"They could have both been killed," Ian finished for his brother.
Stefan glanced back at the four people stretched out in the sun, his aggravation mounting. He was half-tempted to walk over there, drag Jess up, and force her to help Isabelle. The house was obviously a bachelor's place, and even he'd been a little amazed by the amount of dust and filth in it. Jess had complained about it endlessly yesterday, so the least she could do was help clean it today.
"Yeah, so if this makes her happy then let her be," Ethan said firmly.
"Anything for Isabelle," Jack muttered, but he was smiling.
"What, are you scared of her?" Stefan tried to sound light, but there was a tension in him he'd never quite experienced before.
"Of Isabelle?" Doug snorted. "She growls like a grizzly, but on the inside, she's as mushy as a teddy bear. We just hate seeing her unhappy."
"Isabelle's our favorite," Jack joked.
"Hey!" Ethan and Ian objected.
Jack laughed at them as Doug nodded his agreement. "Well, she is," Doug said, biting on his lip as he attempted to keep from laughing at them.
"That's good to know," Ethan mumbled.
"Oh, she's your favorite too, and you know it!"
Ethan grinned as he ran a hand through his hair again. "What is this, break time?" Mike demanded as he strolled over to them. "Someone could have told me."
"Trust me, this isn't a break you want to be involved in," Jack muttered.
"Why is that?" Mike inquired.
"We were talking about Isabelle cleaning the house."
Mike grimaced. "It needs a good cleaning; we've been over here so much it's filthy, even by our standards. Leave her be; she's upset about Julian. They could have been killed."
"Both?" Stefan inquired. "It was Julian hanging inside the pit."
They turned to look at him.
"She would never let go of him," Ethan said with a shudder. "She'd have followed him into that pit first."
Stefan opened his mouth to protest his statement; no one would follow someone else to their death, no matter how much they cared for the person. Then he thought about Isabelle hanging over the side, holding onto her brother for dear life. She wouldn't have let go, he realized with a start. A shiver raced up his spine as he recalled the deadly spikes at the bottom of the pit.
Suddenly, he understood why the men gathered around him were so determined to make sure she was happy, why they capitulated to her wishes. He didn't know anyone else who would go over that edge. They would try to save Julian, yes, but fear for their own life would cause them to release him before they went over too. It was astounding to realize he respected and admired her for it. He couldn't recall a woman he’d ever felt that way about.
"It's a good thing you were there," Ethan said.
Stefan nodded briskly. They had already thanked him more than enough for his liking. "Yeah," he replied absently. He didn't know why he went back to the house yesterday, but he'd suddenly felt a compelling urge to make sure everything was all right. He'd run into Willow along the way.
"So, how serious is it with you and Jess?" Ian asked with a sly grin.
"Not at all, why?"
Ian shrugged as his gaze wandered out to the field. "She's kind of hot, but I thought because you guys were dating it was serious. I know I don't stick around with one woman."
Stefan laughed as he ran a hand through his hair. "Neither did I, but when you get to be my age, one night stands become tiring. It’s more convenient to just stay with one woman for a little while."
Ian grinned. "Tiring? I think not."
"Oh, trust me, they do." He knew how Ian felt; he’d felt the same way for over two hundred years. Then, things had changed, and not for the better. Stefan forced his mind away from the past; it was better forgotten anyway. He forced himself to focus his full attention on the disbelieving faces surrounding him.
"Never!" they all declared loudly.
They couldn't put a dent in the amount of women he'd had, so there was no point in trying to tell them they were wrong. They would learn it eventually. "If you want a turn at Jess…"
"Thanks, but no,” Ian said. “She's sticking around here a little too long for my liking."
"There's the queen of clean now," Jack muttered.
Stefan's gaze drifted toward the house. Isabelle was outside and making her way toward the group gathered on the lawn. The gold highlights in her chocolate hair flashed in the light. Her long, bare legs were delicately curved, and gleaming in the sun as she rapidly covered the ground toward the quartet on the lawn.
To his amazement, he found himself growing even harder as he admired the sway of her hips, the subtle 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 end of the chair. When she bent forward, the curve of her back and the patch of creamy skin she revealed 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 tired, achy, and 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 first, and some fresh air.
"You look beat, Issy," Abby said tenderly.
She nodded tiredly and shifted her weight as the plastic of the chair bit into her upper thigh. Giving up on getting comfortable, she slid off the chair to sit on the ground. Her fingers instinctively curled into the prickly grass. Inhaling deeply, she savored the fresh scent as the sun beat warmly down on her. She tilted her head back to get the full extent of
