He nods uncomfortably but he says, "I am." He pulls me even closer to him. I put my hand on his chest. Her eyes flick to my wedding rings and her smile freezes on her face.
"Now, I would have heard if you had gotten married," she says to him stiffly.
He grimaces but says, "Not yet."
"I see." But clearly, she doesn't.
I am itching to explain myself, but instead I say as dryly as I can muster, "No, our sire has terrible timing," to which he bursts out laughing and says, "That I do."
Not amused by our inside joke, Grace just says, "Oh."
"But rest assured, Grace, that when we do finally make it, you will be top of the guest list." I love him for making it clear to her.
"Well, that will be something that I will have to see in person before I believe it," she says, just a little bit nastily. She definitely knows our sire and his lack of enthusiasm when it comes to making commitments.
"Me too," I murmur with a sidelong glance at his wounded look.
"It's different this time. Look, I gave her a ring and everything," he says shyly and shows it off to Grace, whose eyes nearly fall out of her head at the size of the nine-carat blue diamond.
"You gave her a ring?" she chokes out jealously.
This has also drawn the attention of Sebastian, who so far has been watching this exchange silently, knowingly. He comes closer and peers at it as he whistles, "Christ, Constantine. How much did that set you back?"
He shrugs, thoroughly embarrassed now.
I answer for him, "I think he was trying to make up for the two failed attempts before." I smile softly at him.
"Precisely," he says, now smug.
I grin smugly back, and we are lost in our own little smug bubble, as the other two just continue to stare at us in wonder.
Grace clears her throat. "Well, then. I suppose I should leave you to it," she says. "Seb, are you coming or staying?"
"Staying. I'll be here a few days yet."
I raise my eyebrow at that. So much for privacy to reconnect.
"Right, well, Constantine, always a pleasure to you see, my love," she says.
He steps forward hesitantly to embrace her. "And you, my dear."
"Liv. It has been an honor to meet you, for various reasons. I am at your service if you require," she says so insincerely, it’s laughable.
I nod in thanks anyway, taking the high road. "Thank you, Grace. It has been good to meet you too. I am very curious as to my siblings. I barely know any of you," I say with a pointed look at our collective sire, who just shrugs.
"I don’t want you knowing them," he says. We all stare at him open-mouthed at his blatant admission. "In fact, had it not been for this Queen business, you probably would never have met any of them."
"CK, that's… what?" I say. I mean I know he feels strongly about keeping me to himself, but I am surprised that he admits it so freely in front of his other charges.
Grace eyebrows go up at my nickname for him, but she says, "Yes, well, I guess Lance kind of sealed your fate there."
"Not just because of Lance," Sebastian says mysteriously and now I’m thoroughly lost but none of them are bringing f
orth any more information, so I just drop it.
"Seb, walk me out?" Grace says and with a quick kiss to CK's cheek and a half wave at me, they disappear downstairs.
I round on him then. He has that innocent look in place that means anything but. Huffing at him in exasperation, I really do drop it, as it isn't important. Being with him is what is important, so much to his surprise, I pull him to me and kiss him. He picks me up and pushes me against the wall, hands going under the t-shirt. I undo his jeans so that I can pull his cock free and he pushes himself into me with a soft grunt.