A Forever Series Box Set: A Paranormal Reverse Harem-(Book 1-5)

Again, I don’t say anything, trying to gauge his true reaction. I purse my lips as he runs a hand through his hair, then lets it drop heavily to the table.

“How? How is that possible? In fact, now that I mention it, how is any of it possible? You are twenty-six years old, a multimillionaire head of a global empire, with fingers in a whole bakery of pies. You have this authority about you that tolerates no insubordination and a manner that tolerates no fools. Your sophistication astounds me for one supposedly so young. You’re a seventh level master in four different martial arts. You have an MBA from Harvard. You speak twenty-one different languages. You’re intelligent and wise beyond your years. Your mind is like a steel trap, nothing gets past you. You have this incredible attitude towards sex that even most men don’t have. I look into your eyes and I see…everything. Have you seen everything, Liv? The depth of your emotions scares me. It’s all there for me to see. Pain, suffering, love, desire, knowledge, passion. I look at you and I see a century’s worth of accomplishments and achievements, perception, and wisdom.” He halts, looking perplexed, frustrated and angry. “And seriously, what is it with that batshit crazy, possessive relationship with your ‘friend’ and the terrifying mentor in Italy? Your whole body is coiled so tight and your senses are on hyper drive. I have tried to figure you out over the last two weeks, but I keep coming up a blank. Something doesn’t add up here, Liv, and you need to tell me.”

He searches my eyes, but I can’t speak. He looks away first with a big sigh. “You either tell me or I’ll walk away,” he says, quietly.

I’m frozen and I can’t move. My brain has gone numb. What happened to this conversation? It has spiraled so far out of control; I don’t know how to get it back onto a level footing.

“Fine, if that’s the way this is going to go, have it your way.” He scoots to the end of the booth to leave. I snap into action and clap my hand down on his.

“Look, Liv, there isn’t anything you can’t tell me that I won’t understand or try to understand. It just doesn’t add up, but I can’t think why you would lie about any of this stuff.”

Lie? Lie? If he could have said anything to make me spill the Vampire beans, that was it.

I shake my head. “No lies. All truth. Quite an impressive and fairly accurate, albeit incomplete, résumé you have on me.”

Intrigued, he moves over to sit facing me again. “Incomplete? You mean there’s more?” he asks in disbelief.

“I need another drink,” I say and signal the waiter to bring another. Cole, still assuming he’s driving, declines another.

“Start talking, Liv,” he says as I hesitate, fiddling with my bracelet, twirling my charms around rapidly just for something to do.

“I will, I just have to think where to start,” I say, thinking so much for my analytical mind when I need it. He completely sideswiped me with this inquest. I had wanted to do this my way, in my own time.

“Bring the bottle,” I say as the waiter appears with my glass.

Cole snorts. “And that’s another thing,” he says. “Your capacity for alcohol is staggering and you never seem to sleep.”

Wow, he was seriously sitting on all of this and now it’s all just tumbling out.

Returning with the bottle and some breadsticks (subtle), the waiter beats a hasty retreat sensing the growing atmosphere. I pick up a breadstick and snap it in half, just for something to do with my hands. I take a deep breath and let it out. “First off, I have been around a long time, Cole. Been around many people and even those closest to me, with a couple of exceptions, have never figured out as much about me as you have, in the private sense, and in only two weeks. I find that astounding and somewhat disconcerting that you can see so much of me. Or maybe it’s that I allow you to see so much of me.” He looks completely baffled, but I press on, “All of these accomplishments and achievements you speak of have been the efforts of hard work and training over my lifetime. My very long lifetime.”

I pause for a drink and he interjects, “Very long lifetime? What does that mean?”

“It means, Cole, that I am not twenty-six years old. I am, in fact, immortal. I am a Vampire.” There, it’s said. I look at him and the look of confusion is replaced with a seriousness I never knew possible.

“You wanted the truth, and there it is. Ironically, I brought you here tonight to tell you this anyway, you just happened to force my hand. It caught me off guard. I meant it when I said no one has ever been as perceptive about me as you. I knew you were special the minute I laid eyes on you,” I say then softly.

He just stares at me like I’ve lost my mind. Well, I can’t in all honesty say I wasn’t expecting much else. With a sigh, I stand up; I’m not in the business of begging and pleading. If he wants me, he will come and find me. If not, so be it. Picking up my phone and purse, I turn to walk away, but stop to add, “You told me last week you’d like to think you had an open mind.” And with that I walk away, leaving him staring after me, mouth hanging open.

When he doesn’t follow me, I start to tremble inside. Damn you, Devon, for always being right. ‘The Council will freak’ doesn’t quite cover it, I don’t think. I should have listened to both him and CK and remembered that no good comes from the telling of this secret. At least The Council doesn’t have to worry about me committing to a Holy Union. CK will be pleased with that, even though I feel like I’ve lost a limb. I walk stiffly to the car, but as I reach it, I realize I don’t have the key. Cole has it.

“Fuck!” I yell as I kick the three thousand dollar tire with my three thousand dollar shoe.

“Looking for these?” Cole says from behind me, dangling the keys around me and jiggling them in front of my face.

Straightening my back in quiet resolve, I turn around. He’s staring at me as if I just landed on Earth from a faraway planet. Frustrated, I turn away, but he grabs my arm.

“Liv, please. I’m sorry I acted like an ignorant shithead. I did say that I like to think I have an open mind. You say that you are immortal, a…Vampire,” he tests the word out, “and I want to believe you, even if you do turn out delusional,” he jokes weakly.

“Yes, you did act like an ignorant shithead. This would have gone a lot smoother had you let me talk first,” I berate him. He smiles, a genuine smile and bends down to kiss me, chastely and swiftly on the mouth before stepping back. I roll my eyes at him. “I’m not going to hurt you, you know. What you think you know about Vampires is a common misconception.”

He looks grave when he asks, “But you do drink human blood?”

“Yes, sometimes. But I don’t kill people.” Well, not anymore, I add silently. “I survive mostly on Vampire blood,” I say as some kind of weird reassurance.

He looks surprised and asks, “There are others?”

I snort. “Of course. There are many of us, all over the world. You’ve even met a few,” I say.