in the Congo what type of body language to look for. Not all the predators in Africa walked on four legs.

  Jessica stood there wringing her hands and then clutching at the front of her jacket. She pulled it away from her throat and gasped for breath.

  “Jessica, are you okay?” Jelani stepped closer and hunched down, trying to mask his size. He didn’t want to intimidate her, but he was growing concerned for her health. Her eyes were wide open and she seemed to be breathing much too quickly and far too shallow.

  “I’m a trained nurse-practitioner. Is it okay if I help?”

  She nodded and he gently wrapped his fingers around her wrist. “I’m going to take your pulse.” Glancing down at his watch, he counted her rapid beats. “Are you feeling short of breath? Are you on any medication you might have forgotten to take?”

  “No, I can’t seem to breathe properly.” She gasped between every other word.

  Her pulse was fast but strong and he couldn’t be certain if it was a problem with her heart or anxiety. “You need to calm down a bit. Why don’t we move over to one of the benches over there?”

  Marcario scooped her up and carried her over to a planter. “What are you doing?” Jessica clutched at his brother’s jacket, her eyes wide with fear.

  “Making certain you don’t crac
k your head open if you faint.” Marcario sat down and held her in his lap. “This thing is cold. My lap is much warmer.”

  She blinked, gasping for breath. Jelani cupped her jaw in his hands. “Jessica, you need to calm your breathing. Now, do you have any heart problems that could be causing this?”

  Jessica shook her head. “I can’t calm down. I think I’m dying.”

  “You’re not dying.” He slid his hands over her shoulder and let it rest on her upper arm. “I think you’re having a panic attack.”

  “How do you know?”

  “Because my sister used to suffer from them and she described them to me.” A familiar stab of guilt ran though him. He and Marcario felt terrible when Mai admitted to them how bad her panic attacks had gotten while they were away. His little sister had almost become a prisoner in her own home, and neither he nor Marcario had known about it. It was Vencel and Gaspar that helped her through them. While he was happy that she didn’t suffer from them anymore, he still felt guilty that he and Marcario weren’t there for her. We’re never around anymore, much like our parents weren’t.

  “Make it stop.”

  “You need to calm your breathing, Jessica,” Jelani tried to explain as Marcario rubbed her back, his hand going in rhythmic circles around her shoulders. “Your body is reacting to the anxiety you’re feeling and has been dumping massive amounts of adrenaline into your system. That is fueling the natural fight-or-flight response, only yours is in overdrive at the moment.”

  “Put your hand here.” Jelani pressed her hand against his chest. “Can you feel me breathing? I want you to breathe with me, okay? Don’t worry about anything else, and try to match my breathing.”

  Concentrating on her own breathing would take her mind off her panic and he gradually helped her get her into a slower breathing pattern. While he did that he stroked her jaw and kept his fingers on her pulse in her wrist. After a few moments he noticed it started to slow down a bit and tears welled in her eyes.

  “Come home with us, Jessica. We’ll keep you safe.” Marcario hadn’t said much up to this point but Jelani could see that his brother was as fascinated with this woman as he was.

  Jessica darted a look around and then nodded at them. “I need to call Gordon. He’ll know what to do.”

  “He’s on his way down from Ecstasy Lake already. I called Vencel on the way over here, and Gaspar took care of it.”

  Marcario got his cell phone out of his pocket. “Here, Jess, I want you to call Gordon. Let him reassure you. Tell him that we are going to take you back to the condo and that way he knows you’re with us. Talking to him will reassure you both. Tell him that he can pick you up at the condo.”

  She nodded as she turned her attention to the phone. Jelani smiled at Marcario. His brother had a talent for helping to calm people down. By talking to Gordon, Mai wouldn’t be as fearful of the two of them, because someone she trusted would know where she was and who she was with. Her conversation was short but he could almost see the anxiety in her posture start to melt away.

  “Okay.” She bit her quivering lower lip. “I’ll see you in a few hours.”

  After hanging up she passed the phone to Marcario. “Thank you for that.”

  “You feel a bit better?”

  She nodded, but her breathing still seemed far too shallow, and Jelani understood that she would still be feeling the effects of the panic attack. Jelani wasn’t certain if it was from her nerves or the cold, but they needed to get her somewhere warm. He pulled a package out of his pocket and ripped it open. Sliding two small envelopes out of it, he shook them, mixing the chemicals inside. “Here, Jessica, take these and put them in your pockets.”

  “They’re hot.”

  “And they will get hotter. The heat they give off will help to warm up your core without burning you. You can put your hands in there, too, but it might get a little too hot for your bare fingers.”

  “Isn’t it a bit early in the year to be carrying hand warmers around?” she asked.

  “We’ve been living in Africa for the better part of a year and I’m trying to get used to Canadian weather.” In fact, Jelani was looking forward to getting back before the Canadian winter really kicked in.

  Marcario took that opportunity to stand up, keeping Jessica in his arms. “Come on, let’s get you out of here and somewhere you will feel safer.”

  “Agreed.” Jelani patted her arm to get her attention. “Jessica, do you think you were followed here?”

