Alejo [Vampire]

Alejo- Chapter 14

::CHAPTER 14::

{Third Person POV}

Loki was lounging in the living room after having finished his latest UV Tech prototype. Confident that it would work, he was taking a rare moment to himself. Relaxing was not what he did. He worked and supervised work but never allowed himself to relax.

Now that he had this moment, he had no idea what to do with himself. He was Loki Cortada; Master of the Cortada estates and CEO and founder of NextGEN Corporation. There was never time for himself.

Flipping through the channels on the SmartVision screen, he was completely bored. What was the point in watching shows where life was played out in the same plots that had already been done over the years? Never mind that the SV screen showed it in such advanced 3D that it was partially holographic without the need for special 3D glasses. He had seen it all by this point. Turning off the SV, he sighed.

“Ana?” he turned to the door where the girl was just about to sneak past. He’d heard her footfalls before he’d seen her. The split-second reaction on her face practically swore, but her fingers signed a pleasant greeting. “Come. I need to talk to you,” he said. It wouldn’t do to point out what he noticed because then he’d have to deal with it. He didn’t feel like handing out punishment today. So he pretended he hadn’t see annoyance on her face.

“Yes, Master Loki?” she signed manners now intact. A scowl slipped onto his face at her purposely distancing herself with that prim use of his title.

“Sit,” he pointed to a chair and she took the offered seat, “Am I Master Loki now?”

“You were always Master Loki, sir.” More distance still. He did not like that.

“Not to you. Never to you. Only ‘sir’ or ‘Loki’. You have never called me Master before.”

“I apologize, sir,” she bowed her head. She acted like the others under his care and that irritated him more than anything else. Unlike the others, they had a bond and she did not get to reduce that bond to sheer servitude.

“Stop it, Ana. Now,” his hazel eyes flashed in withheld anger that he would never act on, “You’ve been putting space between us ever since that morning.”

He didn’t have to specify which morning. She knew exactly which one and her mind refused to let her forget. That morning in question, they had both crossed a line and made a mistake that could not be undone.

She had since had dreams about that morning more times than she would dare admit to him. Had woken up sweaty and warm despite the air conditioning with her skin tingling in ways that weren’t exactly familiar to her. She was no virgin but it had certainly been a while. A fact she was becoming hyper aware of during her body’s nightly reactions to the memory of her Master and, in an odd sense, friend.

“What do you want me to do, Loki?” She saw his expression defrost a fraction at the use of his name. That innocent question laid out so softly calmed him in unexpected ways.

“Go back to the way it was before. Don’t avoid me like the black plague. I understand if you don’t forgive me yet, but this distancing thing you keep doing needs to stop.”

“Forgive you? Why would I need to?”

“You know why,” his eyes narrowed, “What almost happened between us was a breach of trust like nothing else. There isn’t anything I can do to change that. I can never right that wrong, but your scorn is bad enough without you avoiding me also.”

“Loki…” it was signed with a pitying look that offered a sort of gentling he didn’t feel he deserved. It was akin to a hug between best friends, or the brush of lips against the forehead or perhaps the tucking of hair behind the curve of one ear.