Part 19 (1/2)
”I'm here, baby.” He went to her bedside.
”I want to speak to your father.”
Before Almonzo could relay her request, Samuel walked over and sat in the ladder-back chair brought in for the doctor.
Tabitha propped herself up on two pillows and stared at Almonzo. ”Alone.” Her voice held firm for a weak little dehydrated vixen.
Almonzo nodded and left without a word.
Samuel's gentle smile put Tabitha at ease. Then, her words almost drew tears from a hard man.
”Father,” she began, her tone sincere and filled with the knowledge that she loved him as her own flesh and blood. ”I want you to know and I need you to understand me...”
He quickly took her hand and tried to stop her. ”No, child. You don't have to apologize to me.”
”Yes, I do.” She felt her chin and mouth quiver. She fought it with determination. She didn't want to weep. d.a.m.n her tears for trying to stop her from saying what needed to be said. ”I want you to know I didn't give my blood willingly. I haven't told Almonzo everything about this because I knew it would only breed anger. I want you to know and someday, I will tell him the whole truth.”
At first, Samuel's gathered brow bothered her but in an instant the worry left his expression. ”My darling child, my sweet, sweet daughter-inlaw, Almonzo knows.” He took a deep breath and then released it slowly. ”Tabitha, all of the girls Darian Sabbat and his brothers took were put through torture in one form or another. I didn't want him to talk to you about it, but he knows and when you're ready to talk, he'll be ready to listen. He was warned not to push you until you are ready.”
Her tears came then. ”Will you listen?”
Samuel reluctantly nodded. ”When you're ready, I'll listen.”
”I'm ready now, then.” She dabbed her eyes with a corner of the sheet and began telling her tale of a house of horrors to a man she trusted. Her lips moved over the syllables with gentle caution and a few times she backed up a bit before she allowed herself to speak freely.
She didn't tell much because a lot of what she remembered seemed distorted. She remembered the torture and the pain wasn't something she wanted to relive with her father-in-law but the events leading up to and thereafter exposed Sabbat and his family for criminal acts. ”It wasn't Darian who inflicted the true torture of the women but one of his supervisors and I later discovered, he in fact, saved me.”
After she touched on the main events, she quickly added what she knew about their labs and their intentions to ruin the undead among them, ”In order for the poison to be effective, the blood must be perfectly tainted. I believe, and this is just my opinion, Sabbat may think tainted blood is what will kill those families who take in the virgin brides.”
Samuel looked at his daughter-in-law. ”Tainted?”
”Yes, after the...the...” it pained her to say it, ”torture, he gives the women a choice. They can either give their blood freely and he'll have it drawn using conventional methods or they can choose to be satisfied. Some actually give in to the need he drives them to feel and choose to gratify themselves with s.e.x and, of course, they expect him to feed off of them. He still has their blood drawn through conventional means because if he feeds off of them, he can't save their blood. Of course, you know all of this, I'm sure.”
”I didn't realize he tortured the girls with continual s.e.x acts.”
She immediately blushed, suspecting the medication the doctor administered now encouraged her to talk about something she'd be well served to save for her husband. She suddenly felt uncomfortable and quickly changed the subject. ”I know some of the girls they took, if it would help you, I can supply their first names and a brief description.”
”It would help. Thank you.” Samuel stood and moved the chair against the wall. ”I'm going to let you rest. I'll travel soon. You take care of that little one until you see me again.” His gentle smile lingered a little too long and she saw his eyes glisten. Maybe they watered with knowledge. Perhaps love. Either way, she felt the kinder love of a father.
”I hope you know I'd never hurt my family.”
He patted her arm. ”I know and you need to realize that you have not damaged us whatsoever...or put us at a risk we can't handle.”
She slowly closed her eyes but immediately opened them again when she heard him move away. ”Father?”
He turned slightly.
”I love you. I really love your family too. I love your son. I love him with all my heart and I will love his children until they want to run away from my love.”
He didn't really nod. His head just moved slightly forward and his jaw set as a lone tear left the man's eye. ”I never doubted it for a minute.”
Almonzo pa.s.sed the older man in the doorway. He heard Tabitha profess her love for him and it was enough said, and yet, perhaps, never enough.
He watched over her. She felt him while she drifted in and out of sleep. Constance came and went throughout the day and once she woke up to find a baby doll on her pillow. Constance returned an hour later to retrieve it. She felt the baby doll needed to be with its mother-the mother in question, of course, being a girl with coal black eyes and blacker hair who used all twelve years of knowledge to talk to her sister-in-law about motherhood.
Tabitha's exhaustion encouraged sleep. When she finally woke up for longer than a minute, hunger hit her. She stretched before she opened her eyes. When she looked over at him, she smiled easily again.
”I love you.” Almonzo said it so naturally and yet for her to tell him the same, an inner struggle began.
”I know you do.” She motioned him over to her by extending and retracting her forefinger. ”Come here and show me.”
”Are you serious? After the sick-stunt you pulled?” He chuckled as he slid next to her on their king-sized bed.
His hand ran over her stomach and she thought the caress felt heavenly. Closing her eyes, a sigh left her lips. ”Promise me when I'm fat and round, you'll still rub my belly?”
He growled as his lips moved to her middle. ”I'll do one better. I'll kiss it every morning and every night and even go in for an inside-out observation.”
She smacked him on top of his head. ”That's sick.”
”Baby, it's slick. It is not sick.” His hand went between her legs and his palm cupped her warm p.u.s.s.y. ”d.a.m.n, I hate that you wore panties to bed.” His hand immediately moved to her hip and he yanked the string lose. ”Thongs never serve a purpose. They only look pretty. You do that better nude.”
His hand went to the other side too. Snap! The material fell away as if it never existed. ”Now, then, what can I do to please you?” The pad of his thumb ran over his own bottom lip before he moved it to hers. Back and forth, he worked toward feeling the complete texture. She bit down playfully and her tongue darted in and out over the nail.
He moaned lightly. ”You're the evil one aren't you?”
”I'm trying to learn fast.”
”Then practice on me.”
Her hand slid down to his c.o.c.k and wrapped him in a gentle tug. ”How about you teach me something new or we experience something new to us?”
Almonzo froze in his own skin. ”Really? Like...”
Blue-hot eyes simmered with s.e.xual hunger. ”I asked the doctor about all acts of pleasure.” She tempted him with a kiss and then rolled over to the nightstand. ”I noticed you bought something for me.”
She retrieved a package of a.s.sorted lubricants from their bedside drawer. ”I take it you had good intentions to use these on me?”
”You certainly know how to get a man's attention.”
She bit down on her lip and sighed slowly. ”I know how to inspire one man's erection. That's not a problem.” She moved her palm back around the size of Almonzo's c.o.c.k. Squeezing him into her palm, she slid with him as he moved gently into her hand, enjoying her soothing hand job.
”Are you going to let me do what I think you're going to let me do?”