Page 82 of Laid Bare

“Axel, it’s Thaddeus Winterton the third.”

His chuckle echoes through the receiver.“I know who you are, Thaddeus. You don’t need to give me your full name.”

“Right.” I clear my throat. “Listen, I need to talk to you.”

“Is Bailey okay?”

No, she’s not, not when she left anyway, but I don’t tell him that. “She’s fine, so please don’t worry, but something happened and well, I feel we should talk about it.”

“Okay, I’m intrigued. Can it wait until I get back from my business trip in a week, or do we need to talk about it now?”

Yeah, a week isn’t going to work for me.

“Now is probably the best.” Or there’s a chance I’ll lose my shit again and freeze the entire academy.

“Alright. Portal straight into my residence.”

“Done. Thank you. I’ll see you shortly.”

My portal is up and I’m walking through before I even end the call.

“That was quick,” Axel says, exiting the hallway across the room with an amber-filled crystal tumbler in his grip. “Drink?”

“No. I’ll pass. Technically, I’m still on the clock.”

The goldRolexon his wrist as he checks the time is one I recognize. An antique piece made by the humans back in 1956 and worth a damn fortune now. One of my brothers helped make that very piece, unbeknownst to the original creator. If he had any clue his partner was a Fae and told the world, he would have ended up in an asylum and deemed crazy.

“That’s true. So why are you here and not there?” He takes a seat on the black leather couch, crossing his ankle on his knee.

“I won’t beat around the bush with you. I kissed your mate, and she kissed me back.”

My body tenses, ready for the blow I know I deserve for kissing another man’s mate. It’s an unspoken rule that you don’t go around kissing mated individuals, and I did it anyway. But I’m being a man about it, even if she did reject me after.

“Interesting.” The ice in the crystal clinks together as he swirls the glass before lifting it to his lips. A long, slow sip later, he drains the rest of the amber liquid, discarding the empty cup on the table next to him. “And you say my mate kissed you back?”

“She did.” I nod, resolute.

“Then what happened?” For Faerie’s sake. Is the vampire fucking with me before he tears my throat my out? Who the hell can be so damn calm when they claim to have kissed their mate?

“She ran out of the room before I could stop her and explain.”

“Do you love her?”

“No.” My hands frost over, immediately giving away my lie, not that he knows that.

“Do you care about her?” Now that’s a question I can answer truthfully.

“Very much so.”

“Okay,” he says, like that fixes everything.

“Okay? That’s it?”

“Yeah, that’s it, Thaddeus.” He gets to his feet and pats me on the back. “I like you. You’ve been one of Bailey’s biggest supporters from the very beginning, so I don’t have any worries that you’ll hurt her. But I’m guessing that’s not the only reason you’re here to talk to me, is it?”

“I wish it was as easy as that.”

“Alright. Follow me.” He takes off for the hall he originally came from, and I follow a short distance behind, but my focus is immediately drawn to the paintings on the wall.

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