Total pages in book: 87
Estimated words: 80373 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 402(@200wpm)___ 321(@250wpm)___ 268(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80373 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 402(@200wpm)___ 321(@250wpm)___ 268(@300wpm)
There was a low chuckle. “Well, I find my sense goes out the window when Bel’s happiness is involved. I’m sorry about that.”
“I’m not the one who you should be apologizing to, but he was quick to defend you lot.”
Wyatt chuckled again. “At least you’ve got some good ammo for your upcoming conversation with Bel and Winter. We’ll be there in thirty to sixty minutes. It just depends on how long it takes us to convince Bel that he’s not coming too.”
“Thanks, Wyatt,” Aiden murmured and ended the call.
“They love you,” Ronan said as Aiden sat with his eyes closed and leaned his head against the wall.
Aiden smiled and some of the tension eased from his shoulders. “They do. It can be exhausting at times, but I’m blessed to have them. I don’t want them to worry. They’ve found great love and are building amazing lives together. I want all their attention on that. Not me.”
“It could be that they simply want you to have the kind of happiness they’ve found.”
He’d heard something very similar from Winter, and he’d spent the better part of that night and into the day thinking about happiness and what it meant to never risk his heart again. The sun had been high above the horizon when he’d finally come to a decision that allowed him to fall into a deep sleep at last.
A soft sigh slipped from his parted lips, and he opened his eyes to look at Ronan. His friend also had his head tilted back, resting on the wall. His eyes were shut, and he looked at peace. It was still hard to believe that he was sitting right there, looking nearly the same as he had so many centuries ago. His hair was shorter but still fell into his eyes. The bushy beard was missing, revealing smooth cheeks and too-kissable lips.
“What about you?” Aiden softly asked, though as soon as the words were out of his mouth, he wondered if he really wanted to know.
Ronan cracked one eye open and the left side of his mouth quirked higher. “What about me?”
“Did you ever…?”
“Find a great love?” Ronan finished.
“Since becoming a vampire,” Aiden quickly added. He wanted the truth. Not an easy opening to butter Aiden up more about the emotions that had been between them at one time. Well, not that Ronan was likely to describe them as a great love.
“No.” Ronan’s tone was flat, and he closed his eye again.
“In all that time?”
“No. Not even close.” Ronan opened his eyes and stared at Aiden for several seconds. “It’s not like I was celibate. I definitely slept my way around Eastern Europe for most of my first two centuries. Slowed down a bit as I got older.”
Aiden snorted, and a ghost of Ronan’s normal grin returned.
“But I wasn’t looking to be with anyone, and I wasn’t trying to avoid it. No one quite captured my interest like that.”
With his arms resting on his bent knees in front of him, Aiden stared at his empty hands. It seemed safer to keep his eyes there when the words started tumbling out. “Julianna Varik had a voice that made me believe in magic. She could charm an angel into tossing aside his halo and woo a devil into giving up his wicked ways. She was intelligent, compassionate, and beautiful. I knew I was lost the first time we spoke.”
“How long ago?” Ronan asked in little more than a whisper, as if he were afraid Aiden would stop talking.
“A little over two hundred years ago in London.”
“Widow?”
Aiden shook his head, smiling to himself. Julianna would have been amused by Ronan’s question. “Opera singer. When we’d met, her paramour had recently set her aside and she had no wish to saddle herself with a new man. She had her four sons and a comfortable income. She treasured her independence.”
“But you won her over.”
“Very, very slowly. It was months before she finally introduced me to her sons.” He lifted his eyes to look at Ronan to see his old friend watching him with a large smile and sadness in his eyes, as if he ached for the pain Aiden had already suffered. “I’d never been so nervous about anything in my life.”
“How could they not love you?”
Aiden snorted. “You’ve seen how protective they are of me. They were just as protective of their mother, even at such a young age. Winter couldn’t have been more than seven or eight at the time. The twins were eleven, and Marcus was a very serious thirteen-year-old.”
“Wow,” Ronan whispered, his eyes wide as he pushed one hand through his sweat-damp hair. “You have known them their entire lives.”
Aiden nodded. “And I fell in love with them that first night. They’ve been my whole existence for so long, the boys and Julianna.”
The silence stretched for several seconds while Aiden waited for the vise around his heart to ease its grip. When Aiden could finally drag in a deep breath, Ronan softly spoke, his words sounding hesitant.