He pulls me into a tight embrace. “Oh, Liv, I do love you. There is no way I could ever do that to you. Especially with her,” he whispers and kisses me. “But I will help,” he says in normal tones. “I would much prefer that if you do this, you have Constantine with you.” He grimaces as the thought crosses his mind. “I’m not thrilled that you have to pretend to engage in…you know…” He falters, because this is the one thing he asked of me, but he doesn’t want to remind me in front of the other two.
“Neither am I,” says CK. “Well, at least not with him.” Cole gives him an approving nod, which he ignores and continues, “But he did, after all, mention sharing yesterday. Although, I think he meant just you, he might not object to joining us as a twosome.”
“Okay, well that thought just grosses me out now,” I say with distaste, but then inspiration hits me, and I turn to Devon. “Hey, maybe you could tag team Eloise with Cole with a bit
of prep work. That way, I, at least, know he’ll stand a fighting chance of resisting her.”
Devon sputters as does Cole at the thought, but I am resolute. “It’s this way or we go back to the original plan. Cole is not to be left alone with that woman.”
Devon shrugs and agrees, as I knew he would anyway, and in light of that, Cole agrees too. CK just shrugs – as long as he is with me, he isn’t too concerned about anyone else.
“Now that is settled, there is the other matter we discussed to attend to, Aefre?” he says.
I stare at him blankly. “What matter?”
“Of you being here in Milan two days of the week,” he prompts me, and I cringe. This isn’t something I particularly wanted to discuss right now. “I suggest we start with Tuesday and Wednesday next week. We can get you settled into work and you can start your cozying up to Gregor.”
“Can we discuss this another time?” I ask through gritted teeth.
“Why? Now is as good a time as any,” he says mildly.
“We’ll see. Just let me think about it. It’s been a long day. I’m exhausted. Can we discuss it later?” I plead. I had wanted to broach the subject with Cole first, alone, before anything was decided. He is not going to be amused and I will need to use all of my womanly charms to sway him.
CK is not happy about it, but he agrees. “Fine, I will leave you be, but I will be back later to see you before you go, and we will discuss it then.” He pulls me to him in a gentle hug and whispers, “Make it happen or there will be consequences, Aefre. I promise you.”
Startled and baffled by his threat, I just nod.
“Good,” he says and Teleports out.
“Well, I guess that’s my cue to beat it as well,” Devon says, cuddling me. “I’m so proud of you, my beautiful Lizzie,” he whispers. “You have been through the shittest day and yet you are still standing.” He kisses me and whispers, “If you need me, I will be here.” Bidding Cole goodnight, he leaves us as well, albeit via the door. I want to call him back but I feel that Cole needs me more after this Hellish day, than I need Devon.
“Come and sit,” Cole says and takes my hand. “You look exhausted.”
“I am. Fuck, quite the day, eh?” I say as he sits, and I sit on his lap straddling him. He pushes my robe apart and admires me. I bend to kiss him deeply and he tenses.
Pulling away, he asks sadly, “Are you sure you want to, after, uhm, what happened before?”
“Yes, my love. I want to. I should apologize for what you saw and heard. It wasn’t fair on you,” I say as I stroke his face gently.
“You really loved him, didn’t you?” he asks quietly.
“Enough to want to marry him,” I say, simply rubbing my thumb over his bottom lip, my eyes gazing intently into his cloudy blue ones. His face relaxes as he gets my meaning and pulls me to him in a bone crushing kiss, his hands sliding up to push my robe off my shoulders. My hands go up his chest, feeling his muscles rippling. He stops kissing me just long enough to take his t-shirt off and I drop my fangs to feed from him, as my craving still hasn’t been fulfilled. He pulls my head down. I bite hard and he moans in pleasure. I can feel him stirring against me and it makes me bite him even harder. Tearing myself away from him, I snap my fangs back before plunging my tongue into his mouth. He groans and pulls my backside forward, so that I can rub against him. He stands abruptly with me still in his arms and carries me to the bedroom, dropping me not so gently to the bed. He gets rid of the rest of his clothes and crawls over me.
“Let me fuck you,” he pleads as he trails kisses up the length of my body. “Please, baby, let me fuck you.” With only a slight reluctance, as I could do with some TLC right about now, I agree to his request and without further hesitation, he gets straight to the job at hand and shoves himself inside me with a quick thrust.
I cry out as he pins me to the bed by my hips and I wrap my legs around his waist pushing him further into me. I’m getting on board with a hard and fast fuck as he pounds into me.
“Oh, yes,” he moans into my mouth as he feels the rush of my desire coat him. “Turn around,” he rasps. I quickly flip myself over . He kneels behind me and pulls on my hips as he enters me. He hits the right spot first time.
I gasp in pleasure. “That’s it. Right there,” I say, bunching my fingers into the cover on the bed to stop myself from coming just yet. I want this to last as long as possible.
“I’m close,” Cole whispers, but I don’t want to let him come, not yet. I pull away and he grunts in frustration. I turn around and launch myself at him, devouring his mouth with mine. He pulls me down onto him in a move I would normally object to, and grabs my legs, wrapping them around him as he holds me in place.
“You’re not going to do that again,” he growls, and I shiver at his assertiveness. He knows I could take him if I wanted to, but I let him have this one, knowing he needs it after everything he witnessed with Fraser earlier. He needs to know he is mine. He grabs my hips and pushes me further and further onto him and I start to move. He grabs the back of my head with a handful of hair and forces my mouth to his. “Mine,” he says after he kisses me roughly, before dropping his fangs and feeding from me viciously. I delight in his roughness and squirm on his lap. He responds with a low feral growl deep in his throat. The vibration goes through me, neck to toes and I come around him, slowly. It builds up and goes on and on and then it happens again. I’m in pure ecstasy. Releasing me from his bite, he whispers, “My wife,” before he comes inside me, pouring himself and his insecurities and doubts into me to accept and cherish him forever.
CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE
We both crash soon after. I have vivid dreams of Fraser, of Cole and, disturbingly, also of Gregor. I awake suddenly with sweat dripping off me. The clock says 6 AM. I have only had an hour’s sleep. I feel groggy and my eyes are really sensitive. I know I am going to have to make this thing with Gregor look authentic. It makes me shudder and want to vomit. Despite my reassurances to Devon earlier, I’m concerned that he will be able to get away from me. He is still quicker and stronger, and I’m certain that I will only get one chance at this. I need him defenseless and unsuspecting of my true motives. I’m secretly glad that Constantine insists on being with me, at least if all else fails, he should be able to hold him down long enough for me to finish him.