by Eve Newton
"Oh?" he asks casually.
"Yes, it was in Milan about two years ago. Some charitable foundation fundraiser of yours."
"Hm," he says nonchalantly.
“Do you remember that dress I had on? The gold one that cost about thirty thousand dollars? Hey, do you still have that? I was sure I left it in the penthouse,” I say. I’m on a great fishing trip here and I think he knows, but he can’t be sure without accusing me of snooping on his phone.
“I remember,” he says softly. “You looked so beautiful. And yes. I do still have that blasted dress. Set me back thirty five thousand dollars,” he corrects me, annoyed.
I chuckle at him. “I never asked you to buy it. You offered.”
“Because you looked so beautiful in it. How could I not?" He kisses me again and says, "Enough talking."
I move myself on top of him as his hands trail up my back and into my hair. I feel my Dragon tattoo ripple across my back at his touch. She is happy. As much as I enjoyed making love earlier, I’m in the mood for a hard and fast fuck and tell him so.
"Oh, I am glad you said that. I just want to be inside you," he says in relief as he flips me over and rams into me without further ado.
"Oh, yes," I cry out as he proceeds to impale me forcefully, hitting the spot with perfection. It takes me all of a few seconds to explode around him. He follows suit shortly after, his fangs in my neck.
He releases the bite when there is a loud knock at the bedroom door, followed by Sebastian strolling in casually.
"So sorry to bother you," he says as if he really isn't. "You have a visitor on the way up."
"Who is it?" CK asks, pissed off to be interrupted.
"You'll see," Sebastian says as he leers at me and my naked breasts that are on display now that Constantine has climbed off me. I don't bother to cover up as he has already seen them, and I'm not that way inclined anyway. Much to my delight though, my irate sire throws his discarded t-shirt at me to put on and I smile at the gesture. Pulling on jeans and a fresh t-shirt, he follows Sebastian out of the bedroom as I climb out of bed and pop the t-shirt over my head. It smells like him and I decide to keep it. Curious myself as to who the mystery guest is at this early hour, I step out of the bedroom in just his top, which comes down to about my mid-thigh.
A tall, gorgeous redhead, with the brightest blue eyes, steps into the apartment and gushes, "Constantine," as she steps into his open arms.
"Grace," he says with a smile. "How lovely to see you."
"And you, my sire."
My stomach clenches as she calls him that and I realize, that with the exception of Polly, this Grace bitch is the first of his female charges that I have ever seen.
She turns to Sebastian and says, "Seb. It's been forever," and she hugs him too. So, they know each other then. Her accent is Irish, but that doesn't surprise me judging by the look of her.
"Gracie. Back in the homeland, I hear. How's Dublin treating you?"
"Just grand," she says with a big smile. "I love going home."
Me too, I think absently, even though it's been a while.
Her eyes find me, lounging in the bedroom doorway in just CK's t-shirt and she smiles icily at me, "Aefre? Yes?"
I nod.
"I have heard so much about you, I feel like I already know you." She crosses to me. I straighten up as her eyes go to my bare legs and just fucked hair.
CK reaches me before she does and possessively puts his arm around me. Interesting.
"Aefre. This is Grace O'Malley. Grace, this is your new Queen."
"Nice to meet you," I say, taking her outstretched hand. "But, please, call me Liv." CK's hand tightens on my waist at my other name.
"Okay, Liv. It is nice to finally meet the woman who ruined our sire for the rest of us.” She says it with a smile, but I feel the undercurrent of jealousy and dislike, and now understand why CK is holding onto me. He knows that I am perceived as a threat by his other charges.
I’m a bit curious, as she is clearly older than me, but not by that much more I don't think.
The thought must pass across my cursed face as she smiles unkindly and says, "I was turned in 946."
I nod at her information but remain silent. That was fifty years before I was born. I can handle that and not be jealous. Much. She obviously prefers it though, that I am younger than her and that she has had more years with him than me. That thought makes me more jealous now than I should be. It’s about quality not quantity, I chide myself.
