The Ties that Bind (The Forever series, Book Five) Read Online Free Page B

neck before I hear
Constantine say, “If you ask her to marry you, you will have to get in line.”

Chapter 2
    I spin my head around as Lincoln peers over my shoulder.
“What the fuck?” I ask Constantine.
    “I came looking for you. I can’t help it that my ability
brings me exactly to wherever you are, and whoever you are with,” he says,
casually leaning against the door jamb.
    “Do you mind?” Lincoln snaps at him. “This is private.”
    Constantine just looks at him mildly. “I need to talk to
you,” he says to me.
    “I don’t want to talk to you,” I sulk at him.
    “In fact, she asked me to tell you to ‘piss off’ if you came
here looking for her,” Lincoln says boldly, probably due to the fact that I am
still sitting on his lap, firmly in between the two of them.
    “Did she, now?” Constantine asks.
    “How long exactly have you been lurking?” I ask suddenly.
    “A few minutes,” he says with a shrug. “I didn’t want to
interrupt. Seems like you were having a good time.”
    I gape at him. He was here the whole time? The Peeping Tom.
    “Not the whole time,” he says, affronted, apparently
reading my expression-filled face that he finds so endearing. “I am not a
complete pervert.”
    “I think you need to leave,” Lincoln growls at him, not
happy to learn we have been peeped on.
    “I’m not going anywhere without Aefre. This is, after all,
my time. You are the one who is encroaching and should leave,” Constantine corrects.
He pushes off from the door jamb and goes into defensive mode. Oh for fuck’s
sake! Men are so pathetic.
    “This is my hotel suite. I am not going anywhere. And
speaking of encroaching, shouldn’t you be going all Roman Warrior on someone
else’s ass right about now? I, at least, am allowed,” Linc says, using Devon’s
term to piss Constantine off even further.
    “He has been dealt with,” Constantine says shortly. “Aefre.
Can we please speak?”
    Dealt with? How? A tiny slap on the wrist followed by a
friendly fist bump? Okay, not that my sire does fist bumps, but you get the
point.
    “Well, however you dealt with him clearly wasn’t to the
satisfaction of Liv. She was in tears when she came down here before,” Lincoln
says, coming to my defense and wrapping his arms tighter around me,
protectively.
    A flash of pain goes across Constantine’s face at those
words and he again asks, “Aefre. Please, can we go and talk?”
    “Fine,” I say briefly. I look back at Lincoln and breathe in
deeply. “Hold that thought and we will talk more later.” He nods and I give him
a lingering kiss much to his delight and Constantine’s annoyance. I climb off
him and make a show of putting my pajamas back on the old-fashioned way, just
to make him wait a bit longer. “Bye, Linc,” I say before I Astral off back
upstairs, ignoring Constantine’s furious look.
     
    He is a second behind me and I plop myself on the sofa,
waiting. “Well?” I snap when he doesn’t say anything. I know he is keeping his
distance for a variety of reasons, but one of them is obviously that I am
covered in Lincoln’s scent and that has his knickers in a twist–and even more
so because Lincoln is a Shifter. Under normal circumstances, I would have had
this discussion after a shower, but I am so pissed off with him right now, I
sit basking in his discomfort and anger.
    “Would you prefer to shower first?” he asks bluntly.
    “No,” I say, just as bluntly.
    “Fine,” he says and clears his throat. “I know how angry you
are with me. I want to explain.”
    Angry doesn’t quite cover it, but go on.
    He blinks as I say nothing and continues. “I will start with
I didn’t let him walk off into the sunset, as you put it. He has suffered,
trust me,” he says quietly.
    I gulp at that and wonder how, but have the good sense not
to ask. The silence starts to grow uncomfortably as we both just sit there not
looking at each other.
    “Constantine,” I say, getting a bit sick of the