Love's Liability Read online

  Jayme and Seth left when we wrapped up, Henrik excusing himself as well as if knowing I wanted to speak with Mark privately.

  “You’re involved with Bricius, right?” I asked casually as I mopped up Ethan, having come to a decision about how to handle a few things.

  “Yes, why?” he asked carefully. “Did you need him for something?”

  “No, just… You’ve met his friends, right?” I asked, clearing my throat as I kept busy by stacking plates and cleaning up.

  “I have.”

  “They’re good guys?” I pushed.

  He sighed. “Yes, but they’re not like us. They grew up so long ago that it’s smart not to expect them to ever act like you are used to people behaving.”

  I nodded, that was fair. “Any one of them that stands out as the nicest?” I saw him looking across the cafeteria and followed his gaze to a table of very large men. “Is that them?”

  “Yes, and I have a feeling if I ask what you’re up to, you won’t tell me. If you need help, any of them would, but so would I.” He sighed when I didn’t take the bait and kept my mouth shut. “I know Danek best, and he’s a good guy. Odd, they’re all odd, but he’s the most normal, and Bricius trusts him the most.”

  “Got it, thanks.” I smiled at the twins. “Why don’t you guys ask everything you want to know about being a prince for a few minutes while Dad drops off our tray?”

  “Uh-huh, I’ll watch them,” Mark muttered, giving me a suspicious look. “Danek’s on the end with the long, raven hair.”

  “Thanks.” I stood with the tray, the twins already blurting out questions now that I’d let them know they didn’t have to behave anymore. I set the tray on the belt and took a deep breath before heading to that table. They went quiet as I stopped by them, the desire to squirm strong as the oldest vampires in the world stared at me with their orange eyes. “Um, sorry to interrupt.”

  “No problem, I heard my name,” Danek muttered, studying me closely. “Is there something you need?”

  I wasn’t sure how to start, so I decided to sidestep that question for the moment. “Do you like sweets? I’m a chocolatier and confectioner. Do you have sweet teeth?”

  He smirked behind his coffee mug before taking a sip. “All of my teeth are sweet. Why do you ask?”

  There really was no way to ask what I was going to, so I ended up just blurting it without any finesse. “I was hoping if I made your teeth and stomach happy, you might pretend to be my boyfriend?”

  His eyes flashed shock as a few of his friends snickered. I felt his gaze as it ran over me like a caress. “Does it have to be pretend?” He smirked when I didn’t hide my shock. “I adore spending time with sexy men, and you are as delicious as I bet your chocolates are.”

  I felt my cheeks flush. “Um, I appreciate that, but I have young kids.”

  “I know. I like kids. I’m not sure I will ever have any, but I like them, and the twins are cute.” His smirk grew into a grin. “Yes, I was already checking you out.”

  “Why would you need a pretend boyfriend?” one of the other guys asked. “Is someone bothering you?”

  I opened my mouth but then closed it, huffing. “One of you can tell if someone fibs, right? I couldn’t be that lucky and dodge this.”

  “No fibbing,” Danek confirmed. “Is someone messing with you?”

  “No, well, no,” I sighed, scrubbing my hands over my messy curls. “He is now sort of, but no, he hasn’t done anything wrong really. I would like to avoid it getting to that or a situation. That’s about as much as I can say without lying or going into more than I’m comfortable—”

  “We don’t lie, Dad,” Evan said as he crashed into my legs. Seconds later Ethan did the same. I blinked at them and then over my shoulder to see Mark hurrying over.

  “Really? A whole three minutes for you to lose them?”

  He sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. “They did it on purpose. One distracted me while the other took off, and then when I looked for him, the other bailed. They are only three, right? I’ve never met toddlers that fast or that coordinated.”

  “It’s a twin thing,” I muttered, knowing my sister and I had worked together quite well already at that age if it was something we wanted. I glanced down at the twins. “What do you say to Mark for worrying him?”

  “Sorry,” they said together, giving us guilty looks. Ethan went a bit further. “He was playing with his phone too.”

