Page 52 of Thomas
Cameron groaned. Wonderful, so everyone was tiptoeing around his delicate, introverted sensibilities? He wasn’t sure if that made him feel better or worse.
Playfully, she pointed to Thomas. “Don’t let him sneak out after only an hour. Let’s shoot for two, at least, please? It would be best if you stayed until all the guests left, but that’s probably asking for too much. Come, Thomas, meet my Henry.”
They made introductions and had a relaxed conversation with Rachelle and her mate, then Cameron and Thomas wereswept into a series of congratulatory conversations. Most of which, surprisingly, gratefully, Thomas did the heavy lifting for.
He was amiable and charming as he held on to Cameron’s arm. Thomas offered a skillful, efficient cadence to the flow of each conversation. He knew how to answer questions truthfully but without oversharing. How to gently guide a less pleasant interaction to its end without seeming boorish.
“It’s just so surprising for our young lord to have suddenly taken on a mate, and without preamble! No formal announcements—no bonding ceremony nor parade!” The older purebred in front of them was one such unpleasant interaction. “If his parents were here, they never would have allowed for this.”
Cameron was at his wits’ end. There were too many bodies pressing too closely into his own, and the space was over warm. The chandelier light was bright, sparkly, and the music and chatter clambered over one another in a cacophony of sounds.
If his parents had sincerely cared about anything, they wouldn’t have abandoned him when he turned nineteen. But older purebreds were almost always like this. Perpetually reveling in their incredulity for all things contemporary.
“Our arrangement was private and certainly a reflection of our distinct temperaments,” Thomas said, unaffected and smiling sweetly. “Getting to know Lord Ashford in the privacy of our home—and quietly experiencing the normalcy of daily life together—has been wonderful. I find that much more valuable than a parade, don’t you? And we’re here, now, after all. At this delightful party that Rachelle has so kindly orchestrated.”
The charm and logic practically oozed from Thomas’s pores. The older purebred couldn’t help but nod. “Yes, yes, that is lovely… I do love a community parade, though.”
Thomas lifted his champagne glass, which he was holding in his free hand. “To parades—and to a lovely evening.”
Both Cameron and the purebred lifted their glasses. As the older vampire took a sip, Thomas gently pulled Cameron away. When they were no longer within earshot, Thomas muttered, “I sense we need a short reprieve?”
“Please, good sir,yes.”
They kept moving, Thomas’s eyes scanning. “Hm, how about we go?—”
“Anton!Thereyou are, you sneaky man.”
Thomas froze mid-step, his heather eyes widening as he cast his gaze wildly around. It reminded Cameron of the day he’d opened the door to the secret staircase in the libraries, but not quite as intense.
Even still, it was immediately obvious that this encounter was going to be much unlike the others they’d breezed through tonight.
Chapter Eighteen
Alanky purebred man with reddish-brown hair and a smattering of freckles across the span of his nose and cheeks approached them, grinning from ear to ear. His eyes practically sparkled at the sight of Thomas. He opened his arms wide. “God, it’s really you! Where the hell have you been for the past ten months?”
Cameron moved to disconnect his arm from Thomas’s to give them room, but markedly, Thomas held on. This resulted in an awkward and stiff half-embrace on Thomas’s part, a full embrace on the lanky man’s and Cameron hanging on as the awkward limb in a most undesirable threesome.
“W-Wyatt, how are you?” Thomas said, quickly pulling out of the man’s embrace and resettling himself at Cameron’s side. It was the first time all night that he had seen Thomas falter. “What are you doing here?” he asked, completely evading the original question.
“You won’t believe it, but I’m in a bonding arrangement with the viscountess of Oberdeen House,” the man said, straightening his shoulders and lifting his chin. “Since I couldn’t mate forlove, I decided I might as well go for status.”
Thomas breezed past the overly intimate declaration. “Wyatt, may I introduce Lord Cameron Dwight Ashford, my bonding partner. Cameron, this is Sir Wyatt Grant?—”
“Lord, now,” the man put in, winking.
“Lord,” Thomas said flatly. “We were in university together.”
Wyatt reached out a hand toward Cameron. “The three of us have been in a room together before—but it’s a pleasure to meet you formally, Lord Ashford.”
“And you as well,” Cameron said, shaking his hand. “At the Havenwrath estate, yes?” It slowly dawned on Cameron that this was the man sitting sidesaddle on Thomas’s chair the night he first saw him. The one who had said something about coating Thomas in sugar and roses.
“Yes, at the winter solstice party!” Wyatt said excitedly. “How funny that the two of you ended up together. I suppose it’s no wonder, what with the way you drove me utterlymadthat night.”
Thomas shook his head, looking bewildered. “I’m sorry, Wyatt, I don’t remember what you’re referring to. But it was nice to see?—”
“How can you notremember?” Wyatt said a little too loudly. “Lord Ashford came up during our discussion—which was likely about some old and complicated book, since you lotlovedto pontificate and dissect those things back then, like digging up old, dusty dinosaur bones.
“Anyway, Lord Ashford here walked away and you said he was a, quote, ‘radiant man,’ quite passionately, mind you. Practically breathless! I waslivid. I thought you’d said it to make me jealous, of course, because, well, frankly, Lord Ashford, please take no offense in my saying this, but I wasmadlyin love with our elegant and erudite Thomas here and he knew it very well. I was not shy in my intentions toward him. Did you know that he can sing? You simplymust have him do so—his voiceis beautiful, like that of a rare and exotic bird. Anyway, here we are, with the two of you happily coupled—but what on earth happened to Dawn? You dumped me in the gutter for her, and yet, where is she now?”
