“He had to get out of here,” Devon murmurs, stretching like a panther. “I think it got a bit much for him.”
“It was,” I say, leaping off the bed. “It was too much too soon.”
“He’ll be okay, Lizzie,” Devon says as I shove my pants back on and my top over my head, while CK and Devon do the same.
“No, he won’t,” I snap at them. “He shouldn’t have left here by himself.”
“He’s only been gone a minute,” CK grouses, but then stiffens as he suddenly decides, that yes, a minute is too long for any of us to be wandering around here on our own.
We all move towards the door at the same time.
I glare at them. “What are you doing?”
“I told you, you aren’t going anywhere by yourself. We stay together,” CK reminds me.
“I have to go and find Cole. I don’t want you following me.”
“If you leave this room, then we are going with you. Simple as that,” he says in that tone that brooks no argument.
Storming off in a huff, they follow me closely. They both crash into me as I pause briefly to track Cole. I turn to them in annoyance and they mutter apologies.
Trying the mental map thing that I did at Ponte. I close my eyes. I can see where everyone is and I find Cole quickly, downstairs in the main sitting room, a safe distance away from Lance.
I move quickly, not wanting him on his own, my two bodyguards following me.
I reach him in record time and find him staring out the windows, arms folded and face neutral. It tells me nothing about how he is feeling. I hiss at the other two to leave us. They don’t, but hover near the door as I cross to him slowly. I stand in a similar pose to him, also staring out of the window into a lovely topiary garden.
“Hey,” he says.
“You sho
uldn’t have left by yourself,” I chide him.
“I had to get out of there. The scent was…overpowering,” he says, his cheeks going a bit pink.
I stifle my chuckle. But I can imagine how he feels. To me, our mingled scents are divine, but to him, it’s probably the opposite.
Acutely aware that CK and Devon are now intentionally eavesdropping on this conversation, I pull him further away to the back of the room. Not that it will help but I feel like I have to.
“I’m sorry I pushed you into it when you expressed to me that you weren’t ready for my sire to get involved,” I say.
“You didn’t push me, I just…went with the flow,” he says with a sigh. “But it’s okay. I’m okay. Don’t think that I’m upset or jealous or anything because I’m not. It’s just overwhelming to see you with them like that. I know you told me that you loved them, but to see it so obviously, was…They love you as much as I do,” he finishes up his random thoughts. “It’s nothing less than you deserve. I don’t want to be the weak link.”
“You aren’t,” I say to him forcefully. “Don’t ever say that. We don’t have to do it again.”
“I have something to say about that, but when we are alone.” He nods his head at the hovering beasts over by the door. “It was very strange to see you as Elizabeth,” he says with a smile. He looks over at Devon. “It must be hard for him to not see you that way every day,” he adds softly.
I blink at him and his consideration of Devon’s feelings.
“It is,” I speak for my elder charge. “And for CK, he wants Aefre. Wants fifteenth century Aefre,” I amend thinking of the nursery briefly, before I push that wayward thought out of my head.
“It drives me crazy that they know you so much better than I do. That you have shared history, and by history, I mean that in the literal sense, inside jokes and memories. That he can look at you and know exactly what you are thinking,” he whispers and by ‘he’, I know he is talking about Constantine. “I know you need them, and they need you too. Be what you need to be for them, as long as I get you the way I want you.
“Of course,” I whisper to him and drag him to me for a lingering kiss.
“Well, isn’t this just sweet,” Lance’s voice breaks through my happy state.
I scowl at him, moving us into a large patch of sunlight.