The Ties that Bind (The Forever series, Book Five) (20 page)

“He bought me
Château Cassis
!” I say with delight.
“It’s mine. Mine!” I jump up and down like a little kid at Christmas and he
smiles at me in amusement.

“You bought her
Cassis
?” Sebastian asks in amazement.
“For three billion Euros?”

“Yes. It was worth every cent to see this look on your
face,” he says to me, cupping my face. Cole stands up and I can sense not only
his fury but his sorrow. “So it begins,” he says and stalks off, leaving
everyone but the two of us confused. I look back at CK and he is smug. Shit.
Torn between the two of them I hesitate and CK cocks his eyebrow at me. “I will
thank you properly later,” I murmur and he gets more smug as I turn and follow
Cole to the bedroom, leaving everyone gaping between me and CK.

Cole has flopped down on the bed and I go and sit next to
him. He says, “So this is him throwing his hat in the ring? Going out and
buying the thing you want most in the world and just giving it to you?”

“Seems so,” I mutter.

“He knows how to make a grand gesture, I’ll give him that,”
he says grudgingly. “But Liv, if that is his starting point, what the fuck is
next? I can’t compete with that and he knows it.”

“You don’t need to compete with him, Cole. I love you and I
am already married to you. I intend for us to stay that way. Yes, it is the
perfect gift and I can’t say that I am not over the moon about it but it
doesn’t change anything.” I take his hand as he smiles at me.

“He will probably buy you the moon next,” he grumbles.

I chuckle, “I’m not sure even he wields that kind of money
and power.”

“I wouldn’t put it past him. Three billion Euros? Christ, he
just has that lying around?”

“Well it’s hardly under the mattress, but yes.”

“Fuck. Must be nice,” he mutters but then looks at me as I
look away, and he realizes that I too probably have that lying around. Which I
do, but in all fairness as much as I wanted
Cassis
I wouldn’t have
dropped that kind of money on it. A grand, over-the-top gesture is exactly what
it is to show that he can, and probably more for Cole’s benefit than mine.

“We’ll be landing soon, we should go,” I murmur and stand.

“Wait,” he says as he grabs my hand and pulls me onto his
lap. “I want to fuck you. I want him to know that he can buy you things but you
come back here and fuck me,” he says, pulling my dress up.

Well, I am not overly thrilled with his reasoning behind
this. I don’t like being used to prove a point, but there again it isn’t like
it hasn’t happened before or won’t again in the future and well, I do want him,
so I let him. I lose my knickers as he pulls his already hard cock out and I
thrust myself onto him and wiggle as I settle. He groans loudly into my neck.
“Christ you feel good. That’s it baby. Fuck me,” he says as I start to move
over him. He drops his fangs and feeds from me hungrily, squeezing my tits hard
so that my nipples are two hard points brushing against the fabric of my dress.
“Oh god Liv, yes baby. I’m close.” He pulls on my hips to push himself further
inside me and I whimper to let him know I am close too.

“I love you,” I tell him as I come and he too lets go with a
very loud, “Oh fuck, yes,” and I mentally roll my eyes at him. There is no need
for extra volume. Everyone can probably hear us anyway and I am pretty sure we
will be met with five avoided gazes and one furious one.

Turns out, I am right, as we head back into the Main Cabin
hand in hand, after adjusting ourselves. Cole is smug and happy to have proved
his point and I am left stuck in the middle. This isn’t going to be easy, I
sigh and sit. I meet CK’s gaze and try to tell him with my wretched face that I
do love him and I love what he did. He gets the message as his eyes soften a
bit and he gives me a small smile. My mind wanders back to some of the happy
times we had there. I remember to this day, how we came to name the place, and
I smile at the memory. We had a quick reminisce in Sibiu last year, but as the
minutes tick away in an awkward silence, I remember as I look into CK’s eyes
and he remembers with me.

Caen, Normandy, 1065 – Aefre

“I am so glad you came back with Constantine,” he said to
me as I pulled the shutters closed. The wind had really picked up and kept
blowing the candles out.

