Free Destined (Vampire Awakenings) by Brenda K. Davies Page A

gathered on the lawn. The gold highlights in her dark hair flashed in the bright light. Her long, bare legs were delicately curved , and gleaming in the sun as she swiftly covered the ground toward the quartet on the lawn.
      To his amazement, he found himself growing even harder as he admired the gentle sway of her hips, the soft bounce of her full breasts. She stopped by her sisters, and one of the twins dropped their legs down for her to sit at the e nd of the chair. She bent forward, revealing the soft curve of her back, and a patch of creamy skin that caused his mouth to water.
       Isabelle closed her eyes and took a deep breath as she allowed some of the tension in her shoulders to ease. She was stiff, tired, achy, and absolutely filthy from attacking the house with a vengeance. The bathrooms were done, the kitchen cleaned, the living room dusted and vacuumed. She only had the mound of laundry left to get through, and the dusting in the dining room. She desperately needed a break though, and some fresh smelling air.
       “You look beat Issy ,” Abby said gently.
       She nodded tiredly and shifted her weight as the plastic of the chair bit into her upper thigh. Giving up on being able to get comfortable, she slid off the chair to sit on the cool, refreshing ground . H er fingers instinctively curl ed into the prickly grass. Inhaling deeply, she savored the fresh scent of the air, and grass, as the sun beat warmly down on her. She tilted her head back to get the full extent of its soothing rays, a soft smile play ed over her mouth. She inhaled again and sighed softly as more of the tension she had been living with finally began to ease.
       “Do you want help Iss y ?” Vicky asked.
       “No that’s all right, I’m almost done. What are you guys up too?”
       “Working on our tans,” Jess replied, her tone clearly stating that she thought Isabelle was an idiot for asking the question.
       Isabelle stiffened slightly as a flash of anger washed through her. Most of her tension came flooding back as she opened her eyes and turned to look at Jess. She was leaning back in the chair, her long legs stretched out before her as she tilted her head to look at Isabelle disdainfully. Her anger notched a level higher as she met Jess’s clear blue eyes. She remembered Jess as being fun, energetic, and mischievous. She didn’t know what had happened to the little girl, but she was beginning to greatly dislike the woman.
       When she had asked Jess if she would help her clean the house, Jess had sniffed contemptuously and informed Isabelle that she didn’t clean her own house, she sure as hell wasn’t going to clean someone else’s. Isabelle had managed to keep her temper then, mostly because cleaning the house was t he only hope she had to keep her mind focused on something other than Stefan, and her fear of what he represented. However, her mission had failed, and her anger had mounted with every passing moment that she had scrubbed, cleaned, dusted, and vacuumed with him consistently filling her thoughts. Jess’s attitude, on top of her own misery, was pushing her very close to a snapping point.
       “We were talking about how Jess and Stefan met,” Vicky said quickly, obviously detecting Isabelle’s mounting ire.
       Isabelle leaned her back against the chair as she straightened her cramped legs gratefully before her. Closing her eyes, she leaned back to enjoy the rays of the sun, determined to ignore Jess, and her attitude. Fighting with her wasn’t going to do anyone any good. She pushed back an annoying piece of clinging, damp hair as she settled in. The house had been unbelievably stifling, even after she had opened all the windows to air it out. There was no breeze today and the air was heavy with the humidity of late August, but it was much more refreshing than the house had been.
       “Go on Jess,” Abby urged eagerly .
       “We met at a bar, by my school,” Jess said , yawning as