Page 58 of Immortal By Morning
Abril could feel the blood leaching from her face as she took in his words. “I’m sorry? When was the last time you ate or had sex?”
“766 BC for sex, and 751 BC for food,” Crispin repeated.
“Are you telling me that you were born—BC means before Christ, right?”
“Yes,” he said, sounding almost apologetic.
“So, you were born in—”
When she paused to do the math, he saved her the trouble. “I was born in 900 BC.”
Abril just stared at him, her mind having difficulty absorbing what he was telling her. If what he said was true, Crispin was well over 2900 years old. That was old. Crazy old. That just seemed like madness to her. It couldn’t be true.
“You appear upset,” he said unhappily.
Abril started to shake her head, but then stopped because, frankly, she wasn’t sure what she was. She wanted to say she wasn’t upset, but she couldn’t think of how to describe what she was feeling in that moment. Dismay. Shock. A certainty that this had to allbe some kind of weird dream she was having. The only thing she really wasn’t feeling was horror, which rather surprised her.
Deciding to push aside her feelings on the subject, and the fact that she’d been making out with and was still lusting after a man who was older than America, Europe, and pretty much anything else she could think of, she focused on a more manageable fact, and returned to the original subject. “All right, so finding a life mate reinvigorates your interest in food and sex. What else?”
Crispin had opened his mouth to answer, when another question struck her and she stalled him by saying, “Oh, wait! Are the nanos why kissing and making out with you is so hot?”
He nodded. “Life mates experience each other’s pleasure along with their own. It grows in mounting waves, overwhelming them at the end so that they both lose consciousness. We believe that is because of the nanos.”
“Damn,” Abril breathed. She’d avoided thinking about the fact that she’d fainted after each passionate encounter with Crispin. The first time in the pool because she’d woken up lying on the man and had immediately been more concerned with other things. Like that she was lying on the man. Her head had been nestled on his chest, her groin cuddled against his, and her body had been instantly aware and eager to go another round with him.
She hadn’t thought about it after the time in her bedroom because she’d woken up to the intruder and been knocked out. It had basically slipped her mind by the time she woke up with a pounding headache and Dr. Dani leaning over her.
“Back to your question,” Crispin said, regaining her attention. “Shared dreams are another symptom, which we also had.”
“Yes,” she acknowledged solemnly. “So, you think I’m a life mate to you.”
He nodded.
“Which means what?” she asked.
“Which means you are the one person that I could spend my life with happily.”
“One out of how many?” she asked. “How many other life mates are out there for you? I mean, they say there’s more than one fish in the sea. Is there more than one life mate for an immortal too?”
Crispin hesitated, and then said, “You may be the only one ever. Some immortals have been fortunate enough to find a second life mate after losing the first. But that is not guaranteed. You may be the only possible life mate I ever meet.”
“Why do you say apossiblelife mate? Am I or am I not your life mate?”
“I only say possible because you can refuse to be my life mate,” he explained gently. “As far as I am concerned, youaremy life mate. There is no question. However, I cannot force you to agree to become my life mate, so, you are a possible life mate. I very much hope that you would be willing to be my life mate.”
“I see,” she murmured.
While she was still considering what he’d said, Crispin quickly assured her, “I realize this is all new to you, Abril. And this is a lot to take in, I know. I will not rush you. I am not asking you for a decision on if you agree to be my life mate or not. I am just asking you to keep an open mind and allow me to court you.”
Abril peered at him with surprise.Court youwas such an old-fashioned term.
“But we can set this aside for now, and simply deal with the issues at hand.”
“Issues?” Abril asked with uncertainty. Which ones, she wondered. There seemed to be so many of them to her. There were skeletons in the garden outside, one in the indoor garden, and seven vampires—or immortals as they preferred to be called—wandering around inside her boss’s house, one of whom she had the serious hots for.
“The issue of the rogue attacking you,” he explained gently.
“Oh. Right,” she said and could feel herself blushing. It was a little embarrassing to admit, even only to herself, but she’d quite forgotten about that nonsense what with everything else she’d learned.
