“Illegal?” I asked.
It was the only word, other than the phrase sex with Jean Paul, that jumped out at me. I mean, I knew I was younger than her, but how young did she like them before me?
“Do not tell me what you are thinking,” she said in a voice that could give one nightmares. “And I have slept with him—many times over the years, but not the way you and your pea sized brain think.”
“Raquel, I am so close to being beheaded by your mate, that I’m putting the poor bastard out of his pain. I’m her brother,” Jean Paul volunteered with a grin.
The tension in my body left and shame took its place. “Explain,” I ordered. This was certainly a mortifying lesson about trust… and what a pig I could be.
“Although you don’t deserve it, I will,” Raquel said as she stared angrily at me, her eyes narrowed dangerously.
“Fine point, well made,” I agreed.
She paused in surprise and took me in. It was rare for a Vampyre to be humble, but I was being an untrusting ass to the one woman I would die for. I was going to need a few lessons.
“After royal polygamy was abolished, my mother left my father and married a human man. She gave birth to Jean Paul shortly after I’d chosen to be turned. My mother and Jean Paul’s father both died in a plague when he was still a baby… so I took him in.”
“She raised me and spoiled me rotten.” Jean Paul reminisced fondly. “When I became of age, she gave me the choice to live out my life as a human or become a Vampyre and spend eternity with her making my life a living Hell. I chose the later because I love her. Completely. She is my blood and I will die for her,” Jean Paul vowed.
I now felt lower than a slug.
“So yes, I have slept in the same bed with my sister. When I was a child, I was terrified of the dark. Raquel, who by the way is tone deaf, would cuddle me and sing to me for hours. The agony of listening to her massacre tunes kept the imaginary monsters away,” he announced with a chuckle and a wicked glint in his eye.
“Now that’s just rude,” she admonished him as she blushed in embarrassment.
“Does the King know?” I asked as I tentatively approached Raquel and Jean Paul. I wasn’t sure if I was welcome yet—or ever.
“Of course he does. My father loves Jean Paul like a son,” she stated. “Jean Paul is the one who likes it to be kept a secret. If our enemies knew he was my brother, they would try and use him as collateral against me.”
“So brother-in-law, there you have it,” Jean Paul said as he stood and put his hand out to me.
I took it in mine and lowered my head in respect. “I’m sorry.”
“If you hadn’t been such a dick, I wouldn’t have made you suffer like that,” Raquel said still keeping her distance. “I was excited to tell you about Jean Paul. He lives here in my home with me.”
“I am her brother. However, very soon you will come to realize she treats me like a child,” Jean Paul added with a chuckle.
Raquel’s eye roll and snort pulled a small smile from my lips. God, my jealously had certainly fucked up this little family get together.
I now recognized what I couldn’t put my finger on. Their relationship was similar to mine and my sister Cathy’s. His cockiness with me in Kentucky and his anger at my mule headed ways where Raquel was concerned now made perfect sense. Also now that I knew, I could see the resemblance.
“Again, I’m sorry. It seems I have little self-control when Raquel is part of the equation,” I apologized once more to Jean Paul.
“Well, chasing a stubborn gal for several hundred years would no doubt do that to a man,” he added letting me off the hook with a lopsided grin. “I overheard that the King and Pam are coming. I’ll get things ready.”
“How did you hear that?” I asked, positive we hadn’t spoken of it since we’d been back.
“I was at the Summit of course,” he replied with a satisfied smirk. “I’m never far from my sister.”
“That’s slightly disconcerting,” I muttered thinking about some of the more pornographic interludes she and I had shared.
Jean Paul’s belly laugh brought a smile to Raquel’s face and my own wasn’t far behind.
“Dear God.” He groaned and shuddered. “No worries, my friend. Only in public venues do I track my sister.”
“He can morph,” Raquel informed me with pride.
“He can what?” I asked, confused.
“My baby brother can take the human forms of others and walk undetected among us. Of course I know it’s him, but I’m quite sure you wouldn’t be able to tell,” she bragged.
This was new to me. I was aware Demons could take other forms. I’d seen Satan do it myself, but a Vampyre? I stared at Jean Paul with a new respect.
“I beg to differ,” I challenged with an offended raised brow. “I’ll be able to tell. Morph into your sister. I will tell you who is who.”
I turned my back and waited. Raquel’s giggle of delight made me hopeful that the panty privileges threat had been a bad joke.
“If I’m right, you will remove the ban on me getting into your panties,” I informed her with my back still turned.
“And if you lose, you are going to get very friendly with your hand for the next two months,” she pronounced grandly.
Shit. I was going to get this correct. I had to get this correct.