Fate (The Edge of Forever) (30 page)

“Thank you, Mr. Alexander.” Ralph seemed enthused and overwhelmed and his earlier hostility toward me was forgotten.

“Now if you’ll excuse us, we must go mingle.”

“Of course,” Ralph replied. “I’ll see you on Monday, Gaby.”

Throughout the evening, I couldn’t help but stare at Grayson. We were both working the room, occasionally separating but always coming back to each other. Once in a while, I would catch Grayson staring at me at the same moment I was staring at him, with desire and love in his eyes. I was becoming impatient for the night to end so we could go home and follow through with what those looks suggested. 

I had my arm looped through Grayson’s when an elderly couple approached us. The man was almost a carbon copy of Grayson, only older, but the woman shared Grayson’s eyes. If their looks weren’t a clear indicator of who they were, the grin that appeared on Grayson’s face definitely let me know. They were Charles and Josephine Alexander, Grayson’s parents.

“Sweetheart,” Josephine threw her arms around Grayson’s neck. “I am so proud of you,” she told him, while gesturing with her hand around the room. “And this party...” Her voice trailed off when she noticed me standing at Grayson’s side. 

“Son.” Charles pulled Grayson into a one-armed man-hug.

“Mom, dad,” Grayson put his arm around me, pulling me to him, “This is my girlfriend, Gabriella. She is also the one who planned this wonderful party.”

“Gabriella,” Josephine hugged me like she had known me forever, “it’s wonderful to finally meet you. Grayson has told us so much about you.”

“Has he?” I asked shooting a sideways glance to Grayson.

“All good, I swear.” He held up his hands in defense with an amused look on his face.

His father stepped forward shaking my hand. “You’re responsible for this party?” he asked. I nodded. “Well, we may need to hire you when we plan our anniversary in a few months.”

I smiled at him. “I’ve been telling her I want her to do all my parties, but she refuses to give me a discount.” Grayson joked with a large grin on his face. Charles smiled at his remark. Their smiles were identical.

“Gabriella, dear, won’t you join me for a refreshment?” Josephine asked.

“Mother...” Grayson groaned.
 

She rushed over grabbing my arm before I could object. “It’s just a drink, dear.” Josephine reassured her son.

She led me away to the table full of the catered food before I could protest. “I’m an older woman, Gabriella, so that entitles me to be more on the blunt side and get away with it.”

“You don’t seem old.”

She smiled at my attempt of flattery. “Are you in love with my son?”

She wasn’t lying, and I didn’t need my vampire super hearing to know that. She was blunt and I appreciated it. My hand reached up, clutching my new diamond around my neck in a nervous gesture. I wasn’t looking at her even though I was staring at her. My mind gave me a brief escape as I thought over my feelings for Grayson. A small smiled played on my lips before I whispered, “Yes.”

She beamed at me, her smile reaching her eyes. She knew my answer was genuine the way mothers know things. I was aware that she was the mother of a rich billionaire and she only wanted to make sure that my affections were true and were for the man, not his money.

“I come from money myself, Mrs. Alexander. I have no interest in Grayson’s.”

“Sweetheart,” she sighed, “that was not why I asked. I wouldn’t insult you in such a way.” She paused, briefly figuring out her words. “My son has never introduced us to a woman he’s been involved with. You’re the first. He obviously sees something special in you.” Her words hit me, almost knocking the wind out of me. I knew Grayson loved me but I had never once thought how much. He loved me enough to put up with the craziness that surrounded me, the vampires, the werewolves, me drinking his blood, death threats and enough to introduce me to his parents, when he’d
never
introduced another woman to them.

“Come along, dear. Let me get you back to him before he thinks I’m giving you the third degree.” I nodded.

As we approached, I used my vampire hearing and eavesdropped. I was curious. So sue me.

“She’s beautiful, son.” Charles stated, looking at me briefly, then back his son.

Grayson’s eyes, however, were locked on me, but spoke to his father. “She’s the one, dad,” he beamed at me.

