"You have no idea about my best interests. I love my husband. I am in love with him. Do you know what he is?" I sit back, trying to gain control of my anger.

"I know he is your charge."

"Yes, he is. My seven-month-old charge who I turned so that we could be together. I am not leaving him."

"He will adapt if you pay him special attention. You don't need to be married for him to thrive."

"Sebastian!" I stare at him in disbelief. "I love him. Did you hear me before? I want to be with him."

"And yet you are here playing house with our sire instead of being with him."

"Playing house? Is that what you think this is about?"

"It is certainly what he thinks you are doing. He gives you a ring, ignores your marital status like the plague, has you followed so he knows you are safe and now takes you out on dates! That alone would be enough to stun me. But he laughs around you. You challenge him and he revels in it. I see him smile. Do you know how long it has been since I saw that smile reach his eyes?"

I shake my head, a bit stunned myself.

"Over five hundred years," he tells me. "The last time you were truly together at Ponte is the last time I saw that smile."

"You came to Ponte?" I ask confused, knowing that he couldn't have, or I would have known.

He laughs sadly. "No, we weren't allowed. Even before Lance took you, none of us were even allowed in the same vicinity as you. It is any wonder how you got to meet Dmitri. No, he came to see me in Rome."

I look down, trying to process all that he is trying to tell me.

"He wants you, Liv, and I think you need to have him too. It's clear when you look at him."

"He said he would wait. I need him to wait," I say desperately.

"He will. He has no choice if you don't give him one. He won’t force you. But let me ask you this. I see how much you love him. Do you really have room for more than that in your heart? Do you really feel for your husband what you say or is it transference because you thought he wouldn't give you what you wanted?"

"How dare you! Of course, I love Cole. I would never have turned him if I didn't," I snarl at him.

He shrugs off my anger. "So, he gets you two days of the week. What do you think will happen when you leave tomorrow?"

"I’m not leaving. I’m right downstairs," I snap at him.

"No, you will be leaving, and he will be devastated."

"Oh, please. Don't give me that crap," I say, suddenly highly irritated by this conversation. "He accepts our arrangement. It was his idea to start with. If he wanted more he should have bloody negotiated better. Or better yet, he shouldn't have waited until I sired and was married," I say, happy with my argument that he only has himself to blame if he is unhappy.

"Oh, Liv. You know what a stubborn fool he can be," Sebastian sighs.

"Yes, I do."

"Fine. Well, I have said my piece and I have your word that this conversation will not get back to him?"

"Of course. What kind of bad sibling would I be to rat you out for trying to protect him?" I smarm at him.

"You know," he says then, suddenly all coy, "it has just occurred to me that you will never have felt what it is like to be with your sire and a sibling. It can be most pleasing."

"Yes, so I’ve been told," I mutter, irate that I never have and yet Devon and Cole have had the pleasure and voiced their opinions quite loudly on the subject.

"You could talk him around, he would do anything you asked of him,” he murmurs, hovering his hand over my tits still poking through the dissipating bubbles.

"Maybe so, but I have my own set of rules."

"You mean your husband’s set of rules," he sneers. "Don't you find it hard work to stick to them?"

Tags: Eve Newton Fantasy
Source: readsnovelonline.net