  Several people chuckled at him snitching, and I couldn’t even figure out what to say. Mark apologized and didn’t deny it, promising to bring the booze by later before walking off muttering that toddlers won the day.

  Okay, that was funny.

  My amusement was short lived as I saw Linden heading our way. I shot Danek a hopeful look, and he seemed to realize I needed an answer now.

  “Exercises, Dad,” Evan announced, feeling the tension as he always did.

  “Right now?” I challenged, both of them knowing we wouldn’t do them right after breakfast and with so many people around. “Or do we wait a while?”

  He glanced all around, unsure of what to do, so he just buried his face against my leg and shook his head, which didn’t really tell me either way what he was thinking.

  “I thought you didn’t want to overwhelm them with strangers?” Linden asked from just behind me, moving closer but slightly to my right so he could see the table.

  “We’re dating,” Danek answered for me, giving Linden a look to tread carefully.

  He ignored the older ancient. “You’re dating him?” His voice didn’t hide his disbelief, but there was something more. I didn’t understand what until I turned enough to see both of them.

  Then I caught on.

  I bit back a grin. “Did you really think I was still a vir—never dated because I said I wanted to be your bride when I was a boy?” I nodded down at the twins as if reminding him that I couldn’t be a virgin with them, my emphasis on “dated” making it clear I meant sex.

  He raised an eyebrow at me. “You make it sound like you only said it when you were their age, but I clearly remember you saying you were mine when I saw you last and you were visiting your sister. You weren’t a boy then.”

  “That’s debatable,” I muttered. That had been just before our transition, and even humans treated people who were mid-twenties like kids most days. I smirked at him. “Sorry if you thought I was waiting for you, but I’ve dated. I’ve dated a lot. I love dating. I’ve dated all over the place—outside, inside, this country, other countries, during training, once on my own, and everywhere in between.”

  “Dad, I want dates too,” Ethan declared loudly.

  I swallowed a flinch, knowing he meant a play date instead of what I was talking about. I smiled down at him. “You have lots of play dates, and we have dates all the time. You can’t have adult dates until you’re eighteen, but we’ll go on that snow date soon.”

  “I didn’t catch their names,” Linden muttered, his jaw twitching as I kept pushing his buttons.

  “Green!” Evan said.

  “Pink!” Ethan added.

  “Yup, those are your names this week,” I chuckled, smirking at Linden even if I shouldn’t have pushed.

  He leaned in closer, flinching when Danek cleared his throat but not backing away. “I have not done anything to deserve how you’re acting, and it’s worrying me. Forgive me for caring enough to worry, but I made you a promise when you were a boy that I would always be in your corner, and I meant that promise always.”

  I swallowed loudly, remembering that day and how sweet he’d been to me. I’d fallen so deeply in love with him before I’d even known what it was, too young to understand. “You’re right, you haven’t done anything.” His family had, and I couldn’t risk he was just like them. “However, I’m not a stupid kid anymore who misses what’s going on around them.”

  He flinched, studying me closely. “You have a problem with my family.” He didn’t ask, and I didn’t answer or comment, n
ot cracking when he frowned at me. “I’m not them.”

  “No, but you keep acting like you know me, and you don’t anymore,” I threw right back. “Plus, I’m allowed to say that I don’t want to have contact with someone, Linden. You might have done nothing, but I don’t know you anymore, and you remind me too much of the past I’ve moved on from, want not to go back to.”

  He swallowed loudly, pain in his eyes for some reason. “You’re right, you do, and normally I would absolutely respect that, but something else is going on here, Zeke.” He shook his head when I opened my mouth to argue. “You were always a shit liar, and growing up hasn’t changed that.”

  “Dad doesn’t lie,” Evan defended, making me feel a bit guilty since I was by dodging as much as I could. He pulled away from me and went over to Danek, holding out his hands until the vampire picked him up. “We have to make taffy and unpack.”

  “Even the toddler is reading the situation better than you are,” Danek chastised Linden. “Now if you’ll excuse us, we’re heading out to help Zeke unload and get things set up.”

