Lilly lay silently against his chest, considering what he’d just said. Before she could respond, he said, “God help me. I’m starting to sound like your strange little palm reading friend.”
“Don’t think I didn’t see that dirty look you gave him earlier, Talan,” Lilly said laughing. “He apologized to me at least six times. I think he may be slightly afraid of you now.”
Talan made a vague noise of approval that had her laughing. Thinking out loud, she said, “I think you secretly like that everyone’s afraid of you. You’re totally into the fact that there are only a select few who know you’re actually a big teddy bear.”
He merely raised an eyebrow and said, “I’m a businessman. A pragmatist. A predator. A—”
When Lilly began to tickle his ribs, he broke off from his speech and started squirming under her. “Stop,” he said as he valiantly tried not to laugh. “Lilly, love. Stop. Don’t tickle me! I’m four hundred and eighty-five years old, dammit!”
She mimicked him and laughed as he continued to halfheartedly wiggle away from her fingers. She knew that if he truly wanted her to stop, he could be across the room in a millisecond. It only proved her point.
“As I suspected,” she said, her hands stilling against his ribs. “A giant teddy bear under that big, bad predator exterior of yours.”
“Only for you, you know,” he said, his fingers tangling in her curls.
Lilly leaned in, her mouth hovering just above his, and said, “I know.”
It was a strange thing to realize the impact she had on him. She had no idea why this beautiful, complicated man had chosen to love her. She could only be grateful for it.
Chapter Twelve
“Tell me something,” Lilly said.
He waited patiently for her to continue. Eventually, when she nudged him, he asked, “Is there more to the question?”
“Not really. I don’t know much about you. Tell me something.”
“There’s not much to tell,” he said. “I am what you see.”
“You’ve gotten my life history. It’s only fair,” she complained. “We’ve got over four hundred years to cover, so you should probably start talking.”
He cracked one eye open and looked at her. He couldn’t help but grin when she gave him the “go ahead” gesture.
“Well,” he said. “I was born in 1592. My name is technically Talesin Craddick. It changed over the years. Anyway, I was born in a little farming village in Wales. I guess it would have been closest to where Llysfaen is. Northern Wales, a few kilometres from the coast. My father farmed the land, and my mother made babies.”
“She died in childbirth when I was twelve. In my entire life, I don’t think I ever saw her without a baby in her arms. There were six of us that survived childbirth, three that didn’t.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to drag up bad memories,” she said, apologizing.
“It’s all right,” he explained. “It was a different place back then. When people died, which was often, you buried them and moved on. I don’t mean to make it sound heartless, but the oldest person in my village was maybe fifty years old. I remember thinking that seemed ancient.”
Lilly shifted off of him, curled up against his side, but didn’t speak, so he went on.
“Anyway. My brother Culwhch was the only one of us besides myself that made it to age fifteen. He went to work crew on a ship, and that was the last I saw of him.”
Her eyes were watery when he looked down at her. “No, love. Don’t do that. It’s a consequence of being as old as I am. I’ve long since made peace with it.”
“I’m completely ashamed to say that I never considered how difficult it must be to watch everyone just turn to dust around you. Jesus. This is depressing. Forget I brought this up,” she said, wiping a stray tear off of her cheek.
He stroked a hand down her spine, then dropped a kiss on her forehead. Not that he wanted it, but it was sweet to know that she cried for his loss.
Eventually she asked, “If your family was gone, what happened when you realized you were different? How did you know what to do?”
“When I hit about thirty, my body began to change almost overnight. The sunlight began to burn my skin, and I could never get enough to eat. This lasted for about two weeks. I was sure I was dying,” he said remembering his fear. “The night my teeth slid out for the first time, I panicked and went to see the old woman in the village. She was the closest thing to a doctor we had. She sent me to a man who lived the next village over and told me never to come back.”
“She knew what you were?” Lilly asked.
“I think she suspected. We weren’t the Transfigured back then. We were either folklore or monsters who drank the blood of others, depending on who you asked. There wasn’t a system in place to determine when, where, and how much blood we consumed. We were, in essence, like any other wild animal. In any case, the man in the next village explained as well as he could, considering, and taught me how to feed. Once I’d become self-sufficient, he sent me away.”
Lilly interjected, “But why would he send you away?”
“The old saying about there being safety in numbers wasn’t true for our kind. We were hunters, essentially. Being alone was a way of life. Since we all risked exposure each time we fed, we had to move around quite a bit. Plus, there were those of us who didn’t exactly eat responsibly.”
At her look of confusion he said, “Some drew unwanted attention, so it was easier for us if we travelled alone. There were those among us who enjoyed killing for the sport of it. ”
“I know,” she said, softly.
“I wasn’t one of those people at any point.”
“I know that!”
The confidence she had in him was astounding. He knew he had to be honest with her, though. She deserved to know what he was. It almost pained him to admit, “I’ve killed before, though.”
She was silent for the longest time. So long, in fact, that he was beginning to regret the entire conversation. Eventually she asked, “Did you enjoy it?”
He made a horrified face and said, “Jesus. No!”
