Caleb moved in the farmhouse with me. We are getting along well. He"s quite the little handyman. He has made it his mission to fix the place up. It"s funny to think about having a Prince working on your plumbing, but he seems to be enjoying himself. He cut his hours back, now he only hunts things down a few days a week. While he"s gone, he makes someone stay with me. Usually it"s either James or Caradoc. They like to come up and spend time with me. We rent movies and hang out. They are like two of my girlfriends now. I rarely see Pallo. He stays away from me as much as he can. I"m okay with that right now. I don"t trust my feelings for him--h.e.l.l, I"m not even sure if I trust him.
I haven"t heard anything of Giovanni"s whereabouts as of yet. I know that I haven"t seen the last of him. I"m not sure how I feel about that. Part of me cared for him once, and I don"t know if he destroyed that or not.
As for my father, he has regained his throne. I had no doubt that he would. He"s managed to force Sorcha to stand by his side. That"s the best revenge a person could ask for. He has kept a tight lid on the fact that I"m his daughter. I think he fears for my life. Too many people would like to have a shot at the throne. Killing me would increase their chances of getting it. My father feels more secure knowing Caleb is with me. He keeps hinting that he would like a grandchild. I keep telling him that we are nowhere near that stage of the game yet.
I went on birth control. I had to see a Si doctor for it. Caleb was disappointed at first, but he"s getting used to the idea of spending adult time together first. He keeps asking me how I feel about Pallo, and I keep telling him that I don"t know. He is a good man, he loves me, and I know that I love him. I hope that is enough.
The End An UNEDITED excerpt from Immortal Ops by Mandy M. Roth, coming in June to NCP!
I"m done with friends, I"m done with dating, I"m done with everyone, Peren thought to herself as she walked down the side of the highway. What the h.e.l.l had possessed her to come out? She"d been doing just fine holed up in her tiny apartment. She was even angrier that she"d let Melanie drive. Peren had a perfectly good Saab waiting for her at home. She wasn"t one to flaunt her money; she tried, in fact, to hide it whenever possible, but a ride home would have been worth the ha.s.sle of everyone knowing she was loaded.
"Hey...wait up."
She froze and looked down the darkened road. She was miles from town and alone. She wasn"t sure how much distance she"d put between her and the bar. She cursed softly and prepared her body to react, if need be, with violence. She"d grown up being trained in martial arts. The only child of a wealthy man who had wanted a son equaled a h.e.l.l of a good roundhouse kick.
She turned slowly and prepared to strike. The ebony-haired man from the bar chased after her. She looked at him and raised her eyebrow. He was a persistent b.a.s.t.a.r.d, she"d give him that much. His black shirt rose slightly in the wind as he ran to her, exposing his toned abdomen. d.a.m.n, the guy must do at least a hundred sit-ups a day. That could only mean one thing...he"s an a.s.s.
Lukian slowed his pace and read her, finding himself mildly amused with her opinion of him in the process. She was definitely attracted to him, but found him to be like most men in her life, an a.s.s. Reading her thoughts was easy for him. Most humans weren"t too difficult for him to eavesdrop on, but this Peren was like an open book to him. That caught him a little off guard.
He stopped and put his hands up in the air slowly. "I come in peace."
Her full lips curved into a smile so white that she lit-up the night. He felt his insides lurching forward. His c.o.c.k wanted to be in her so bad that he wondered if he could control himself. He was far too old to be behaving like he was still twenty. He was experienced now, and wise enough to be able to control his erections at will, or at least he had thought so prior to meeting Peren. The wind caught her long black skirt and blew it up. Shiny black leather boots that ran up to her knee showed through. He waited for a better glimpse at what kind of panties she wore under that skirt, but the wind refused to help out any longer.
Just as well; I"d probably jump on her right here and now. This target of his, this Peren, stirred things in him that hadn"t existed in over a century. He watched her take a wider stance and realized that she thought his intent was to do her harm. She was going to try and protect herself. It hit him then that if all had gone according to plan, she"d be dead already, so her instincts were good, but so were his.
"What do you want?" she asked the tall stranger.
He gave her a large smile and shrugged. "I don"t know, maybe to know that I wasn"t what chased you off. That could leave lasting effects on a man"s ego, you know."
I"ll just bet you"ve got ego problems. No, he looked like the type that was incredibly comfortable in his own skin. She thought about how comfortable she"d be in his skin too, and shook her head. Cut it out. You don"t sleep around; you leave that up to Melanie. She"s good at it.
"I"m Lukian, and you must be Peren," the man said, extending his large hand out to her. She took a small step forward and grabbed it quickly. A spark of energy flew between them. Something similar had happened to her once when she was a child and the circ.u.mstances surrounding that encounter were anything but pleasant. Having little desire to relive that, and the overwhelming urge to flee, she gave into her instincts and screamed.
What the h.e.l.l? Was all that ran through her mind as she turned fast from the man. The boots she"d worn were thankfully low heeled or she"d have killed herself trying to run on the uneven terrain. She didn"t look back to see where Lukian was, yet she knew he was close behind her. Sensing things came naturally to her. It had been a curse she"d hidden all her life. The curse, so to speak, had just allowed her a very bold glimpse into the intentions of the man on her heels, and they weren"t honorable.
She hit the edge of the woods and never skipped a beat. She knew she didn"t have that good of a lead on him, and that he"d catch up if she dared to stop. A limb sc.r.a.ped her cheek and she screamed out, pushing onward wildly. It"s just a scratch, definitely not worth dying over. She could see the forest in her mind, even though she could not see her hand before her face in the darkness. She"d learned to trust her mind; the last time she"d ignored it, Kyle had vanished. She wouldn"t make that mistake again.
Coming to NCP June 2004!
www.newconceptspublishing.com