Page 73 of The Vampire and the Barista

Ivan turned over and reached for Jamie, his arm resting on the bed rather than wrapping around his human.

He opened his eyes and looked around, but couldn’t see anything, then he heard Jamie talking in the bathroom. From what he could hear, Jamie was talking to his father. He heard the call end, but Jamie didn’t come back out of the bathroom.

Ivan got out of bed and padded over to the bathroom, gently pushing the door open. “Jay?”

Jamie looked at him. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you.”

Ivan shook his head and held his hand out. “You didn’t. Come back to bed and tell me what’s troubling you.”

Jamie nodded and took his hand, walking back to bed. He put his phone on the nightstand and crawled onto the bed. Ivan settled next to him, pulling Jamie into his arms and leaning back against the headboard.

Jamie snuggled against his chest. “My father wants Karl and Kitty back. I told him that would never happen, but legally, he’s their dad. I would apply to get full custody of them, but if they look into my finances and see I don’t have any money, and that I’m only their half-brother, would they deny me custody? I also have no idea how I’m going to afford everything they need for school,” he confessed softly.

“David has a lot of government contacts in pretty much all departments. If you want legal custody of Karl and Kitty, we can get that sorted. As for having no money, my darling, as soon as we mated, everything I have became half yours. You’ll never be short of money again. In fact, I transferred five hundred thousand into your bank account yesterday.”

Jamie gasped and pulled back to look at Ivan. “You what? You can’t do that, that’s way too much money.”

“I can do that, and I have done that. I’ve also set up a monthly direct debit of ten thousand a month for you.”

“Ivannn,” Jamie practically wailed. “That really is too much,” he sniffed. “And now you’ve made me cry.” He threw himself into Ivan’s arms.

Ivan kissed his head. “I would have given you more, but I thought you might complain.”

Jamie kissed his cheek and pulled back. “You can cancel the direct debit, I’ll never spend five hundred thousand.”

“Yeah, you will, long life remember? I also set up accounts for Karl and Kitty, again with monthly direct debits.”

He sniffed and wiped his eyes. “Thank you so much, honey. It’s going to be weird not having to worry about money anymore.”

“We’re all pretty much billionaires, so no one needs to worry about money in our coven.”

Jamie’s mouth dropped open again. “Seriously?”

Ivan nodded and grinned. “Can you imagine living for as long as we do and spending forever broke? Nope, we all have pots of money, and keep making more with investments and bonds, properties, etc.”

“Wow. I have an old car I can share with you, or sell it and you can have whatever money we can get for it.”

“We can look at buying you a new car, my darling.”

Jamie shook his head. “No, I can keep getting that one repaired,” he paused. “Ivan, I did tell you I loved you before you told me you were super rich, didn’t I?”

Ivan laughed and pulled him closer and kissed his forehead. “That you did, my darling.”

“Thank goodness. Did you do your super hacking thing to find my bank account?”

Ivan nodded. “I did indeed. I could have asked you, but that would have spoilt the surprise.”

“I’d say, and I would have spent time trying to talk you out of giving me so much money.”

“That’s why I did it in secret.”

“So apart from money, what do you collect or do for fun?” Jamie asked, resting his head on Ivan's chest.

“I like watching old black and white films, plus B movies. I also like building Lego models.”

Jamie moved so he could see Ivan’s face. “Really?”

Ivan grinned. “Oh yeah, tomorrow I’ll show you my Lego room. But now, let’s settle back down to sleep; we have work in a few hours.”

“You have to kiss me first. I can’t go back to sleep without a kiss.”

Ivan nodded, his smile tender. “Then a kiss you shall have.”