“In self-defense?”
“Accidentally, too. When I first turned, it was really hard to control myself,” he said, shame filling him.
The sadness that filled her eyes nearly broke his heart. She squeezed him and said, “That’s gotta be a hell of a thing to live with. I’m sorry.”
“Some days,” he admitted, not at all expecting that particular reaction from her.
“We all just do the best we can. Some days that means we do some things we regret, and other days that means we quietly donate two million dollars to the children’s hospital in Oakville.”
Talan blinked rapidly at the subject change. “I didn’t exactly announce that, Lilly. How did you know about the donation?” he asked, curious. That had been one of several donations, but it wasn’t worth mentioning.
“I Googled you after you asked me out,” she admitted.
He raised an eyebrow and asked, “You Googled me?”
“Absolutely. A rich, gorgeous, somewhat reclusive man who’s almost five hundred asks me out. You can’t blame me for wanting to make sure you don’t have any dead hookers in the basement, ya know?”
He couldn’t help the laugh that burst free. She was absolutely priceless.
“I assure you, Lilly. There are no hookers in the basement, dead or otherwise. Well, if there are, they aren’t mine. Perhaps I’ll have security check to be certain,” he said, moving as if he was going to get out of bed.
She giggled, pulled him back into place, and said, “I figured as much. There were a lot of business articles, a couple of stray, personal interviews. I assumed no news was good news on the dead hooker front.”
Talan leaned in and pressed a hard kiss against her lips. “You,” he said, “are a treasure.”
By the time the sun was ready to come up, they were both nodding off. They’d ended up talking and making love all night. As he fi
nally let himself drift off to sleep with Lilly nuzzled against his side, he’d acknowledged that he’d never felt closer to anyone in his entire existence.
****
Talan vaguely remembered Lilly leaving the bed sometime around noon, but he’d dropped off only moments after she’d given him a kiss. He knew she’d gone to class and that she planned to come back here afterward so they could go out later.
When he’d woken around two, he’d had a message from Lachlan. He had asked him if he and Lilly wanted to go out tonight. Talan was up in the air about it. On one hand, he wanted to be selfish with Lilly. Especially now. On the other hand, he didn’t want her to feel as if she wasn’t a part of his real life either. It would be difficult enough to line up their schedules, considering that she kept the opposite time schedule from most of the people he knew.
He’d adjusted his own schedule, waking during the afternoon. That way he could work, then spend the remainder of the evening with Lilly. It was still a little strange and unsettling to think of the future, but he knew that no matter what happened, he wanted her in it.
Four hours later, and Talan had managed to handle everything he’d set out to do for the day. He headed back up to his suite to wait for Lilly to return. He’d skipped lunch so he called room service on his cell to have them deliver a pint of synthetic blood.
When he opened the door to his suite, he was surprised to find Lilly curled up with a textbook on his couch. He said, “Oh, you’re here already. Why didn’t you let me know? I would have come to meet you.”
She looked up at him and asked, “Is this not okay? I thought you wanted me to come back after class?”
“I liked walking in the door and finding you here,” he explained. “I just meant that I wish you would have called me when you were back. The roads are icy. I like knowing you’re here and safe.”
She looked relieved and said, “Oh. I’ll text next time. I just didn’t want to interrupt you. I don’t want to be a bother when you’re working.”
“I adjusted my schedule specifically so I could spend time with you, love. You’re not a bother,” he said, leaning over to press a kiss on the top of her head.
“So, how was work, dear,” she asked, teasingly.
He worked at the knot of his tie and joked, “It was a hard day at the office.”
“Actually,” he continued, “It was kind of a rough day. I interviewed a few more people from the nightclub about the drug dealing. I’m pretty sure at least one of them knew more than they were telling me.”
Lilly frowned and asked, “What makes you so certain?”
“I’ve got a lot of life experience, love. We give off a lot of signals when we’re not being truthful.”
“That’s gotta be both comforting and annoying to be able to read people like that,” she remarked, closing her textbook and shifting her notebooks from the couch.
He frowned and asked, “Annoying?”
“Yeah. When you can look at someone and know that they’re just flat-out lying to you, but they don’t think you’re smart enough to realize it.”
At the knock on the door, he grimaced apologetically and said, “Sorry. Late lunch.”
Talan answered the door, collected his meal, and then moved back toward the couch. He grimaced as he took a sip of the synthetic blood. After he swallowed he said, “I never really thought about it like that.”
She looked confused for a moment until it dawned on her that he was picking up the threads of their earlier conversation. “Yeah. It’s kind of insulting.”
He frowned and said, “It is. I’m going to be annoyed from now on. Thanks.”
“Sorry,” she said. “That wasn’t my intention.”
“I know,” he said, taking another sip. With small statements like that, she was constantly changing his perception of the world.
She cocked her head and studied him for a moment before she asked, “Why do you drink that stuff? Clearly you hate it. You can afford to spring for the real. That’s the synthetic stuff, right?”
“Yeah,” he grumbled. “It is. I’m a conservationist at heart. If everyone who had the money drank only real human blood, then we’d run out. I drink this crap to help keep the balance.”
