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“You’ll get it back.” She said she didn’t want it if she had to be with someone who bites her all the time. “He will love you forever, Lady Katlynne.”

“I don’t want that kind of love. The kind that I’ve been set up for.” She pulled her sweater off and put on her coat. The weather had turned chilly out, and she didn’t want to catch her death and— “What makes you think that we’ll even like each other? Nothing in those books I’ve read says anything about loving each other forever. Well, they did, but who wants to live forever? I certainly don’t.”

“He will care for you.” She huffed at Mr. Gloom. “He’ll love you like none other in either of your lives. A forever kind of love that stories are written about in those books.”

“How many have you read of those kinds of books?” He said that he’d read them after his lady wife had read them. Thinking about him having to hold a normal-sized book up to read had her laughing. The man wasn’t at all very tall and— “You said you were a faerie. Can you show me how…show me your wings? I’d believe you more if you were to show me what you look like as a faerie.”

He snapped his fingers and disappeared. When she got up to find him, she put out her hand, and he landed in the middle of it. Sitting down, afraid of passing out, she stared at him while he sat down on her palm. Looking at him, she could only stare; her mind was blank.

“I’m very small for a faerie. My wings are beautiful, don’t you think?” Katie nodded and then shook her head. “You don’t think that I’m beautiful? My lady wife is something else. Her blooms were yellow when she was just a hatchling. So she’s all yellow and green. I’m a mixture of the flowers in my garden. I so love color.”

“Why are you Gloom?” He said that he got to pick his own name and had thought he was going to be called Bloom. But it was already taken. So he ended up with Gloom. “You’re not at all gloomy. And I can tell you love bright colors. Your suits have been a lot of fun for me when I see you.”

His wings fluttered a great deal. So much so that he lifted from her hand several inches. She hadn’t thought of him as being able to fly, but she supposed that was right too. He did have wings after all. When he settled back down, she realized how late it was getting and had to finish getting dressed. Putting him on the table, she went to her room and stood with her head against the wall. There was a faerie in her house, and she was going to meet a vampire. Pulling out the first thing that she touched, Katie realized that she was dressed already and decided that she needed to get her head on straight. Things were crazy right now, but it wouldn’t do her any good to get upset and have a car accident on the way to meet the man of her dreams. She wasn’t sure what else to call him, but she wasn’t going to go easy. He wasn’t going to be biting her and getting away with it either.

She didn’t know what to think when she got to the office. Her plan was to just act cool and see what Mr. Smith did. She wasn’t going to be made a fool of if he wasn’t a vampire, and she also didn’t want to make herself look foolish when she wanted details from him about what his plans were for her. She straightened up her back and sat down in the office’s only chair that wasn’t occupied.

“Gloom said you’re a vampire.” So much for playing it cool. “I’m sorry, but I don’t believe him.”

“I’m a vampire.” She nodded and asked him to show her his fangs. “All right. By the way, my name is Rutger Smith. You must be Katlynne Richardson. I’ve heard about how you were the only heir of the estate of your parents.”

He opened his mouth wide, and she could see his fangs. As they lengthened, Katie felt herself get a little dizzy. If not for the man that had just proven everything in her life to be a lie, she might well have fallen off the chair. He helped her to sit up and then put his face in her neck. Every part of her body seemed to have woken up.

“I was right. You’re my mate.” When he sat back down, she tried to look at anything but him. Christ, he was handsome and beautiful. Even him being dressed in jeans and a sweatshirt had her drooling. Looking up at him when he laughed, she asked him what was so funny. “I’ve been dreaming of you my entire life. Wanting a mate to see me through my golden years. And here you are. A human too.”

“I’m proud to be a human.” He laughed then, and she wanted to smack him. “I don’t know why you’re laughing at me. I’ve had a rough few weeks lately, and I’m not in the mood to be made fun of either.”

“I meant you no harm.” He put out his hand and a small female faerie appeared. “This is Doris. She’s my faerie. Gloom, a naughty faerie if I’ve ever heard of one, is yours. They’ll be able to answer any questions that you might have about me and what I am to you.”

“Is you buying the house real?” He said he hoped so; if not, he’d just paid a great deal of money for nothing. “I didn’t make you pay that much. I was going to be happy with the two million that was the asking price.”

“Why did you go so low on the house price?” She said that Debbie told her that it was too large and people wouldn’t want to pay that much for it. “I did. And I’d do it again for the place. It’s perfect. And I hope that once we get to know one another that you will live there with me. And swim in the pool.”

“I loved the pool.” He said he’d been told that. “I never got to know much about the house. My father and mother passed away before we could live in it together. I don’t know what my dad’s plans were, but he put the house in my mother’s name, and Gloom said that it had been easy for him to change it to my name.”

“It more than likely was for them. They have people in all kinds of offices that can change a record here and there. They’ve been known to put in marriage licenses too when necessary.” She said she wasn’t ready to be married to him just yet. “At least you’re not saying no right away. I’d like to get to know you better, and I was thinking that the best way was for you to live in the house with me. Not sharing a bed, but sharing the house. We can get to know it better that way.”

“You’re going very fast.” He said that it was in his nature to move things along quickly. He meant her no harm. “Will you? Harm me, I mean?”

“Never. I will make it my life’s work to make sure you’re as safe as you can be and that when the time comes that we’re a couple, we do it slowly so that you’re comfortable with it.” She looked around the office. He took the opportunity to look at her and was pleased at her beauty. “You’re very beautiful, aren’t you? I love your hair and the silkiness of it. You must be very healthy.”

“I’m sure that I don’t know if I’m all that healthy. My parents both died of the same disease. Cancer. I’ve been afraid every time I go to the doctor that he’s going to tell me that I have it too.” He told her that she didn’t have it now because they were mates. “Just like that, you know that I’m well?”

“Anything you might have had before is gone now because we’re mates. You’ll heal faster too and never be ill again.” She told him that was hard to believe. “Yes, I would imagine that it is. You’re not familiar with my kind of power.”

“Do you have a lot of power?” He said that he was ancient and held powers that he didn’t even know about now. “Because of me.”

“Yes. Because of you.” He sat back in the chair and regarded her. “You’ll also be able to change your clothing at will. It will save you a lot of time when getting ready if you know what you want to wear.”

They talked for an hour. He answered all her questions as best he could without overwhelming her, and she asked him questions as they popped into her head. There was no rhyme or reason to her questions; she just asked them of him when she thought of them. For which she was grateful. He was a delight, and she couldn’t wait to get to know him better.

Chapter 2

Katie didn’t know what to think when she met the others of his kiss. She was learning all kinds of things about being with a vampire. She still didn’t trust that he was what he said he was, but she was willing to meet him halfway. She couldn’t believe how smart he was, and he told her that was because he’d been around for so long that he’d been just about everything there was in the employment world. She’d only been one thing, and it was her job.

“You’ve no reason to work unless you wish. I have a great deal of money that will serve us for the rest of our lives should you wish not to work.” She said that she loved the outdoors and wanted to work just for that reason. “I don’t blame you there. I love the outdoors as well. I was never so happy when I got old enough to not have to rest during the day. I dearly love to watch the sun come up and then set again in the sky.”

“I get to do that as well.” They’d gone to get some dinner together. She was leery when he’d asked her if she wanted to dine with him. Her thinking was that she was going to be on the menu and he the one eating. However, he took her to a nice place, and they had a lovely dinner. While he had a very rare steak, she had a grilled salmon that tasted like heaven to her. “Do you eat all the time? Food, I mean?”