CHAPTER NINETEEN
Iwoke up but didn’t open my eyes. He still knew.
“Good evening,” he whispered, smooth like honey in my ear.
He was curled around me, my head on one of his arms as a pillow and the other draped over me. His finger drew little circles on my breastbone, suspiciously squished between my breasts, thanks to my own arm pressing them together.
“Good evening,” I tried to reply, but I was hoarse, and it kind of hurt to talk.
“Let’s get you fed,” he said, chuckling softly. Before he untangled himself from me, he squeezed in closer and tilted my head to kiss me.
The kiss took my breath away, and I blinked several times as he got out of bed and revealed that he was already hard.
“Did you sleep?” I asked, barely anything coming out.
“I did. Once you are fed, we should probably talk.”
Hate that.
I pushed out of bed and looked down. I was, in fact, covered in marks. Certain spots looked like places he’d held me a bit too tightly, not that I noticed. Certain places he’d been intentional, leaving hickies in places only I would find them.
He came toward me, kneeling in front of me, his fingers grazing a mark that was really just a purple bruise.
“This will all heal by the end of tonight,” he said, staring at it. “I still have to be careful, even with you as a vampire.”
“I really liked last…” I couldn’t keep going. It actually hurt to talk.
“Don’t mistake my comment for guilt,” he said. “You asked for it.”
He lifted me off the bed with one arm, and I didn’t struggle until he carried me naked out of the bedroom, the one he claimed while here, and into the kitchen.
“There’s no one here,” he reminded. “And no cameras inside, I believe. And even if there were cameras…” He shrugged.
“I’ll tell Maria to wipe the footage or turn them off.
But I grabbed this.” He put his folded black button-up from the night before on the counter between us.
I quickly grabbed it and slid it on, feeling more comfortable with some barrier between me and the world.
I didn’t say anything as he prepared blood. I didn’t even try to get involved, knowing he had just done this. If he was there, he liked to do it—habit, wanting to do a thing for me. I didn’t care. I just stayed out of the way.
After the first hot sip, my throat felt immediately better. Not healed, not yet, but soothed.
“Talk?” I asked before taking another sip. I sounded better. Not close to good, but slightly better.
“Drink.”
I finished up and slid the glass to him. He washed it and placed it in the sink. It felt like an eternity of mundane things between me and something important. I was antsy by the time he placed it on the rack to dry.
“How do you feel?” he asked
“Good, except…” I gestured to my throat.
“Do you have any questions? Anything you need me to know? Anything you want to know?”
My face flushed at the first question that entered my mind.
“Did we make it to sunrise?” I asked.
“Five minutes after,” he answered, seeming very pleased with himself, or me, or just the previous night in general. He then made a face. “Which is unhealthy for you to be doing. That part, I’ll be more careful about in the future.”
“Yeah, I sort of fell over at the end.” I remembered that part.
Amazingly. “And you slept.” He had said so earlier, but I wanted to make sure.
I knew he could stay up all day, and we had been in his bed.
I didn’t know how comfortable he’d be. He woke up next to me, but sleeping is different than lying in bed.
“I did. I cleaned things up and then slept. Same bed. I didn’t go anywhere.
” Alexius seemed so relaxed, while I felt even more wound up than normal.
The night before kept replaying in my mind.
“We need to discuss what this will look like,” he finally said, the eye contact becoming uncomfortable for me.
“Us? This?”
“Yes. The first rule I think that needs to be in place is that we only go to each other’s rooms at home or here with an invite from the other. That can be turned down. Emergencies, of course, override.”
I nodded quickly. That seemed easy. Good rule. Let us keep our private spaces.
“Do you have a rule suggestion?”
“Don’t carry me around naked when humans or anyone else is around,” I said, my voice growing a little clearer. “From there…” I shrugged. “We’ll see what needs to be a rule and what doesn’t?”
“Okay. Tell me if there’s anything you need…” Alexius looked down, and she finally saw his phone. “I have to go out tonight. Do you have plans?”
“Can I come help with the thing?”
“No. I’m wondering if you’ll be here, with Declan, or wandering around on your own. If it’s the last, please tell me where. Just so I can find you if something happens.”
“Like the night with the restaurant. Yeah. Any more recommendations?”
I watched him consider it, then shake his head.
“I don’t really go out and do those things, but I won’t stop you.
” He picked up his phone and started back toward the room, and I had no reason not to tag along, if anything, than to get my clothing from the night before back to my room.
He chuckled as I looked at the dress. It had a few tears, adding new, unplanned leg slits.
“Guess I’m throwing this out,” I muttered at it. He grabbed it and threw it on the bed.
“It can stay. I’ll either keep it and make you wear it later or get it repaired for you. One of those.”
