him to me. No matter how close he got, I knew he’d never be close enough. I wanted him underneath my skin, and when I breathed in deeply, I smelled that tangy perfect scent I associated with Peter.
I slid my hands under his shirt, desperate to feel as much of him as I could. To my surprise, his normal temperate skin burned hot under my fingers.
It felt amazing, so I dug my fingers into his flesh, and he moaned against my mouth. His hands found their way under my shirt, smoldering against the trembling skin of my belly.
He finally managed to pull his lips from mouth, and they traveled down to the perfectly exposed skin of my throat. When he pressed his lips against my veins, just feeling the pulse against his skin, I was almost writhing with pleasure.
There was a hunger so strong it was painful. I thrust my body against his, begging him to drink, and then suddenly, he growled and sprang from my arms.
“What?” I wailed, sitting back up on my knees. He was standing on the other side of the room, panting heavily and shaking horribly.
“He’s going to kill you.” Jack let out an unsteady breath, and his eyes were wild with passion. “I want to so bad, but he would kill you.”
“So?” It was hard to breathe, let alone speak, and I barely managed. “It would be worth it. I want you to, and I don’t care what the cost.”
“Yeah?” He looked unsure, then nodded. “Yeah. Me neither.”
I was at the edge of the bed, and he ran back over to me, wrapping his arms so tightly around me that I couldn’t breathe. Oxygen didn’t feel much like a necessity anymore. All that mattered was the way his lips felt pressed against mine. He kissed me so hard that my lip sprung fresh blood, and he moaned desperately. My fingers dug into his hair and I waited for him to bite me.
“You’re going to get yourselves killed!” Mae hissed, and I whipped my head over to see her standing in the doorway, glaring nervously at us. Jack had stopped kissing me, but I was reluctant to untangle myself from his arms.
“We didn’t do anything.” Jack still had his eyes on me and his voice was husky, so I knew he was still locked in a trance from the bloodlust.
“Yet,” Mae glowered.
“Yet,” Jack agreed, and brazenly, he kissed my throat again, right where my pulse still pounded heavily. My body slacked in his arms, but Mae rushed over, smacking Jack hard in the arm before he could do anything.
“Jack Allen Townsend!” Mae howled.
“Okay, okay!” He took a step back from me, causing me to collapse backwards on the bed, and held up his hands defensively, but Mae swatted him again. “You can stop now! I’m done!”
“You better be!” Mae obviously didn’t trust him because she stood directly in front of me, blocking his path to me. “You’re going to get her killed! Is that what you want?’
“You know that’s not what I want,” Jack groaned, but a guilty expression passed across his face. The heat of the moment was rapidly dissipating, and the realization of what he had almost done to me, to us, was taking over him.
“Then what the hell did you think you were doing?” Mae demanded. He scratched his temple and sighed.
“Being a vampire?” He kept his tone sarcastic, but I could feel how afraid he really was.
“You are such an idiot!” Mae turned away from him to inspect me for bite marks. When she saw the blood on my lips, she gasped and turned back to him.
“Did you do that to her? You drew blood?”
“No!” Jack insisted, his eyes wide. “She did that! She bit her lip!”
“Why would you do that?” Mae whirled on me, and I’d finally regained enough strength to sit up. “Do you have any idea what that does to him? He can barely control himself around any blood, and yours is even worse. Do you both have a death wish?”
“It was an accident,” I mumbled.
“You need to shower and use a lot of mouth wash.” Mae held her hand to her face, looking distressed but sounding matter-of-fact. “If he even hints at smelling Jack on your blood…” Her eyes welled with frightened tears, and she shook her head. Then she pointed to the bedroom door and snapped, “Go! Right now! Go downstairs and use my shower! The longer it sets in, the harder it will be to get out!”
“Sorry.” I scrambled out of Jack’s bed, which was easier said then done since my ankle had become tangled in a mass of blankets. “Sorry.” As I stumbled down the stairs, I heard Mae yelling at him.
“How can you be so careless with her life? With your own?” Mae admonished him. “She’s only a girl, Jack! What were you thinking?”
“I wasn’t!” Jack lamented.
“I know how hard this is for you-”
“You have no idea how hard this is for me!” Jack growled fiercely, and I winced.
By kissing him, I had only made it harder. It was impossible for him to ever be with me, unless we wanted our life expectancy reduced down to a matter of hours. Still, that kiss had hinted at how amazing those hours would be, and maybe it would be worth it…
I shook the thought from my head and hurried into Mae’s bathroom.
Immediately, I opened the medicine cabinet and pulled out the Listerine. The alcohol burned my lip, but I used it until it went numb. When I put it back, I slammed the mirror shut and noticed my reflection for the first time. I had started crying, and I hadn’t even known it. That didn’t really seem so strange.
After all, I was sobbing because a vampire had just tasted my blood, and now we both might die because of it. Nothing really seemed that strange anymore, although everything had gotten increasingly painful.
Chapter 13
After a shower so long and intense that my skin came out red and raw, Mae decided that it was time that she sat down and had a long talk with me.
Reluctantly, she admitted that she didn’t understand what Jack and I had gone through because she’d only been turned for six months when she met Ezra, and they had been together ever since. There was obviously something very different going on with us, but as long as Peter felt a claim to me, I couldn’t do anything with Jack, or I was risking both of our lives.
Jack and I would have to find a way to be friends without ever being caught up in any moments, and that would probably be easy if I didn’t do anything stupid like, say, bite my lip so he’s attracted to my blood. I ended up staying most of the night over there anyway. There was no way I could sleep after that, so we decided to pretend like nothing had happened. Jack put in The Crow and The Dark Knight, and I curled up on the couch with Mae. He sat on the floor on the far other side of the room with Matilda because that seemed safest.
Even with everything that had happened, Mae astoundingly let Jack drive me home. She had decided not to tell Ezra about the “incident” so we’d have to go on like normal, and that meant that we’d have to get used to being around each other without being stupid. When the sky started to lighten, I finally agreed to go home.
“This is my favorite time of day,” Jack mused, looking at the windows of the Lamborghini as we sped way from his house and towards mine. “The sky is just so pretty right before it changes.”
“It reminds me of a dream,” I agreed somberly. “So… I’m really sorry about what happened earlier.”
“Don’t be. That was my fault. I have to learn how to control my impulses.
You might not believe this, but that’s something that I struggle with,” Jack laughed dryly.
“I bit my lip.” I had done it on purpose, whether I was ready to admit it to myself or not. He wanted me to, and I could feel that the same way I could feel my own heartbeat. I had made the choice to do it, knowing exactly what it would lead to. “I shouldn’t have done that. I’m sorry.”
“No, it’s okay.” He paused for a moment before adding, “You taste really good.”
“We’re not talking about that. We’re not even thinking about it,” I corrected him.
“I’m not. I wasn’t. I was just making conversation.” That’s what he said, but I could feel the hunger ebbing
