9 #2
Taking a deep breath and steeling my nerves, I pull it open just enough to peek my head out and immediately start apologizing.
“Sorry. So sorry. I was reading and fell asleep and went straight into a nightmare where I was falling off a cliff after being shoved! Then there was a…a train in the ocean…headed right for me…and holy hell, it blared its horn and I screamed, but I was actually awake then, and the next thing I know, I’m sitting up in bed screaming and you’re knocking. ”
My guard’s eyebrows draw together as he works to follow my nonsense.
“A nightmare?” he eventually asks.
“Yes. It was awful. But I’m good now, so you can lock me back up and go back to keeping guard out here.”
“Maybe I’ll just come in—”
“No!” I’m quick to cut him off. “I’m very sloppy, and I have underwear and private things all over the place.
No.” Calming myself slightly, I tone my voice to something less commanding.
I doubt my guard likes a woman trying to tell him what to do either.
“No. Thank you. You don’t need to come in. I’m good, I swear. No more screams.”
When he doesn’t close it immediately, I pull it out of his grip and do it for him, turning the lock on the inside of the knob for good measure.
I know he has a key, and that no silly lock on my side of the door is going to keep my vampire guard out of my room if he wants in it anyway, but it’s more about the symbolism than anything else.
I wait five full seconds after I’m done, my ear pressed against the wood to listen for more movement on his end, but when I don’t hear anything, I run straight back to the window and jump into action to figure out how to get it open.
In addition to the latch, there’s another lock at the side, but I engage my spidey-moves and climb the edge of the armoire with sweaty feet to reach it.
Shoving from the bottom as hard as I can to break the dried-over paint, I jump when Cal’s face invades mine. “Back up,” he whispers, pushing me gently.
This isn’t the worried, timid Cal I saw tonight in the hallway. This is a man on a mission.
What the mission is, I fear I don’t know.
When he’s through the opening, I scurry back, leaning out into the breeze to get a look at the surroundings, expecting to find a ladder or a trellis or something. But all I find is open space and the textured stone of the side of the building.
No stairs. No rope. No tied-together bedsheets or the like, and absolutely none of the other escape-scenario tools I imagined.
“How the hell did you get up here?” I ask incredulously.
Cal moves me out of the way before closing the window with a finger to his lips—a warning to lower my voice, no doubt—and the burn of his hands on my arms lingers long after he lets go.
When I stare at my skin to see if there’s an accompanying glow, I catch sight of the peak of my nipples, and my very braless state comes roaring back into focus. I cross my arms over my chest self-consciously and squeeze my thighs together to limit the very noticeable flow of air.
Suddenly, the big T-shirt and panties as sleep attire is feeling a little vulnerable.
Cal’s figure cuts an imposing shadow as he scans the room around us, getting a feel for the layout and assuring himself it’s just him and me alone. His jaw is carved in hard lines, and his eyes look wildly blue even in the dim light of the deep green walls.
When his harsh gaze cuts to me, my whole chest expands.
He doesn’t look like he’s dropped by for a friendly visit—he looks consumed . For the first time since he appeared at my window, I have the good sense to be scared of him .
I want to believe he’s here as some sort of knight in shining armor, but the truth is, he could just as easily be here to hurt me.
“Cal. What are you doing here?” This time, it’s a whisper and a plea. I didn’t realize how on the very edge of fucking losing my careful hold on rationality I was until the rock started to crumble beneath me.
He sighs, running a jagged hand through his perfect brown hair. “I don’t know.” He paces from one square of carpet to the next and back again, chuckling ever so lightly.
“Was that…” I shake my head, trying to dislodge the shock and confusion of having him here in my room. Of having this up close and personal. “You making that tapping noise?”
“Yeah.” He runs a hand through his hair before letting out a deep sigh.
“And, Romy, the fact is, I don’t know what the hell I’m doing here.
I shouldn’t be. I know that beyond a shadow of a doubt.
But I needed to see you. Needed…to talk.
After running into you in the hall tonight, I just had to come.
I couldn’t leave things the way we did, leave you thinking I’m… one of these men.”
I nod, unsure of what to say. Rubbing my lips together and then licking to wet them because of my nerves, I watch as his eyes fall to the movement and snag.
My awareness ratchets up to an eleven as a pool of arousal fills in my abdomen. It’s ill-timed and at odds with my nerves, but it’s there. So much so, it feels unrelenting.
“Okay…” I force myself to focus. “So…what?” I hold out both hands.
“What do you want to explain? Because the question I can’t seem to come up with an answer for is at odds with what you’re saying.
If you’re not one of these men , what are you doing here, Cal?
” I shake my head, willing myself to take my time to find the words I need to make sense.
“I don’t just mean my room. But here . At this place with these… men. I mean…you’re a vampire ?”
He nods, and I swallow.
“Like…you’ve always been? Even when we were kids?”
He nods again. “We’re born. Not created or turned or…whatever the fuck else fiction makes it out to be. It’s not allowed. At least, not legally. I’ve been what I am since my very first cry.”
“So, your brothers are—”
“Vampires too,” he confirms before clearing his throat.
“Are they here?”
“Sort of.” His smile is both sad and confusing. Quite frankly, it’s everything a smile shouldn’t be, and I hate the look of it on his handsome face. “It’s a long story.”
“Well, I don’t know how much time we have before I jump out the window and run away, but why don’t you start at the beginning, and we’ll take it from there? If I’m gone in the middle, you can finish telling it to the spot where I used to be.”
His smile turns soft as he moves to my bed and sits down at the foot of it, offering the spot under the covers to me with a gesture of his hand.
I want to stand in revolt, but a sudden bout of sheer exhaustion makes me take him up on the offer.
I sit on the bed and inhale slightly when he places the cover over my legs with the gentleness of someone a quarter of his size.
And because I’m completely unhinged, I find myself wishing he’d cover me with his body instead.
What on earth is wrong with me?
“Running isn’t a good idea, Romy. I wish it were, but I promise, they’d catch you.”
I sigh. “Yeah. I was afraid of that.”
“So…how’ve you been?”
The ironically simplistic question makes me laugh, and because he’s earned my compliance with his gentled approach, I make sure to do it quietly.
“Well…not bad until a couple of days ago. Can’t say I’m thrilled with the current trajectory, but it’s hardly a surprise.
My parents have been talking about the selection since I was a toddler. ”
He nods. “If it makes you feel any better, I haven’t had the best week either. Lots of ups and downs and ultimatums I don’t really like.”
I worry my lip with my teeth, trying to make sense of the Cal I knew—the one who seems to be in front of me now—and the kind of Cal he would have to be to be a part of something like this and how they could possibly fit together to make one man. “Is that why you’re here? Because of an ultimatum?”
“It’s more complicated than that, but yes, sort of. It wasn’t the only option, but it was the best one.” He rubs a hand over his own knee, the rest of him frozen in deep thought. “I’m here because I’m seeking change. I’m here for my brothers and their mates, and I’m here… Well, I’m here for you.”
“For me ?” My stomach tightens, and my back plasters to the headboard, knowing I’m cooked if he turns out to be dangerous. There’s no way I’d get out of this bed in time, but I guess I could say the same for any position I’d take in this room.
Vampires are so physically superior, it’s not even funny.
“I know that sounds…ominous,” he confirms with a gentle nod and an even gentler face.
“And I promise I’ll explain when I can. Just know…
” He places a hand to his chest I swear I feel as though he’s laid it upon my own.
“I would never hurt you, Romy. More than that—I would kill anyone else who tried.”
My throat burns as I swallow his words. They’re bold. They’re romantic.
They’re terrifying .