Prologue
Buckinghamshire, England, 1966 – Jacqui
“Devon?” I called to him. “Devon?”
He came sauntering into the library with his usual swagger. “What is it, Jacqus?” he complained. “I’m busy.”
“I need your help with something,” I said and pointed to the rolling library ladders. “This needs to go back up there.” I held out the book to him.
He looked at me in disbelief. “You called me away from the World Cup Final to ask me to replace a book on the top shelf?”
“Yes,” I said to him, as I swung my long red hair out of my bright green eyes. “Your book, you replace it. If you think I am going up that rickety ladder to the ceiling, you have another thing coming.”
“Jacqui, my dear. I do love you, but I am going back to watching the football. The ladder is fine. Go up yourself, or I will do it later,” he said to me as he turned to leave.
I huffed at him. “Fine then. CK is due any minute. I am sure he will have no problem in helping me,” I yelled at his retreating back, hearing him mutter something about staying well out of the way.
“Jacqui,” my sire crooned from behind me, where he had Teleported in, making me jump. Damn man, he needed a cowbell. He leaned over to kiss me and frowned at my Shift. “Beautiful as always, my sweet, but you really should keep your natural look.”
“It’s boring,” I said to him, returning his kiss with a passionate one of my own. “It has been far too long since I have seen you.”
“Your natural look is not boring,” he admonished. “But yes, indeed it has been. I don’t mind coming to see you here. Are you returning to Seattle soon?” he inquired.
“Yes, we are leaving tomorrow. Devon just had to be here for the World Cup,” I said. “I did tell you we were here a couple of weeks ago,” I reminded him.
He shrugged. “I had business to attend to. Will you be staying over there much longer? I want you to return to the Continent and me.”
Oh, I wanted to return to him, but he didn’t want me in that way, so I shrugged myself and said, “A few more years, then Chicago and then I have plans to go to Boston.”
“Boston?” he asked in surprise.
“Yes, I want to go to Harvard.”
“We have perfectly fine universities in Italy,” he frowned at me.
“I know, I have attended them all,” I reminded him with my own frown. “I want to go to Harvard.”
“You won’t find it as easy as all that to get in nowadays, my dear.”
“I know. We have to go to school first.”
“You are going to high school?” he asked me in utter disdain.
“Well, not right now,” I snapped, getting irritated. “A couple of decades from now. We have other plans first.”
“We, humph,” he said rudely under his breath. “So, you required help from someone called CK?” His beautiful dark eyes found mine and I looked down in horror.
“Err, I just needed this going back up there,” I said, stammering slightly because he heard me call him by a nickname. He was going to have my head for it, I thought with a gulp. “It’s no problem, I can do it,” I said an
d hastily pulled the shaky ladder to me, which was in desperate need of replacing after years of neglect. Devon and I hadn’t been back here since the war and the old place needed a good renovation. I ascended gracefully, despite the ridiculously short skirt and long boots, just to get away from his knowing look. I replaced the book and hesitated as he came to stand underneath the ladder looking up at me. I climbed slowly back down and felt his hand run up my bare leg as I got within touching range.
“I can’t say that I am all that pleased about you showing off your legs to the world in this skirt,” he murmured to me and I swallowed loudly, but was glad that he’d dropped the nickname thing. His hand inched further up under the skirt and my breathing all but stopped. I let go of the ladder and fell back into his waiting arms, tilting my head up for a kiss, but I got a shock when he placed me back on my feet.
“You call me ‘CK’ when you speak of me?” he asked casually and again I looked down, contrite.
“Sorry, sir,” I mumbled. “It is your initials; it is just shorter. I won’t do it again.”
A silence grew and I waited for the speech to come on respect and being brash and presumptuous, but it didn’t come. I dared to look up into his eyes and all I saw was amusement.