Page 30 of Vanessa’s Bravery

“And your wife? She accepts you like that?”

Gabriel chuckled unexpectedly. “She wouldn’t have it any other way.” There was a sparkle in his brown eyes that now looked like they had a golden rim around the irises.

“But why would you need two—” Cole stopped himself, meeting Gabriel’s eyes.

Gabriel didn’t speak, but held his gaze, until something in Cole’s mind clicked. He suddenly realized what the second cock was for.

“I believe you just answered your own question,” Gabriel said. “I knew you were a smart man.”

A quiet ringing sound came from Gabriel’s pocket. “Excuse me.” He pulled his cell phone from his pocket and took a step away. “Yeah?”

There was a brief pause. “I’ll be there in twenty minutes.” He disconnected the call and turned back to Cole. “I have to get back to work.”

In the middle of the night? Maybe he really was an enforcer for the Mafia. But it was best not to ask any questions. Gabriel had taken the time to explain to him what his condition really meant, and he was grateful, though he now had even more questions.

“Thank you, Gabriel,” Cole said. “I wish we could talk longer.”

“Let’s exchange numbers,” Gabriel offered. “I would love to introduce you to my family. As I said, my wife’s a doctor, and my youngest son deals with the same issue as you right now. But my oldest son, he’s found his mate, and he’s gotten his second cock.”

“You have adult sons? You don’t look old enough for that.” In fact, the man looked the same age as Cole.

“Good genes. And you should meet my daughter. She hasn’t found her mate yet.”

“Uhm…” Cole didn’t know what to say. He was only interested in Vanessa, even if it was stupid to have feelings for a prostitute.

Gabriel suddenly put his hand on Cole’s forearm. “I didn’t mean to overwhelm you. Let me give you my number, and when you’re ready to learn more about satyrs, or want to meet my sons to talk about what they’re going through, just call me.”

He pulled a card from his pocket, and Cole took it.

“I really appreciate it. Everything…” He nodded. “It’s given me lots to think about.”

A moment later, Gabriel left. His head spinning, Cole slowly walked back to his car. He got inside and locked the doors, and then just sat there, staring into the distance.

Had Gabriel spoken the truth? Might the grotesque growth really one day turn into a second cock? And if that was the case, would the woman who caused this change in him really want him and everything that it entailed? And would he want her?

But what if Gabriel had lied to him? What if all this was just one big fat April Fool’s joke? Or worse, some sort of scam.

Fuck!

He didn’t know what to think, how to feel, whether to be happy or angry, frustrated or hopeful, confused or relieved. Or maybe everything at the same time.

To say he was overwhelmed and a little more than just skeptical when it came to the information the scarred stranger had imparted on him was the understatement of the century.

Didn’t the revelation that he was a satyr only underscore the very fact that he was a freak of nature?

He needed to think. Maybe sleep on it. Perhaps tomorrow he could figure out what this news meant for his future.

16

Cole had spent half the night scouring the internet for information on satyrs, but there was nothing that suggested that a satyr had two cocks. A permanent erection, yes, as well as an insatiable appetite for sex. Frustrated, he’d finally gone to bed around three a.m. only to dream about running around naked with two permanently erect cocks, chasing a woman with long dark hair. When he’d finally caught her, and she’d turned her face to him, he’d realized that it was Vanessa.

Light tickled his eyes and made him blink. He’d neglected to close the blinds fully before going to sleep. He glanced at the bedside clock, and shot up to sit. He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and stretched his arms over his head. Surprised that he felt no pain from the cuts on his torso and neck, he looked at his chest wounds and saw that only a faint redness indicated that he’d ever been injured. When he touched his neck, he felt only a slight soreness as if the wound was almost completely healed.

His stomach growled, and he jumped out of bed. Naked, he walked into his ensuite bathroom and headed for the shower. A look into the mirror over the sink confirmed that new skin was already growing over the deep incisions the vampire had left. However, the horror of the attack still sat deep in his bones, but he tried to push it away, and concentrated on that part of the night that had made up for it all: having sex with Vanessa.

At the recollection of how wild she’d been, and how receptive to his cock, Cole felt himself get hard in an instant. While he reached into the shower to turn on the water, he looked down at himself. What he saw sent a shockwave through his body and made him stumble backwards and bump into the wall behind him.

“Fuck!”