“Hey-a, William. Welcome back!” Patrick hollered across the room, though he was less than five paces from the four sets of Immortal ears that could have heard him a mile away at that volume. “Didn’t you just leave?”
Patrick smiled one that was the devil incarnate at me. I sneered back. This had been a typical transaction between Patrick and me this summer and a large reason why I’d become such an adept and capable student: the sooner I learned how to kick his butt, the sooner I could actually do it.
“Go away, Patrick,” I snapped, but it was half-hearted in delivery at best. It was impossible to be irritated by anything with William’s and my reunion just minutes fresh.
His smile grew and the tease in his eyes was so extreme it was spilling from them. “You don’t think you’re going to skip out of training today just because my brother . . . whom you’ve mistaken for god,” Patrick said, raising an eyebrow, “is home now, do you?”
“Actually I do and I’ve got something else to add,” I said in my no-room-for-negotiation tone. “No training any day William’s home.”
Patrick huffed, crossing his arms. “The Council will love that. I’m sure I’ll have no problem whatsoever getting that approved. This is how I’ll put it before them—my student, Bryn Dawson, you know, the rebellious, chip on her shoulder newbie, requests that she not have to undergo any kind of training when my brother, William Hayward, is in town, so they can do a handful of filthy little things they’re admonished from doing by a law that was laid down by the ancients of our kind. Could you just sign off on that right here?” Patrick air-clicked an imaginary pen, smirking at my scowl.
“Actually, why don’t you spend the afternoon with Patrick,” William said, fastening his hands over my h*ps and hoisting me up with him. “I’ve got a meeting with the Council this afternoon, so I’ll be gone until later this evening.”
My face was already in full pout mode when I turned to him. “You’re leaving? You’ve been here a whole three and a half minutes,” I whined. He’d been gone a whole month and the Council couldn’t give us an hour to catch up before stealing him away for some silly meeting that was scheduled to keep us apart (or at least that’s what the paranoid piece of me thought).
He ran his fingers down the side of my cheek. “I’ll be back soon,” he reassured me. “Once you’re done showing Patrick a thing or two. I’ve got big plans for tonight.”
My heart flat-lined before charging back to life. “What kind of big plans?”
William’s eyes left me and created a triangle between the three Haywards. “If you’ll excuse us, I need to talk to Bryn for a moment alone.”
“Of course,” Cora said, already clearing out of the living room, grabbing the sleeve of Joseph and pulling him with her.
She cleared her throat once they were in the hall. “Patrick?”
“I’m coming, bossy,” he yelled at her as he approached us.
William stepped around me and crushed his arms around him. “Thank you, Patrick. Thank you for taking care of her.”
Patrick slapped William’s back a couple of times. “Not a problem,” he said, turning to me and winking. “I think I get what you see in her.”
I smiled, but had to counter it by rolling my eyes.
“I’ll let you say your . . .”—Patrick cleared his throat—“goodbyes.” He nudged his brother and swerved towards the hall. “I’ll be in the kitchen whenever you’re ready, Bryn,” he hollered back needlessly. If he wasn’t in the Maserati or exchanging spars and sweeps with me in the training arena, he was in the kitchen. He would have slept in the kitchen if a bed would have fit in Charles’.
William wrapped his hand around mine and pulled me to the front door, holding the screen open for me to pass through.
“Have any plans this evening?” he asked, settling a piece of my hair behind my ear.
“I had so many,” I replied, trying to keep a straight face. “I suppose I could cancel and reschedule if you had something else to persuade me with.”
His eyes were so pale in the early morning light they glowed as he leaned his face down to mine. The pale blue all Immortals are reborn with, until a sapphire color takes its place once a couple is United . . . in more than one way. “I think I have an evening planned that promises persuade-ability,” he whispered, his breath fanning over my face.
I understood why he’d excused us from his family; he had a special night planned for just the two of us, something the Immortal world didn’t allow since we didn’t technically belong to one another in their eyes. Not that the three family members back in the kitchen cared if we spent as much time together as possible, but William and I were emphatic that we would not jeopardize them. Their faithfulness to us would not be returned with discipline from the Council if they discovered Patrick, Joseph or Cora knew about out private meetings.
Deniability—that’s what William and I called it and next to our commitment to each other, it was a top priority. That’s why every night William was home, he would sneak out my bedroom window before Joseph or Cora roused for the morning and that’s why we planned our secret meetings with no one else around.
“I’ll come back for you later tonight once I’m done with the Council,” he said, dropping his mouth to mine. His lips barely grazed mine before they retreated, but it had been enough.