Though he had spent much of the past year in New York and Los Angeles settling legal matters with Ben and preparing to reenter Beatrice’s life, he had spent the four years previous flying across Europe, Asia, Africa, and South America, rebuilding old alliances and searching unsuccessfully for her father.
“I didn’t know my grandmother and Caspar went to New York!”
He nodded. “They came in August when I…” When he had flown down to Cochamó, unable to resist seeing her. The farther he had pushed her to the back of his mind in their years apart, the more he had been able to successfully concentrate on preparing himself for the conflict he knew was coming.
But as the prospect of seeing her neared, he became almost desperate. Though Isabel had verbally lashed him, he hadn’t been able to resist lurking around the house to try to catch a glimpse of her or a hint of her scent.
As soon as he mentioned August, her eyes hardened, Giovanni knew she realized what he was talking about. Luckily, Ben was still chattering, so she wasn’t allowed to shut herself off like she so often did.
“Will there be cowboy hats? Do I get one? No, that would probably look stupid. But maybe…Gio, have you ever worn a cowboy hat?”
“I never wore a cowboy hat when I lived in Texas,” he said.
Ben and Beatrice looked between each other, their eyes glinting. “That wasn’t a ‘no,’” she said with a sly smile.
He shrugged, thinking back to the time he had spent in Argentina with Gustavo and Isabel in the late 1800s. “It wasn’t, strictly speaking, a cowboy hat.”
They both started laughing and Ben finally choked out. “You-a cowboy-Gio wore a cowboy hat!”
“I’m trying to imagine it, Ben, but I just can’t,” Beatrice snorted.
“It wasn’t a western hat-it was a gaucho-style hat. Everyone wore them.”
Her eyes lit up. “But they wore them to keep the sun out of their eyes, and unless I’m missing something, sun burns you to a crispy critter, so you wouldn’t need one because you wouldn’t be out during the day. Admit it, you liked the cowboy hat.”
“It wasn’t a cowboy hat.”
“I bet it was a black one,” Ben said.
Beatrice nodded. “Definitely black.”
He rolled his eyes and opened a book, attempting to ignore them, but in reality, his heart lightened to see them laughing together. Though he never said it, Ben had been dreading the idea of Beatrice disrupting the tentative family ties the two of them had formed.
“And you know, the sun thing isn’t totally true. He once chased me out of the house about twenty feet during the day when I was trying to run away in New York. He didn’t burst into flames, he just got really sunburned and a little smoky around the ears.”
She cocked an eyebrow at Giovanni. “Smoky ears, huh? I’ll have to remember that.”
“And then he fell asleep really hard after he had two bags of blood, and he kept saying your name over and-”
Like lightning, Giovanni reached across the small compartment and grabbed Ben’s hand. The boy slumped over, instantly asleep, and Giovanni sat back in his chair as Beatrice gaped at him.
“Did you just use mind voodoo to shut him up?”
“Yes.”
“That’s…”
She just kept gaping, seemingly unable to comprehend Ben’s slumbering form. He was now snoring, just a little.
“I gave him a very nice dream about flying,” he said with a shrug.
“That cannot be ethical, Gio.”
“Well, call me an unorthodox parent then, but do you really think we would both be here a year later, still un-maimed, if I couldn’t do that on occasion? He’s a twelve-year-old boy. Trust me, it’s for the best. He’ll wake up when we’re in Houston.”
She shook her head, then stood, crouched down over the sleeping boy and pulled him over her shoulder as she trundled him to one of the small beds.
He watched her in amusement; she was far stronger than he’d realized. When he pulled her in to kiss him on the boat the week before, he’d noticed the firmness of the muscles on her body. It felt foreign on her but not at all unpleasant.
“The judo has paid off. You’re far stronger than you look,” he said when she came back and sat on the couch across from him.
Beatrice nodded. “I told you, that new sensei has really been great. Between judo, jujitsu, and the tai chi I feel pretty well-rounded. I need to find a shooting class, though.”
He smiled. “Gustavo mentioned that you were quite proficient with a rifle. He enjoyed shooting with you last summer. And the judo and jujitsu are good self-defense choices for you with your size.”
“That was the idea. I didn’t like feeling helpless.”
His heart clenched at the thought of his own failure to protect her five years before. “I understand.”
“I very much doubt that,” she muttered.
“Do you?” he asked with a flash of irritation. “Do you forget that I was held against my will for over ten years as a human? That, even as a vampire, I was subject to a far more powerful sire. One who could easily overcome me, no matter how strong I was?”
Her mouth fell open as she stared at him in the low light of the plane. “I forgot. Sorry.”
He looked back down at his book. “I have…a well of regret over what I have put you through that I doubt you’ll ever understand, Beatrice.” He swallowed the lump in his throat. “I am grateful you are now better able to protect yourself. It has given you confidence you lacked.”
“Professor voice,” she muttered under her breath.
He smirked at her and looked until she met his gaze. Then he allowed his eyes to travel suggestively down her body and back up until he met her eyes, which were heated with desire.
“You are no longer a girl,” he murmured. “And I was never your professor.”
“You just had the arrogance of one. Still do.”
With lightning speed, he came to kneel between her knees. He could hear her sharp inhalation and the sudden rush of her pulse. Looking up, he met her dark eyes.
“You think I’m arrogant?”
“I know you are,” she said breathlessly.
“Then what would you have me do, tesoro?”
She blinked and he saw her gaze drop to his mouth. “Wh-what?”
“Should I forget five hundred years of experience killing my enemies and protecting those who belong to me so that your modern sensibilities are not harmed?”
She was still looking at his mouth, and he forced himself not to smirk.
“Would you have me confer with you before every move as if I was a mere boy looking for approval?”
“No, I mean-”
“You called all the shots in your relationship with that human, didn’t you?”
He knew he had made a mistake bringing up Mano as soon as she twisted her mouth into a sneer.
“Yeah, I did. And he knew just how to make me happy.”
He darted back to his side of the plane and draped his arm over the back of the couch. “Did he? Did he really?”
She paled and looked away from him, staring at the dark window over his shoulder and the stars that winked out.
“Fine,” he conceded. “I shall do my utmost to consult with you on future matters of strategy and defense when it pertains to you.”
“Good.”
“But I reserve the right to overrule you based on my experience and superior knowledge of the immortal world.”
“Bossy.”
“Mortal.”
They glared at each other in silent struggle for a few minutes before she walked to the other bed in the cabin and lay down, turning her back to him as she fell asleep. Giovanni watched for hours, memorizing the sound of her soft breath, steady heartbeat, and the small unintelligible murmurs that comforted him. He glanced at Ben and felt his dormant heart beat once as he remembered the interrogation of Lorenzo’s man in Los Angeles.