"Well, clearly, I have interrupted you," she gestures to us. "I was in the neighborhood for an early breakfast meeting and Seb texted to say you were here. Thought it about time one of us made an effort," she says pointedly at Constantine who grins winningly at her. "You look good," she says softly to him. "It's been a long time since I saw you so happy."
He nods uncomfortably but he says, "I am." He pulls me even closer to him. I put my hand on his chest. Her eyes flick to my wedding rings and her smile freezes on her face.
"Now, I would have heard if you had gotten married," she says to him stiffly.
He grimaces but says, "Not yet."
"I see." But clearly, she doesn't.
I am itching to explain myself, but instead I say as dryly as I can muster, "No, our sire has terrible timing," to which he bursts out laughing and says, "That I do."
Not amused by our inside joke, Grace just says, "Oh."
"But rest assured, Grace, that when we do finally make it, you will be top of the guest list." I love him for making it clear to her.
"Well, that will be something that I will have to see in person before I believe it," she says, just a little bit nastily. She definitely knows our sire and his lack of enthusiasm when it comes to making commitments.
"Me too," I murmur with a sidelong glance at his wounded look.
"It's different this time. Look, I gave her a ring and everything," he says shyly and shows it off to Grace, whose eyes nearly fall out of her head at the size of the nine-carat blue diamond.
"You gave her a ring?" she chokes out jealously.
This has also drawn the attention of Sebastian, who so far has been watching this exchange silently, knowingly. He comes closer and peers at it as he whistles, "Christ, Constantine. How much did that set you back?"
He shrugs, thoroughly embarrassed now.
I answer for him, "I think he was trying to make up for the two failed attempts before." I smile softly at him.
"Precisely," he says, now smug.
I grin smugly back, and we are lost in our own little smug bubble, as the other two just continue to stare at us in wonder.
Grace clears her throat. "Well, then. I suppose I should leave you to it," she says. "Seb, are you coming or staying?"
"Staying. I'll be here a few days yet."
I raise my eyebrow at that. So much for privacy to reconnect.
"Right, well, Constantine, always a pleasure to you see, my love," she says.
He steps forward hesitantly to embrace her. "And you, my dear."
"Liv. It has been an honor to meet you, for various reasons. I am at your service if you require," she says so insincerely, it’s laughable.
I nod in thanks anyway, taking the high road. "Thank you, Grace. It has been good to meet you too. I am very curious as to my siblings. I barely know any of you," I say with a pointed look at our collective sire, who just shrugs.
"I don’t want you knowing them," he says. We all stare at him open-mouthed at his blatant admission. "In fact, had it not been for this Queen business, you probably would never have met any of them."
"CK, that's… what?" I say. I mean I know he feels strongly about keeping me to himself, but I am surprised that he admits it so freely in front of his other charges.
Grace eyebrows go up at my nickname for him, but she says, "Yes, well, I guess Lance kind of sealed your fate there."
"Not just because of Lance," Sebastian says mysteriously and now I’m thoroughly lost but none of them are bringing f
orth any more information, so I just drop it.
"Seb, walk me out?" Grace says and with a quick kiss to CK's cheek and a half wave at me, they disappear downstairs.
I round on him then. He has that innocent look in place that means anything but. Huffing at him in exasperation, I really do drop it, as it isn't important. Being with him is what is important, so much to his surprise, I pull him to me and kiss him. He picks me up and pushes me against the wall, hands going under the t-shirt. I undo his jeans so that I can pull his cock free and he pushes himself into me with a soft grunt.
"Oh, for fuck's sake, will you two give it a rest," Sebastian snaps as he walks in on us. "If I have to hear you – or see you, for that matter – fucking again, I am just going to have to join in."
We ignore him, lost in each other and not caring that he is there. We finish together at the same time, moaning into each other’s mouths, as we never break our kiss.
"I'm hungry," I murmur.
He obligingly tilts his head. I drop my fangs and feed from him.
"Jesus. Now I'm horny and hungry," Sebastian informs us as he comes to stand next to us. "Time to share."
