20
“My Lord, I have Lucius on the other line for you as requested.” The voice seemed to echo in my mind even though it was one I hadn’t heard before. Well, whoever they were, two things I was now certain of, one was they were definitely not Scottish and the second and most important one…
I was so screwed.
Which had me questioning my sanity for why I even cared who the person was, whether he be Scottish or not, he was obviously about to hand my ass over to Draven on a plate. This was the only important thing right now.
“Excellent,” Draven said making sure he was looking at me to gauge my reaction. Okay, so now I knew why Draven hadn’t brought up the conversation of me and Lucius before now and I had stupidly believed it had to do with my spoken love for him that night. Well, it was like Draven had taught me back in the early days,
Assumption is the mother to where all mistakes are born.
And this was the mother of all mistakes!
Because obviously he had this planned from the start. So now after foolishly giving him the reaction he was looking for, that being when he saw my wide eyes of clear panic and my whole body tense, I looked away.
“Put him through,” Draven ordered sternly obviously liking my reaction as much as I liked giving it…which was absolutely fff’ing zero!
“For fuck sake Dom, what has happened to her now?” This was Lucius’ way of saying hello and I couldn’t help my reaction as I scowled at the screen as if I could see him there instead of the unflattering contact name Draven had given him.
“Oi!” I snapped, making Draven at least look slightly amused, which was definitely a step up from murderous. So, as annoying as Lucius’ greeting was, I would take it as a positive.
“She is safe and by my side,” Draven replied slicing me a look.
“Well, as much as I enjoy witnessing the unbelievable in this immortal life of mine, this still doesn’t account as to why you demanded my call,” Lucius commented sarcastically, and I had to give it to him, damn but he could play it cool like a freaking Jedi master!
“Because I would like you to explain to me …in detail …what it was you were doing with my wife shortly before you followed her through the same door she walked through when re-joining me,” he asked emphasising certain words to make his point clear, as in crystal.
It definitely had a distinct ‘lie and I will crush you’ vibe that was for sure. And with the sound of his cutting question, it was like a fist being rammed through my chest and clutching my heart, preventing it from beating until I heard Lucius’ reply.
Of course, when it actually came it didn’t relieve the pressure in my chest, no it simply increased it to a point I gasped for air.
“I take it this means that she hasn’t told you, like we discussed she would?” Draven frowned and gave me accusing eyes. I couldn’t believe what Lucius was saying! Was he really about to betray me like that and so easily? I mean I know that he didn’t want to take Draven’s memories to begin with, but I didn’t expect this. Christ, but he wasn’t even putting up a fight.
“Keira,” Draven’s voice brought my panicked eyes back to his serious ones and I swallowed hard. I shook my head as I still didn’t know what to say. How could I tell him what we had done?
What I had done.
“I…I…” This was all that made it past my lips before Lucius released a heavy sigh and started speaking once again. And once again that fist tightened with such force that I had to close my eyes just to relieve the pressure put there by Draven’s hard look of disappointment.
“I am sorry to tell you this, but confess I am far from sorry about what occurred by my hand,” he stated, and my mouth dropped open in shock. Jesus, but did he have a death wish?! This is certainly not the way I would have started this, that was for damn sure. Grovel yes, openly boast…that would be a resounding NO.
“What happened?!” Draven snapped, losing patience.
“Well as usual, our little Keira girl getting herself into trouble.”
“Lucius!” Draven said his name as a warning, one spoken as a demonic growl that was too close to the edge.
“Very well, I was walking out of the restroom only to find some asshole in a cheap suit coming on to your wife.” The second Draven heard this his possessive nature took over and his fist slammed into his side window, cracking it with an audible thud. This made me wonder if it was reinforced or bullet proof or something, because I swear that it should have shattered from the force of Draven’s fist.
I jumped in my seat and let out a shriek in surprise at both Draven’s outburst and at what Lucius was saying.
“Come Again?!” Draven asked in a deadly tone having to force the words past his barely contained fury.
“Naturally walking out the door to hear her repeating herself with force how she wasn’t interested, and in fact newly married, he decided he had a death wish after all.”
