by Eve Newton
“Sorry,” I mumble eventually. “I shouldn’t have done that.”
“Why not?” he asks, catching me by surprise.
“I know you don’t like it, because of… you know...” I refer to his making, the details of which I am not supposed to know, but I now understand his issue with clawing and why it is a no-no.
“I didn’t mind that,” he says slyly.
My eyes widen. “Oh, really? You like being branded as mine?” I ask boldly.
His eyes narrow at my tone. “Watch yourself, Aefre, you may be The Power of One, and you may know what happened, but you are still mine to punish as I see fit.”
I inhale sharply at his unexpected words. After yesterday, I didn’t think he would ever say that to me again.
“I don’t have to physically hurt you to punish you,” he murmurs cryptically.
I hope that I never have to find out what that means.
Climbing off him abruptly, I change the subject, “We had better get showered and changed. I’m in the mood to push Gregor hard today. I want this over.” I stalk off, leaving him sitting there fuming that I dared to walk away from him.
CHAPTER SIXTY-SEVEN
He finds me in the shower and joins me after a moment. I turn my back to him, but he pulls me close. “Don’t sulk with me, Aefre. It’s not an attractive quality.” His words infuriate me. I sulk even more with him to his amusement.
“I like this,” he says quietly. “Waking with you, fucking you, showering with you before we go to work together. This is how it should be,” he says wistfully as he stands under the shower jet as the water pounds down onto him.
Hm, wet CK is fucking sexy. He senses me watching him and grins before he pushes me against the wall. He lifts me, plunging into my pussy without preamble. I drop my fangs. He tilts his head to the side giving me the access I’m craving. Feeding from him while he fucks me to an orgasm is definitely high on my list of favorite things to do. The nasty thoughts about his cryptic threat leave under his lavish attentions. I sigh in bliss, knowing that a dreamy smile is playing at my lips.
A bit later, I find a wardrobe full of clothes that he – well actually I assume Marguerite – bought for me. I sift through them unable to decide what might entice Gregor to up his game.
“He likes class,” CK says to me from the other side of the door where he is fixing up his tie in the mirror.
I pull the door closed and he frowns at me, as he can no longer see himself. Vain fool.
“How the fuck do you do that?” I snap. “Is it like some kind of I.V. superpower?”
He chuckles. “I.V? Oh, Initial Vampire. What? You don’t have it with Devon?” he asks dodging the question, far too delighted that I don’t when I shake my head. “One day maybe, when you are close enough.” He throws the insult at me casually, causing my temper to flare so that I slam the door back out nearly smacking him with it in the process.
“Speaking of Devon, I should call him. Pick something for me to wear,” I order at him. He raises his eyebrow, but does as I ask anyway.
“Finally!” Devon barks at me when he answers.
“Hello, to you too.”
“Sorry, I’ve been worried,” he mumbles.
“You okay?”
“Dandy. You?”
“Good and good. I will call you back later when I have more time. Just wanted to check in.”
“Make sure you do this time.”
I smile at his order. “I will, my darling boy,” I whisper, sensing his glow down the phone. “I love you.”
“I love you, Lizzie,” he says. It warms me up inside that he calls me that again.
I hang up to find CK watching me with a pained expression. He adjusts his features quickly and clears his throat.
“This one,” he says, holding out a beautifully cut dress in black. It has thin straps, a low-cut square neckline with three buttons to hide or enhance your cleavage. I take it from him and step into it. It fits perfectly, skimming over my stomach and hips, to fall a couple of inches above my knees.
CK zips up the back and I spin. “Well?”
He reaches out and undoes all three of the buttons to flash a large amount of skin. “That’s not very classy,” I say haughtily.
“We are on a bit of a schedule here,” he says with a chuckle.
I concede because I agree.
I help him on with this suit jacket. It’s all very domestic. But very odd. However, I am happy to have my suited sire back. It’s familiar and comforting after the upheaval of recent events.