I turned with a big smile, “I was not going to let him
come here all by himself. I would miss him too much.”

“He is too lucky to have a woman like you, one that would
follow him across countries, and, of course, so beautiful.”

I flushed with the compliment. “Thank you, William,” I
said as he took my hands and pulled me towards the roaring fire.

“You shouldn’t thank me, you should be with me,” he
whispered against my lips. I pulled back moments before he was going to kiss me
and that was how Constantine found us.

“William,” he growled as he pulled me towards him.

“Constantine,” he said back mildly. “Aefre and I were
just discussing that you still have not named this place.”

“I am hardly here, it doesn’t need one.”

“Oh, but I think it does. It stands in my Duchy and I
think you should name it. Or, better yet,” he added slyly, “you should let
Aefre name it.”

Constantine looked at me and I lowered my eyes, “Aefre,
do you have a name in mind?”

I shook my head. “No, but I will find the perfect name
for it.”

“Very well,” he said. “Now if you would excuse us,
William, we have somewhere we need to be.”

I looked up at him. Did we? I did not know we were going
somewhere.

“I will see myself out,” Williams said with a lingering
glance in my direction. “One day, you will have to make an honest woman out of
her, Constantine. She is far too pretty to remain unattached.”

“She is not unattached,” Constantine said with a cold
look at William. “She is mine.”

“Then make it official, before someone else does,” he
said and stalked off.

He turned to me and gave me a long look, “What other
things do you speak of with him?”

A frisson of fear went through me at his tone and I
looked down again. “Nothing important. We were just finished with lessons for
the day,” I said quietly.

“Humph,” he said and took my hand. “I ought to put a stop
to that.”

I bobbed my head in submission, even though I loved
learning how to wield a sword. But if my sire did not wish it to continue then
I would cease. He sighed, “Come here, lovely Aefre. I have missed you today.”
He pulled me to him for a deep kiss that melted my heart and I clung to him.

“I have missed you too. I always miss you when you aren’t
right next to me.”

“Then you shall have to remain by my side forever, my
sweet Forever.”

“I want that more than anything, Constantine. I love
you.”

“Then show me how much,” he said and pulled me down on
top of him, in front of the fire.

I slowly undressed him, taking my time to kiss him and
feel him under my soft touch. He reached for me and slowly undid the laces of
the gown, placing little kisses to my breasts as the gown fell open.

“He wants to do this to you,” he murmured to me with a
twinkle in his eye. “I could call him back, if you would be so inclined?” I
stared at him, frozen to the spot. He laughed gently at me, “We could both
please you, my sweet. Would you like that?”

What was he saying? What did he want me to do? I shook my
head at him and he took my face in his hands and said, “Do not worry, my love.
If you want him, you can have him but only here, with me.”

Again I shook my head, “No, I only want you, Constantine.
I love you. I do not want anyone else.”

He smiled that slow, predatory smile that sends a shiver
down my spine before he took my nipple in his mouth. I was mortified that he
has asked me if I wanted someone to join us in this act. This was just for us.
I would never be with another man, ever again. He was all I wanted, all I
needed. He bit down on me, fangs down, and I cried out as the wave of pleasure
washed over me and I wanted him inside me. He lifted his head and I kissed him
as I slid over him and he groaned quietly as he felt my desire for him. “Bite
me, Aefre. I want to feel you feeding from me as you please me.”

I did as he asked, and let my fangs drop against his pale
flesh. I keened deep in my throat, as I tasted him. He was perfect. No one else
tasted like he does. Sweet and sharp. As I drank from him and he released
himself inside me, I pulled back and kissed him.

“I know what I want to call it,” I said.

“You have a name already?”

I nodded. “What is the Norman word for…” I leaned over
and whispered the word in his ear.

He looked at me, startled, “Why that?”

“Because it is exactly what you taste like to me.”

He laughed. “Oh, my sweet Aefre. You are the loveliest
woman I have ever met. We shall name it then, Castel Gradile,” he said the last
two words carefully, so I could repeat it.

“Perfect,” I said, clapping my hands. “What will we say
when someone asks about the name?”