"Sorry, Sebastian. No can do. Her husband has a rule," he says, anything but apologetic as he snickers, and we tumble back into his bedroom with a loud slam to the door. Our laughter resounding through the apartment, as we start all over again.
A girl could get used to happy CK.
CHAPTER NINETY-TWO
I awake some time later, alone, to the sound of my buzzing phone. I pick it up, noting it is also alone and check the screen. It's Cole.
"Hey, baby," I murmur huskily.
"Hey. Everything okay?" he asks.
"Yes, it's good."
"Oh, good," he says surprised, obviously expecting a long diatribe on my misery.
"Yes, we have sorted out our issues," I say but then remember Devon and my happy drops a thousand notches. "Erm, but I do have something else to tell you."
"Oh? What?" he asks warily.
"Devon's left me," I say and choke back a sob.
"What do you mean left you?" he asks, concerned. "Gone back to L.A.?"
"Well, yes, he has gone back to L.A., but to get away from me," I say miserably.
"Get away from you? What did you do to him?" he asks.
I am slightly insulted that he thinks I did something to him on purpose. "Nothing," I snap. "This is just our way. I did tell you that charges always leave their sires."
"But you also said they come back. He'll be back soon. He's probably just pissed off about something. Don't worry about it, my love," he says reassuringly.
"I don't know. He sounded pretty resolute. He doesn't want to see or speak to me but please, don't let that stop you from bonding with him. Just try and avoid mentioning this situation and me, when you talk to him. Okay?"
"Okay," he says but I don't think he actually, truly realizes how devastating this news is to me. I change the subject briskly.
"How are things up there?"
"Wet," he grouses, and I chuckle. "I miss you."
"I miss you too, baby. I'll come up on Friday this weekend, okay? It's only a couple of days away."
"Good," he sounds happy with that.
"Are you feeding regularly?"
"Yes ma'am," he says in a southern drawl. "Dawn is great."
Great, eh?
"Oh, really?" I ask slyly.
"Liv!" he says, scandalized. "Not like that. You know I only want you," he whispers.
"I know," I say, this bone of contention grating on me unfairly. He'll learn one day.
"Well, I need to get back to the set. I just wanted to call you to tell you I love you."
"I love you too, baby. I'll see you soon."
"Bye.” He hangs up.
I take this opportunity to flick through my phone to check my emails. I have over a hundred so just check the VIP inbox, a few from Scott, one from CK, and one from Devon. My heart drops as it is just a message about work. I go back to the one from CK. It is that photo from his phone with a quick one liner: "So beautiful in that expensive dress. Xoxo."
I beam so widely, I think my face is going to split apart. I save it and set it as my lock screen.
I climb off the bed, pulling on CK's t-shirt again and go off in search of him, changing his contact details back to CK now that we are friends again. I find him and Sebastian in the open plan kitchen.
Again, they stop talking as they see me. I’m starting to get a bit annoyed, but I don't give them the satisfaction of showing it. Hoisting myself up onto the counter, I smile at CK and show him my phone. "Where did you get this from? I don't remember it being taken." A true statement.
"A friend of mine took it and sent it to me," he replies after a soft kiss to my mouth.
Sebastian grabs my phone off me and peers at the picture, "Very nice. Very photogenic, and yet there are hardly any photos of you, Constantine."
He grunts. "I try to keep a low profile, unlike the lot of you." He turns his back to me and leans against me as I open my legs to pull him closer, leaning my arms across his shoulders. "How on earth you intend to move into the next life is beyond me. You will all have to go and live in a cave for fifty years. Well, except you," he says over his shoulder at me. I pull my face at him.
"I wouldn't mind going to live on a mountain somewhere. As long as it had cell reception," I say, and he snickers at me.
"This is an old photo," Sebastian says, wiggling his left hand about to indicate my hand bare of wedding rings. "We need an updated one. Smile!" he chirps as he takes our photo and holding my phone up to show us, he says, "Now that one I do like. You should put it on Twitter, captioned ‘Me with my sire after a night of sex and mayhem.’"