  She darted looks around her, her eyes wide with fear. “No, I don’t think so. What if I was?”

  “It doesn’t matter if you were, Jelani and I won’t let anyone get near you. Stop wiggling. I’m not going to put you down.” Jelani watched a flash of annoyance roll over Jessica’s features before acceptance smoothed them out. Large flakes of snow drifted down from the clouds and the wind died off. Marcario held Jessica close to his chest and she seemed resigned to allow him to carry her. She curled her face into his chest and didn’t look around. The holiday lights from the enormous tree almost sparkled in her hair. Jelani felt the strangest feeling, as if all was suddenly as it should be.

  They caught a cab and tucked her safe in between them for the ride to the Solfalvi’s condo. She didn’t say much and meekly rode in silence. It gave him a moment to take a good look at her. Now that they were inside, Jelani could see that her hair was multilayers of colors from really light blonde to medium brown. She was incredibly quiet, but he wondered if she had a temper buried under there somewhere. That brief flash of annoyance promised a spirit that he hoped hadn’t been crushed under the boot of some asshole. The thought made him want to find her boyfriend and exchange a few physical comments on his treatment of women. He and Marcario had seen abused women go back to their abusers time and time again and been unable to do anything about it. At least today they could help one woman.

  “Do you need to go back to your place for anything, Jess?”

  “No, there wasn’t anything there that I can’t live without. Most of my clothes he chose and I didn’t really like anyway. I can replace mundane things like bathroom stuff with a quick trip to the drugstore. Geoff likes to keep our apartment like a showcase so I didn’t really have anything personal there.”

  There was sadness to her voice. It was refreshing to hear that she wasn’t completely materialistic, but Jelani felt bad for how lost she sounded. She took off her coat and he had to make a mental effort not to fall to his knees in front of her. Jessica was beautiful.

  Wearing yoga pants and a tight tank top with a sweater over top emphasized her perfect body. She didn’t have an ounce of anything extra on her. He knew enough to know that bodies like that didn’t come easily, and he could appreciate how many hours she must have spent in the gym to look like that. He’d never understood the gym mentality himself. Why run on a treadmill when he could run outside, or spend six months sweating his ass off in a rainforest inoculating children and giving them a healthier life?

  Still, she didn’t act like the gym bunnies he and Marcario had met in the past. Back at the condo, Marcario got a thick, hand-knitted blanket off the back of the sofa and wrapped it around her. Jelani went and hung her coat up in the closet and by the time he got back, Marcario had gotten her to curl up on the sofa. Her eyes closed and Jelani wondered if she had fallen asleep that quickly.

  “When do you both head back?” They had told her about their work in the Congo in the cab on the way over.

  “We’re flying out in a couple days,” Jelani replied. “That’s why Mai, Gaspar, and Vencel came down here first before going to Quebec. We spent the last couple of days together and had a great visit.” They’d also found out that he and Marcario were going to be uncles in the summer.

  “I would understand if you both wanted to go out. I can’t imagine you have much chance in the middle of a third-world country to go bar hopping and such.”

  Jelani wondered what she meant by “such,” but didn’t ask. Marcario walked back into t
he room at that point with a mug in his hand. He’d heard Jessica’s comment and turned an amused look at Jelani. They had planned on perhaps meeting someone to bring home. Being dry in Africa didn’t always mean the weather.

  With Jessica there, Jelani really didn’t feel the urge to go and find someone to play with between him and his brother. He glanced up at Marcario and his brother gave an almost imperceptible shake of his head. He didn’t want to go out, either. Staying here with Jessica felt right.

  Marcario sat down next to her and passed her the mug. “Here, Jess. It’s hot, so be careful.”

  Jelani glanced into the mug. His brother’s famous spiked hot chocolate.

  “Does this have alcohol in it?” Jelani could see the concern written all over Jessica’s features.

  “A little bit, not enough to impair your senses, but it might warm up your insides a bit. “

  “It won’t work.”

  “Give it a try, Jessica. You might be surprised.”

  She chuckled. “I wouldn’t be the only one.” As soon as the words slipped from her mouth he saw her eyes widen as if she let a secret slip. Quickly she sipped at the hot beverage

  That was an odd comment. Jelani felt as though he missed something important but the look of bliss that crossed her features distracted him.

  “Oh, my god.” Jess moaned, licked her lips, and then took another sip. The soft hum sounded a little orgasmic. Jelani’s cock leapt to attention, lengthening behind the zipper of his jeans. He casually grabbed a throw pillow and dropped it in his lap, resting his arms on it.

  “My secret recipe.” Marcario wore a Cheshire-cat grin at her reaction. He also crossed his legs angling slightly away from her. He must be having the same reaction I did.

  “Do you know how long it’s been since I had chocolate?” Jessica moaned and licked her lips again. “And is that peppermint mocha Kahlúa in there? It’s delicious.”

  “You have a sensitive tongue, Jess.” Marcario grinned down at her and Jelani fought the urge to smack his brother on the back of the head. He settled for glaring at him over Jessica’s head when she took another sip.