Page 13 of Thomas
As Cameron stood in front of the door to Thomas’s rooms, his heart thudded hard in his chest and temples. He inhaled, braced himself and knocked softly.
He waited.
No answer.
He tried again, but this time, he did as Lennon instructed. “Lord Blakeley, it’s Lord Ashford. Are you available?—”
The doorwhooshedopen and took Cameron’s breath away. Thomas was suddenly there in the gap, pallid, thin and with a hard expression settled in his brow.
“Lord Blakeley is my father,” he said evenly. “Thomas will do.”
Cameron swallowed hard and quickly regathered what little bearings he had available. “Sir Thom?—”
“Just Thomas.”
“Thomas. Can we talk? If you don’t mind.”
He didn’t respond, but stepped back and opened the door wider, gesturing for Cameron to come inside. Cameron stepped past him and made his way over to the velvet armchair adjacent to the matching loveseat. Thomas closed the door, then took a seat on the couch. He set his palms against his thighs, waiting.
Come what may, Cameron decided that at least he would have tried to set things right. He took another deep breath. “I apologize for my behavior yesterday,” he began, briefly meeting the man’s cold gray gaze. “I… struggle with social anxiety and am fairly introverted. Intense social situations drain me emotionally and physically, and I…”
Cameron reached up and rubbed the back of his neck. Knowing his own nervous tick, he stopped, dropped his hand and straightened his shoulders. “I should have tried harder to express this to you, but the dilemma is that the very nature of my problem prevents an immediate explanation. Even so, I am sorry if I’ve made you feel unwelcome.”
He met Thomas’s eyes again, searching for some reaction, or maybe even acceptance in his flat expression.
There was none. But after a moment, Thomas said plainly, “Thank you for telling me that.”
“You’re welcome,” Cameron said, feeling awkward. The quiet stretched on for a beat too long, so he added. “How are you finding your rooms? Is there anything to your disliking?”
“There is not,” Thomas said, “but I do have questions. Are you refueled enough to address my queries? Or should we wait for another time?”
Cameron sat straighter and nodded. “I’m alright. Please, go ahead.”
“Why have you brought me here?” he asked boldly. “Why did you initiate this arrangement?”
Cameron blinked back his surprise. “You… don’t remember?”
Thomas frowned, his expression somehow growing colder. “Remember what?”
Silence. Something in the air hollowed out and Cameron sat staring at Thomas with his heart in his throat. When he swallowed, it went down rough.
Truly, he was an imbecile. He vaguely wondered if he should just go downstairs and join Lennon in that grave he was allegedly digging.
Chapter Five
Thomas could see that some profound emotion had suddenly taken root within Lord Cameron Dwight Ashford. The evidence of it had briefly masked his face, like a cloud passing across the sun.
“What should I remember?” Thomas asked again, confused by the shift in their conversation and Lord Ashford’s not so discreet reaction.
Cameron held up a palm and shook his head. “Nothing at all. My apologies for being presumptuous.” He quickly rolled his shoulders before speaking further. “You asked why I initiated this arrangement. My parents were threatening to disinherit me. They told me that if I didn’t choose a partner by my fortieth birthday, they’d remove me as their primary heir and give everything to my sister. And my sister wants nothing to do with running this estate, nor Upper Avalon, so I was being pressured. To put it mildly.”
In Eden, there was a stigma about vampires of a certain age remaining unbonded. As a purebred drifted closer to one hundred, they were expected to settle down and find a bonding partner. Lord Ashford was still young in vampire years. Tosaddle him with this burden when he was only forty felt unwarranted.
While this explanation answered Thomas’s original question, it was obvious that something significant was being omitted. Something Thomas had allegedly forgotten.My apologies for being presumptuous…Lord Ashford had swept it beneath the theoretical rug of their conversation so hastily and forcefully that it seemed uncouth to intentionally poke at it.
Thomas wanted to poke at it, badly, but decided to leave it for now. “Your parents were going to disown you if you didn’t find a mate, so you found one.”
“Yes, that’s right.”
