Cocky ass. “Well, I don’t.” I huffed. He appraised me again. I fidgeted with my ringless finger. Mortification climbed my cheeks.
“So how will we end it, will we say we had a blazing row. Or will it be an ‘it’s not you it’s me’scenario, or will I catch you in bed with my best friend?” My own words shot a pang through my heart.
He hiked up a brow. “Perhaps we say you were not over your last relationship, Amelia.”
There was a shot in that comment. His words had a bigger impact than I would’ve liked. A lump clogged my throat. I picked a bit of lettuce out of the burger and attempted to lighten the mood.
“Or we say you like to drink my blood and I’m not a fan of it.” As soon as the words left my mouth, I knew them to be a mistake.
His eyes clouded over, he stopped eating. I stared at him, wide eyed with regret, his response would be unpleasant, and it was a daunting prospect.
“Sorry,” I mumbled, “I didn’t mean anything by it.”
“Do you always speak before you think?” He wasn’t angry, to my surprise, he seemed more intrigued as to how I could be so stupid as to mention the one sore point between us. Not one sore point, I corrected myself, one of the sore points. The blood drinking sore point though, he needed to do to survive, I reminded myself.
I nodded, smiled apologetically. “Yeah, speak and act usually, I’m multi-talented like that.”
A sliver of humor hit his eyes, and then departed as quickly as it appeared. I finished eating the rest of the burger in silence.Karson, I noticed, left most of his on the plate. I took a few gulps of water.
“How’s everything?” The waitress asked, smiling and batting her eyelashes at Karson.
“Very good, thank you,” he said, then glanced at me with a glint in his eye. “Ready, sweetheart?
Sweetheart.“Yes, of course,” I got to my feet. “It was lovely, thank you.” I smiled at the waitress but it was a waste of time, she wasn’t looking at me. She collected the plates and walked off, her hips swung with a little more sway on the way back than they’d done on the way over. Karson popped her a fifty dollar tip on the table on the way out.
I raised my eyebrows. “She must have been thinking some interesting things about you.”
He held out his hands in mock bewilderment. “I just thought she could use the tip.”
I laughed.
In the short time we’d been inside, an orchestra of gray clouds had convened overhead. In the distance were heavy black ones full of soaking rain.
“It’s—” I turned to speak to Karson, but he wasn’t beside me. I twisted my head back. He stalked a few feet behind. Stalked, that seemed about right, the way he moved with graceful, soundless, purposeful steps.
His eyes were pinned on two young men hopping out of a pick-up. Nothing startling about them, average twenty-somethings.
I slowed, biting my lip. Had they followed us here? Both of them looked at me with seedy smirks and I relaxed.
I popped a hand Karson’s arm. He looked like a stone god ready to pass judgement, on the brink of reigning fire on an unsuspecting guilt-ridden society.
“Karson, I don’t think whatever you are thinking is a necessary response,” I murmured.
I felt him stiffen as their eyes met his. My fingernails dug into his arm. The look on his face was enough to deter them. Both men averted their gazes to the ground and walked past without incident.
“Really?” I admonished him once they’d safely passed, relieving him of the pressure of my fingers in his skin. “I don’t think those two are a threat.”
“You did not hear what they said or were thinking.”
“Well let’s see if I can guess . . . like just about every male out there, they see a female and want to . . .” I stopped, instinctively I knew what I was about to say and what he would appreciate were two vastly different things.
He cocked his head to the side at me raised his brow up. “Yes, Amelia, please do go on!” He opened the car door.
“It’s probably the same thing male vampires think,” I said, trying not to laugh at his annoyed expression, sliding into the seat.
He went around and slid in one agile movement into the driver’s seat, started the car and reversed back.
“I can assure you, what vampires think and fragiles think are two very separate things.”
