And then there’s Dominik. How I’m possibly going to be able to explain his six and a half foot brooding presence in my life is not something I’m prepared to wrap my head around just yet.
Finally, there’s the baby. One thing I will not be able to hide as time goes on.
But apparently my pregnancy is one of the things which attracts Dominik to me. That and the whole fated mate thing, which I can’t even pretend to understand.
As for the rest of the group, they are still bickering in the chat, and I decide it’s probably best left to another day, possibly even another decade, for me to even mention vampires.
I’m not sure I could stand the roasting.
“Is everything okay?” Dominik asks as he sets down a cup of decaf coffee next to me.
“My friends,” I say. “They wanted to check I got back to Londonwithout incident.” I give him a baleful look.
“What did you tell them?”
“Nothing…yet.” I put my phone to one side. “What am I going to tell them? I don’t want anyone in danger because of me.”
“I may have an answer.” Dominik moves to the window which has a sheer blind which I can only assume provides him with some protection from the weak winter sunlight. “But I don’t know how much you’ll like it.”
I consider that, even though I took his so-called offer only twenty-four hours ago, so much has changed.
Not only have I run away with him, but I let this vampire in, not only to my head, but perhaps to my heart. Certainly to other parts which are still throbbing a little, even after Dominik finally was able to withdraw and run me a soothing bath as he commented about the first time with a vampire.
The heart I can’t deny beat a little harder the first time I saw him in London, attempting to get Grace’s mate out of custody. Even if he remains as pompous and self-important as he is now…or was until he told me about his turning.
“I doubt very much my life could get any more complicated,” I say, watching the group chat blow up over Eliza for some reason I can’t concentrate on.
“I told Damek I’d turned you. That I’d turned a Van Helsing and if he attempted to touch you again, he’d have not only me but the rest of your clan to deal with.”
My head spins.
“You didwhat?”
“I told Damek you had become my bride. That way, until you start to show your pregnancy, you can accompany me, and he won’t attempt to touch you. He has also agreed to leave Budapest.”
“Where?” Like that’s the most important question.
“To Eger. It’s the last place we lived before we were turned,” Dominik says. “He can’t open the vault from there, and I have plenty of eyes in the place to keep a watch on him.”
All of this sounds too good to be true. The danger stalking me removed in a few hours.
“I wasn’t expecting him to capitulate so easily,” I say out loud.
“Whatever else Damek is, he saw what happened to our father, the same as me. He wouldn’t cause the death of another. His desire to open the vault stems from his time within.”
“I’m not…I don’t know about this, Dominik. What am I supposed to tell my friends?”
He turns to face me, his body haloed in light in a way which shouldn’t be possible for a vampire.
“What you need to.”
“I’m tired of the lies.”
“Then don’t lie. Tell them the truth.”
“And what if the truth is dangerous?”
In a supernatural turn of speed, Dominik is beside me on the couch. He places one hand over my stomach, and the other slides around the back of my neck, into my hair.
