I must look surprised by his insight as he says ruefully, “I am not completely self-serving, Aefre. Your feelings mean more than my own. I will step back and let nature take its course.”

I ponder this for a moment. There has to be a catch. He doesn’t give up so easily. “I know you are wondering what I am going to ask of you in return.”

I remain silent to his amusement and he says, “All I ask is that you reaffirm your promise to me that you will try what we discussed, when the time is right for us.”

“That’s it?” I ask in disbelief.

“That’s it,” he says.

“I get to keep Cassis?”

He chuckles. “Of course, my love. It was a gift.”

“I promise you. I promise you that I haven’t changed my mind and we will try what we discussed when the time is right.”

He looks so relieved and he kisses me. Bad, bad timing as Cole barges in, probably having heard us speaking.

“Cole,” CK says before he can open his mouth. “Aefre and I were just discussing the return to our original agreement. I will overlook the incident in Las Vegas as you were only reacting to my actions.” I knew he would somehow twist this to his own ends. Overlook it indeed. “I will step back and respect your marriage and I continue to get my two days.”

Cole looks from him to me and clearly sees this is what I want written all over my dumb face. He sighs, weary of all of this. “Fine. I want Liv to be happy, that’s all.”

Case closed. I breathe a sigh of relief that there isn’t going to be a civil war with me being piggy in the middle. I smile at him. “Thank you,” I say.

He grimaces back at me. I think it was meant to be a smile but didn’t quite make it.

“Good. I will bid you adieu and leave you two to whatever is it you do…” CK says, having taken on board what Cole said last night. He kisses me again, deeply and passionately and takes his leave.

“Always has to have the final word, doesn’t he,” Cole says, and he also kisses me on the mouth, thus removing the imprint of CK and claiming the final word for himself.

“Liv. We need to have that talk now, please,” Xane says from the doorway, pulling us apart.

“Fine. Cole, would you mind?”

“Yes, but I do have to go over a few things with Dawn so I will leave you to your business,” Cole says.

“Xane.” Cole says as he pushes past him.

“Cole.” Xane says back just as unpleasantly and I want to hit them both. I am tired and weary of this infighting.

“What is it?” I say, flopping down into my chair and putting my feet up on the desk.

Instead of sitting at one of the chairs allocated on the other side of the desk, he comes to stand next to me, trailing his hand up my leg. I quickly pull them down and stand. “Xane,” I warn him, and he shrugs.

“I am not letting you off the hook that easily about you trying to break our bond,” he says.

“Xane. I’m sorry but I can’t do this. If I knew the implications, I would have refused.”

“No, you wouldn’t have because it is your duty. Just stop denying it so we can be together,” he says softly, taking my hands in his and placing them on his chest.

I close my eyes at the feel of him. The heat coming off him that I feel, that makes me want his arms wrapped around me. “Stop,” I say weakly as he drops his mouth to mine. He kisses me and pulls away, a serious look on his face. “Xerxei, don’t you see that we belong together? A female Dragon and a male Demon. We would be the most powerful beings in all the Realms. You have to stop fighting this and accept our destiny.”

I want to. Oh, the gods, I want to, but I stop myself. I won’t lose myself to my Demon self. I won’t abandon my Vampires, not even for this. This feeling of completion, of being whole. Like the void I didn’t know was inside me is now filled.

“Xerxei,” he whispers. “Come to me. You know you want to.”

“No,” I shake my head, “I can’t.” I step back, quickly gathering my thoughts and change the subject. “I need to ask you something.”

“Anything,” he replies, perching himself on my desk.

Tags: Eve Newton Fantasy
Source: readsnovelonline.net