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“HAVE YOU LOST YOUR fucking mind?” I shouted as Keegan punched Sig in the jaw, sending him crumpling to the hardwood floor. I grabbed my tank top and thrust myself back into it as I ran around the couch to see that Sig was laying there with his back to it, his chest heaving as he held his chin.
“I might have needed that.” He winced as he chuckled, and adjusted his teeth in his mouth with a sideways slant of his jaw. “I’m sorry, it’s just that I tripped over those two Freshies and it added to the things already in my head.” He looked at me with those big emerald eyes, that always looked just a tad sad and tried to smile. It came off awkward and he ran his hand through his honey blonde hair. “There’s coffee and pastries in the car, plus a present for you, if it’s any consolation.”
“That depends.” I mused, looking up at Keegan, who was shaking out his hand just as readily as he shook his head.
“On?”
“How good this cup of fucking coffee turns out to be,” I teased him, very much like our first road trip. It was my way of forgiving him, without forgiving him.
Sig nodded. “It’s not bad.”
He got up with my arm as aid. Towering over me at six feet two inches and probably about two hundred and twenty pounds of muscle, he should have been hard to lift, but apparently my Vampire body was strong as an ox.
Super strength, check. My list of powers was increasing by the hour. So far, my sense of smell was up there with the cats that hung out in the Pepper Pot’s alley, seeing as I could smell coffee at a thousand yards. My force push had gone from a shove to a blast and according to Sig I was super stealthy now too, plus I could evidently coax an orgasm out of a blonde with four flicks of my tongue.
I followed him to the door as he went to fetch the stuff he had bought. I was in just a tank and little shorts so I wasn’t going out there. He fumbled around for a few seconds, then came over with a big box, the coffee teetering on top.
“I got it!” I screeched as the coffee tray threatened to fall. I had to save them. Coffee was one of the pleasures in life and had to be respected. “What’s in the box?” I tried to see over the top of his arms, but he was holding it up too high for my five foot five inches to see it.
“Inside, or you’re gonna get arrested for indecent exposure!” Sig shoved me with one hand toward the door.
Keegan was finally putting on some pants when we put the stuff on the counter. “Did I hear something about pastries?” He asked, scratching his ribs.
The scars from his kidnapping and subsequent torture, at his onetime Guardian and lover’s hands, were still visible on his otherwise chiseled physique. It had been more than a month now and he still didn’t talk about it. Probably never would, at least not to me. His arm was the worst of it. Charles had used a silver knife to lift the skin, peeling away what was once a beautiful and intricate tribal tattoo that started at his left wrist and wound up his arm to settle above his heart. The skin there was twisted and abrasive. When he held me, I could feel it against me as a constant reminder of what loving me had left him open to. Betrayal at the hands of someone he had once trusted with his very life. I tried not to stare, but my eyes betrayed my heart and my head.
A small frown crossed Keegan’s beautiful face, and my eyes were drawn to the tiny scars there, as well, and the one gash under his eye, along his high cheekbone. Another scar that would most likely never heal, no matter how often he fed, again, silver was the cause. I forced a smile, shaking the bag of pastries.
“I think so, seems Sig brought back breakfast in the form of a sugar high.”
“I don’t know that you deserve any of it,” Sig muttered, snatching the bag from me.
“Hey!” I protested as he held the bag over my head. “Not fair!” I tried to climb up his lengthy arm, pushing my foot into his hip for leverage, but he squirmed out from under me.
“Nope. Not until you tell me you aren’t dropping out of school just because numb nuts over here asked you to marry him. I’ll not stand for you barefoot and pregnant in one of his many kitchens!”
I laughed outright. “Why would you think I would drop out of school? If anything, I’m more inclined to finish now that I can afford it!” I griped, jumping up and snatching the bag from him. I fished inside, finding a chocolate almond biscotti. “Oh! Yeah!” I teased, taking a huge bite and breaking the biscuit off in my gaping maw.
“Fine, you can have all the sugar you want, but I guess you don’t want this.” Sig tapped the top of the big box with a strumming of his long fingers.
I looked to Keegan, who leaned down, taking a bite of my biscotti. “Hard choices,” he mused through the mouthful. I pushed the bag into his hands and bounded over to Sig with a shit eating grin.
“You sure you ain’t going nowhere on us?”
“I promise, now what’s with the box?” I bounced up and down. I loved presents, I mean, who doesn’t? Right?
Sig opened the top of the box, the lid lifting to reveal a record player and a stash of records. I squealed in delight and Keegan winced.
“I told you to never make that sound again.” He came up behind me, giving my ass a hard slap followed by a squeeze. “You’ll be meeting the Berkley for that offensive outburst,” he purred. “Just wait until I get you back to my house.”
Sig laughed uncomfortably and I looked at him with wide eyes. Nobody had told Keegan about the fire we had to set.
“What?” Keegan asked, seeing the guilty looks on our downturned faces. “I’m not so broken after all.”
“He, he, yeah. Boss, about the carriage house.”
“I know it needs to be cleansed and remodeled now that Charles is gone, but it’s still my home and my domain.”
“About that.” Sig let out a high pitched nervous chuckle. It was time to break the bad news.