“Would you run away if you saw me coming, Aila?”
As he says the words, his hand grips me.It’s at that ticklish part of my body where my waist becomes my hips, very sensitive and tender.I can’t help it.I give a little scream, but I’m also laughing because it was so surprising.
“Argh!Theron.You are a fucking monster, you know that?Don’t you dare donkey bite me with your cold hand again!”
He laughs, too.“Donkey bite?Now that’s one you’re going to have to explain to me, darlin’.”
Pulling the covers up, I pretend to be irate, but he can see the twinkle in my eyes.
“That’s what my mom used to call it.She would make a puppet shape with her hand and say the donkey was coming to bite me.I found it hilarious up to the point when I became a tween.”
“Now it is my turn to ask for an explanation, Aila.The strange relationship you had with your mother, I need to know if it’s over now.”
He’s talking about me being with my mom as if I enjoyed the irritating dynamic we had together.How can I make this clearer?
“My mom and me, we’re not codependent, Theron!All these labels do not help.You wanna know why?Because they don’t take all the variables into consideration.”
He’s amused.I can tell from the way his mouth tilts up on one side.
“And what variables might those be?”
Taking a deep breath, I begin making my list.
“Mom was very young when she had me.As a kid, I couldn’t remember much of my father.Maybe we were searching for a daddy figure.Or perhaps we just needed a man to take the wheel, you know?But this much we have learned… It takes a very special kind of man to stay with a woman through thick and thin.”
“Is that Ben?”
I am slightly distracted by the way he curls my hair around his finger.The tugging feeling is so lovely.
“Um, yes, I sure hope so.It’s early days.But to say that I am relieved not to have to be the most stable relationship in my mom’s life anymore is an understatement!”
He shifts closer to me, close enough for me to smell the faint scent of iron on his skin.
“And what aboutyourstable relationship, Aila?Now that you don’t have your mother, who do you have?”
When he smiles, a tiny part of me is riveted and revolted to see the razor-sharp points of his canines exposed.Those teeth are the least human part of Theron, so I suppose that makes them the most monstrous.
Fascinated, I reach up and touch one.
“Ouch!”The pointed end of the tooth pricks me as easy as a hot knife sliding through butter.A droplet of ooey-gooey blood seeps out like a glistening ruby.
Catching my hand, Theron raises it to his mouth—and sucks.
I hold my breath, waiting for the crunching sound as my small fingerbone snaps.But it never comes.When he drops my hand, the bite mark is gone, with only a lingering sting of pain to remind me what happened.
“Who do you have, Aila?”
He knows I don’t like the answer, because we both know what it is.
If I don’t stay with Theron, I will have no one.
I refuse to accept that.
“Don’t try to dominate me, Theron.I value my freedom more than you realize.”
That wicked laugh of his again.How can someone be so scary and charming at the same time?
“If that’s how you feel about it, darlin’, why don’t you come on and show me who’s the boss in your bedroom?”