He hands me my ring that I took off to shower. “Don’t take it off again,” he warns me.
“I took it off to shower.”
“Don’t take it off again,” he repeats.
“Fine,” I snap as I push it back on my finger. “It’s your millions of dollars that you ask me to mistreat.”
Ignoring my outburst, he takes my hand and expecting to be Teleported into The Council reception, I am surprised when he walks me downstairs to the kitchens. We both stiffen when we spot the studded door, but he ignores it and greets Marguerite. She has coffee. Strong and black. It smells delicious, even though I am normally a tea girl. His phone rings and he answers it, leaving me alone with Marguerite as he steps out of the kitchen.
I smile politely as she is watching me closely. I raise an eyebrow at her inspection, causing her to look down.
“I find it odd. Seeing him like this,” she confesses quietly.
Ooh, sounds like more juicy tidbits. She really must be rattling around this place all on her own.
“Like what?” I press.
“Happy,” she says, as if she can’t quite believe it.
Clamming up again, she comments on my dress, “That looks lovely on you. I’m glad it fits; I only had your photos to go on.”
Yep, thought as much. “Well, thank you. You really didn’t need to go shopping for me, I could have bought my own things.”
“Oh no. Mr. D’Arcangelo said you weren’t to be burdened with luggage. It was no trouble. I enjoyed it,” she adds shyly.
Starting to feel quite sorry for this girl, who clearly doesn’t get out much, I smile at her and say, “Well, you have impeccable taste. Maybe one day we can go together.”
There is stunned silence as CK walks back into the kitchen. “Go where together?” he asks.
“Shopping.”
He blinks slowly at me as if I’m crazy for suggesting the idea of going anywhere with the help. Christ, he can be such a snob.
“Hm. Would you like that?”
“Yes, I would,” I say firmly, looking at Marguerite, who is stock still and not breathing.
“Then the week after next when you come back to Italy, you may meet Marguerite in Milan,” he states.
Oh, may I? Infuriating control freak.
“Why, thank you, sir. How kind of you to allow me out on a day trip,” I say sweetly but heavy on the sarcasm.
His eyes snap to mine, boring into them. “Don’t push your luck, my love,” he says quietly as I bat my eyes at him.
Huffing at me, he takes my hand and kisses it, “Aefre, you drive me crazy, but I do love you.”
I grin at him and he grins back. Marguerite is staring at us in utter disbelief that she has seen a caring side to her boss.
“Good day, Marguerite. We will see you later.”
“’Bye, Marguerite,” I say before he Teleports us out of the castle and into The Council for another dreaded day of schmoozing.
CHAPTER SIXTY-EIGHT
A fter a quick greeting to Giulia, we head up to our offices, hand in hand. He walks me to mine and opens the door, leading me in. No sooner have we entered the room, we are joined by Gregor.
“Constantine.” He nods at him, then turns his insipid smile on me, “Aefre, you look wonderful.”
“Thank you. And really you can call me Liv.” CK smirks, pleased to be the only one allowed to call me my original name.
Gregor says, “Of course. I trust you had a
good night in Milan?”
“Oh, we weren’t in Milan,” I say and leave it at that for the sole purpose of pissing Eloise off, who has also just turned up in my doorway.
She narrows her eyes at me. “And how is that gorgeous husband of yours?” she asks meaningfully.
CK strides to my side with a look of murder after yesterday’s revelations. He takes my hand and her expression turns from goading to fury.
“He is just fine, thank you, Eloise,” I say. I really want to piss her off, so I take my right hand out of CK’s, curl my arm up his back and over his shoulder so that my hand is on the top of his chest. He puts his arm around my waist, resting his hand lightly on my hip. Being unable to see anything except the magnificent blue diamond ring, I drum my fingers lightly as two sets of jealous eyes go to my hand.