  “That’s why I was coming over too,” Linden replied, glancing between us. “I heard Gaius and Falcon talking that they wanted to help in case you paid in candy, and I offered to join them.”

  “There’s enough to do since supplies were coming too,” I chuckled as I picked up Ethan and balanced him on my hip. “What flavors of taffy? You wanted cotton candy, right?”

  “Or strawberry,” Ethan reminded me.

  “Pick one. We need a green one too, and Dad’s working on some new projects too.”

  “The meeting with Mark,” Danek surmised. “You’re making booze candy?”

  “I said I’d play with what he gave me, but I have a lot of products already and a ton of Easter orders and no employees anymore, so I’m hoping that not having to play human will help balance that some.” I looked at Evan. “What green flavor do you want, buddy?”

  “Mint,” he said after a moment. “Mint chocolate.”

  The others started getting up, Danek easily moving Evan to his hip like I had Ethan. He smoothly took the bag for the toddlers from me and slipped it on his shoulder as if we’d done this many, many times. I was ridiculously grateful when Linden looked as if he might be buying it as we headed out.

  “What other options could we have, guys?” I asked, wanting to distract them and myself a tad as my heart still beat too fast. It gradually slowed when Linden left us, but I had a feeling he’d be back and soon since he’d said he was helping to unload.

  “Kiwi,” Evan blurted. “Spinach.”

  “Spinach taffy?” one of the other ancients chuckled. “Yuck.”

  “Doesn’t mean we’ll make them,” I promised. “Apples?”

  “Yeah, apples,” Evan agreed.

  “Me too,” Ethan added. “Apples are pink too.”

  “They are, good one,” I praised. “What else?”

  “Broccoli,” one of the ancients offered, shrugging when I shot him a look. “It’s a fun game, and I like kids.”

  The rest of the walk back was hilarious as everyone played, the twins thrilled others wanted to play the game they loved even if they named some stuff they didn’t know. I had to tell them to remember which ones the twins didn’t know because they had to show them what it was later.

  “You’re really a good dad,” Danek praised as we passed the gate and the guards waved at us.

  “Thanks, it’s been a learning curve,” I admitted. “The moment I learned they were on the way, I started listening to every audiobook on parenting I could find. I listen to lots of different everything while working, I always have, but it helped me a lot to come up with ideas and plans to figure out what the heck I was going to do.”

  “So they were a surprise,” he chuckled.

  I nodded. “The greatest surprise ever but yes.”

  He lowered his voice as he leaned in. “But you’re hiding them. That’s why you have them change to silly names every week.”

  I swallowed loudly, my lack of answer saying it all. I was grateful he didn’t push at least. An ATV pulled up next to us, and as much as they made me nervous, it was still seriously cold, and I didn’t want the twins out in it too much. Danek and I sat with them for the short ride to Proximo’s where there was already a group waiting to help.

  “Wow, awesome,” I whispered, grateful since the move had been harder on us than I’d planned.

  “Dad, exercises,” Ethan reminded me. Really he just wanted an audience, and with how good they were being and how I needed them to stay out of the way for a while, I caved.

  “Okay, exercises,” I agreed as I set him on his feet, thanking the ATV driver. Evan squealed, ready to go as well. Danek set him on his feet, and he went by his twin. “First we stretch to help digestion.” I moved my right arm overhead and stretched to the left, watching the twins to make sure they did it too. Then we switched sides, both of them smiling widely.

  We went through our whole normal array of twists and stretches and touching our toes and everything, amusing the gathered group and the twins beaming as they did it right. Then I started calling out animals that meant different exercises. For bunnies they did some hops. Chickens they flapped their arms for wings. Sharks they used their arms like big mouths and pretended to chomp on each other.

  “I’m dying. This is so adorable I’m actually dying,” one of Falcon’s friends said behind me.

  When we finished, I let out a huge burp. “Digestion complete.”

  “I farted!” Ethan announced.

