Beth blinked her eyes open and gawked briefly at the two men before catching herself and closing them again. She couldn’t believe those were the words in Donny’s head . . . and about Leigh too! Damn, he was lucky Lucian hadn’t killed him. That amazed her, but no more than how hot the young man’s thoughts were! Especially when spoken in Scotty’s deep, sexy voice. She’d actually envisioned all that happening as he spoke the words . . . only to her, wearing her candy-apple-red shoes. And it hadn’t been Donny but Scotty doing the stripping, licking, and slow screwing.
Damn, Beth knew what she’d be fantasizing in bed tonight. It was just a shame she couldn’t actually act it out with Scotty for real. But the man was over eight hundred years old. Unmated immortals started losing interest in food and sex and things like that sometime after their first hundred years as an immortal. By their two hundredth year they were usually pretty much off both, and they stayed that way until they met their life mate.
Beth had been an immortal for nearly a hundred and twenty-five years now, but hadn’t found her hungers waning at all yet. She loved food, all kinds of it, and she enjoyed sex . . . most of the time . . . well, maybe half the time. The truth was, she hadn’t really been fussy on sex while mortal, but that probably had more to do with her situation than anything. Since the turn, though, she’d wanted sex, but was most often left feeling unsatisfied by it. Beth had no idea why. It wasn’t like she didn’t have orgasms or anything. She did. It was just . . . the best way she could think to describe it was that it was like when you were craving cherry pie, but had only apple. It could be the most amazing apple pie in the world, but still wasn’t the cherry pie you were really yearning for, and you were left feeling slightly dissatisfied. That’s how Beth found sex since the turn. Like it was good, but it just wasn’t quite measuring up. Weird.
“But how do you cut out the commentary?” Donny asked now with frustration. “It just comes out. I don’t know how to not think.”
“Ye do. Ye just ne’er try to censor yourself because ye’re used to thinking yer thoughts are yer own,” Scotty said firmly. “I’ll no’ lie, it’ll be hard and ’twill take some time fer ye to learn, but ye can do it. We all had to. And ’tis better to make yerself do it ere a stray thought has an older immortal thrash ye, or worse.”
“Or worse?” Donny asked warily.
“I ken o’ immortals who ha’e been killed fer stray thoughts they did no’ control,” he said solemnly. “And I’d no’ like to see ye added to that list.”
“Neither would I,” Donny said unhappily.
“I’ll do what I can to help ye with it.”
“Thank you. I’d appreciate that,” Donny said sincerely.
Another brief silence fell and then Donny asked, “Your life mate?”
“What?” Scotty sounded confused.
“Earlier you said, ‘Did ye have such X-rated thoughts about my life mate, ye’d no’ be long fer this world.’” Donny reminded him. “So? You do have a life mate?”
“Nay. Well, aye, I do,” he confessed. “But I have no’ claimed her.”
“What! Why?” Donny asked with an amazement shared by Beth.
“’Tis a . . . delicate situation,” Scotty said uncomfortably.
“Delicate how?” Donny prodded.
Beth half expected Scotty to tell the boy to mind his own business. Instead, he muttered, “She was no’ ready yet.”
Donny was silent for a minute, and Beth could almost hear his brain ticking as he tried to work that out. And then he said, “Like she’s not ready because she’s too young? A kid?”
“Something like that,” Scotty muttered evasively.
“How young?” Donny asked with obvious curiosity.
“It does no’ matter,” Scotty said shortly, and ended the conversation by saying, “I did no’ sleep well last night. I’m going to get some shut-eye.”
Beth lay awake for a while. At first she was hoping Donny would get Scotty to say more, but then she got to thinking about the fact that Scotty had met his life mate. It might be the reason for his suddenly being nice to her. After all, that would make anyone happy. Of course, his not being able to claim his life mate because she was too young was a wrinkle. Especially since, having met his life mate, all of his hungers would now be reawakened. He’d have a taste for food again . . . and sex. Food wasn’t a problem, but if his life mate was too young to claim, he would have no way to sate his reawakened urges for sex other than to look elsewhere.
For a moment, Beth briefly toyed with the idea that he might be open to an affair with her. The idea of actually having real sex with the man instead of the fantasies and dreams she’d been enjoying for over a century was not something she’d ever even considered. Now she did, and just the thought of it set her body tingling.
It wouldn’t be like cheating for him either, she assured herself. After all, if his life mate was too young, and he hadn’t yet claimed her, they weren’t a couple. That sounded reasonable to her.
The stumbling block was that Scotty had never seemed to like her very much. And still might not, she considered. His behavior toward her had been pleasant enough so far, but it wasn’t like they’d had much of a chance to talk. No, she was probably the last person he’d be interested in bedding. Which might be a good thing, she decided. After over a century of sexual fantasies about the man . . . well, it wasn’t likely that he’d be able to live up to the Scotty of her dreams. That would be terribly disappointing.
Sighing, Beth let the brief idea go and allowed herself to finally drift off to sleep.
“I don’t see anybody,” Donny said. “Do you see anybody?”
Beth stifled a yawn as she glanced around the small airfield where they’d landed. It was made up of a long strip of tarmac, at the end of which was a large hangar, and a small building with huge glass windows making up the wall that overlooked the landing strip. Not spotting the standard black SUV either parked or driving toward them, she shrugged and suggested, “Maybe they’re a little late.”
“Maybe,” Donny allowed. “Or maybe Mortimer wasn’t able to get a hold of anyone. He said to call him if no one was waiting here for us. I better call.”
“Be my guest,” Beth said wearily. Once she’d fallen asleep, she’d fallen hard and hadn’t woken again until Scotty had shaken her awake to let her know they’d landed. She still wasn’t quite awake. She needed a coffee. Her gaze focused speculatively on the small building next to the hangar, and then she headed for it. They might have a coffee machine or something. Maybe. Hopefully.
“Wait!” Donny said, lowering his phone when she started away. “Where are you going?”
“I’m going to see if they have any coffee inside. Do you want one too?”
“But—Scotty’s still talking to the pilot. Shouldn’t we wait for him?”
Scotty had taken on the duty of retrieving the envelope Mortimer had mentioned from the pilot. Beth had been too tired to be annoyed at his taking over again and had merely headed out of the plane to see if their ride was here. Now she paused and turned back to say, “Yeah, and you can do that. I’m getting coffee and coming right back. Again, do you want anything?”
“Uh . . .”
Shaking her head, Beth turned to walk away, saying, “One regular coffee coming up.”
“A hazelnut latte if they have them,” Donny called after her. “With skim milk, and sweetener.”
Beth just shook her head and kept walking. What did he think? Was he expecting there to be a fancy café inside serving lattes, cappuccinos and biscotti? And . . . really? A hazelnut latte with skim milk and sweetener?
“Dear Lord, he’s a girl in disguise,” Beth muttered to herself as she reached the building. Opening the door, she stepped inside and cast a quick glance around the small, empty waiting area. It wasn’t very impressive. The floor was a dull gray tile, the walls a muddy cream. A single row of six upholstered seats sat on a supporting beam that was bolted into the floor facing the windows, but the faux leather of the seats was torn in several places and marked with graffiti. Beth noted two doors on her right—a men’s room and ladies’ room—and then focused wholly on the vending machines along the wall on the left. She headed for the one with a picture of a cup of coffee on the top and another picture, this time of coffee beans, on the bottom.