The feel of his hand on my skin burned, but not unpleasantly. It was less,ahh my skin is on fire!and more,holy shit Adriel is touching me!
But I didn’t want to tell him. I already felt like a fool for bringing it up at all. I refused to meet his gaze. “I can’t. It’s just me being stupid.”
“No,” Adriel argued. “I want to know where your feelings come from.” In a lower, more serious voice, he added, “If we’re going to live together for the time being, then I need to understand, Caleb. Humans are supposed to be predictable. But what you said… I didn’t see it coming at all.”
“How do you mean?”
“You asked if I hated you,” he replied. “Where did that question come from? I want to know.”
I blinked up at him, totally confused and startled. Whatever reaction I was expecting when I said those words, it wasn’tthis.Was Adriel actually interested in my emotions? That wasn’t the feeling I got from him all this time, but what if I was wrong?
“I guess…” I lowered my eyes. “It’s because you act like you don’t want anything to do with me.” Quickly, I added, “Not that youhaveto, I mean. Since this was all Pierce’s set up and all, so I get it if you’re annoyed by the whole thing.”
Adriel listened without speaking or even moving. When I awkwardly trailed off, he continued to stare at me, like he was formulating his own thoughts. The silence was too much to bear. My temperature continued to rise from embarrassment and I wished I could melt into the garage floor, or doanythingbesides keep making an ass out of myself.
“We should get inside - “
But my words were cut off again by Adriel’s fingertip pressed to my lips.
If my temperature was high before, it just skyrocketed. My whole face turned red. Sweat dampened my brow.
“There you go again,” Adriel commented. “Trying to escape your own words. Your own emotions.”
I didn’t know what to say, so I stayed silent. He didn’t remove his finger. I could still feel his finger pressed to my sensitive lips. The longer this went on, the more I was convinced Adriel was trying to kill me by making me blush to death.
Then, Adriel sighed. I knew vampire’s didn’t breathe the way humans did, so it was just body language. His finger slipped away from my lips, to my secret disappointment.
“Perhaps this is my fault,” he said. “I’ve said some things to you that weren’t well received, to say the least.”
I remembered our last conversation in the car, before my shift, and how painfully uncomfortable it had been.
“It was never my intention to cause you distress,” Adriel continued. “I’m aware that I can be… blunt, which my brothers take pleasure in pointing out. But they’re used to my behavior, and it occurred to me that you are not.”
Then something crazy happened. Adriel bowed. Tome.It lasted only a second, long enough for me to realize it was really happening and I wasn’t just hallucinating.
“I apologize,” Adriel said. “I do not hate you, and I did a poor job of communicating that. I hope that we can discuss things out in the open moving forward so this doesn’t happen again.” He met my eyes and extended his hand. “Deal?”
My heart skipped like a frightened rabbit. My whole arm trembling, I extended my shaky hand to grasp his. “D-deal.”
“Excellent,” Adriel said. “Now that we’ve settled that, let’s return home.”
Home.
The cottage on the Tenebrae Estates… Adriel had called it his home. Was I included in that, too?
Outside, the black night sky began to turn a deep shade of blue, signalling the coming dawn. Normally, the idea of watching a sunrise was whimsical and full of joy. But knowing it would only harm Adriel and his family, it left me more with wariness. Despite the awkward moments and uncomfortable situations we shared, I never wanted anything bad happen to him.
He was protecting me, and trying his best to understand me better. Now I had to return the favor.
As dawn broke outside, I settled into bed. My mood was better than the previous nights I’d spent here, so I hoped I wouldn’t have a nightmare again. I didn’t want to bother Adriel with it, but since Margaret’s attack, I had bad dreams about it every single time I slept. I hoped they would go away in time.
In my mind, I kept replaying the events in the garage - specifically, Adriel telling me he didn’t hate me.
And pressing his finger to my lips.I shuddered, feeling strangely pleasant.
I knew this wasn’t going to be a fairy-tale situation or anything, but there was a point where I was really starting to get anxious. Pissing off my hero just by being around wasn’t what I wanted to do. Thankfully, Adriel told me that wasn’t the case, so that was one thing I could stop worrying about.
Exhaustion weighed on me like a blanket, pushing me closer down into a deep slumber.
Then, my eyes snapped open.
I’d forgotten to buy heat suppressants at work.
I bolted upright in bed and snatched my phone, thumbing it open to the calendar. I let out a sigh of relief. My heat wasn’t due for another week, and I had plenty of shifts until then. Plenty of time to buy the medication.
I had nothing to worry about.
