Page 16 of Thomas
“Well, thank you,” Thomas managed, beguiled by the kind, albeit hypothetical, offer.
“You are welcome,” he said.
Chapter Six
Cameron felt the intense pressure of his little sister charging down the hallway toward his office door. He imagined the sensation was akin to a typhoon building out at sea and gaining power before it made landfall.
He set his pen down atop his bookkeeping, leaned with his elbows on the desk and cradled his head in his hands. Bracing himself.
A moment later, two sharp knocks on his office door informed him that the storm had arrived. “Yes?” he groaned.
One of the double doors flung open and Rachelle strode inside. Lennon, clearly exasperated, trailed helplessly in her wake.
“Cameron Dwight Ashford, have you lost your ever-loving mind?” She stood with her hands on her hips, radiant in a plum-colored jumpsuit that complemented the warm undertones in her brown skin. Her dark hair was braided and twisted up in some complicated, elegant fashion, and she wore a furred headband, giving the overall impression of a winter empress. This sensation was further emphasized by the impressive pink-diamond studs twinkling at her earlobes.
“Cameron, I’ve told her that shecannotcome barging into rooms unannounced now that you have a bonding partner,” Lennon exclaimed from her side. “Not that you should be doing it anyway!”
“About that,” Rachelle said, her intense hazel scrutiny centered on Cameron. “Why was I at Lotus Tea House yesterday for my weekly date with Henry, when the tea master comes over to graciously extend his congratulations to my brother on his new bonding arrangement, and I had to pretend as if I knew what the hell he was talking about?”
Cameron rubbed his temples and sighed. “Hello, brother, thank you for doing what I, along with our parents, have been pestering you to do for the past decade and therefore saving me from inheriting the burden of running this estate and Upper Avalon. Truly, you are the best brother a vampire could?—”
“Cameron.No one told you to make a hasty and questionable arrangement in secret! There’s a process to these things. Careful deliberations to be made.”
A process. Cameron had skipped right over that, hadn’t he? It had been a terrible mistake, but he wasn’t going to admit that to his sister—or anyone. Ever.
“I’ve deliberated—carefully, mind you—and made my choice,” Cameron explained. He sat back in his seat and folded his arms tightly over his chest. “It’s finished and we have an understanding… I did this so you wouldstopshouting at me. What the hell?”
Rachelle folded her arms, matching his frustration. “And when were you planning on telling me?”
“Today. Calmly, I had hoped, upon your visiting. I’d planned to introduce you to him. We only finalized the arrangement this past Sunday.”
“Have you told our parents?”
“I wrote them.”
Rachelle’s eyes went wide. “Youwrotethem? Why not call?”
“For the same reason I would have written you, if it were possible.” In Cameron’s estimation, these vampires were never satisfied. Run the estate, Cameron. Pay all the servants a livable wage and keep the house in a stately fashion. Collect the taxes and make sure the realm is economically sound and everyone is happy. Find Rachelle a gallant partner. Find yourself one before you’re deemed a lecherous old pervert. And on and on.
The responsibilities never ended. He’d have responsibilities until the day he dropped dead.
Writing his parents a letter about the arrangement ensured he wouldn’t need to talk to them about it… until the letter arrived in Australia, anyway. Even then, he could avoid their phone calls for a few more days.
“Len,” Rachelle said, turning to the manservant, “can I talk to him alone, please?”
Lennon looked to Cameron, then to Rachelle. “Yes, my lady, but—pleasetry not to make this any harder for him to cope with than it already is? You know he means well.”
“I know that. I apologize for yelling, and I’m calm now, I promise.”
Reluctantly, Lennon nodded, then turned and left the room. When the door was secured, Rachelle exhaled a heavy breath. “Alright, alright… I’m just trying to wrap my head around this because it’s so out of the blue.”
Cameron huffed, glancing away to look out the window and toward yet another dreary and cold day. “How? I’ve only done what you all have asked me to—like Ialwaysdo. I don’t understand what the goddamned problem is.”
Rachelle paced the floor in front of his desk. The only seating in Cameron’s office was a thick velvet cushion in the largest windowsill or the two comfy chairs set across from each otherbeside his wall of accounting and legal references, files and notebooks.
He rarely entertained guests—business or otherwise—so he kept his office sparse and to his liking. Offering seating in front of his desk would subliminally invoke an invitation to sit and talk. He wanted neither.
“Why Thomas Blakeley?” Rachelle finally asked.