Charles nodded, “I know, son. I can tell by the way you watch each other. The love you both have in your eyes is an amazing thing.”

“We’re back.” Josephine announced when we were close enough. “Don’t let us take up all your time. Go. Mingle with your guests.”

“How long are you in town for?” I asked. Grayson’s palm came to rest on the small of my back.

“We’re here until Friday. Perhaps we can get together and have dinner before we have to head back?” Josephine asked. “We have plans for the next few days with some friends in town. Maybe later in the week?”

Grayson turned to me, asking for a response. “Gaby?”

“Alright.” I thought about it silently for a moment. I wanted to show Grayson how much I loved him. How much he meant to me. I knew the time since we had been back together hadn’t been easy because of Anton. On top of everything else, I was tired of Anton having power over me. Grayson was my Achilles heel but, like both he and Shawn had pointed out to me, Anton didn’t know of his existence. So how could he use something that he didn’t even know about? “How about dinner Thursday?”

Grayson gaped at me in shock. “Thursday, Gaby? Are you sure?” He knew what it would mean if I didn’t go see Anton, but I was tired of playing this game. I was going to prove to Grayson that he was the most important person in the world. And he was.

“Positive.”

Charles and Josephine shared a quick glance obviously not sure what the private conversation was that Grayson and I were sharing. “Alright Thursday it is. Shall we say six?” Charles said.

“Sure.” Grayson nodded, still not taking his eyes off of me. “If anything changes, I’ll let you know.”

I turned back to Grayson’s parents. “It was very nice to meet you both.”

“The pleasure was ours.” Charles eyed me for a moment, noticing something. “Are you alright? You’re eyes seems...like they’re irritated. It looked for a moment that they changed to green.”

I tried to hide the shock from my face. The thirst. I hadn’t noticed it growing, but now that it was brought to the forefront of mind, I recognized the familiar burn. How had I not noticed especially being surrounded by hundreds of beating hearts? I was reminded of Grayson’s and my date when I had forgotten to feed. Even then, my eyes hadn’t turned alerting others to my condition. I felt Grayson tense beside me. He had seen my eyes turn enough to know what it implied. I closed my eyes pressing my thumb and middle finger over my lid.

“Um... Yes... I’m fine. The fluorescents are just irritating my eyes.”

Grayson grabbed my arm, pulling me along as he spoke to his parents. “We’ll see you Thursday.” They nodded as we departed. “When was the last time you fed?” Grayson hissed, trying to hide the irritation in his voice and failing. He had every right to be. That was a big slip on my part. The damage, the exposure that I could cause, it was a rookie mistake.

I frowned. “I don’t remember. I think the last time was on you.”

He paused, gripping my arm tighter, pulling me toward him. “That was Wednesday, Gabriella.” He spoke through clenched teeth.

My brows furrowed. “I know. I’m sorry. It’s been a busy couple of days.”

He pulled me along in the direction of the elevator. Once inside, he pushed a button, but I was no longer paying attention to know which floor. I was trying to think of a way to diffuse his anger. The doors opened, Grayson pulled me through. Coming to the first door on the right, he slid a card through it, opening it. I looked around. There were clothes and personal effects on the bed. At first, I thought he pulled us into someone’s room, but I realized this was where Grayson had gotten ready for the night. I looked up at him. He already had his jacket off and was working on the bottoms of his shirt. My breathing became heavy at the familiar sight of his body.

“What are you doing?” I asked not really caring one way or another. I was just enjoying the show.

He pulled his black shirt out of his pants then tossed it on top of his jacket on the chair. “You need to feed. So come on. Let’s do this so we can get back to the party.”

I licked my lips. My feet were already moving toward him without conscious thought. I hadn’t realized quite how thirsty I was until Grayson offered me a source to quench it. “Grayson...” I hesitated, not sure this was such a good idea, what with the party and the timespan since I had last fed. I didn’t think I would hurt him, but I still didn’t want to risk it.

