“I love you,” I murmur back. “By the way, whatever happened to the Faerie ring?” I add casually.
“It’s safe,” he says, knowing I mean the one he showed me, meant for 1112. “You will see it again, one day. Hopefully in less than a thousand years,” he adds.
We kiss again to seal our new agreement and I take his hand in mine, running my fingers over the ring. I shiver at the feel of it. I never in these thousand years, thought I would get one from him, never mind get one on him. It is very arousing, and I hold his hand up to just look at it.
“Incredibly sexy,” I murmur more to myself than him.
He looks surprised that something so small has such a profound effect on me. Dumb, I tell you!
Unfortunately, Sebastian chooses this moment to ma
ke his appearance. Seriously, this whole willy-nilly Astraporting has to stop.
“Hello, lovebirds,” he chirps. “Am I interrupting?” he asks and yet he sits anyway.
“Actually, yes,” CK says. “Aefre and I were in the middle of revising our arrangement.”
“I thought we were finished?” I say to him.
“Oh no, not yet. There is still one small matter that needs addressing.”
I can’t think for the life of me what that matter is.
“This arrangement is ridiculous,” Sebastian snaps at us. “Just be together already.”
“Shut it,” I snarl at him. “It’s nothing to do with you.”
“Aefre, calm yourself,” CK says mildly. “I don’t want you in a tizz while we are negotiating.”
A tizz? A fucking tizz? I’ll give him a tizz in a minute! I open my mouth to blast him, but he puts his hands to my lips to shush me. I see Sebastian’s eyes flick to his ring and his eyes go wide as saucers. He is about to ask, when CK says, “’Bastian, leave us please.”
He stands up with a final glance at CK's hand and leaves in silence. Probably too astounded to speak.
“What do you want?” I say wearily. “I don’t have much left to give you.” I know it sounds awful, but I don’t. I am beyond worn out, being pulled in all different directions. Also, I am dreading having to speak to Devon, but it can’t wait.
“I know, my love. Your divided loyalties are a sore subject with me. But this is not something for you to give me now, at least not physically.” He hesitates, staring at my necklace curiously and I think I know what he wants from me.
“The child,” I sat flatly.
“Yes. It was a part of my plans before and while I gave up on ever having that with you, now we need to revisit.”
I shift awkwardly, twiddling my charms, not knowing what to say. Not only about being responsible for a baby and rearing him or her but the risk of co-siring and more importantly the risk of me siring in general. He must see these concerns cross my face.
“We will look into it. Somehow we will experiment and see if it is possible.”
“I will think about it,” I say eventually.
“Not good enough.” He shakes his head.
“Constantine,” I complain, “why all the pressure?”
“I told you earlier that I have sired so many times without love. I will never sire again, Aefre. Not without love and I will never love anyone else. Except in the case of a child. Our child.”
“You don’t know that,” I say desperately. “The child won’t be ours. We cannot make a child together, Constantine. How do you know you can love someone else’s?”
“Yes. I do. Since the second I laid eyes on you in that marketplace, I have loved only you. I have wanted and fucked other women, told them what they wanted to hear, sired them, but never ever have I loved another before you or since you. The child will be ours, Aefre. In every way that matters, even more so when we co-sire it.”
While his words are everything I want to hear – well, except for the wanting, fucking, and siring part – I still remain unsure it’s what I want. A mother, I am not. I am vain, selfish, and willful. Incapable of being what he wants me to be.