“You are the only person I have ever come across that would dare to be that overly familiar with me.”
“Sorry, sir,” I mumbled again.
He stepped closer and tilted my chin up. “Shift so I can tell this to my real charge, if you please.”
Surprised, I took a step back and Shifted back to my natural form. My clothes now hung a bit looser on my tiny frame. Devon always grumbled that I was too skinny in this form. He was right, so I did try to make my Shifted persona’s curvier. He smiled his heart-stopping smile at me. “That’s better. I do prefer it when you look like Aefre,” he said to me. “You are a special girl, my sweet. I do love you so.”
I simpered under his words, but I wished that he meant them in the way that I wanted him to. “I love you too,” I said back.
“I know you do. I like that you have given me a nickname.”
I looked up into his eyes. “You do?” I asked in surprise.
“Yes, it makes me feel special to you,” he said so softly that I had to lean forward to catch it. “I want you to call me that, always, from now on.”
“Really?” I asked, my eyes wide. “You don’t mind if I call you that? Even in front of other people?”
He laughed. “I especially want you to call me that in front of other people. It will show them what we mean to each other and that they are not a part of it.” He cast a quick glance down the corridor where Devon had disappeared, and I sighed. I did so wish they didn’t hate each other so much. “But only you,” he said then as he tapped my chin with his index finger. “Only you.” He pulled me to him then to give me the kiss I had been waiting for. “Do you want me, my sweet?”
I smiled, slowly and playfully. “Yes, CK,” I said before he whisked me up in his arms and Teleported us giggling to my bedroom.
Chapter 1
Tuscany, Italy, 2013 (Other) – Liv
“I’m always here,” he says as I rush into his arms. Well, that is kind of the wrong way to describe it. I rush towards him, expecting him to pick me up in his arms, but it is more like running into a brick wall as he keeps his arms firmly by his sides. He grunts, as I slam into him, and then brings his hands up to steady me.
“Are you feeling okay, Your Majesty?” he asks me, his beautiful eyes now concerned but not in a loving way.
Your Majesty? Why is he calling me that?
“Linc?” I say to him cautiously.
“Ma’am?” he queries back just as cautiously.
CK, err, Constantine is at my side then. “What did you just call him?”
I frown at him and then at Lincoln, who is frowning back at me. I can’t say I have ever seen him look quite so serious. And menacing. Okay, clearly this relationship is not a personal one. He is suited and looks more like security than my sweet, gentle Wolf-lover.
“Mr. Anderson, I suggest you take a step back. Clearly the Empress is not feeling herself today,” Constantine says as he grips my arm.
Empress? Oh, yikes.
“Where is the Queen?” he barks at Marguerite.
“I am here, Father.” A beautiful girl comes down the stairs to join us all standing here in the Entrance Hall. And she doesn’t say “father” in that creepy Lance way; she says it like he is her…dad. “Is Mother all right? There is quite the commotion going on.” She kisses him on the cheek, and he gazes at her lovingly. Her long blonde hair is the same color as mine, but her eyes are her father’s, no doubt. She is my daughter. Mine and Constantine’s. Well, other, other me, obviously, I think, clearing my throat.
“I think she is under the weather. I want her back in bed. Now,” he snaps, and Ramon picks me up in his arms and carries me back up the stairs towards the bedroom.
“Wait,” I call. I want to know her name, but we have rounded the corner and disappeared from their sight.
“You need to feed,” Ramon says to me. “It is past time.” He shuts the bedroom door and places me gently on the bed.
Well, I am not arguing with that. I am famished and as he strips off his t-shirt, I get a bit hungrier, but not for blood.
I drop my fangs and feed deeply from him as he holds me close. He has always been a bit flirty, but this is something else. I pull back and retract my fangs. He kisses me passionately, pushing one of his hands into my hair and the other going inside my robe.
Hey! Hang on a minute! I push him away and he whispers, “He won’t be back up for a few more minutes. He knows you are feeding.”