“Makes sense,” she said. After a moment she hesitated to add, “There weren’t a lot of Transfigured in the Midwest. I’m probably going to ask you a ton of dumb questions. I apologize in advance.”
“I like that you want to know me,” he answered. It was true. The fact that she was curious about how his life worked pleased him. It demonstrated that she was willing to accept all of him.
As he took the last swig, he said, “And speaking of wanting to know me, Lachlan invited us out tonight. I got the impression he wanted to do some sort of triple date with another couple.”
Lilly grinned and asked, “What? Is he in high school?”
“It feels like it sometimes,” he said. “I leave it up to you.”
“Sure,” she said. “He seemed nice enough.”
“I’ll try to steer us to somewhere with questionable Scotch on the menu,” Talan promised, grinning.
“Awesome,” she said, leaning forward to press her lips against his.
That was but one of the many things he enjoyed about Lilly. She was always up for just about anything. They had gone ice skating, to the movies, to the jazz club. Each place had been remarkably different from the other, but she seemed to belong there effortlessly.
Chapter Thirteen
Lilly was surprised when he led her to the front of the hotel and into a waiting limo. She had expected that they’d take his car and meet everyone there.
She was surprised to see the same driver who took her home slide out of the front seat. He said, “Mr. McKenna. Ma’am.”
She saw the moment recognition slid over his face. He said, “You’re looking well, Miss,” as he pointed at the cheek that had been swollen.
She smiled and said, “I am. Thank you.”
Talan cleared his throat and the driver’s eyes shot back to him.
“Right this way,” he said, moving toward the door.
Once they both slid inside and the driver had closed the door, Lilly said, “That was kind of rude. He was just concerned about my well-being. He was the guy who drove me home the night of the mugging.”
“I know,” Talan said. “He’s my personal driver.”
Lilly whispered, “I think he may have been concerned at first that you’d been the one to hit me that night. He seemed incredibly relieved when I explained.”
“I would never,” Talan said in a harsh whisper.
“If you’re that polite to him all the time, you can see why he might wonder?”
Talan sighed and looked sullenly out the window for a moment before he raised the volume of his voice and asked the driver, “You have the addresses I sent you?”
“Yes, sir,” he said. “Was there a particular order in which you’d like me to pick the other parties up?”
“No, whatever you think is best,” he said. He added, “Thank you.”
He gave her a pointed look that said, “See? I’m being nice.”
Lilly giggled at his expression and then curled into his side.
“I would kiss you now, but I have no desire to wear that,” he said, gesturing at her lipstick.
“Smudge-proof for up to eight hours,” she informed him smugly.
Just before his lips touched hers, he said, “Oh, the wonders of modern technology.”
“Mm,” she sighed against his mouth as he leaned in to kiss her. There was something about this man that she found damned near addictive.
He nibbled on her bottom lip, then sucked it into his mouth, scraping his teeth along it gently. Every so often, he would nip it and then rub his tongue along it as if he was soothing her. He turned kissing into an art form.
She felt Talan lean over and then heard a soft mechanical whir. She pulled back and blinked at him, confused.
“Privacy screen, love
,” he said before he moved back in to press kisses along her jawline.
She tilted her head as his mouth worked its way down her neck. When his teeth ran over the bite marks, she heard his soft moan.
“You’re so beautiful,” he said as he kissed her neck, nipping and sucking at her until she squirmed with need.
The hand that had been holding her hip subtly moved to her thigh. When she let out a whimper of need, his hand gently stroked her inner thigh. Taking the hint, she spread her legs, giving him access to her pussy. His hand slid up to trace the edge of the thong she wore. She felt a new wave of arousal hit her as he rubbed his knuckles along her slit through her panties.
He lifted his mouth from her neck and said, “Push your skirt up for me love. Let me touch your soaked little pussy. I can feel it already. Your need. How wet you are for me. Do you have any fucking idea what that does to me?”
She groaned at his rough words and said, “Oh God, touch me, please.”
“Hmm. How shall I touch you? Tell me what you want me to do.”
Lilly had no experience with dirty talk. She felt awkward and had no idea what to say. In lieu of any idea how to do this, she just chose the direct approach and hoped it was acceptable.
“Slide your fingers under my panties. Stroke your fingers over my clit.”
When he complied, she moaned, “Like that, yes.”
He continued to swirl his fingertips around her clit until she moaned, “I need your fingers inside me.”
Talan groaned against her neck and said, “You have no idea how hard you’re getting fucked later tonight, Lilly.” Saying so, he shifted his thumb and began to press it against her clit as he slid three fingers into her aching cunt.
She rocked herself against his hand, whimpering softly. Eventually she let loose a moan when the sensation became a bit too much for her to handle. “Fuck,” she said. “That feels so good.”
“I can feel you clenching around my fingers, love. Are you going to come for me?”
He seemed to be able to sense the scream that was about to come tearing out of her because his mouth slammed down on hers just as she began to peak. As she screamed, he swallowed the sounds and continued to fuck her with his fingers until she was spent.
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