“We tell them nothing. This is our secret, my sweet.
Something that only you and I will share, always and forever.”

I kissed him again, happy and more in love with him than
ever.

We land shortly thereafter and I am grateful to get off the
jet as is Jess who practically races me to the door.

“Sorry,” she mumbles as she slams into me and I give her an
annoyed stare.

There are two limos waiting for us on the tarmac and I climb
into one followed by Cole, CK, Devon, and Jess. The others pile into the other
one.

“Fuck, I am glad to be going home,” I say with a big sigh.

“Agreed,” Cole and Devon say in unison.

“What about you?” I ask my silent sire who is drumming his
fingers on the seat.

“This isn’t my home,” he says shortly and I gape at him.

“You still don’t think of L.A. as home?”

He turns towards me then with a long look. “No. It hasn’t
exactly been a pleasant experience thus far.”

You got that right, I think back to the past six months of
the cold shoulder. “Well, maybe we can change that now you are being more amenable,”
I inform him and he at least has the humor to chuckle at me.

“Perhaps.”

The rest of the drive goes in silence, each to our own
thoughts and once back at the mansion, followed by the other car, we all pile
out.

“This is your house?” Sebastian says to me in wonder.

“Yes,” I say shortly as everyone seems to follow me inside.
“Erm, don’t you have your own houses to go to?” I ask of them. Well, certainly
some of them. CK lives on one side of me and I assume Sebastian is going there
with him and I procured the house on the other side for Lincoln. It wasn’t up
for sale, but I made them an offer they couldn’t refuse (in a monetary sense,
not in a “horse’s head in the bed kind of way,” just to be clear) and moved
Lincoln in to his delight. Still close but his own space to roam and do his own
thing at the full moon. Contrary to the curse that Lance placed on him, he
doesn’t need to Shift three nights of the month as is legend. He doesn’t need
to Shift at all but that first month when he didn’t want to was a bit of a
disaster. He gets moody and aggressive if he doesn’t and on the night of the
full moon, it ended in tears, mine due to the state I was in over everything.
So now he goes and runs it off and all is well. Which reminds me of the “will
you” he wanted to ask me. I have an idea what he wants to ask but will have to
remember to ask him about it.

“I will go later. I want to make sure everything is good,”
Lincoln says with a subtle glance at Jess. Bless him. I could rip her head off
without a second thought but he still feels this need to protect me from the
unknown--and well-known as well.

“I am not going back to that house,” CK says, adjusting his
cuffs. “I will stay here. With you,” he adds pointedly and I shake my head.

“No, CK. Go home and take Sebastian with you. We are not all
shacking up here. Too much Supernatural vibe. We will all end up trying to kill
each other.” He opens his mouth to protest but I continue, “Lincoln, if you
don’t mind housing Xane for a few days, that would be great and Scott, you may
go pick out a room here. Not the one next to Devon’s. That is for Jess,” I say
and her face falls that she has been told she gets her own room and is not
sharing with Devon.

“I have my own place,” Scott starts but I silence him with a
look. I want him here. All of us close by. I have this dreadful, awful feeling
that something bad is going to happen and I don’t want anyone out of sight just
yet. I am unsure what this danger is and even less so what I will do when I
have to leave Scott here on his own, but that is tomorrow’s problem. Right now
everyone seems to be agreeing to my plan and I smile, happy. I turn a triple
pirouette on the marble floor of my foyer and sigh. “Home, sweet, home,” I say
to Cole.

“Thank fuck,” he says.

“I want to swim,” Devon declares to which everyone else
agrees is a good idea. I think it is especially a good idea to get Jess outside
but first click my fingers and give her a glass of blood. She takes it
gratefully and I mutter to Devon that he needs to go check our reserve supply
in the kitchens, where I have been magickally pulling on for her to drink. It
is probably running fairly low at this point.

Scott over hears me and says, “I will do it and will also
get someone for you.”

I smile gratefully at him, but as ever CK has to barge into
the conversation with his over protectiveness, “I will sort out someone for
you.”