Just thinking about how quickly he was able to bring me close to the edge of release had me rubbing my thighs together. The movement must’ve woken Athan because his eyes popped open and his hand snapped out to cup the back of my head. His bright blue orbs held no hint of confusion. He’d gone from sound asleep to fully alert in a millisecond. “Good morning, love.”
“Morning,” I echoed softly, my cheeks filling with heat over being caught staring at him while he slept. After he’d touched and tasted every inch of my body—and even spanked my butt until my cheeks were rosy—it seemed a little silly for me to be embarrassed.
Athan pulled me closer, and I was expecting a kiss when he jerked back and hissed, “What the fuck?”
I didn’t understand what had angered him and only grew more confused when he rolled off me before disappearing into thin air. I sat up, frantically scanning the room before he stormed out of the closet wearing a black T-shirt and pajama bottoms. He tossed a white, button-down shirt and pair of navy sweatpants at me. “Get dressed, love. My brother is here.”
“How in the world did you know?” I muttered as I scrambled off the mattress to put on the clothes he’d gotten for me.
“We can speak telepathically with each other.” He said it so matter-of-factly that I didn’t react until he added, “Once we’re fully bonded, you and I will be able to do it, too.”
“Holy crap,” I breathed, my eyes going wide. “How cool.”
I was wondering what else would change for me—and what all fully bonding with Athan entailed if last night hadn’t done it—when he flung the bedroom door open. When Athan said his brother was here, I’d thought he was downstairs. But nope, Kieran was standing right on the other side of the door.
He handed Athan my purse, which I hadn’t thought about since I’d left it on the bed in the guest room one of his staff had shown me to when I’d arrived for the party. “Her blasted cell phone has been going off virtually nonstop since late last night. I held off on coming over as long as I could so you’d have time together, but I couldn’t handle it anymore.”
“Oh, no.” I slapped my forehead and groaned. “I’m so sorry. I should have known my parents would blow up my phone when I didn’t check in with them last night. When I spoke with them earlier in the evening, I had promised to call after the party but then completely forgot.”
“It’s fine.” Kieran waved off my concern and smiled. “A little irritation is a small price to pay for Athan finally finding his destined consort. Plus, my Thana is thrilled to know she’ll have her childhood friend close.”
With Kieran saying their names so close together, the coincidence finally hit me. “Oh, my gosh! Athan and Thana’s names are an anagram.”
Both men looked poleaxed, their bright blue eyes widening before they burst into deep laughter. “Damn, it’s been a year since I found Thana. I can’t believe I didn’t notice that in all this time.”
Athan laughed harder as he moved to my side and wrapped his arm around my shoulders. “What can I say? My consort is as smart as she is beautiful.”
His compliment had me feeling all gooey inside, but those emotions quickly turned to irritation when my phone started going off again inside my purse. “And on that note, I’ll leave you two to take care of Selene’s parents.” His gaze slid to his brother. “Good luck with them. You’ll need it,” he warned before going poof.
I cringed, knowing how right Kieran was. My parents could be more than a handful when it came to me. Which was proven correct when I pulled my phone out of my purse and found more than fifty missed calls and text messages since last night. “You have to be freaking kidding me.”
Athan tugged my phone out of my clenched grip and cursed when he saw the long list of notifications. Then he scrolled to the bottom and uttered another profanity before running his fingers through his hair. “Your parents chartered a plane at the ass crack of dawn this morning when they couldn’t reach you. They’ll be here in less than fifteen minutes.”
“Here?” I pointed at the floor. “As in your house?”
“Our house,” he corrected automatically.
“Here?”
“Yup, they included my address in their last message and said you’d better still be here when they arrived,” he confirmed with a terse nod.
I looked down at the clothes I had just thrown on and started to freak out even more. “How do they even know where I’m at?”
“That’s an excellent question.” He tapped at my phone’s screen and sighed. “Your location is shared with them, so they can track you wherever you go.”
“What?” I screeched, yanking the phone out of his hand to stare at it. “I did not set that up. They must have tweaked the settings before giving it to me. It was a freaking gift...that they could use to check in on me wherever I went.”
Athan pulled me close and stroked his hands down my back in a soothing gesture. He pressed a kiss to the top of my head and murmured, “We don’t have time to worry about how your location got shared with them. Right now, we need to focus on finding you something more appropriate to wear and getting downstairs before they arrive.”
“Crap, you’re right,” I groaned, giving him a tight squeeze before stepping away. “All my stuff is in my room at the hotel where I spent last night.”
Athan flashed me a cocky grin. “Lucky for us, I can teleport there and back in the blink of an eye.”
“Your abilities are definitely going to come in handy.” I heaved a sigh of relief before giving him the details for my hotel. As soon as he disappeared, I raced into the bathroom to freshen up. By the time my parents arrived less than fifteen minutes later, we were dressed and drinking coffee in the formal living room. I’d recommended we wait for them there since my parents would appreciate the grandeur of the antique furnishings. It wasn’t really my style, but Athan had assured me that I could change anything I didn’t like in the house since it was mine too.
We were seated next to each other on a Victorian sofa when a maid showed them into the room. Nervous butterflies swarmed in my belly. I had never had a boyfriend to introduce to my parents, so this was all new to me. The situation was bound to be awkward under normal circumstances, which these were definitely not. Not when my parents had chartered a plane to hunt me down because they hadn’t heard from me in a measly twelve hours, and the man I was going to introduce to them was a freaking vampire.
“There you are,” my mom sighed, shaking her head. “I was beginning to think that we’d never find you.”
I stood and stepped closer to give her a hug. “I’m sorry. I meant to call you last night, but time got away from me.”
“I was frantic when we couldn’t reach you,” she cried, her arms tightening around me before I pulled away.
Athan moved silently, but I was still acutely aware of him as he came up behind me. His presence gave me comfort as I geared myself up for my parents' reaction to the news that I’d found someone and wasn’t planning to go back home with them.
“Why didn’t you answer any of our calls?” My dad’s gaze bounced back and forth between us. “Did something happen?”