Jesse put the invoices down on the worktop, picking at the edges to avoid facing Lys.
He hadn’t realised it at first. Hadn’t seen the similarities that were staring him in the face, but walking back from Raph’s office, it had suddenly hit him. “He reminds me of Callum.”
Callum Stewart.
My best friend and secret lover.
Silence.
For a minute Jesse wondered if she’d forgotten what he’d told her so many years ago. But then she slid down from the table and walked over to put her arms around him, her head against his chest. “Oh, Jesse.”
They stayed like that for a while. Neither of them saying anything.
Jesse didn’t want to, and Lys was probably holding back because she knew he wouldn’t like what she had to say.
Finally she drew back far enough to look him in the eye. “You know what I’m going to tell you, right?”
“Yes.” Jesse looked away. “You’re going to say it’s too dangerous and that I should stop it now before it goes any further. That I should forget I ever met him.”
“Well, I was gonna suggest you fuck him one last time, then call it a day, but your way works too.”
“Lys—”
“No, Jesse.” She covered his mouth with her hand. “I know how you felt about Callum. I remember the pain you still held with you after you turned. Do you really want to dredge all that up again?”
“It’s not like that, though.” He struggled to put it into words. “Yes, Ian reminds me of Callum, but he’s not a carbon copy. Certain things are similar enough that I have to remind myself it’s not him, but then they’re different in a lot of ways too. Honestly, I know it’s not him. You don’t have to worry.”
Lys appeared totally unconvinced. “Tell me what he looks like?”
“About my height, dark hair—short but kind of messy on top.”
“Tousled?” She grinned and Jesse rolled his eyes.
“Yeah, whatever. Anyway, he’s got blue eyes. Um...”
“Strong jawline, slim, with broad shoulders?”
“Yes.” Jesse cracked his neck from side to side. “That could describe plenty of guys though.” He sounded defensive to his own ears.
“It could. And Callum would be one of them.”
“Fine. That might have attracted me to him in the first place, but that’s where the similarities end. They’re nothing alike in personality. Ian’s out and proud, confident in a way Callum could only dream about.”
“Because you weren’t allowed to be that way,” she said softly.
“No. We weren’t.” Jesse closed his eyes for a second, Callum’s face easy to recall, and he let himself remember for just a moment. “But that was almost sixty-four years ago. We change, and we move on.”
“I still think you need to be careful. Getting involved with humans can turn messy.”
“It’s been one night. We’re notinvolved.” Jesse wanted out of this conversation already. Touched as he was by Lys’s concern, he didn’t need or want her advice on this.
Maybe something in his tone warned her off, because she raised her hands. “Fine. I’ll trust that you know what you’re doing and won’t mention it again.”
“Thank you.”
“Just don’t make me regret it.”
Jesse barely refrained from another eye-roll. “I’ll do my best.”
