Chapter Sixteen #2
I shrugged sheepishly. “I mean, I’ve always kinda believed in supernatural stuff.” After a pause, I told him, “I saw a ghost once.”
He went still, then snuffled out a tiny laugh. “You did not.”
“Yes, I did!” I insisted. “I used to work at this chicken place, and one night when I was driving home after my shift, I was on this stretch of road with no other cars…”
“Yeah…?” He was watching me with curious intrigue. I held back my relieved grin, because I didn’t want to draw attention to the fact that I’d actually managed to distract him. To stop him being so upset. To make him feel better.
It was quite possible that I’d never been prouder of myself.
“And this woman was standing in the middle of the road with her back to me.” I shuddered remembering it, hamming it up a touch more than I normally would’ve because it made Elliot’s eyes widen as he leaned in, eagerly waiting to hear the rest of the story.
“Wearing this long white dress that was kinda torn and stuff. So I started slowing down to see if she was okay, and then she just, like, vanished.”
Elliot snorted, grinning at me fondly. After a moment of hesitation, he reached down and lightly traced my knuckles with a fingertip. “No way.”
“She did! And that’s not even the worst part. I was, like, totally confused and just sat there for a few minutes, then started driving again. I looked in the rearview mirror to see if she’d… I dunno, jumped to the side of the road or something, and she was there.”
He cocked his head. “Where?”
“Sitting in the freaking backseat of my car.” I shivered. “Just for a split second. I saw her sitting there, staring back at me, and then she was gone.”
Elliot chuckled, gently threading his fingers through mine. “No shit?”
“I’m still too scared to look in the rearview when I’m driving alone at night,” I told him sheepishly.
He cracked up, a bit more of the sadness and tension leaving his face as he grinned at me. “You’re so cute.”
I flushed, looking down at our linked hands. My thumb rubbed a slow circle over Elliot’s pale skin. So this was why he was so pale, and slightly cool to the touch. He was a ghoul. Not human.
That was gnarly.
As if he knew the direction of my thoughts, Elliot cleared his throat and gently disentangled our hands.
“Thank you for being so chill about this,” he said awkwardly. “I, um, I totally understand if you don’t wanna keep… seeing me. In that way.”
I could tell he was trying to keep his tone somewhat light. Pressure-free. I could also tell how much it’d hurt him to say it, which just further cemented the answer I’d already been about to give him.
“What?” My brow furrowed. “Why would I not want to?”
He snorted and shook his head, gazing at me with incredulous affection. “God, Ricky, you’re just… so sweet.”
I flushed with pleasure, then defiantly grabbed his hand again and squeezed it tight. “None of this changes how I feel about you.”
His shoulders hunched vulnerably, and his voice was uncharacteristically timid, almost needy, when he asked, “It doesn’t?”
“No. So you’re not a… human person. You’re still a person. A really”—I blushed and licked my lips self-consciously—“really awesome person. An amazing person. The best person I’ve ever met.”
His mouth trembled a little. “Ricky…”
“So you have to eat, um, certain things to survive. That’s not your fault. Blaming you for it would be like… blaming a bear or a mountain lion for the same thing.”
His shoulders sagged. His mouth trembled harder before he seemed to work hard to temper his emotions. He brought my hand to his face and pressed my palm to his cheek, glistening eyes sliding shut as he mumbled, “Thank you.”
I stroked his sharp cheekbone with my thumb and croaked, “I like you so much, Elliot. I feel like I can just… be myself with you. I’ve never had that before. But you’re also…”
When I trailed off, he smiled and turned his cheek to nuzzle my palm, pressing a soft kiss to it. “Yeah?”
“You’re like… You’re just… The way I feel about you is so much.”
He nodded, throat bobbing convulsively. “Me too. It’s the same for me, Ricky.”
“You’re the hottest guy I’ve ever seen,” I blurted, face flaming red. “But it’s not even that. You’re funny and amazing and I love talking to you. I love being with you.”
He let out a shuddering breath and nodded, his smooth cheek rubbing against my palm with the movement. He didn’t seem able to speak right now, so I carried on.
“You make me feel real.”
A choked sound left him as his eyes slammed shut and he turned his face into my palm, as if he was trying to hide it. “Fuck, Ricky.”
“And your apartment’s really clean. And nice.”
That surprised him enough that his eyes popped back open and he blinked at me. Then he snorted with an uncharacteristically shy smile, long fingers trailing down my forearm as he nuzzled my inner wrist. I shivered from the touch, chest aching with the urge to kiss him.
“I don’t care about anything else,” I told him hoarsely. “I mean, I have, like, a million questions, but I know none of the answers will change how I feel about you.”
He shuddered, clutching my arm tighter to draw me into a hug, pressing his lips to my neck. “God, Ricky.”
I rubbed my nose in his hair, drawing in a deep breath. “Is that why you smell so good? Is it a ghoul thing?”
He chuckled shakily, kissing my neck again. “The sweet smell? Yeah, it’s a ghoul thing.”
Drawing back, I told him with an embarrassed grin, “You smell like cherry pie.”
His pale eyes grew heavier, fingers creeping under the hem of my T-shirt to trail over my lower back. “You like cherry pie?”
I licked my lips, gaze lowering to his mouth as I breathlessly answered, “Yeah. I love it.”
His hands rucked up my shirt as he slid them higher up my back.
I shivered, then hesitantly closed the distance between us to press my lips softly to his.
Elliot sighed into the kiss, fingers tightening on my back.
Our lips parted, tongues meeting in a slow glide.
The taste of him made me shudder with pleasure. Cherry pie and orange soda.
When we finally broke the kiss, Elliot looked lighter. Joyful. He grinned at me, trailing his fingers down the side of my face before smushing my cheeks. “You’re just the sweetest, Ricky. My cute little sugar muffin. I just wanna eat you up.”
I flushed, shooting him a teasing grin. “But not literally, right?”
His mouth stretched into a wicked smile. “Kinda.” Then he cringed. “Sorry. Bad joke.”
I laughed, pressing a kiss to his cheek before shooting him a sly grin of my own. “It’s okay. I kind of wanna eat you too.”