Chapter 63

"Sailing?" After swallowing and taking a sip of juice, I was able to speak. "In what?" I'd sailed across the Atlantic on a clipper ship, but that had been nearly two hundred years ago. Any other experience I had with boats involved private yachts, with big, powerful engines and uniformed stewards.
"It's a little two-man catamaran. If we tip over, the worst that will happen is we get wet, and the water's warm." He took the stool on the other side of me from Christos and accepted the huge stack of waffles Elek handed him.
"So you're triplets." I tried to remember what I knew about lion shifters - the name Leonides was kind of a giveaway. Multiple births were pretty common, I thought. "Who's the oldest?"
"Me."
Somehow I wasn't surprised that it was Theron, the businesslike, responsible one.
"I'm the baby." Christos elbowed me playfully. "By a whole half-hour over Elek. I was born at twelve fifteen a.m., so it was enough to give me my own birthday while those two have to share."
"Our mother always denied that." Theron rolled his eyes. "She claimed the birth certificate was a mistake, and it was actually eleven fifty-one. What little we did for birthdays was always together."
"Ah, but in her heart, she loved me best." Christos couldn't quite keep a straight face, and Elek whacked his shoulder with a wooden spoon.
I couldn't help laughing along with him. Their antics brought back memories of what it had been like to have siblings, yet they didn't make me sad. I had Dani and Ari now, and while I'd always miss Felicity and Cecily, my life really had moved on.
"Where's Dermott tonight?" It didn't seem right to totally forget about the man who'd made me scream just this morning and held me as I slept. "You didn't drown him, did you?"
Elek snickered. "Thought about it a time or two, but not since we were teenagers, sneaking out at night. He's in the office, making some calls - we convinced him to give us a chance to get to know you a little on our own."
"So what do you want to do tonight?" Christos lifted one hand to the nape of my neck and rubbed it gently. "Swim? Sail? Walk on the beach? Play board games?"
I chuckled, bending my head so he could work - it felt marvelous. "Is it so obvious that I have no idea what to do with free time?"
"Pretty much." Theron laced his fingers through mine. "I get the same way if I'm not careful, but these two clowns kick me in the ass and make me take a break now and again."
"I guess I'll put myself in your expert hands." Moisture slicked the top of my thighs just thinking about what they'd come up with. I'd finally given up on fighting my attraction for them all. "But I do think we should include Dermott. It's his island after all."
"Of course." Elek leaned over and kissed my forehead. "We like our fourth musketeer. Wouldn't want to leave him out." He turned back to the stove, put a lid on the gumbo pan and lowered the flame to a simmer.
"Why don't we start with a tour of the island?" Theron swallowed his last bite of waffle. After he'd chewed and swallowed, he took his plate over to the sink. "I'll go get dressed. One of you can round up Dermott and we can meet out on the terrace in ten. Sound good?"
His two brothers nodded.
"You'll want shoes, sweet thing - sandals at least." Elek came around the island while Christos took my empty plate over to the sink. When had I finished the second waffle? Wow. I hadn't eaten so much in one sitting in years. Good thing we were going for a walk. Another thing vampires can do that people don't realize is gain weight.
"I'll walk upstairs with you." Christos offered me a hand. "Elek can go get Dermott.
"Okay." I stood and let him keep hold of my hand while we walked up to Dermott's room. I found a pair of sport sandals that met with Christos' approval and put them on, sitting down on Dermott's bed to do so before following Christos to the door.
"One more thing, cutie." He paused as soon as we were out in the hallway.
"What?" I looked up into his intense, tawny eyes.
"This." He cupped my chin in one hand and kissed me. It was gentle, but my shock had me opening my mouth, and he took the opportunity to sweep his tongue inside, tasting me as if I were dessert.
My nipples hardened and I kissed him back, pressing my body up against him for just a moment. I could feel the length and thickness of his erection pressed against my stomach through the thin cotton of my dress and his knit running shorts.
It was over in a few heartbeats. Christos pulled back and licked his lips. "You taste better than Elek's Key lime pie." He touched the tip of my nose with his finger. "Guess we'd better go."
I nodded, too confused to speak. This weekend was already way outside the realm of my experience. I hadn't exactly been celibate in my two hundred years, but I'd always been fairly...circumspect, I guess. At least compared to this.
Christos caught my hand and pulled me toward the stairs.
Halfway down, I saw Dermott, casually dressed in khaki shorts and a lime green polo shirt. The heat in his eyes had my feet pausing on the steps. Christos just grinned and tugged me gently to get me moving again.
"Good evening." At the bottom of the step, Dermott took my other arm. "You're looking lovely, my dear. Did you sleep well?"
I'm sure I blushed. "You know I did. Everything was perfect." Except for the part where I'd woken up alone. I still wasn't sure I was happy about that.
Dermott's lips brushed against my ear. "I hated to leave you, but you needed rest badly and you seemed to be sleeping so peacefully. Don't expect the same restraint tomorrow." He ended with a soft nibble on the shell of my ear, just as we met the other two brothers at the terrace door. Elek and Theron held open the double French doors so I could pass through without either of my escorts letting go. They fell into step behind us as Dermott and Christos led me across the flagstones to a series of steps leading down the slight incline to the beach.
"Piano Key is small, but because the house is so elevated it's above the storm surge line from hurricanes. We do have retractable steel shutters on all the windows and skylights, so we've never had a problem. When I'm not here, a couple from a nearby island boat over a few times a week to keep an eye on the place."
"Did you name it Piano Key?" My feet sank into the soft white sand at the base of the steps.
"Actually no. I think that was one of the reasons I bought it - I couldn't resist the name. From the air, the island is shaped something like a grand piano. This beach is the concave side of the curve, where the water is calmest."
"The straight edge - the keys of the piano - is pretty rocky." Elek gestured off to the right. "That's why we said you needed shoes."