Hm, it’s over a thousand years old and enchanted Celtic Faerie silver. Damn straight it’s unusual.
Twirling it, he pulls on it as if to take it off.
Jesus, I’d burst into flames and fall at his feet in a pile of ash.
I snatch my hand away quickly and try thinking up an excuse. “Err, it’s a family heirloom, I don’t ever take it off…you know, superstitious…” I trail off, but fortunately for me, he buys it and thankfully the drinks arrive, and it breaks the tension.
I have never been one to sit around waiting for things to fall into my lap, so when there is a sudden lapse in conversation, I decide to find out how open he would be to my secret. “Cole, can I ask you something?”
“Of course. What is it?” he says.
“Do you believe in…um…other life forms?” I ask, knowing how ridiculous it sounds now that I’ve said it out loud.
Surprised by the question, he frowns. “What, like aliens?”
I shrug, stifling my noise of frustration. “Sure, or Faeries, Witches, things like that,” I say, trying to be casual.
“Uh, yeah, I guess so. I dunno. Never really thought about it. Do you?” he asks, interested and thankfully not looking at me like I belong in the loony bin.
Again, I shrug. “I like to think I have an open mind,” I say, hoping he will say the same.
“Yeah, me too,” he says to my relief. “I mean, who knows? Who’s to say that there aren’t some Faeries among us right now?” There’s a twinkle in his eye as he teases me, but he’s sincere about the open mind.
Good, I can work with that.
We spend the next hour talking, about everything and anything. We have so much to talk about despite our massive differences. I feel connected to him, just as I did with Devon. It must mean something, I think, fingering my ring pensively as we walk back to the car.
He will accept me.
He has to.
T he rest of the day is spent in my swimming pool. I feel more and more that I have to tell him I am a Vampire.
As he leaves, reluctantly, later that night, I cling to him.
“I have had a really nice day,” I say to him. “It’s been a long time since I had so much easy fun.”
“I find that hard to believe,” he says. “You are so much fun.”
I laugh sadly. “Not so much lately. Things are difficult,” I say.
His look of concern warms me. “Difficult?” he asks. “Anything you want to talk about?”
Yes. Very much so, but I just shake my head. I want to ask him to stay again and take him to my bed to ravage him all night long, but he looks exhausted after a late night, very little sleep and a long day.
“Okay, well, remember that I’m here if you want to talk,” he says as he curls my hair behind my ear.
I shiver and lift my mouth to his for a kiss. He obliges me with gusto and walks me back to the stairs. With a monumental effort on my part, I push him back.
“As much as I would love that,” I say. “I think you need to head home. If you stay, you will get no sleep again.”
He looks disappointed, of course, but I am still not happy about what happened with CK and Devon this morning while he was in the house. There is something not sitting right with me about CK’s attitude and it is distracting me. “You are mine,” he’d said. He hasn’t said that to me in a lifetime. One thing I am sure about is that if he had declared his love for me the way I had for him this morning; I would be in Italy with him right now. And that makes me feel guilty to be spending this time with Cole. I need a bit of space to think about things. Plus, he definitely needs to sleep.
“Sleep,” he says, closing his eyes. “What is that?”
I snicker at him as he opens one eye and waggles his eyebrows at me.
“Go,” I say to him. “I will call you tomorrow.”