Gregor, who is standing in between the two of us, grabs my arm and moves us back into my office. “Maybe now,” he says. I cast a quick glance at CK who glowers at Gregor behind his back and he nods. I drop my briefcase to the floor. Gregor takes that as an invitation. CK follows us into my office and closes the door. He leans against it casually.
Gregor stares at him. “Perhaps you would leave us alone?” he asks, trailing a hand down
my arm. It takes everything I have, not to flinch.
“No, I’ll stay. Think of it as foreplay. I’ll share, but only if I’m part of the sharing,” he says in a low voice.
At the mention of foreplay, Gregor’s eyes burn as he turns them to me. “Do you want him to stay?” he asks me quietly. I nod. CK comes to stand in front of me as Gregor moves behind me.
He snakes his hands around my waist. My eyes must give me away as I see the pain in CK’s as he has to play along and not swoop in to rescue me. Moving his hands up, Gregor inhales sharply as he rubs his hands over my breasts. Bringing his right hand up to my throat, he tilts my head to the right and bares his fangs. I am so repulsed right now, I just want to run, but I make myself stay right where I am. My hand is itching to bring G.I. to the party. I wonder if I have enough time to finish him off and get to Eloise before she Teleports out never to be seen again? Probably not, as she won’t be distracted. So, I stick to the plan. CK reaches out to grab my hand for comfort, lacing his fingers through mine, it’s all he can do as he watches Gregor take a bite out of me.
It’s over soon after that – thank the old gods – and he releases the bite, but not me. He inhales deeply as my wound closes.
“You taste delicious,” he murmurs against my neck. “So different.” He trails his hands back down the way they came. As soon as he lets me go, CK pulls me away from him, turning me swiftly to bite down on me himself where Gregor had to erase the imprint and I love him for it. Gregor’s eyes bore into mine as he sees my pleasure.
“I’m glad that you came to your senses, Constantine. She is definitely one for sharing. I look forward to us taking this further,” he says quietly.
CK just grunts in response. I say nothing. Gregor leaves us alone then and I shudder, my skin crawling.
“Get me out of here now and as far away from him as possible,” I say, disgusted.
“Happy to oblige,” he responds in equal disgust at the scene that has just played out. “In fact,” he brightens up, “this plays perfectly into my plans for us.”
“Oh? Well, don’t let me slow you down. Let’s go,” I say quickly.
He grabs my hand as I grab my briefcase and we head to the elevators. As soon as we hit reception, we wave to Giulia.
He whispers, “Close your eyes.”
I do and he Teleports us out. We arrive at our mystery destination in under a second, but he asks me to keep my eyes closed a bit longer. I feel that I’m somewhere familiar, and it hits me like a bolt of lightning exactly where I am before he says, “Open your eyes.”
CHAPTER FIFTY-EIGHT
I open my eyes to find I’m standing in the massive stone floored Entrance Hall of Castello Ponte Sull’acqua.
I turn my eyes to him in delight. “You brought me here,” I exclaim.
“I have wanted you to come for a long time, Aefre. I was under the impression you didn’t want to return,” he says sadly.
“Why?” I ask, genuinely curious as to his reasons
“I will answer that question later, I promise. Right now, I want you to relax.” He takes my briefcase from me, effectively cutting me off from my phone as well as he places it on the table in the middle of the Hall.
“Follow me.” He leads me upstairs and I take in all the changes he has made since the last time I was here in 1773. I can’t believe it has been so long since I was here. Obviously, everything has been reconstructed and redecorated several times since he very first acquired this castle, but now there is electricity and plumbing and even though it looks almost exactly the same, the modernization is quite clear. Billions of dollars have been piled into this place over the centuries, but it is worth every cent. I look around in wonder and he is delighted at my response.
“It feels so good to be back here,” I say happily. “It almost looks exactly the same.”
“I tried to keep it as close to the original as possible,” he says. We are on the second floor now and I get lost in the memories of us being here together and happy as he leads me down the corridor. He opens a door and I step into a room that has been untouched by time. I gasp. My old room. “This I wanted to keep exactly as it was.”
Tears spring to my eyes as I see everything as it was hundreds of years ago. Worn and faded, but well kept.
“Oh, Constantine,” I say. “It’s…why did you keep it like this?”
“Because it was some place I could come, to be reminded of you,” he says simply.
Trying to sort out all the thoughts racing through my head, I know something else is going on here. I just can’t place it. I’m reminded again of his conversation with Cole and wonder if that has something to do with it.
“CK…”