Chapter 17
After dinner that evening, Ivan and Jamie retreated to Ivan’s bedroom. Karl and Kitty were sat in the main lounge, watching TV with Thomaz. Just as they were leaving the lounge, Thomaz walked in carrying a tray full of snacks for them.
“Thanks, Thomaz,” Jamie said to him.
“Can’t watch TV without snacks,” Thomaz replied.
“What are you going to watch?” Ivan asked.
“Guardians of the Galaxy,” Kitty replied.
“I am so down for that,” Thomaz said. “Do you mind?”
“Nope, have a seat,” Karl said.
“Bed once the film is done,” Jamie told them.
“I’ll make sure they get to bed,” Thomaz replied, as Bruno and Diablo ambled into the room.
The children got on the floor to play with the dogs as Ivan and Jaimie left them to it.
As soon as the bedroom door closed, Jamie pulled Ivan close, lifted his head up and kissed the stuffing out of him. Not being stupid, Ivan happily kissed him back.
Slowly, Jamie pulled back. “I could seriously kiss you forever.”
Ivan rubbed his nose against Jamie’s. “Just as well you’re stuck with me forever, isn’t it?”
“Yeah. Will you tell me more about yourself?”
“I can do that,” Ivan said, starting to strip Jamie out of his clothes.
Jamie laughed. “What happened to talking?”
“Naked talk time,” Ivan replied, grinning. “And if sex happens before the talking part of the evening, so be it.”
Jamie laughed again and let Ivan have his way, like he would turn down sexy time with his mate. Talking was overrated.
They made love several times before drifting off to sleep.
Jamie woke sometime later, and Ivan was snoring his head off. He never knew someone could snore so loudly. He moved around and poked Ivan in the side. Ivan grumbled and turned to look at Jamie sleepily.
“Did you seriously poke me awake?” Ivan asked, with a husky just-woken-up voice.
Jamie moved closer. “I did. I never knew someone could snore as loud as you.”
Ivan rubbed his nose against Jamie’s. “Rude.”
“But true,” Jamie grinned. “Your snoring rattled the windows.”
“I’m sure that’s not true.”
“How would you know, you were asleep. I was the one listening to your loud snores.”
“If I do it again, just poke me awake. Or better yet, kiss me awake.”
Jamie grinned. “I can do that.”
“How come you are so much older than Karl and Kitty?”
“Second marriage. My mum left when I was three. Apparently, she just packed her bags one day and walked out, never to return. Not that I blame her, living with my dad couldn’t have been easy.”
“She never tried to contact you?”
Jamie shook his head. “As far as I know, no. I could have tried looking for her when I was older, but I figured she wanted nothing to do with me, so I left things alone.”
“When did your dad remarry?”
“When I was fourteen. Una never liked me, she tolerated me, and basically ignored me. Especially when dad abused me. The verbal abuse was bad enough, but his punches hurt. Thankfully, he never hit me in the face.
About nine months after they married, Karl was born, and less than a year later, Kitty came along. Thankfully, they doted on the babies, and Dad didn’t try to hurt them.
“That was lucky.”
Jamie nodded. “Yeah, I did, however, check them every day to make sure I couldn’t see any bruises.
I got a part-time job as soon as I could to start earning money.
I knew I needed to move out, and after college, I got into university, studied hard and got my degrees.
I was going to stay and do my master's, but Una started drinking heavily, and I knew I had to get Karl and Kitty out of the house and somewhere safe. I couldn’t find a decent job, so I took the job at the library coffee shop, and the rest is history. ”
“I’m glad they had you in their life,” Ivan said gently.
“Me too. They are the best, and I couldn’t love them more.”
“They feel the same way about you.”
“Yeah, I’m lucky,” he paused. “So vampire hunters are real?”
Ivan nodded. “They are. There are actually two types of vampire hunters. Vampires who hunt out-of-control vampires, like my grandmother and vampire hunters who want to kill any vampire they come across.”
“That’s scary.”
“I honestly don’t think about them. I’ve not encountered any for nearly a century, I don’t think the others have either.”
“Thank goodness.”
Ivan suddenly grinned.
“What?”
Ivan moved, and Jamie found himself under his mate. “How about we make sure I can’t snore for a while.”
Jamie put a hand around Ivan’s neck, gently pulling him down. “Yes, why don’t we?”
Jamie groaned as the alarm went off. He was laying over Ivan, leaning an arm over to the phone, shutting the alarm off, before snuggling on Ivan again.
Ivan wrapped his arms around him, pulling Jamie tighter against his chest.
“We’re visiting the asylum today,” Ivan commented.
“We are,” Jamie agreed.
“We need to be careful.”
“We will be,” Jamie assured him. “We need to get Karl and Kitty up.”
“Come on then, shower time.”