Forbidden Alliance: A Werewolf's Tale (Forbidden Alliance Trilogy) (48 page)

Bloody hell!
She
did not just say just that!

Everyone was laughing, even Jay Dee
was
, b
ut we were
about to see how long her good mood
would last
once she
saw
her birthday present
s
.

“Duckie,
will you be so kind as to close
eyes and not peek?”
I asked as we drove down her street.

She glared at me, causing
those in the backseat to
laugh again.

“Why?”
Jay Dee demanded. “I shouldn’t have to close my eyes for a stupid MP3 player unless you got one as big as my house,” she pointed out.

Steffen pop
ped his head between our seats
.
“Because he wants it to be a surprise, duh.
Tanis is a very giving person.
For our two century wedding anniversary, he gave us one of his island manors
.
I think he got tired of listening to me and my lovely wife going at it for days at a time.”

“Oh my god,” she groaned
.
“Ew.
You didn’t do some weird Extreme Makeover Home Edition on my house did you?
I’m
so
going to kill Jarvis.”

Huh, that
is actually
a brilliant idea
.

“No.
Perhaps
for Christmas,” I
said and smirked when she groaned again; Jay Dee knew
better than to give me ideas.
“Humor me, please.”

“Fine,” she
groaned then
stuck her tongue out at me and closed her eyes, covering them with her hands.
“I swear I will kick your ass from here to Portland and back if you spe
nt a ridiculous amount of money
.”

Sadly, that does not surprise me.

“I
see your beautiful lips moving,
Duckie, however I h
a
ve
yet to hear anything come out of them,” I
teasingly sang
.

When I pulled up in front of her house, Steffen inadvertently whistled, eying the beautiful car.

“
Stay and keep your eyes closed
or Romeo
shall
assist you with the task.”

I was out and around the
car
before she could argue.
I helped her out of the vehicle and up the driveway, where Jarvis had washed the car and put a big—ridiculously big—bow on the roof.

“Stop there,
” I whispered and stepped back
and cupped
my bollocks in case she got physically violent.

Jarvis joined us, skipping down the front steps with a smile on his face.

“Okay, open them
,” I said and
took another step back
...
ten steps back; she
was
terrifying when
narked
.

Jay Dee huffed and opened her eyes.
“Take it back,” she said curtly.

“No,” I
said and
backed up against m
y Range Rover
, partially hiding behind Steffen who was shaking with contained laughter.

“You can’t be serious?”
Jay Dee groaned and
turned
around
.

Needless to say, she
was surprised to see me hiding, as far away from her as possible, behind my cousin.

She laughed
and shook
her head
.
“Tanis, are you hiding?”

“No?”
I said, though
it was not
convincing
in the least
.

Jarvis wrapped his arms around
her.
“Come on
, Sis
.
It’s hot at hell
...
I got to drive it, and
, I had to admit,
I would totally do him for a gift like that.
Okay, that makes me sound gay,” he
said
and laughed
.

“Cowerin
g vampire, get your ass up here
,
” Jay Dee
huffed, then
stomped her foot
before pointing
to the ground next to her.

I sulked up to her,
with
my bollocks
cupped
still,
leaving my
cousins laughing hysterically behind me.

“Happy birthday,” I
offered and
smiled wide, readying myself for her fury.

Jay Dee groaned again, and in a surprise move, wrapped her arms around my neck and kissed me.
“I am still kicking your ass for this,” she whispered.
“Thank you, it’s beautiful.”

“So are you,” I informed her.

“You can stop cupping your balls now, I’m not go
ing to hurt them.” She
snorted, rolling
her eyes.

Jarvis groaned then
sniffed.
“Wait.
You two had sex!”
he hissed.

“What?”
Jay Dee
gasped,
and positio
ned
herself between
me and her irate brother.

“That’s the only reason why you wouldn’t have attacked or went off on him.
You screwed a damn vampire
!
” he
snarled
at her.

She shrugged and nodded at the same time.

They started arguing under their breaths in that damn tribal language that I desperately needed to learn. She pushed him and he pushed her back, then they both stopped when I appeared between them, snarling at him.

“It would be in your best interested, Mr. Jarvis,
if
do not touch her like that again.”

Jarvis glared at me.

“It’s okay,” Jay Dee assured me. “That’s what siblings do...they
playfully
banter back and forth and shove each other. It isn’t a big deal.”

I nodded and stepped to the side of her, within reaching distance of her brother in case he did, in fact, attack.

