Choices (The Forever series, Book Four) (26 page)

“I disappeared from their lives and became what I am,” he
finishes up and I know that is all I am going to get out of him, but Christ, it
is more than I ever expected… ever!

“Your turn,” he says as I am still gaping at him and his
admissions.

“Erm, well clearly you know that my father gave me to Radulf
on my fourteenth birthday to be wed. I was terribly shy and my mother never
discussed anything with me about what to expect or what I was expected to do.
Although I don’t suppose it really matters. My wedding night consisted of me
being stripped by my drunk husband and held down as he forced himself on me.” I
stop dead, not wanting to continue.

CK takes my hands in his and says quietly, “Go on.”

Do I have to? What’s the big deal? But then I think of all
the times I have pushed him and I suppose I owe him something more.

“What else is there to say? It was horrendous. Painful and
humiliating and it only got worse.”

“Oh baby, I wish I could have spared you all that. If I had
truly known what you went through I would never have asked so much of you so
quickly.”

“I wish you had turned up sooner. That first time in the
barn, I think of that as my first time. You may not have taken my virginity but
you took everything else. Showed me what it was to love. I was so in love with
you. I would have done anything you asked,” I admit shyly.

He smiles his made-for-me smile and says, “Same here. I just
didn’t know how to show you. How to really show you. How to treat you. I was so
used to being with other Vampires, women I had sired or was going to sire, just
because it was what I had to do. I had never fallen in love before. I wish I
had handled it differently.” He sighs.

“Me too.”

He frowns and I elaborate, “I spent so many nights waiting
for you. Wishing you would come to me. Or calling me to your bed. I loved it
when you did that. Made me feel special.” I trail my hand up his chest, all the
way to his face. I turn him towards me and gaze into his beautiful dark eyes.
“You were my whole world. My savior. There isn’t anything I wouldn’t have done
for you.”

He closes his eyes as my words sink in and says, “I should
have known from the start you would be different. That you wouldn’t take to our
lifestyle as easily as the others. What we talked of at the Penthouse last
year? You being so sweet and innocent? It truly surprised me that you had
managed to hold onto all of that. I should have known though, I should have
paid more attention. I should have been more protective of you.”

I smile a slow, wide smile as I know he is talking of
William.

“I liked him, you know. Had he not been so busy conquering a
nation we might have got to know each other better. If it had been anyone, it
would have been him,” I say quietly, finally admitting the possibility.

“Humph. Well in that case, Long Live the King,” he grouses
at me sarcastically.

“Don’t be such a grouch. He taught me a lot.”

“Yes, I recall he was all for teaching you new things.”

“Well you wouldn’t so I found someone who would.”

“I didn’t want to teach you how to fight because I didn’t
ever want you in a position to have to fight.”

“And yet. There I was at your side at Constantinople, and
kicked a lot of arse if I recall.”

He grins at me, “Yes you fucking did. Christ, I have never
seen anyone quite so skilled and without mercy.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment,” I say with a half smile.

“Oh, you really should. Even Dmitri was impressed and he is
pretty ruthless.”

Oooo, what an opening, something I have dying to know more
of, so I say, “Speaking of Dmitri. He said he was there when you rescued me
from Lance’s? I don’t remember.”

“Well you weren’t exactly in your right frame of mind. But yes
he was.”

“But he didn’t recognize me in my natural form last year,” I
say, confused.

“That’s because, to my utmost surprise, you Shifted. I don’t
think I have ever been quite so startled in all my life.”

“What?”

“After I found you and you drank from me, you Shifted. He
never saw you as you are.”

“What?” I ask again stupidly.

He looks at me as if I am stupid and says, “Well I don’t
suppose I expect you to remember. You mumbled something about needing to
change. Be something different. It didn’t last long, a day at the most. You
were too weak to hold on to it. Anyway we had gone together to confront Lance
after we found your abandoned castle. He denied ever seeing you but his head
Romani dropped the wards before we were about to leave and I sensed you. I went
to find you and he held off Lance for as long as he could. It nearly killed
me,” he whispers. “Your pain. The fact that you had given up and were going to
give yourself to him. I wish you had let me kill him then.”

