Page 39 of Don't Bite The Boss
“How do you know I don’t?”
And… my tenuous grip on my emotions snaps.
Later, much later, his hands running up and down the length of my body as we lie together in the plane’s king-sized bed, no blondes in sight, he tells me what he has really been doing these past months – and I am completely shocked.
“All a ruse? So, Serena and Christopher are back together, and he’s a vampire? You’re sure?”
“Absolutely,” he murmurs, kissing my hair.
“But the divorce?”
“Oh, that was real enough,” he laughs, “but it was, believe it or not, the signing of that document that brought them back together. Christopher had accepted a while back that he’d been totally out of line accusing Serena of marrying him for his money, but he couldn’t see a way of taking back the words, taking back the hurt. The longer she rebuffed him, the more stubborn he became. Eventually, I had to trick them both into meeting, and, well, just like with us, the attraction is not something that can be easily overcome.”
“So, you acted as cupid,” I laugh, “and talked sense into your older brother, yet again.”
“I should have done it months ago,” he says, his voice laden with guilt, “but I was so wrapped up in my own selfish drama that I wouldn’t have him on the boat with me. I was determined, after Fleur, that I needed to be alone, couldn’t take the time to sort out anyone else’s problems – even my own brother’s. This could all have been fixed a long time ago if I hadn’t been such a selfish prick.”
I say nothing, let him go on. But part of me wishes he could wave his magic wand and fix what is broken between Serena and I too. And what is still broken between he and I, even though it remains unsaid.
“I’ve made a mess of everything, Pru. I don’t know if this,” he gestures to the bed, puts his lips to my head and whispers, “if this means anything to you other than satisfying those base cravings you say you have because I’m irresistible to you, but..”
I spin, press his lips to mine, silence the words that are causing him so much pain to utter.
The flight had, so far, been one long roller coaster of violence and retribution. I’d attacked him, he defended, and then one thing led to another, and we’d fallen upon each other like starving creatures. And while it had been hot, hot, make-up sex, and wonderful, better than wonderful, I’d be lying if I said I still wasn’t hurt by his deception. And it isn’t just that. Every photograph I’d seen of him with another woman had been a silver-tipped arrow in my heart – and not all those wounds have healed. I want him back, yes, but I still have reservations. I don’t feel like airing those just now though, for the moment I want to just enjoy being in his arms.
“Enough,” I whisper against his lips, “enough, Tristan. Yes, this means more to me than sex. Yes, I still want your blood. I also wantyou.”
“But?” he says gently.
‘Perceptive.’
“But two months is a long time to be apart, a lot can happen in that time.”
I don’t mention the women, I don’t need to.
“Have you met someone else?” he asks quietly as his heart begins to race.
“No,” I scoff.
“None of those women meant anything,” he says gently, his heart slowing down, “they were part of Christopher and Serena’s plan. They need Solomon to believe they are still estranged so that we can lure him to the wedding and kill him. He can’t learn how powerful they have become.”
I don’t ask him if he slept with them, I can’t. I know that, well, I just can’t know that, not now.
I hadn’t slept with anyone else in the time we had been apart, which is strange for me. Usually, a good bloody orgy of sex and violence was my way of sorting shit out and moving forward. Not this time.
“It’s a dangerous, dangerous plan,” I sigh, shifting my thoughts back to the nuptials, “but it just might work. Although I can’t believe Charlotte has agreed to turn her dream wedding day into a potential bloodbath.”
“It was Charlotte and Nick’s idea,” he says, “it needs to end, this running, this fear of one vampire. With Charlotte and Serena more than ten times stronger than they have ever been, you with your fighting skills, our anti-vampire weaponry – it might be our best chance to end this threat once and for all. Serena believes that the mythology surrounding the Irresistibles is true, that Solomon must now be significantly weaker because she and Charlotte have joined with their immortal mates.”
“Solomon isn’t just one vampire,” I frown. “He is a very old, very powerful, very rich vampire with friends in high places and a virtual army at his disposal. If you think he will attend this wedding in person, you’re crazy.”
I shudder at the thought of seeing him again. I know Serena saw him in Aspen at Christopher’s chalet. The way she described him made us all blanch ten shades whiter. Serena was brave and smart, and ran. If you ask me, running has kept us alive this long, it seems like the smartest thing to continue to do.
But then again, sooner or later, I’ve always believed, sooner or later he will catch us.
I stare at the ceiling and think through the plan.
If Serena is right, then me still being linked to Solomon, and not to Tristan, lends Solomon strength when we are in the same room.