“Wow…” I wasn’t expecting that.
“I already put the heels in my suitcase,” he said, smiling down at me.
“You don’t do that to other lovers, do you?” Did he have a shoe collection I needed to worry about?
“No. While I could say I’ve had lovers, there are none I would treat like you.
Not someone in my space the way you have been…
So I’m indulging in new things I want to do since this situation is unique for me.
” He pointed at the closed suitcase next to the dresser.
“If you want them back, they will not be in the state you remember. At best, they will need repairs, and I shall inquire about having those done. Or send Rupert to.”
“Does it have to be Rupert?”
“If there’s one person we’re not going to hide from whatsoever, it is Rupert.
He will eventually walk in on us or find evidence or need to come into one of our rooms during the day for something.
It happens regularly. I know you’ve set up a little entry table thing in your suite for common items he grabs. ”
“Yeah.” I kept forgetting to leave my keys where he could reach them for maintenance, gas, and the like.
“So. Rupert.”
“Rupert,” I agreed. “And he’ll tell everyone on staff…”
“He’ll tell people who get too close to learning naturally to lower the shock value because some of them have weak hearts due to age.” Alexius drummed his fingers on the dresser. “Though telling him will be its own conversation.”
I watched him, now only leaving the room with my undergarments and his shirt, and finally appreciated how much more relaxed he was than I had ever seen him. Something had uncoiled in him.
“What?” he asked, leaning down to my level, our eyes meeting.
When I didn’t reply immediately, he wrapped a hand around the back of my neck, his fingers tangling quickly in my bedhead.
His lips hovered over mine. I tried to close the distance since I had yet to initiate a kiss since the night before.
I couldn’t. That hand was holding me in place.
“What?” he asked again.
“You seem relaxed,” I finally told him.
He closed the distance and kissed me.
“It’s amazing what not having to hold back my every thought and action every second in your presence can do,” he explained.
“Now I really must get to work for Maria tonight after losing all of last night. It’s still early, and the more I get now, the more I hope I can actually wrap this up in the limited time we’re here.
” He released me. “Which means you can’t be in here distracting me.
” He shuffled me out of his room, but I knew he watched me walk all the way back to my own in his shirt.
Oh my God, the last twenty-four hours actually happened.
I sank onto my bed, realizing that while my voice was hoarse, any other evidence of the night would be easily hidden.
Dealing with other people seemed easier.
I felt charged. I texted Henry and asked if he was free for the evening.
I wished my brother well on his date night, adding that I would support any decision he made with Lexi and me. Lexi didn’t seem so bad anymore.
Who knew getting laid was the key to inner peace?
Smiling to myself, I went to take a long shower.
I finally looked at myself in the mirror—the smoky eye makeup was a disaster, the foundation and concealer smeared, and the lipstick was mostly gone, except for a smear to the side onto my cheek.
I was a wreck, but the guy who did it obviously hadn’t been worried about my makeup, both when it was happening or when we woke up.
Two hours later, I was meeting Henry for a walk at Saint Monica. I didn’t look like anything had happened, my clothing covering it all up. I also didn’t look like I was supposed to be visiting a beach, but when I saw Henry, I was glad that he and I would be alike in that.
“Looks like we thought this out really well,” I joked, looking between us.
“We’ll stay off the beach proper,” Henry said, chuckling.
“How are you?” We started walking, heading toward the pier.
I could see the lights and hear people laughing and having a grand time.
It was bustling and exciting and so human.
One of the reasons I wanted to see it. An experience I had missed because I had never left Maine.
After this, Henry was going to show me another supernatural hotspot from my list from the werewolves.
“I’m good! Work is work, and life is what life is. Friends coming and going, and sometimes there’s not much to do.” Henry shrugged. “And then you showed up.”
“Yeah, you were at the café with friends, weren’t you?”
“I was. I get together with them once a week. You can join us next week!”
“I heard one of them having strong opinions about Alexius being in the city,” I explained as I shook my head.
“Last thing I need is to try to be normal when my life certainly isn’t.
Something like this, I can get away with.
Hanging out with vampires, pretending I don’t work for who I work for is another. ”
“Fair enough. You could always not work for him,” Henry pointed out.
I smiled as I thought of the night before.
“No. I’m in too deep right now. Maybe later, I can walk away, but it’s unlikely.”
“It’s like knowing you have a funeral scheduled. It’s so dangerous, Everly. It will kill you. You are going to die working for him.”
“I was already supposed to,” I reminded him. Unblinking, I stared at him after making that statement, and he broke eye contact first.
“Fair enough.”
“Yeah. So, let’s have some stupid fun and go on the Ferris wheel or cheat at carnival games, Uncle.” I patted his back, smiling as I continued on.