“There was no time. And after…I just didn’t want you to
leave me. I’m sorry for the burden I must have been to you after that,” I say
hesitantly.

“What?” he asks now sitting upright. “Burden? You were never
a burden to me, Aefre. What on earth makes you think that?”

“I was broken. Completely dead inside. I was doing nothing
to please you or anything to want you to keep me around.”

“Oh Aefre, I would have looked after you to this day if that
is what it took to get you back. Is that what made you come back? That you
thought you weren’t pleasing me?” he frowns and I look down at his words.

“That night, a thought came into my head. I didn’t have many
thoughts so this came as a bit of a revelation. I thought that if I didn’t
respond to you, you were going to abandon me. I couldn’t bear the thought of
that. I didn’t want you to leave me somewhere all alone. When I drank from you,
it all became a lot clearer,” I say.

“Did I… did I give you a reason to think I would leave you?”
he asks quietly.

“I don’t know. I don’t think so. But you misunderstand. I wanted
to come back then. It gave me a reason to come back.”

He smiles sadly, “Well I can’t say that I would rather you
have come back for yourself and your own reasons but I will take what I can
get.”

I kiss him softly and he lets me, for once not taking control.

A knock at the door brings us apart. “That had better not be
Devon already,” he stands complaining and I chuckle.

He answers and I stand and turn. It’s Nico. Wondered when he
would turn up. “Cade’s been spotted,” he says as he strides into the suite
stopping dead in his tracks when he sees me. And there it is, finally. The
desire I have pushed to get is burning brightly in his eyes and doesn’t go
unnoticed by my highly irate sire. So all this time I was flashing my bits at
him when what he wanted was this. He clearly has a thing for 15
^th
century Italian women, I note with an inward high-five to myself. I must look
smug as CK barks “Nico!” at him and the shutters close again as he clears his
throat.

“Aefre, go and wait in the bedroom,” he orders me but I
shake my head.

“No, if it’s about Cade. I’m staying.”

He glares at my defiance but I stand my ground. If I am
going to meet in secret with him, I need to know what Nico knows.

Nico turns his back to me and addresses only his boss, “One
of my team spotted him in the casino earlier, talking to someone on his phone.”

I try not to look guilty as he was talking to me.

“We tried to follow him back to wherever he’s staying, but
he disappeared. He is good, I’ll give him that,” he says grudgingly.

“That’s it? That’s all you have to tell me?” CK snaps. “It’s
not good enough. I want his head on a platter; don’t bother me again unless
that is what you are bringing me.” He is in a right temper now, mad at Nico and
probably me as well knowing him, and I sigh. So much for our happy time.

“Yes, sir,” Nico bobs his head and without a second glance
at me, beats a hasty retreat lest it be his head on a platter.

CK shifts his furious gaze to me and I stare innocently
back. After all, it’s not my fault. I didn’t do anything to cause such a
reaction from his employee. Had I stripped off naked and given him a lap dance,
sure I’d take the blame, but not for this. I couldn’t be more covered up if I
tried.

“You need to Shift,” he growls at me. “Into a beast so
hideous that people run from you.”

Oh my word! I think I can honestly say I have never in all
my life laughed as hard or for as long as I do at that comment. I am bent over
double trying to catch my breath in between bouts of mirth that leave my
stomach aching. Every time I sober I look at him and his slightly amused
expression and it starts all over again.

“A beast so hideous that people run from me?” I snort
slapping my thigh as more laughter bubbles up. “And what of you? Would you
run?”

“Well that depends on what you looked like,” he says with a
laugh of his own. “Christ Aefre, I just can’t seem to catch a break with you.
If it’s not one man, it’s another. You truly are a Helen of Troy.”

I stop laughing then and just look at him, his words warming
me inside. “You always know the right thing to say,” I say shyly.

He crosses over to me slowly. “I’m sure that even as a beast
you would still have too many suitors. There is just something about you that
draws men in. When we are married I am going to have to lock you away so I can
have you all to myself.”

My breath hitches in my throat at the mild threat and his
eyes harden as he says, “Now that was completely the wrong thing to say. I
apologize. You know I would never do that to you?” It is a question, an
uncertain one.