“Lucius, my patience.” This was said by Draven as a warning that he was close to losing his shit, right alongside with his demonic temper.
“Does it matter what he did, the fact remains is he touched her and for that I took matters out of her hands and with it, his firmly off her.” This time when Draven hit out, the window wasn’t up to the task of remaining in one piece any longer.
“Draven!” I shouted which was ignored when Draven growled,
“What did you do?”
“What do you think I did, give him an address of a good tailor and send him on his merry fucking way…give me some credit old friend, I slammed the door using his face and gave him a new nightmare to fear,” Lucius snapped sarcastically making me stare at the screen in wonder at where this easy lie had come from. Had he been expecting this call?
“And that was?” Draven asked, somewhat now comforted in knowledge that someone who had touched me without permission had walked away with a broken nose and forever haunted by a new unearthly predator.
“A threat from a demon he would never forget and from the piss stain soaking his trouser leg, I would say it would be enough to prevent the same offense happening again in the future…his dress sense on the other hand is a lost cause I am afraid, although the piss on his pants was a significant improvement,” Lucius commented sardonically.
“Good. And what of his mind?” Draven asked, now definitely on the calmer side of the fence thanks to hearing of Lucius’ effective brand of punishment.
“I took away his ability to tell anyone of his near fatal and suicidal endeavours and he can count himself fucking lucky I didn’t do this by ripping out his fucking tongue instead of just controlling his mind.” I shuddered at the thought and was counting my lucky (and hopefully un-cursed stars) that this didn’t actually happen.
“You did the right thing and for that I am in your debt.” Lucius scoffed at this and said in a more serious tone,
“No. You are not.” And with those four words he was conveying much more than just a casual ‘Mah, don’t mention it, what are friends for’ type of thing. No what he was actually saying was, that I wasn’t just Draven’s to protect and I knew this when Draven raised a brow in question. Then after a silent moment to give his words greater thought he spoke.
“No, I suppose not.” Hearing Draven agree with this made me bite my lip as the guilt washed over me.
“Of course, the question still remains as to why I am only hearing about this now?” Draven asked once again turning accusing hard eyes to me and it was only when he focused his gaze on my bitten and currently abused bottom lip, that his expression softened slightly.
“Because it was at her request,” was his curt reply and I couldn’t help my reaction when I forgot myself by shouting,
“Lucius!”
“I am sorry Pet, but as I told you at the time, it is your husband’s right to know. I gave you time to do this yourself, but I did so with a warning that I would not lie should the occasion arise, and I am sorry sweetheart, but that occasion arose as I knew it would,” he informed me, and I swear even I was half way to believing him and I was bloody there!
He was that good.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Draven asked me, and this quickly became the flaw in Lucius’ plan. Because no matter how rock-solid Lucius’ lie sounded, it was about to come crashing down and crumbling on impact if it all relied on my ability to lie.
“If I may interject at this point and say that I believe her reasons were of a noble sort,” Lucius interrupted, and I swear I said three hail Mary’s in my head at this and thankfully ignored the insane urge to wave my hands up and down like demented jazz hands.
“Explain!” Draven demanded turning his attention back to the screen.
“She didn’t want to ruin what was a family occasion so soon after your wedding and added to that, what already transpired the night before, well then I can’t say I blamed her from wanting to do so privately and after the incident.” Draven looked back to me and said,
“And far from being within distance of ripping his offending tongue out for myself, no doubt.” Now this thought made me shudder and finally it was a reaction he could account for, given the circumstances Lucius had painted of course.
“And well, there is that,” Lucius said on a chuckle.
“So now you know all that transpired,” Lucius added after a moment of silence.
“Now I know,” Draven agreed with a nod.
“Good, now will that be all, so you two can get back to your fucking honeymoon or is there someone you wish me to kill before I go?” Lucius asked on a pissed off growl that made Draven laugh.
“Königssee or Transfusion?” Draven inquired.
“Business before pleasure my friend, you know this,” was Lucius’ reply.
