“You’re pretty, but pretty doesn’t pay my rent.” She smiled again. “That will be three fifty-two.”
With a laugh, I handed her my card and shook my head. “Wow, I must be losing my touch.”
Hope’s hand found mine.
And that was when I realized.
I wasn’t reading the human’s thoughts.
I wasn’t trying to get attention.
I wasn’t seducing.
I wasn’t even thinking about it.
“Love.” Hope reached up, tucked my orange and black hair behind my ears, and shrugged. “Does some crazy things, yeah?”
“Yeah,” I whispered, tilting her chin toward me.
The barista coughed. “Here’s your card… Alexander.”
“I like your full name.” Hope grinned. “I used to call you Alexander.”
“You did.” I recalled the memory of our first meeting and shook my head. Red dress. She’d been in a red dress, her lips matched, all I could focus on was how they looked like an apple, and I was starving for a taste.
“Thanks,” Hope said to the barista and held my hand as we grabbed our drinks and went to a dark corner to sit. “Tell me everything.”
Hope
I WONDERED IF he understood that even now, even without him trying, people were staring, the barista was fanning herself, and I could have sworn the flowers outside the window weren’t plastered against the glass when we originally walked in.
Some things never changed.
Alex had been talking for hours.
It took everything in me not to interrupt his words with kisses. His mouth moved, and I focused, I really did, because what he was saying was important. But he was talking about us, and when he talked about us, our past, the past I’d been forced to forget… I was also forced to remember all the times that he refused to take me.
“Why?” I interrupted when I couldn’t take it anymore. “You had me. I loved you. Love you,” I corrected. “Why wouldn’t you make love to me? You hurt me when you went to other women. A part of me understands that you felt tarnished, unworthy but—”
“Hope.” His eyes lit up. “You still don’t understand.” Warm hands reached for mine. I let out a little breath as he brushed his fingertips down my skin. “I wanted you every second of the day, but to use you in that way, to take your essence, your energy, every part of you for my own selfish needs — I couldn’t fathom doing that to someone so innocent, so pure.”
“And now?” I gulped.
His smile turned lethal. “Now, I’m going to make up for a few hundred years and lock you in my room.”
“But I get bathroom breaks like a normal weak little human right? And you’ll feed me?” I teased.
“If you’re good.” He shrugged teasingly. “I may even let you take a bat to the timer…”
I scowled. “That was an asinine thing to do, just saying.”
“At the time it seemed the smartest thing to do, piss you off, keep you away from me… again.” He shook his head as pieces of rainbow hair fell across his sculpted cheekbones. “It seems I have a really nasty habit of letting my own insecurity decide what’s best for both of us.”
Staring at him and only touching him, was basically killing me slowly. Because with every touch, I was reminded of the other touches, the kisses, the times he told me he loved me, the laughter we shared weeks before we were going to go to my real parents and tell them about our relationship.
Weeks before my mother was slaughtered and my werewolf father was found dead in an alley.
“Two hours.” Alex released me and took one last sip of coffee and stood. “I gave you two hours of talking and no sex. Basically, you almost just killed me, so if you don’t mind, I’d like to get you naked.”