“Well, I have work to do if we could save the rest of this meeting for another time,” I say, moving away from CK to brush past Gregor on the way to my desk. I sit with everyone watching me with varying expressions on their faces. Clearing my throat, I say, “Meeting adjourned.”
Rattled into movement by my dismissive tone, Gregor and Eloise look to CK for instruction in a stunned fury. He just shrugs and moves behind me to plant a quick kiss on the top of my head before he exits my office casually. The other two follow him with bad grace. I laugh inwardly. The gods, I can’t wait to sever their heads from their bodies. Hateful creatures.
My phone buzzes. It’s a message from CK: Go to Gregor on your own in about an hour. I will join you shortly thereafter. Xoxo
It buzzes again: PS: I think I am starting to understand your new role. WE NEED TO TALK!
I chuckle at the shouty text and message him back: OK to the first but don’t keep me waiting long. Less talking, more kissing. I’m worn out with words. Xoxo
I get nothing back. His way of letting me know he is annoyed with my lack of forthcoming. It makes me jump about twenty minutes later when the phones buzzes again: I find those acceptable terms, although I do hope that there will also be some fucking involved?
I don’t message him back as I dislike his constant use of the word ‘fucking.’ Is that all we are doing? I mean sure, we fuck, but last night we also made love, a lot, and yet he never says it.
On impulse, I message back: No fucking!
Radio silence. Yep, now he is pissed off, but I don’t care. I’m struggling to concentrate on this work. It’s dull and I wish I were back home with my own work, even though that is dull as well, at least it has some purpose. All of this is going to Hell in the next couple of weeks and I don’t see the point. Sighing, I go off in search of Gregor once the hour is up. I hope that CK doesn’t leave me swinging in the wind after my “no fucking” text.
He isn’t in his office, so I wander off trying to find him. I pause in the corridor and close my eyes. I try to bring up a mental map of the building as it makes sense to me that the blueprints must be here in the archives somewhere that is now stored in my head. I concentrate and I see it. I also see where everyone is in the building. That is a handy tool. Luckily for Eloise, she is nowhere near my sire. Impressed with myself, I make my way to the library where I expect to find Gregor. It is a lovely room. I haven’t been in here before having never been permitted. Loving books as much as I do, I take a moment to take it all in. The indices are all in my magickly enhanced brain, so I know exactly where everything is.
“This is my favorite room,” Gregor says from behind me.
“It is quite impressive,” I say turning around with a smile. Inwardly I am chopping his head off.
“Do you have all of this stored in your memory?” he asks curiously.
I nod. “Yes. It’s quite the stash.”
He chuckles. “Yes, I suppose it is. Did you come looking for something in particular?”
“You,” I say quietly, touching his arm gently.
“Oh? And what, pray tell, can I do for you?”
“I can’t stop thinking about yesterday,” I murmur, dropping my eyes to his mouth, then moving them back up to his piercing, pale blue eyes. His own eyes drop to my show of flesh. He reaches out to touch me in between my breasts.
“Neither can I,” he breathes, moving his vile self closer. Leaning down, he lifts my chin up, tilting my lips to his mouth. He drops his head lower and asks, “What changed your mind?”
“We are working together now, it’s time we all got along.”
He smiles and whispers, “I have wanted you from the minute I laid eyes on you. I apologize for my behavior towards you when I first met you. It wasn’t my finest hour.” He trails his hands up my arms and walks us back to the stacks, pressing me up against the books. “Am I forgiven?”
Not on your life, I scream at him silently.
“I’m sure you can make it up to me somehow.”
He smiles. “I would like that.” He bends down, touching his lips to mine softly. He grabs my chin and pushes his tongue further into my mouth. I stifle the urge to be sick and kiss him back, wishing I hadn’t been so rude to CK that he decided to abandon me in my hour of need. At that point, I finally feel the familiar tingle up my neck.
“Room for one more?” he asks sardonically. Gregor cautiously pulls away. I resist the urge to wipe my mouth on my hand.