  “Did you really?” I chuckled, laughing when he shook his head, both of them giving fake burps. I clapped my hands. “Time to get to work then. Who wants to be on water duty so our helpers stay hydrated?” They both raised their hands and waved them. “Okay, let’s go get some bottles of water from the kitchen, and we’ll find a place for you to station at out of the way so no one trips.”

  A few minutes later I had the twins situated and the layout I’d drawn for where everything went. The deal I’d made with Proximo was we not only had a master suite in the other wing of his mansion, but his eight-car garage was mine for my temp shop or going forward and he’d use the second three-car garage since he wasn’t a car guy.

  The man knew how to sweeten a deal and get what he wanted for sure.

  “Hey, are you going to make bunny treats for Easter?” Gary’s partner, Lynx, asked me. I was pretty sure they were mated, but I couldn’t honestly keep up with all of the couples, and I barely knew anyone so far.

  “You mean like the marshmallows?” I asked, shaking my head when he nodded. “No, I can make the chicks easily, but bunnies are a different machine I don’t have. I make chocolate bunnies of all types in my candy bar flavors, but that’s it.”

  “How big are these bunnies?” Gary wondered, his tone excited.

  I chuckled. “I’ll show you when we get to the box with the molds.”

  He narrowed his eyes at me. “So I only get to see after I help you.”

  “Yes, I thought that was clear,” I teased, several people laughing. I smiled, enjoying the energy of the group even if it was fucking freezing and a lot of work ahead of us.

  3

  I realized Danek was standing next to me and showed him what I’d drawn out. “Do you want to be boss? I don’t think the shortest guy gets to be in charge of anything.”

  His lips twitched as he took it. “Yeah, I’ll be crew chief. I expect something sweet later, and I don’t mean candy.”

  I felt my cheeks heat as he walked off as if he’d not gone for a hard flirt when I’d not been ready. Damn, here I’d gone looking for help to keep my life simpler, and I was pretty sure I’d walked right into the trap of a proficient hunter.

  I was having a hard time complaining given the hunter was hawt.

  Everyone got to work, and it was next to no time before half of my machines were already in the garage, out of the crates, and ready for me to check. Wow.

  “I didn’t th
ink of heat fans,” I worried as I glanced around the huge work area.

  “Proximo asked for adjustments when you agreed to come and work here,” Gary told me as he walked past pushing a huge crate on a dolly. “There’s central heat and air. Mom told him there was no way you could make awesome treats without air conditioning in summer.”

  “She’s not wrong,” I agreed, relieved. It was short lived though when I saw Linden talking to the twins. I darted over there, hoping to be subtle but clearly missing the mark by the smirk he shot me.

  “So it is them. You don’t want me near them, and I cannot fathom why?”

  “You do have a tendency to agree when young children ask to marry you,” I threw out, wincing when he flinched like I’d slapped him. “I was kidding.”

  “Right, yeah, but people don’t know me here, Zeke. I’ve barely been here and…” He shook his head as he moved back. “I don’t get what’s going on, but could you not shit on me? I have nowhere to go back to if this place rejects me, and I’ve not done anything to you.”

  I opened my mouth but then closed it, completely confused as to what he was talking about. I really didn’t because he was his parents’ golden child, the overachieving youngest and the person they bragged about most.

  “I don’t know all of it, but I do know he made a deal with Seneca for help to get out from under his family’s thumb,” Falcon told me quietly as he moved up next to me, accepting the water the twins offered. “He’s been searching for vamps that were on their own or like the twins who work with Jayme that didn’t know they were vamps.”

  “He wanted away from his family?” I whispered, my heart full of hope that he was the opposite of them and a good person like I’d once believed.

  Falcon nodded. “I don’t know why or the full thing. I just know he’s quiet, comes in for a day here and there, and goes back out to search for more. The deal is for six months, but Tadzio got a bit burnt out with all the flying, so they’re taking a break. But he’s stuck here. He took the leap to get away, and apparently every bridge to his family was burned at what they said was his betrayal.”