you were told? Surely, you remember that. You have a perfect memory.”
“It’s irrelevant,” he growled. “Just bullshit that we’re not going to bother ourselves with.”
“So you do know.” It wasn’t a question. He knew and refused to tell me. Usually, I’d let it go, not wanting him to relive any pain or guilt from his previous life, but unlike his other memories, it seemed as though this one had to do with us, not only him.
He jumped to his feet. “Furniture’s here.”
I heard the truck about a mile down the road.
“You said anything for me,” I pushed.
“Not this! It’s not worth it, Alexis. Trust me.”
He strode toward the door, and I sprang up. “You can’t keep secrets from me, Tristan!”
He turned on me, his face hard. “You’d really invade my private thoughts?”
“No! I meant we’re married, that we’re in this together. We can’t survive with secrets. We need to trust each other.”
His face softened, and he wrapped his arms around me.
“I’m sorry.” He kissed the top of my head. “But I do have secrets, my love, things you really don’t want to know.”
“If they have to do with us, with our daughter, then I do want to know. Anything that might help.”
He sighed. “It won’t help, ma lykita. It’ll only make things worse. Please trust me on this.”
The doorbell rang, and I had to let it go. For today, anyway, because the rest of the day was full of furniture deliveries and cable installers, then Tristan setting up the television and Internet service. And, finally alone with only Dorian sleeping soundly in the other room, we were able to make love. Another reason for choosing to live away from the colony was that I didn’t have to worry about anyone hearing us—with their sharp ears or minds. Only norms surrounded us, so if my thoughts reached out farther than our property, they’d only think they were having good dreams. We couldn’t get too crazy—the sounds of our bedroom being destroyed would wake Dorian—but we still broke our new bed. Owen would have to fix it, and I had to brace myself for the embarrassment . . . but it was worth it.
“Hey, Mom,” Dorian said sleepily the next morning, snuggling between Tristan and me on the floor, Sasha under his arm. “What happened to your bed?”
Um . . .
“Mom was jumping on the bed and got out of control,” Tristan answered with a grin.
I bit my lip to keep from laughing . . . because it was very near the truth.
Blossom came over nearly every day with another to-die-for cake. She usually dropped the cake off and chatted for a few minutes, but once the following week, with the guys out on the beach, she stayed, and we had some girl time. It was strange for me. Besides Mom, I hadn’t hung out with a female since I was ten years old.
“You’re going to make me fat,” I mumbled through a mouthful of strawberries and icing.
“You can’t get fat,” she said matter-of-factly. I gave her a questioning look. “When you sleep, your cells regenerate, and your body goes back to exactly the way it was after the Ang’dora.”
“Uh, yeah, right. Is that common knowledge, though? I mean, around the Amadis?”
She gave me a sheepish grin. “Not exactly. When I found out an actual Amadis daughter had moved in, I did some research, you know, to find out exactly what you are. You’re really kind of badass—vampire, shifter, mage, and Angel all rolled into one. Of course, you could eat an entire cake every day and not gain an ounce, so that makes me want to hate you. But . . . well, I can’t. You’re too cool.”
I stared at her in disbelief. She researched me? Well, then, that gave me permission to research her . . . even if it wasn’t exactly the same method. Within a minute of listening to Blossom’s thoughts while she talked, though, I felt ashamed, yet fascinated. I’d never heard a mind work so fast.
“I’m so freaked out, this investigation will be the death of me, but I just hope Eduardo doesn’t get dragged into it—the image of a man with dark hair and eyes showed in her mind—he’s so great and hot and even though it was his idea, asking me if there was a spell to make tits larger, I was the one stupid enough to see if I could create one and it’s a good thing I used myself as the guinea