“Constantine,” he says, annoyed to have been interrupted. “Liv and I were just settling some past business.”
“Anything I should know about?” he asks me.
I shake my head. “We are fine.” I push off from the stacks, forcing Gregor to step back. I sidle over to my sire, knowing by his demeanor that he is not amused with me. I whisper in his ear, even though I know Gregor can hear, “I want you. Is there someplace we can go?”
Smirking, he looks at me. “I’m sure we can find a place.” Looking at Gregor, he says, “Excuse us.” He pulls me away, with Gregor looking jealously on.
As soon as we are out of the library though, he pulls his hand from mine. “Nicely done. You have him almost eating out of your hand.” He turns to walk away.
“Stop calling it ‘fucking,’” I blurt out.
He stops dead in his tracks.
I put my hand up to my mouth, which has suddenly gone dry.
He turns back around slowly. “What would you like me to call it?” he asks, glowering at me.
I stalk past him, back to my office. He follows, as I have ignored him and that gets his knickers in a twist.
Slamming the door closed behind him, he warns, “Aefre.”
“Don’t call it ‘fucking.’ Not all the time. That’s not what we do all the time. Or is that how you see it?”
“You even have to ask me that?”
“Apparently, yes.”
“Oh, Aefre. I like fucking you. I happen to think we are pretty good at it.”
I huff at him. “Pretty good? Is that all?”
He snickers, moving closer to me. “Okay, we are pretty fucking hot together,” he murmurs.
A fire starts to burn in the pit of my stomach, as I lick my dry lips.
“I only ever want to fuck you.”
“Constantine, I like fucking you too. In fact, I love it, but do you know what I love more? I love it when we make love. Slow and gentle and all night,” I say, reminding him of last night.
He closes his eyes as his lips part. “I love that too. But until you are mine and only mine,” he insists, opening his eyes, “I have to deal with it in my own way.”
I nod, not really understanding, but pull him to me in a tight hug, which he returns with a sigh.
T he rest of the day goes quite quickly and soon we are winging our way through the dimensions of space back to the castle. We land in the foyer and bump into Nico. Not literally.
“Sir.”
“Nico.”
“Liv, you wanted to talk to me?” he asks.
Remembering about Cole’s mother, I nod. “Can it wait until a bit later?”
“Of course.” He heads off in the direction of, um, well, I’m not sure ac
tually. I haven’t had much chance to explore what has been done with the ground floor rooms in all the commotion.
“Take me upstairs, please, and try to erase Gregor’s lips from my mouth,” I sigh in disgust.
CK laughs, a proper guffaw, but I don’t see what is so amusing. “Oh, Aefre. You have such a way with words. Come, my love. I will make you forget.” He moves us into the bedroom and goes about, in a very thorough manner, making me forget even my own name.
T hinking I should probably get up to call Devon and Cole, I fail to move as I’m content where I am in my sire’s arms.
“You will never truly be mine, will you?” he says softly, jolting me out of my thoughts, which again he manages to pin down with precision.
“What?” I ask, feigning innocence.
“Your boys. They will always… be there,” he says unhappily. “What if I asked you to move in here with me?” Abrupt change of subject again.
“What, like now? CK, I thought we had an agreement,” I say. Why is he doing this, spoiling my mellow?
“No, Aefre,” he says patiently as if talking to a small child, “when we are together again.”
“Then I would come,” I say simply.
“Alone?” he prods.
“Probably not. Is that a problem?” I ask. I’m starting to get pissed off now and sit up away from him.
“So, you would want to bring Devon with you?”
“And Cole, in time. Look CK, this is not the time to discuss terms, okay? I’m going to go find Nico.”
He grabs my hand to stop me leaving. “Terms?”
“Yes, terms. Come that point we will have nearly a collective four thousand years of baggage to bring to the table. It’s bad enough as it is, never mind adding another hundred plus years.”