She squealed again, “No, no, no, don’t! I can’t, I can’t handle tickling, I can’t, I…”
He stopped for a second, “Oh…have I found another one of your weaknesses, maybe?”
“Eek!” She dashed off the bed but he caught her and pinned her on the adjacent bed.
“No tickling, please. I can’t breathe when I’m tickled, I---”
Something flashed in her memory, ugly scenes from a foster home. She pushed it back. Tristan must’ve felt it because he stopped instantly.
“You okay?” He was suddenly serious. She nodded and tried not to give that ugliness any further thought.
“Tickling is not my weakness.” She poked at his chest, backing off that bed and then backed up toward the bathroom.
“Oh no?”
He was smiling but she could feel that he was holding back, unsure about her reaction to the tickling. He stalked toward her.
“Dimples…” She poked at his naked chest again, accusingly, “Now those are my kryptonite. Show me those and you can have anything you want. Any. Thing.”
“Anything?”
He gave her a glowing gorgeous smile, dimples on display, then caged her against the wall beside the bathroom door and ravished her mouth with his. She raked her fingers through his hair and linked her leg around the back of his knee, grinding into him.
“You are insatiable!” He hoisted her over his shoulder and whacked her rear end before putting her back on the bed and hovering over her. His smile was so bright he lit up the room.
She fingered a dimple, “I’m sorry that I made you worry about me when I left. If it helps, I was a mess the whole time we were apart.”
“That helps,” he said sheepishly, “We need to talk about everything that happened.”
He laid down on the bed beside her and spooned her close.
“You’ve got stuff to tell me, too.”
“I will. You first.” He touched the back of her neck with his lips.
“Will you?” she asked, dubious.
“I will,” he answered softly.
“Sam reacted first. He turned gray and shot you as soon as I stepped into that cage. Why didn’t that ever happen before in public? Is that something I’ll have to worry about from now on?”
“Dunno yet. I’m guessing something happened after you bonded with me. Even before then. After the first time I fed, I think. But especially after the nectar.”
“So nothing will ever be the same.”
He shook his head, “Not likely.”
“I can’t ever have my period again. I need a hysterectomy to keep myself alive. I’ll never have babies. I mean, I never knew if I wanted kids but to know that I’ll never…” she choked up. Then she realized she’d said all that out loud instead of just in her head.
“Shhh, one day at a time. It doesn’t make sense to just jump to conclusions.” He put his palm to her face.
Yeah, he might not want me to get a hysterectomy. If I stop my periods, the nectar stops.
She stared off into space for a minute.
He shook his head, “Don’t start that. If I haven’t proven to you by now that I love you…”
“Get outta my head.”
“Kyla. Baby. I hear you louder and clearer than ever. I can’t help that. And it’s not just in your head, it’s written all over your face, too.”
“I have to pee.”
She got up.
He gave her a skeptical look.
“I do! I was on my way there a minute ago. I guess you can’t read my bladder yet? Sucks to be you.”
He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose so she huffed as she marched past him to the bathroom.
When she climbed back into the bed he was on the bed, eyes on her.
“So, Sam?” he urged her to continue.
“He shot you. Before you did anything. The second he saw me his fangs shot out and his face turned gray and he attacked you first, before lunging at me, even. He saw you as a threat. I felt a gush of bleeding and then you reacted. But first he shot you and then you shot and hit him and he went down. Then you, you like…lunged for me. I tried to get away but I couldn’t. And then it got sexual.”
She took a big gulp of water, “Ugh. I need coffee. Badly. I won’t even try this in-room coffee. Can we?”
~~~When they got back with coffee and pastries she took her period prevention pill and he urged her to continue.
She sat on the bed and he pulled her down against him. She put her cheek on his chest.
“It was sexual for me because of what you were doing but for you, it seemed like it was just about the blood. I’m sure I was about to die. You were going down on me while choking me and drinking and then you let me go and you made this roaring sound and then grabbed me and I could swear you were going to end my life but I told you I loved you and your eyes changed and your temperature began to rise but I didn’t know if it was the tranquilizer. You passed out.