“So...you faze out, hear voices, and blame your tempered outbursts on a fictional creature living in...” he looked down at my stomach, “your belly.”
“Precisely. The boy catches on quick.”
“Who would I kill?” I asked, sitting up from him, wiping my face.
“Who?”
“Yeah, I mean, is it random, or do you choose them?”
“Well.” He grinned and picked an ant off the rug, then tossed it onto the grass. “I usually avoid eating comedians as much as possible.”
“Why?” I asked slowly.
“Because they taste funny.” His brows rose.
I imagined a tumbleweed rolling past as I listened for crickets. “That wasn't funny.”
“Whoa,” I pinned my dress under my legs and nudged his chest with my elbow. “Put me down. This is kidnapping.”
“No, it's not,” he stated with a smile, keeping his eyes on the path ahead, “It's is a rescue.”
“Rescue?” I scoffed, but imagined a white horse waiting for us as we burst through the doors. “I don't need to be rescued.”
He stopped walking and looked down at me; I shrank into his arms a little. “The fair maiden, who is locked in the darkest tower, guarded by the cruellest beast, never believes herself to be in danger, only suffering from sorrows untold and a heart untouched.”
“Don't pretend you don't like it when I treat you as a lady.”
“Maybe I don't.”
Despite that, he still opened the car door for me, with his lips curving up into a careless grin. “Girls always do that,” he said, “—pretend they think you're taking their independence from them if you open a door. But that's not the case.”
“Well, what is the case?” I sat down on the front seat—leaving my feet on the driveway.
“Simply that we're demonstrating good-breeding; showing the girl we're worthy and capable of taking care of her—that we're polite, considerate and nurturing.”
I folded my arms. “Women don't need nurturing—or to be taken care of. We can fend for ourselves. We're equal to men, you know.”
“Ara. Ara, stop.” He propped my body against the wall and unfastened my hands from his neck.
“Why? What's wrong?” I wiped my mouth dry with the back of my wrist. “Did I hurt you?”
“Yes, you little leech.” He cupped his hand over the bite mark and pulled it away to look at it. “I may not have a heartbeat, but I still feel pain.”
“You're bruising.” I squinted through the dull light to see his neck.
“I know. I can feel that.”
“I'm sorry.”
“Are you kidding me?” He looked up at me. “Ara, that felt amazing. It hurt, but damn it was hard for me to control myself.”
“Control yourself?”
“Yeah. I wanted to...” He looked down and shook his head.
“You wanted to what?” I lifted his face.
“I wanted to do...things to you.”
“What kinds of...things.” Excitement and fear made my heart thump. “Bad things?”
“Yes. Bad things.” He reached up slowly and slipped the shoestring strap of my dress down my shoulder, then ran a delicate line of kisses along the curve of my neck, making the skin on my lower back tingle.
“That doesn't feel like bad things.”
“This is not what I had in mind,” he said into my shoulder.”
“Everyone has a secret, but when it is bound by shame we're forced to live within the darkest circles of our crumbling masks; unable to find the light of the coming dawn; forever locked in the shadows of our own regrets.”
“I don't know—” the right corner of his lip quirked upward, “—I can eat a lot. I could probably eat you and not think twice about it.” He leaned forward and rested his elbows on the table, tilting his shoulders closer to me. “Do you think you're up for that kind of a challenge, little girl?”
“Bring it on.”
“I know you like me, Ara. You don't have to pretend, just because you think it's improper to fall for someone at first sight.” His eyes lit up, shimmering green like a glass marble held up to the sun. “I can see that you feel the same way I do.”
Oh, my God! Is this the point where I can jump off the swing and fall into his waiting arms? No. Don't do that. Don't read into it too much. I looked away from his gleaming, white-toothed grin, and clutched the ropes of the swing tighter.”
“So, what were you about to do that day, then? Float away or something?”
“No.” He looked up from the ground and smiled. “I was about to lift you in my arms and run, vampire speed, to the closet room under the auditorium stage.”
“You would not,” I said, my tone ringing in question.
“Ara—” he raised one brow, “I'm a guy. Not a saint.”
“You don't know how to take no for an answer, do you?”
“That wasn't a no,” I teased. “Now—” using his wrists to drive his hands, I pushed them down and jumped as he lifted me up again, “—show me what's so scary about this vampire side.”
“Ara, we—” he tried to speak, but I leaned down and gripped his lips tightly with mine, then pulled a little—using my teeth.
He drew back abruptly and stared at me, wide eyed, but with a tentative grin. “So, you don't wanna be a vampire, but you like using your teeth?”
“I'd like you to use your teeth.”
“Physically. Not figuratively,” David practically grunted.
“Stay out of my head, vampire.” I bared my puny teeth at him; he chuckled. “Now, do as you're told. Bite me.”
“Ryan rattled off names as I nodded and smiled at the faces - forgetting their names instantly. They should all be called Bob - make things so much easier.”
“I daresay idle tittle-tattle is very wrong and unkind, but it is so often true, isn't it.”
“i was made to protect you and you were made in a wa that it would always be worth the effort.”
“I want to remind you that I love you, and that love is unlike anything I’ve ever felt before. If you feel unworthy or unwanted in any way… know that every breath you take is precious to me.”
“So sind die Dinge manchmal. Wenn alles am schlimmsten ist, dann wirft der Verstand alles in einen Papierkorb und geht für eine Weile nach Florida. Da ist ein Was-zur-Hölle-soll's?-Gefühl in einem, während man da-steht und über die Schulter zu der Brücke zurückblickt, die man soeben niedergebrannt hat.”
“He looks down at our joined hands. He rubs his thumbs over my knuckles. “I haven’t felt like I’ve had a real home in years.” Cash pauses and looks up, his eyes meeting mine. They are warm. They are sweet. They are sincere. “Until I met you. You feel like home. And that’s more important than anything else. You’re my home now. You’re what matters.”
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