I snicker at him; I think I could like this man. I hope he sticks around long enough for us to get to know each other. In a sibling way, just to be clear. "I don't have a Twitter account," I say.
He looks shocked. "You don't? How about Facebook?"
I shake my head.
"Christ, how do you live in this world and not social network?"
"Oh, well I'll just ask my high school friends to follow me, shall I?" I snap at him.
He just rolls his eyes at me. "Did you even go to high school?"
"Yes, actually. Devon and I went back in the ‘80s. I had to go so I could get into Harvard."
"Oh, Jesus, I remember that. Your Madonna phase," CK chuckles.
"Hey, every woman in the world had a Madonna phase at that time," I say, affronted.
"True story," Sebastian says, all the while tapping into my phone.
"Erm, excuse me? That is quite the invasion of privacy," I snap at him, somewhat hypocritically, as I see what he is doing.
"Oh, please, I'm not interested in corporate secrets or your lewd affairs," he scoffs. "I was merely sending it to our sire so that he had a copy as well.” He throws me my phone back.
I stare at it like it has grown a head. “You searched through my photos?" I ask him in disbelief as I see my wallpaper picture is one of me and Cole, one that he would have had to go searching for.
"Well, I didn't think it appropriate to use the one of you and our sire, given your marital status. Better to use your actual husband instead of the substitute."
I gulp at his use of that word.
"Substitute?" CK looks highly insulted and glares at Sebastian, after a wary look at me knowing my issue with that. Sebastian just chuckles in response.
"You may be the first, but I will still beat you down if you don't remember your manners," CK threatens.
First? First? His first charge? Holy shit. My heart thumps in my chest. Kept that quiet, didn’t you, you infuriating beast. But then think I really should search through all of these records in my head, so I don't get any more surprises.
"Oh, calm yourself," he says in that offhand way that I’m getting familiar with. "What would you call yourself?"
CK and I look at each other in surprise at this question. "That is a
good question, my love," I say. "What would you call yourself?"
He glares at me and straightens his suit jacket cuffs. "I will not dignify that with an answer," he says huffily. I smile at him until he smiles back, not wanting his happy mood ruined.
Sebastian comes to sit next to me on the kitchen counter and says, "Take our picture."
"Sure," I say with a smile at him, and oblige as we lean into each other, smiling at the camera. Okay, I do realize at this point, that there is some possible transference going on with my feelings over Devon, spilling out onto his stranger, my sibling who I only met a few hours ago. But I do like him. He is fun and clever and clearly has a good handle on our sire, which I find most amusing. The only other person in the world to stand up to him, is me.
"Send it to me," he says, as he approves of the photo.
"You do it. I don’t know your details," I say as I hand him my phone.
He taps into it as I lean casually on his shoulder. I see out of the corner of my eye that CK is watching us bonding with an unreadable expression, which intrigues me.
“There, I saved my contact details,” he says as he hands me my phone back.
I stare at it. "Seriously? You listed yourself as ‘my bro’? Are you crazy? For starters, I am English, I don't speak like that and secondly ‘bro'? That is just creepy," I say and shudder, remembering Lance.
"Hm, agreed. Especially as I most definitely want to take you to my bed," he leers at me as CK looks furious. "Although, I don't claim to have the stamina of our sire here, I am sure I can please you almost as well," he adds.
I flush at his clear knowledge of having heard and seen me and our sire. I change his details to ‘Seb’, and he nods approvingly.
"Well, as fascinating as this is," CK says sarcastically, "I have a meeting and as I wasn't expecting company, they are coming here."
"Well, we can take a hint," Sebastian says and leaps off the counter. I follow suit with more grace and go in search of my dress. Finding it draped over a chair in CK's bedroom, I put it over my arm, preferring to stay just in his t-shirt, then I slip my heels on. Fluffing out my hair, I stroll back into the sitting room. CK's eyes light up as he sees my sexy attire but then growls as Sebastian whistles at me.