“Of course I do,” he replies honestly. He thought he might find it difficult to care for her, but it was easy. Delinda has such a way about her that it makes it easy to fall in love with her.
Aeval smiles up at him happily. “I’m glad,” she says. “I was worried…”
“You have no need to worry about that, little one. My love for you both runs so deeply,” he says.
She pulls him to her for another kiss and he obliges with gusto. He wishes he could take her right here, right now, but she backs off and indicates that he should open the door, which he does.
“Mama,” Delinda cries when she sees Aeval enter the room. She races over to her daughter to scoop her up and hold her close to her. He feels bad now that he took the girl away from her. He can see that she is really afraid of losing her.
“Baby,” she whispers into her little, blonde head.
Delinda wiggles out of her mother’s tight embrace and drops to the floor. “Daddy and I have been building this castle,” she says and points to the wooden blocks that fit together to make a palace.
“Daddy?” Aeval says weakly and falls to her knees besides her daughter.
He can see that hurts her. It did him the first time he heard it, but now he delights in it.
“Mm-hm,” Delinda says with a nod. “Daddy said that when I get bigger, he is going to build me one just like it to live in!” She bounces up and down excitedly.
“It will be perfect,” Aeval says with a smile. “Will I live there too with you?”
“No, you will live here with Daddy,” Delinda says and goes back to her building.
Aeval looks up at him with a small smile, which he returns with a bigger one. He can think of no better future.
He helps his wife to her feet when she holds her hand up for him. “I suppose I had better go,” she says reluctantly. “It’s been a weird day.”
“I can imagine. How does it feel to have fangs again?” he teases her.
“Fantastic,” she says and flashes them quickly at him. He catches his breath and wishes she would sink them into him and drain him dry so he can die a happy man. “You guys are all the same,” she scolds him gently as she knows his thoughts.
He chuckles. “Well, you have a way of making it the best feeling in the world,” he whispers to her. “I have missed you, Aefre,” he says, switching to her real name. “Stay the night?”
“I can’t,” she says, but he can see she wants to. “CK is more than a little overprotective at the moment.”
“He always was,” Sebastian murmurs to her.
She smiles at him. “Even more so now. I–I do want to be with you, but please give me some time to make it the right time,” she says.
“Of course,” he says, not wanting to pressure her, but dying inside knowing he must spend another night in torment alone in his bed.
“Thank you,” she says and then turns to Delinda to say good night.
He watches them and lets his mind wander to when it will be like this, the two of them putting Delinda to bed and then going back to their own room to make love all night and to maybe, if the gods are shining down on them, create a child of their own. It gets him excited to see that future and any lingering doubts he had about spelling her vanish in that moment. She has to be his and now he will pull out all the stops to get her. He can’t wait to be with her, but even more than that, he can’t wait to see his sire’s face when he takes Aefre away from him.
Chapter 20
The Dark Fae Kingdom, September 2014 - Aefre
“Everything okay?” CK asks me as I land back in the bedroom.
“Yeah,” I say. “I was overreacting.”
“Really?” he says with a smirk.
I give him a rude gesture with my finger, and he grabs it and kisses it. “Please say that it is bedtime now?” he asks.
“Definitely,” I say. “But first, I need to feed.”