“Then we will have to visit,” Draven said making Lucius laugh once before he stated firmly,
“No, you won’t.”
“No, we won’t,” Draven quickly agreed light-heartedly.
“Khoda hafez.” Draven said reaching out to end the call when Lucius replied,
“And with you.” Then he tapped the red phone icon and we were alone once more.
“What did that mean?” I asked in a quiet voice, one reserved for gauging what mood Draven would now be in after all Lucius had shared.
“It means ‘let the Gods be with you’ in my home language.”
“Persian?” I asked to which he nodded.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” he asked after a silent moment had passed between us. This time I didn’t feel panic when speaking because Lucius had pretty much said all that was needed to say. This included my reasons why…something Draven obviously wanted to hear from my own lips.
“Why do you think?” I replied using my ‘isn’t it obvious’ tone.
“I can’t say I am not disappointed…”
“Draven I…” I said his name as a plea, but he held up a hand to stop me.
“…But I understand your need to protect me from such information, especially at that delicate time with your family present.” I released a sigh of relief and muttered a quiet,
“Thank you.” Turned out, my relief was very short lived.
“I have not finished Keira,” he warned making me shut my mouth and wisely decided to let him speak and not to argue.
“I do not understand however, why you chose to continue to keep it from me and it now begs the question of when you would have told me, if at all?” Okay, so maybe I wasn’t out of hot water just quite yet. I swallowed down the hard lump named guilt, swiftly followed by another called lies.
“When is ever a good time to tell you something like that? Last night before we made love, after we made love? In the shower, when once again we made love? Or this morning which was a start to a beautiful and perfect day where you would then whisk me away on a surprise honeymoon…?” I let my sentence end there for a moment and watched as realisation sank in.
“Seriously Draven, when is a good time to tell my new husband that some dickhead and probably leader of the asshole convention he was attending, tried it on with me only to nearly get his head ripped off from one very pissed off vampire?”
“Come here, sweetheart.” he requested once I had finished speaking. So, I did as he asked, unbuckled my seatbelt, one in the end that hadn’t been needed, as we hadn’t yet moved from the side of the road. Then once again I made my way over the centre console, now with the help of his hands reaching over and grabbing my waist. After he settled me again in his lap he then pulled me close for a much need hug, one needed on both sides.
“I understand your reasons and as Luc said, they are noble ones,” he said speaking over my head as he held my cheek to his chest. Then he placed both hands at my shoulders so that he could push me back enough to see my face. He even had to duck his head slightly due to our height difference.
“But that does not mean I will tolerate this in the future and if anyone is demanding enough for another death wish to be granted for touching what is mine, then I will be the one who deals with it and the offending hand it belongs to, no matter what the occasion is or has been. Am I understood?” Hearing his serious voice cutting through all reasons I may have had ready, I simply bit my bottom lip and nodded.
This turned out to be a wise choice.
“Good, then we have no need to speak further on the matter. Now kiss your King and sooth his frayed nerves, little one.” This time it was a demand, not a request and it was one I was more than happy to comply with.
This time when I kissed him, it wasn’t the usual urgent and lustful battle we both fought but it was soft, slow and sensual. By the time I had finished kissing him soft and tenderly, he placed his forehead to mine and whispered,
“What am I to do with you, little wife of mine?” he asked making me nip at his nose playfully before saying,
“I don’t know but Pip tells me restraints are fun.” At this he finally let go of any remaining frustration or anger by releasing a contented laugh.
“Now that is an intriguing idea and one I might put to practice, you know, seeing as we are staying in a medieval castle.”
“I meant fun for me,” I teased back and again he laughed.
“Oh no sweetheart, for your vixen days are over on this honeymoon,” he informed me grinning.
“And why is that?”
“Because I have a new role for you to play.”
“Which is?” I asked knowing he was drawing me into his game, one I knew I would enjoy playing.
“My tied up little submissive blonde beauty,” he said and when my mouth dropped in surprise, he took the opportunity presented to him. And this time when he kissed me, it was a heated lust filled battle…
One he most certainly won.