Page 9 of Beautiful Heart

Livingston could see that Gerri had her doubts, but that was all right. In the past few minutes, he had thrown a lot of new and unexpected news at her. Though he wanted to have her assurance that she would, indeed, become his mate, he also wanted her to be comfortable with her decision and come to him willingly. And that wouldn’t happen if he pushed too hard. Instead, he needed to back off, not demand she immediately give in, and spend some time proving to her that he would be a worthy mate.

“For now, Princess mine, all I need you to do is relax, enjoy our time together, and eat your dinner,” he said when he saw their server approaching with the appetizers. “After dinner, we’ll go to Mystic’s and see if we can talk her out of a slice of her special chocolate cake.”

Gerri looked thoughtful for a moment and then nodded, looking a lot less troubled than she had a moment before. “I can do that.”

Once their dinner was spread out before them, Livingston turned the conversation to less worrisome topics. As expected, he found their tastes ran along similar lines in terms of music with both of them liking classical, country, and oldies from the 50s through the 80s. They both liked to read mysteries and thrillers, though Gerri admitted to consuming gooey sweet romances while he preferred horror. In movies, she preferred romantic comedies to his horror, but they agreed that psychological dramas and movies based on real lives were more interesting.

By the time the waitress slipped the discreet folder with their bill on the table, Livingston knew Gerri would eventually agree to mate him, but would take her time reaching the conclusion he’d already made—that they were meant to be together for the rest of his life.

After sharing a thick slice of dark chocolate cake at the café, Livingston walked her home. Entering the building, he looked at the elevator at the back of the lobby with the “Broken Again” sign on it and scowled.

Not sure how she would react, Livingston swept her up into his arms, bridal style, and started to quickly ascend the stairs.

“What are you doing?” she asked, even as she leaned into his chest and wrapped her arms around his neck and shoulder.

“Seeing you home,” he said as he reached the landing for the second floor.

“I could have walked,” she said as he started up the next set of stairs.

“But this way you’ll have energy for a little canoodling when we reach your apartment,” he said with a grin.

“Canoodling, huh?”

“Would you prefer making out? Running the bases? Some other goofy antiquated euphemism?”

Her giggle set his cock to twitching with need once more. He had been hard all evening, and wondered if a vampire had ever expired of sexual frustration.

When he reached the third floor he stopped. “Which way?”

“You’re not even winded,” she said with a touch of amazement in her voice.

“Why would I be? You’re a featherweight,” he said, taking a moment to brush a kiss on her temple before turning in the direction she pointed and strolling down the hall, still carrying his beautiful mate-to-be.

“Here. This is my apartment,” she said.

The door she pointed at was a deep plum color. All the other doors and trim in the hallway were a muddy brown, but here was her door, looking as mysterious and appealing as the door into Mystic’s All-Night Café.

“Love the color. You’ll have to redecorate our place when you move in,” he said as he gently set her down, then held her hips as she took a moment to regain her footing.

She unlocked three locks then put her hand on the knob. Then she froze for a few seconds before turning to look up at him. “You don’t want to come in,” she said softly, her cheeks turning pink with what he could feel was embarrassment.

Reaching around her, he laid his hand on hers before twisting the knob and pushing the door open. “Yes, my princess, I do.”

He nudged her forward and followed her into her private space. Pulling her hand from the knob, he closed and secured the door before turning and seeing her apartment for the first time.

Gerri’s apartment was one room that was about the size of his bedroom. The walls were the same white he was sure the landlord had painted every apartment in the building, but here they were barely seen. Gerri had covered two walls with deep red curtains that were pulled back in several places to showcase framed paintings and posters. The frames were built to make one think they were looking out windows into different worlds.

His favorite was the one that looked out onto what had to be a Greek island in the Mediterranean. There were colorful houses built up the hillside with the beautiful blue-green ocean and blue sky contrasting the one fluffy white cloud in view. It made him want to step out onto the balcony seen in the foreground. Another looked out onto a desert scene that brought to mind Australia, while a third looked out into a magical realm with glitter and swirls of color. His feeling that she had painted this one was confirmed when he checked the corner and saw the signature was G. Markham. It was dated about six months earlier and he wondered if this had been some form of therapy.

The full-size bed along one wall had no headboard, just the curtains that were parted to frame a painting of a faceless angel in a fighting stance holding a sword over her head, again with the G. Markham signature.

“You’re a painter?”

Chapter Six

Gerri found herself giggling at Livingston’s question. “No, just a wannabe who dabbles. It’s a hobby that I had to put aside when the paintings began taking over the apartment.”

“You have more of these?” He waved at the several paintings she had hung.

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