“You can stop right there.”Theo tried moving away, but it was a halfhearted effort at best, and also Carl was on his other side.
Peter stuck to Theo’s side.“I have decided I will come back to you without fail.That is easier achieved if you arehereso that I know where to come backto.”
Theo snorted.“Yeah?Well, learn to read a map.Who says I care in the first place?Plus, this isn’t about you.This was never about you.”
Peter turned to him, and he had this stupid, soft, adorable smile on his face that made Theo just so… He wasn’t sure.It was like the lunch—the carved banana and the artistic apple slices, the pithless orange that had been so perfectly sweet.That smile did something to him, and he didn’t like what that was, didn’t want it.
I want to go home and catch up on what I missed today.I want to go home and ask Peter if he can make me hot chocolate while I finish that stupid romance novel.Then I want to get him to take me out to the movies and watch something boring so we can make out, or something really good so we can hold hands during and talk about it after.What the fuck is wrong with me?
Peter sighed.“Beloved.”
“Huh?”Is that…a Viking thing?
“You are my beloved.”Peter nodded as if he had to confirm this to himself.His lips pressed tight and his gaze hardened before he went on.“I know you’re worried.I don’t want you to be.”
Cloudtree had turned around, and Laurette was still walking backward, easily navigating the path as if he had eyes in the back of his head.Or as if he did this a lot.Gertrude was pointedly looking at her phone and ignoring the lot of them.
“Will you shut up already?I’m not worried.”
“I’ll bring them back.Michael and Corvin must have their happily ever after.”
“And I’m coming.”
“Theodore.”
Theo wanted to curse and vent his anger at Peter, but before that reaction could overtake him, he thought better of it.He remembered Celeste’s training.
“If you leave me here, you’re never going to touch me again.”
There was a gasp and an “Oh!”from someone in their odd little group, but Theo wasn’t quite sure who.He was too focused on keeping his chin up and his eyes on Peter’s.Fuck, but his eyes are so blue.Winter sky blue.Viking blue.I love that color.
“Theodore.”
“Don’tTheodoreme.This isn’t one of your negotiations.You’re not getting any billable hours from me.If you want to make me crash on Carl’s couch, just keep it up.”
“I—I—!”Carl spluttered, and Theo felt mildly sorry.He swore to himself to buy Carl and everyone else lunch again once this was over, once they were back.
“I see.”Peter’s icy eyes looked past Theo and right at Carl.He was composed, friendly looking, even, but Theo didn’t think Carl would read it quite that way.
Laurette clapped his hands.“You two are like a spark and a firecracker!We haven’t the time for it though.Shame, if you ask me.And no one ever asks me about shame.It’s as if people know I have none.Into the house now, everyone.Theo, I’ll loan you a cloak.”
Theo perked up.“A cloak?”
“Theodore is staying here.”Peter sounded smugly final about it.
“The fuck I am.That’s no sex for a week for you, by the way.”Theo felt good about that, powerful too, especially when he saw Peter’s nostrils flare.
“Theodore.Please.”
After all the tinkering with the contract, after the way Peter had gotten Theo to take that credit card, he should have expected him and his lawyer ego to pull this exact kind of underhanded shit.It hit Theo right in the gut though, close to where that fear monster had lived, back when Theo had been on the run.But this was different.Running then had been desperation born of the unspoken knowledge of what would’ve eventually happened if Theo had stayed with Bernard.
This fear was something else, and it whispered,What if he never wants to see you again, what if he casts you aside?Or worse, what if he’s hurt and doesn’t recover.What if he takes a stake to the heart and turns to ash, as if he was never really there in the first place?
Theo didn’t know if vampires turned to ash.He didn't know what kind of wound it took to kill one, and he didn’t want to ask, didn’t want to know.But he knew that if Peter got hurt at all, he’d need Theo’s blood.
Glaring, he shoved Peter off the path.“Excuse us for a second.”
Peter let himself be moved, not stumbling but reaching out to lightly touch Theo’s elbow to steady him.Theo’s frown deepened.
