Deciding to steer the conversation in a new direction, I took a breath. “We should talk about what we’re doing for Enzo’s birthday.”
“Treyanna’s mentioned a few ideas to me,” a yawn escaped his lips.
“Same,” I murmured sleep seeming to overtake me.
As I closed my eyes, thoughts of Italian villas began to dance in my head. I couldn’t wait to get away from Atlanta and the shit storm brewing here. These had been long tense months and it would do us a lot of good to get away.
Chapter 10
Thierry
I was staring into the darkness, and it was staring back. I could smell the smoke and feel flames licking at my skin again. Bringing my hands up to my face, suddenly I could feel them melting from the bone. My flesh was hanging by sinewy threads before falling…
Waking up with a start, I could feel the adrenaline rushing through my body. Deep breaths invaded my lungs and I glanced over at the nightstand where my phone was. Reaching for it, I saw that I’d only been asleep an hour.
Moonlight was spilling through the blinds, crawling across the floor and touching Diamond’s face. I saw that she had pulled the bassinet close, there was a hazy white glow surrounding it. She must have slid Tiberious closer just in case he got hungry. Our child’s soft snores hit my ears and I knew that he was fine.
Gently, I ran my fingers across her face and dropped a kiss on her cheek. She murmured something but I didn’t quite catch her words. Just that murmur had caused a reaction in me; I was hard. The thought occurred that if I tried to get some pussy at this exact moment in time, there would have been little to no resistance.
My dick jumped at the thought. It had been so long since I’d slid into her body and found that warm and wet desire for me.
Taking a deep breath, my heartbeat under control, I eased from the bed, snatching my cellphone up. The nightmares kept coming and I knew I probably needed to see someone about this, but I needed to slay the beast first.
Alistair.
Dialing an old but familiar number, I waited on the hum of the dial tone, a longstanding acquainted sonata. The line rang and rang, and I wondered if the person on the other end would answer. Finally, a sleepy voice on the other end answered.
“Hello?” I could tell they were barely awake.
“And what are you wearing?”
A groan of annoyance touched my ears and made me smile. If Lucia Rossi hadn’t known who was calling, she did now. Slowly, I padded down the steps of the house, careful not to hit anything that would squeak and wake the house. Reaching the kitchen, I could hear Lucia mumbling to someone and then she sounded more awake.
“I thought you were dead,” I heard her yawn.
“News of my demise has been greatly exaggerated, “I told her.
The light from the fridge flooded into my eyes; I squinted as a rush of pain river danced behind my eyes. There was a beer waiting in there for me. Using my shoulder to hold the phone close to my ear, I reached in and popped the top. The liquid felt cool and thin sliding down my throat.
“So why are you calling me?”
“Because sweet Lucia…I need your help.”
“I don’t work for you anymore, Thierry. You can’t just keep popping up like this.”
“I can and I will,” I told her. “Now what are you wearing.”
“Jesus Fucking Christ!” she exclaimed.
“I’m kidding,” I chuckled. “I know what you look like naked and screaming for more, you have no secrets from me.”
She began coughing on the other end. I took a swig of beer and waited for her to calm the hell down. When she was ready, she spoke again.
“I need this to be our last conversation,” she groaned.
“I’ll think about it,” I rolled my eyes and sipped the beer again. “I need a favor.”
She groaned and then for the next fifteen minutes she listened to me tell her about how I’d escaped the clutches of death. I filled her in on small details like the farmer that found me and nursed me back to health and to whom I owed my life. The most important thing was I made her aware of my enemy and how, while I knew who he was, he was a ghost on the wind.