“I do know that,” I say reassuringly and he looks relieved.

“That was you that Cade was talking to, wasn’t it?” he asks,
catching me off guard with a tactic that he is renowned for. He gives you no
warning of the topic and he just slips it into the conversation so you have no
defenses up.

“Yes,” I admit, not wanting to lie any more than I have to.

“I see. And what were you talking about?”

Oh screw this. I am sick of secrets, in for a penny and all
that. “He wants to meet me, in private. He has something he wants to discuss
with me.”

“And you were going to go?”

“Yes. He says he has no interest in killing me. Not
anymore.”

“You believe him? It’s what he does, Aefre. It’s not just a
job to him, it’s his birthright.”

“I know all that but I do believe him.”

“He has already tried to hurt you.”

“He admitted that he was mostly sure that I would be okay.”

“Mostly sure?” he yells at me suddenly, making me jump as we
have thus far been discussing this in normal tones.

“Well, I admit those odds don’t sound very reassuring,” I say
calmly, “but I am sure that he can’t kill me. He is a Vampire Hunter and I am
not altogether a Vampire anymore. More so after today,” I add and then regret
those words as his eyes pin mine in fury.

“You aren’t going,” he says shortly.

“Yes I am.”

“No you aren’t. End of story. This isn’t a discussion,
Aefre,” he says all sire-like but tough shit, as he can’t pull that crap on me
anymore.

“No it isn’t. You get no say in whether I go or not.”

He hisses at me and moves closer, “Do not defy me.”

This time last year I would be quaking in my Louboutins had
he spoken to me like that but now I just glare at him. “I am going to hear what
he has to say and that, my dear, is the end of the story.”

For a long time he just glares at me and then as ever with
the abrupt mood shift he shrugs and says, “Fine. Do not come crying to me when
he kills you.”

“I won’t,” I say haughtily.

“I preferred it when you did what you were told. You are not
acting in the way I asked you to.”

I smile slowly at him. “I apologize, sir,” I say with a
slight curtsy. I don’t want to fight with him so I do as he asks and turn on
Aefre mode. “
Io sono docile, son rispettosa, sono ubbidiente, dolce, amorosa
,”
I say, quoting Rossini’s “The Barber of Seville” to him: I am submissive, I am
respectful, I am obedient, gentle, affectionate. “Please punish me as you see
fit for my disobedience,” I continue, baiting him with those words, but it’s
what he wants to hear so I say them hoping he won’t be an arse and use it
against me.

He returns my slow smile with a wicked one of his own, his
eyes on fire at my words, “There, that’s better,” he says quietly. “An
acceptable way to talk to your sire.”

I lower my eyes demurely and he breathes in deeply. He has
me right where he wants me but there again, so do I. He is this close to coming
undone and I couldn’t be more thrilled.

He saunters slowly closer to me until he is standing right
in front of me. He lifts my chin up, forcing my eyes to his. I quiver at the
small amount of contact with him and he slowly lowers his head to kiss me
softly before he asks, “How much do you want me?”

“To the ends of the earth, my love,” I whisper.

He smiles at my words said so long ago, “Even after all this
time, you still want me that much?”

“Are you saying you don’t want me that much?” I smile and
his eyes light up.

“Oh Aefre, I want you to the ends of the world and back,” he
whispers before he plunges his tongue into my mouth. I pull him to me,
desperate to have him closer.

“I need you,” I whisper against his lips. “I need you inside
me.”

He pulls me back towards the sofa, hands desperately pulling
up the voluminous folds of the gown. He finds my flesh and kneads my thighs,
pinching his way up to my backside. He sits, pulling me down with him, and I
have a horrible flashback of the last time I was on this sofa in this position.
I push the memory aside and concentrate on getting him out of his clothes. He
struggles out of his jacket and I pull on his tie to undo it, tossing it aside
quickly to get to work on his shirt. I want to feel him. Feel his skin. I want
to rake my claws across him and drink from him. I shift and slice easily
through his shirt not caring that it probably cost him a fortune and rip it off
him.