Connor met his eyes with grave emotion and barely choked out, "Deal."
"Good then. I'd hate to have to renege on my promise and kill you." With that, Jackson left the room, locking the door behind him while Connor stared after him, mouth agape.
Making his way to the first floor, Jackson noticed he was feeling weary from all this drama, and also a little hungry. He found Sarah in the drawing room, again, right where he had left her, despondence across her face. "How is he?"
"As well as can be expected."
"Do you think he'll come around?"
"Yeah, I think he might." Truthfully, Jackson had no idea what the human would do; he just didn't have the heart to tell her. He couldn't even be certain he wanted the guy to come around. The odds were, he would break her heart at some point, and would it not be better sooner, rather than later? No one would ever be good enough for Sarah in Jackson's eyes, however, as far as boyfriends went, this guy seemed pretty amiable. He wasn't too full of himself, and he really did appear to love her. Jackson could see it in his eyes. Connor was a lawyer, which he considered a real plus. When one had the kind of wealth the vampires did, there was always need for a lawyer, and having to constantly dodge questions about how one amassed a fortune at such a young age could be pretty tough. Jackson was always ready to influence people, yet Sarah insisted they use that as a last resort.
"I think I'll go down and talk to him."
Jackson held his hand up. "Not a good idea. I told him you would be down in the morning."
"Why did you do that? I need to know what he's thinking." The whine in her voice made him cringe.
"Listen, I know I'm not any good at these affairs of the heart, but I am a man, and a man needs time to sit on things before he figures out where his head is at. You women have to beat that horse until it either dies or gets up and runs. Men let it rest for a while, then figure out whether to nurse it back to health or kill it."
Sarah laughed for the second time today. "What a morbid analogy!" She crossed the room and gave him a quick peck on the cheek. "You know for such a heartless bastard, you're pretty smart sometimes."
"I'll take that as a compliment on both counts."
Sarah's face assumed a serious cast as she added, "You're also my hero."