She winced.
He pushed his plate back, “I am using every ounce of control I have to pretend that throwing you on this table and fucking your brains out isn’t all I’m thinking about. Well, not all I’m thinking about but the thing I’m thinking about the most. The other shit in my brain includes Liam, the shit Adrian pulled last night, the fact that Celia is locked down and we’ve got to get her head straight so we can release her, and a pile of other shit.”
He threw his fork down and got up and looked out the window.
“Like your mother coming?”
He shook his head, “You heard me on the phone. I suspected as much. Your smoking wheelhouse brain kept me up half the night.”
“Tell me.”
“Tell you what?”
“About her. About why bringing her here is upsetting to you.”
He shook his head, looking deep in thought.
“When did your mother become a vampire?”
“A year after I was turned.”
“And she’s not a nice one, I take it.”
“Hah. That’s funny. She makes Celia look like Mother Teresa.”
Kyla winced.
“Yeah. I don’t want her anywhere near you. But that’s not likely because she’ll get wind and then you’ll see.”
“Talk to me, Tristan…”
“Kyla, things are fucked. I’m just trying to get through the next few days before I have to face the next set of hurdles, okay? Please. Gimme a fuckin’ break with the questions. Haven’t you had enough enlightenment in the last 24 hours?”
She swallowed hard and felt her heart sink.
“We,” she whispered.
“What?” he snapped.
“We have to face these hurdles. Not just you.”
He thrust his hand through his hair, “We. Yeah, just eat up and get upstairs so you can give me a wide berth and give me some space so I can take care of the problems we have. Okay?”
She dropped her fork and pushed away from the table. She went upstairs to the room she was told she needed to stay in and threw herself on the big sleigh bed. Then she tried to shut down her feelings. She tried real hard to shut down her ability to give a shit. She failed miserably.
A few hours later there was a knock on her door. She got out of the bed, where she’d been reading on the tablet computer, and stood against the door. “Yeah?”
“Miss Kelly? I have your lunch.”
Kyla opened the door cautiously. A server had a covered tray for her.
“Spencer, not Kelly.”
“Apologies, Miss Spencer.”
As it got dark the same woman showed up with another tray for her. Dinner.
Later, she was tossing and turning in bed. She got up to go to the washroom but she heard voices so she peeked over the banister, where she could see that below, Tristan was sitting on the sofa, working on his laptop.
Sam and a blond curly-haired guy, someone whose face she couldn’t see from her vantage point, was sitting with him. They were talking but she couldn’t hear them. Tristan looked agitated. Then she saw Tristan drop his laptop on the table, hard, and then grab the unknown guy and physically throw him across the room. The guy landed on his back on the floor about ten feet away from Tristan and Kyla felt her body tighten.
Tristan’s eyes darted up to her. He pointed at her in and mouthed “go” with a scowl on his face. She ducked back into the bedroom and shut and then re-locked the door.
A few hours later she needed the restroom again so she quietly ducked into the hall and down it into the bathroom. When she came out she heard a woman’s voice.
“I’ll just say Hello and be on my way.”
“Not tonight,” she heard Tristan reply.
“Awe, sweetie… don’t make me wait to meet the love of your life. I want to know that she’s good enough. I won’t rest until I see for myself. Celia said she’s a hellcat.”
“Celia better have nothing to say about her after tonight.”
“Don’t fret, darling. I’ll take care of that.”
“Why didn’t you just deal with it when you were with her?”
“I wanted to speak with you first.”
“Well, it’s getting late. Deal with it, please? I’m ready to go to bed.”
Kyla quietly ducked back into the room. She looked out the window as she heard a door close and saw a woman in a black full-length evening gown with cocktail gloves and a wide brimmed hat walking down the stone walk. She looked straight out of an old black & white movie. Her beauty looked sort of timeless. She didn’t look old enough to be Tristan’s mother. Glamorous. Dark hair. She looked up and right at Kyla and smiled and gave her a little wave. Even from there and even in the dark she could plainly see where Tristan’s eyes came from. Kyla gave a hesitant wave back.
The woman turned on her heel and headed down the path. Kyla backed away from the window and sat on the bed. She heard noise outside her door.