“Damn it, Sis
! M
om and
D
ad are going to kill you!”
Jarvis whispered as he looked around to make sure that weren’t lingering about.

“No they won’t,” she snapped at him in a harsh whisper.
“They won’t find out about it, just like they didn’t find out about the bail money I had to wire down to Las Vegas when you got into that fist fight with that
transvestite
.
Remind me
again, Bro
, was it second or third base you got to before you noticed she had balls?
!
”

Romeo and Steffen fell into each other laughing.

I tried to maintain a straight face, but my shoulder heaved with contained laughter.

“Shh,” Jarvis growled
.
“You promised.
And it was more
like on the way to second base
...sliding into second base I suppose, but
I hadn’t gotten there yet.”

“Whatever,” she
huffed and
rolled her eyes.
“He had hands like Andre the Giant and a damn Adam’s apple you could see from space!
Either way, shut it.
And thanks,” she
whispered and
kissed him tenderly on the forehead.

Jarvis shrugged, and when Jay Dee turned her attention to the car, he glared at me.
“I’m going to kill you,” he mouthed.

I flipped him off
.

“Stop it, before I kick both of your asses,”
Jay Dee
warned
as she caressed
the contours of the car.
“Please tell me you didn’t pay retail.”

“
I did not,” I assured her. “
The interior is black
, thus there is no need to fret
about ruining
the interior
with grease from work
since you are hell bent on working still.”

That
was a Jay Dee worthy
excuse
. Honestly,
it just happened to come with black interior.

She nodded and pulled the bow off of it, but to my disappointment, didn’t get in it.

“Do you like it
?” I asked, fighting to keep the threat of rejection from showing on my face.

“Not at all,” she
scoffed before she gave
me that notorious Jay Dee you-just-asked-the-
daftest
-question-in-the-history-of-mankind look.
“I love it.
Are you ready to party?” she
asked with a heavy sigh
.

I nodded and my face fell.

“Screw it,”
Jay Dee
said
before she
started jumping up and down like a
young woman
who just got a new car for her birthday.
She was rambling so fast about the engine and the specs that I
couldn’t
catch half of it.
Jarvis had to pull her back when she
attempted to crawl under the hood
in her white dress—she promised the car
they had
a date to play under her hood later.

Honestly
, that
wa
s the response I was hoping for
, and it made me smile.

Jay
Dee wrapped herself around me
and kissed all
over my face.
“Thank you so much
...it’s way too much, but I know that you aren’t going to take it back so I’ll just...thank you
.”

“
Surely you must know, Duckie, that there is simply nothing I would not do for you
.”

She quickly nodded and wiped away the tear that ha
d
rolled down her cheek.

Eventually we made our way to the party.
Jay Dee
walked with
her arms
wrapped
around her waist between
me and Jarvis
.
I would have liked
nothing more than
to hold her hand, but the glares and rude comments flowing freely around us made it more than
obvious
that any type of intimate con
tact would cause an uproar
and scandal
.

Mum and Toran
were sitting with Sky
and Reign around the bonfire
. They were talking like lifelong friends; Toran and Reign were speaking in hushed whispers that even my ears couldn’t pick up, while Sky and Mum were huddled together looking through a picture album, each wiping away
tears
more than once.

Children were laughing and playing, running around and wrestling. Younger teens were arm wrestling, grappling or leg wrestling while laughing and talking
shite
to each other. Women were flirting and laughing loudly while waving their bottles of beer through the air as they got into the story they were retelling.

I was conflicted.

On the one hand, I like
d
how
at ease
everyone
appeared
for the most part
, and it made me think
that
it
might be a
slightly enjoyable
night.
On the other hand,
the cynical side of Tanis,
I
felt
as if
I
had
stepped into a country music video.
It
wasn’t
helping that Jay Dee put some worn brown cowboy boots on with her dress.
She look
ed amazing,
but they wouldn’t have
been my first choice; she look
ed
like a country girl in her simple white cotton dress, boots
,
and long blonde hair
that was
curling down her back.

“He
y, Sweetheart
,” Sky beamed
.
“Do you like the car?”

Jay Dee
shook her head
.
“No, not at all.
It wasn’t
frivolous
enough for my tastes.
There wasn’t a diamond on it anywhere.”
She s
norted
, giving her mother a look.
“Do you think?
Oh well, I’ll just have to suffer through it.
Do you need help with anything?”