“I know,” I say, patting his hand. “I love you too.”
“No!” he says, shaking his head. “I am so in love with you. I have never been out of love with you. I want to be with you. I should have said all of this decades ago, I know, instead of assuming that we would end up together. I am making my declaration. Again. Marry me. Marry me and find a place for me. I need you, Elizabeth. I want you; I love you and I want us to be together.”
I smirk at him. “You think that now is the right time?” I ask.
He lets out a nervous laugh. “Yes. I’m done fucking about. Tell Constantine. I want it official.”
A cloud goes over and I frown at him. “What about my children?” I ask him quietly. We’ve never discussed it. All of my husbands, at one point or another, have said they would accept my children as their own.
He hesitates. It’s only for a second, but he did it. I start to shake my head at him, but he doesn’t let me speak. He drops his mouth to mine and gives me a kiss so passionate my knees go weak.
“How dare you!” CK spits out at him, removing me forcibly from Devon’s embrace. My mouth is practically drooling as I stare into Devon’s bright, blue eyes. “How dare you ask her to marry you again when she has just told you that she is expecting my child and that she has chosen me.”
“I didn’t hear her choose you,” Devon says. “She didn’t say the actual words.”
“Aefre?” CK says to me. “Tell the boy that is what you meant.”
My eyes go from Devon’s to CK’s and back to Devon’s.
Shit!
Shit, shit, shit. I don’t know if it is my delicate emotional state right now, or if I have completely lost my mind, but the idea of dropping everything and running off with Devon sounds mighty appealing to me right now.
“Aefre!” CK shouts at me. “Tell him that you have chosen me.”
“I…I…” I stammer and then pick up my skirts and run as quickly as I can back to my bedroom.
This has all just gotten way too much for me.
I burst into the bedroom and close the door, leaning back against it with my heart hammering. I have no doubt that CK will be along shortly to grill me on why I ran away instead of telling Devon where to go. I press my fingers to my lips, still feeling the force of that kiss. It was something else altogether. Damn him! Why did he have to hesitate when I asked him about my children? If he had accepted them without pause, I’d have screamed ‘yes’ from the rooftops. I don’t blame him though. He has never been around children and he will never have one of his own. He is many things, but he isn’t Constantine. It breaks my heart, but how can I say ‘yes’ if he won’t love my children as his own? As if things weren’t complicated enough for me. I push off from the door and start to pace. I turn around immediately as I hear the door open with excuses on my lips.
But it isn’t CK, or Devon.
It’s Xane.
“Hey,” I say, surprised.
“Hey,” he says, closing the door and leaning against it as I had. “We need to talk.”
“I know,” I say, sitting heavily on the bed. “That wasn’t me choosing CK, per se. I don’t know what it was…”
“I’m not talking about that,” Xane says and holds up his left wrist.
I stare at it for some time in confusion. “Why is your marking fading?” I ask with a dry mouth.
“I don’t know for sure, but I know that it had something to do with what Xander did to you,” he says and comes to sit on the bed next to me.
“We are losing our bond?” I ask in dread. I don’t want to think of the implications.
“Not if I have anything to say about it,” he says angrily. “Mother is working on it, and Xander. She might eve
n have gotten to the bottom of it by now.”
I nod slowly. This is just one more blow on the day from Hell.
“So, you are pregnant with his child?” he asks after a long pause.
“Yes,” I say, avoiding his eyes.