"Now is not the time to fight," he told her coldly.
"I'm not fighting!" she snapped. "I don't want you to watch me!"
"I'm not going anywhere!"
Tears suddenly filled her eyes. She blinked them angrily back as her eyes flashed a violent red. "If you don't leave, then I won't feed!" she spat. "I don't do it in front of anyone!"
"Not even your family?" he retorted sardonically.
"Especially not my family!"
He was about to argue with her, but the distress in her eyes was enough to sway him from his stand. Arguing with her was pointless, especially when she was unstable and in desperate need of sustenance. "Fine," he grated reluctantly.
He turned and walked back out the door. Standing impatiently on the other side, he angrily tapped his foot as he waited for a few minutes. When he was sure enough time passed, he walked back in the room. She still sat on her bed, her head in her hands, so her long hair cascaded forward to shield her face.
"I knew it was too much to hope you’d left," she muttered bitterly.
"Yes, it was. When was the last time you fed?"
She lifted her head to glare at him. "Why do you care?"
Stefan took a deep breath as he struggled to control his temper. "I care because there is a human living in this house. I don't need you losing control and killing her," he replied coldly, deliberately being just as nasty to her as she was with him.
The color drained from her face. "Get out of my room!" she spat.
"I am not leaving until you tell me."
Wrath radiated from every inch of her body as she leapt to her feet. "I've never fed off a human, so you can trust me not to lose control and kill your precious girlfriend!"
She was nearly screeching by the time she finished speaking, but he was so damn infuriating, so damn arrogant and condescending she couldn't take it anymore. The fact he thought she would harm someone was more than she could stand.
Stefan's jaw clenched as he stared back at her, a muscle twitching in his cheek from the force of his locked jaw. This conversation wasn’t going at all the way he’d planned. He never should have baited her, never should have been deliberately cruel to her, but she brought it so easily out of him with her maddening attitude. She pricked his temper just as easily as she brought out his arousal, and earlier in the kitchen, an extreme surge of protection. He’d needed to get her to safety and make sure he shielded her from Jess's horror.
He took a deep breath to calm himself before he spoke again. "That was not what I asked you."
Isabelle folded her arms over her chest. "And I told you, it was none of your concern.”
She never even saw him move, never saw the blur her father, mother, Ethan, The Stooges, and herself made. She never had time to blink before he grabbed her arms.
"And I told you it was!"
Isabelle gawked at him before she closed her mouth, tilted her chin up, and stared defiantly back at him. "Let me go."
He didn't release her as he stood towering over her. His hands burned into her flesh, and his chest brushed against hers, warming her from the inside out. She wanted to shudder from the force of the heat racking her. The new feelings he’d managed to awaken in her flared to the forefront. She forced herself to remain still and not let him know how he affected her.
"When was the last time you fed?" he grated.
Despite the set of his jaw, the strength of his body, and the sheer power radiating from him, she was amazed to discover he didn’t frighten her. For some reason, she was certain he wouldn't hurt her. Try to intimidate her, yes, but he wouldn't harm her. She knew it with every ounce of her being, and the realization shook her more than the feelings he’d awakened in her ever could. Some of her defenses melted as, for the first time, she saw him as a man and not her enemy. It was a scary comprehension that dissolved some of her resistance.
Stefan was close to shaking some sense into her. She was the most aggravating, annoying woman he’d ever encountered. He didn't understand why she wouldn't answer his question. Why she couldn't be like every other woman, he’d ever met who tripped all over themselves to get near him. Instead, it seemed she purposely went out of her way to avoid or exacerbate him. He forced himself to take a deep breath and not rattle some sense into her thick skull.
"I told you, I wouldn't hurt her," she murmured.
He’d officially had it! He pulled her up so her face was a mere breath away from his, and only the tips of her toes touched the ground. To his surprise, and admiration, she didn't flinch. She didn't even stop glaring at him as her eyes spit violet fury.
"I didn't ask that. I don't care about her. I care about you, and I don't want to see you like that again!" he yelled.
For a moment, he simply stared at her as his words echoed loudly in the room. Shock registered quickly as the truth of his words slammed home with sickening horror.
He didn't even remotely want to think about what he just said. Nor did he want to think about the fact it might be true. All he wanted to do was show her, once and for all, he was
