He laughs at my expression. “No, my love. His head is still attached, unfortunately.” He grimaces briefly, but then the brilliant smile returns. “Can’t a sire be happy to have his charge return to the fold?”
I blink at him. “CK, I told you I’m not moving here,” I say stubbornly, and he shrugs offhand.
“You are still going to be closer to me, more of the time. And that, my sweet, is all a sire can ask for,” he says.
Cole and Devon are listening to this with bad grace and I don’t blame them. There is still something off about CK’s attitude. Especially in light of his words earlier.
“Can we go now?” Devon asks rudely.
“CK is there a reason you wanted us here right away?” I ask.
“No, there is a reason I wanted you here right away. The others are free to leave,” he says mildly.
‘The others’ both snort in unison and say “Yeah, right.” They glare at each other while I snicker and end up on the receiving end of two sets of annoyed gazes. It’s like one mind.
“What is it, CK? We are all grouchy and hungry.”
Nico disappears and returns shortly with three glasses of blood that we accept with thanks and gulp down.
“How are your cravings now?” CK asks me.
“Fine,” I respond and add after his grimace, “Better, thank you.”
“Good. I need to speak to you alone. Come to my office,” he says.
“Fine,” I say again. I kiss Cole first and then Devon, telling them I’ll only be a moment.
Following CK to his office, I sigh, “What is it, my love. I’m tired.”
He holds me to him and says, “I just wanted to see you and tell you that I know.”
“Know what?” I ask confused and in no mood for guessing games.
“That you’ve been thinking about me. About us,” he replies.
“Yes, well, it’s hard not to. I have seen you more these last few weeks than I have for a long time.” I reach up and touch his face softly.
“That is true, my love, but that is not what I mean,” he says mirroring my gesture. “I had a vision of my own, you could say.”
“What?”
“After we spoke, when we discovered about The Power’s dislike of…you know who…I saw you, in my head, in your office. I saw exactly what you were thinking about,” he says.
“What?” I say again stupidly. “I don’t get it.”
“Your memories of our trysts by the bell tower and our first encounter in the barn,” he murmurs. “Christ, Aefre. You were the sweetest, most beautiful, innocent creature I had ever met. I couldn’t stop thinking about how much I wanted you. I wish I had been able to tell you about me. I was waiting to see if you felt the same about me as I did about you.”
Staring at him in surprise, I clear my throat. “You saw what I was remembering?” I ask.
He nods. “Yes.”
“What does that mean? I have always thought you could read my mind,” I say with a slight smile.
“No, Aefre. I just know you. I don’t know what it means. I wish we could go back in time to then. Do things differently. The way I planned. The way it should have been.” He traces a finger down my face to my lips.
“Oh, my love. I wish things had worked out differently as well, but things are the way they were supposed to be.”
He closes his eyes at my words. “After tomorrow we should learn more about everything. I know how frustrated you are feeling. Tomorrow will be here soon enough.” He pulls me close and I sigh in contentment.