Grayson closed the distance between us. His hands slipped around my waist pulling me hard, until I was flush against him. That one move had my fangs shoot out with a gasp. I moaned at the feel of his arousal pressed against me. The idea of me biting him was really turning him on.

“You know you want to, Gaby. But where?” he whispered, cocking his head to the side, studying me.

I pointed to his neck. “There.” I breathed. With perfect precision, I struck hitting his vein. His blood was euphoric, sliding like silk across my tongue. I licked and sucked, not wanting to waste a single drop. Lust smashed into me like a hammer. Hands slid up my back, coaxing more desire from me. I was savoring the taste of Grayson, the feel of his body against mine, so much that I hadn’t been aware of him leading me back to the bed. We fell on top of it. I continued slow, short pulls wanting to draw out the experience, but not take too much to leave him lethargic or worse. Grayson shifted his weight on top of me. Pushing my panties aside he slammed himself into me, deep to the hilt. I released his neck, letting a loud moan loose. Once he began moving in and out, I latched back onto his neck. He had us both coming in seconds. I licked up the excess blood until the two tiny puncture marks closed.

Grayson’s chest rose and fell heavily. Lifting himself up off of me, he searched my face with a large smile upon his. “Wow!” he exclaimed. I nodded, grinning just as hugely, still in a postorgasm haze. “Did you know that would happen?” he asked.

I nodded again, still not having the words. Blood and sex weren’t always connected for vampires. It was a struggle not to connect them when you were with someone of the opposite sex. With Grayson, we could do sex without blood but it seemed impossible to do blood without sex. Images of the night Anton forced me to feed from the male human began to crawl to the front of my mind. I had been thinking of Grayson and maybe that had been half of the problem. I quickly pressed those thoughts back, not wanting them to ruin this moment.

“Okay. Noted. Are you alright? Can you move?” he laughed.

I shook my head and wet my lips. “I... just need... a minute...” I stammered with each breath.

Then, Grayson’s phone rang. “Shit. It’s Shawn.” He spoke to me before answering. “Hey, we’ll be down there in five.” He hung up, not waiting for a response. 

Grayson helped me up. He dressed while I attempted to tame my sex hair. Afterwards, we headed back down the elevator to find Shawn so we could introduce him to his hot date.

Shawn spotted us immediately or maybe he caught our scent. No one ever knew with werewolves. 

He eyed us suspiciously with a wicked gleam in his eye. “Really? In the middle of your own party?” Shawn scolded us.

Grayson held his hands up. “Hey blame her. She’s the one who decided not to feed for a few days.”

Shawn turned his glare solely on me. “That’s really irresponsible, Gaby. You know what can happen if you wait to long.”

“I know, Shawn. How about I make it up to you by introducing you to your hot date?”

Shawn pursed his lips, crossed his arms over his defined chest. “Depends on how hot whether I forgive you.” I giggled, pulling him along. Grayson was already ahead of us talking to his manager who turned his gaze, locking onto Shawn. He stood a few inches shorter than Grayson. He was dressed in a tan business suit that looked custom made for his body. He was wearing glasses but didn’t look like the intellectual type. In fact, he looked like he just fell off the pages of GQ. “That him?” Shawn asked, tilting his chin in the guy’s direction.

“Yup.”

“Okay, you’re forgiven.”

***

After an exhausting Saturday, Grayson and I decided to get some much needed R and R. We stayed in bed until almost noon, sleeping and cuddling. Deciding to keep with the ‘rest’ theme, Grayson ordered in lunch. After we ate, I had to say goodbye for a couple of hours. I needed to be at the nest for the delivery, upon my mother’s request. Plus, my own blood supply was dwindling precariously low.

Afterward, I returned to Grayson with a small cooler in tow.

“You wanna talk about last night?” He asked as I curled up next to him on the sofa.

I let out a deep exhale, “I know I screwed up. I’m sorry. I even made sure to bring extra blood with me for the week.”

Grayson pulled back so he could look at me. “That wasn’t what I was talking about.”

I rested my chin on his muscular chest, looking up at his handsome face from under my lashes. “Oh?”