Another pull-up.
No. It would be idiotic to force Timothy into my problems with Seth. I need to get free on my own.
Sweat dripped down my face and torso, audibly hitting the tile floor of my apartment. Or maybe my heightened senses made the droplets seem impossibly loud as they punctuated my violently volleying thoughts.
I’d lodged a pull-up bar in the doorway to my bedroom, a place I could never have imagined living a few years ago. It was one of the high-roller suites in Seth’s hotel, and despite the expansive square footage and luxe finishes, it felt more like a gilded cage.
I was on maybe my six hundredth pull-up when I dropped. Still not worn out.
Vampire strength was amazing, but it made it all the harder to work off my restlessness. I walked to the kitchen to get myself a glass of water more out of habit than necessity.
There was one person I’d like to work off this tension with, but Timothy couldn’t—no, wouldn’t—let himself even entertain doing such a thing.
He’d say it was too dangerous.
He wasn’t wrong.
Despite being back in Vegas, I’d stayed away from him for so many reasons. The main reason being the devil I’d struck a bargain with. Seth kept close tabs on me, and if he caught me running to Timothy, I didn’t think that would end well.
I was right. Turns out, they had a long history that was anything but chill.
My hesitance was also because I’d also been determined to get out of the mess I’d gotten myself into before I went to Timothy.
The whole plan was to become a vampire to show him I wasn’t a weak, breakable, mortal anymore. We were equals now and could be together.
Ha! What an idiot I was.
Timothy looked at me like he always did when I got too close. Like I was a tornado about to touch down on his perfect world and ruin everything.
My insides gnashed with jagged parts of wanting, knowing I’d do anything to make him mine. Even now.
In his office, our hands touching, I’d been on the verge of grabbing him by the throat and pinning him to his perfect little bookshelves. I wanted to ravage him with hot, open mouth kisses until we knocked over all his trinkets and books, and his control snapped like the stupid, brittle twig it was.
But I wasn’t free to do so.
I swigged my water, closing my eyes tight, swallowing the frustration.
There was a knock at my door. Frowning, I crossed the apartment to open it and found Miranda standing there. She wore high-waisted black leggings and a snug compression fit, a cropped tank that showed her shoulders and kept her free to move. Bob was sheathed on her back while a lightweight zip hoodie was tied around her waist. Judging by the outfit and the slight sheen of sweat on her body, she’d either just been out at the gym, or monster hunting.
Her eyes flashed with black cat energy. Everything about her screamed “touch me and die.” But as the labrador retriever type myself, I didn’t much let it bother me.
“Hey,” I said, my shoulders dropping a couple of inches.
“Hey,” she said with a sharp jerk of her head. “Can I come in?”
“Oh, yeah.” I stood back and waved her in.
“Wow.” She whistled, her head swiveling to take in all the finishes on my place. “This is a far cry from that shithole place you shared with...what was it? Three roommates?”
“Four,” I corrected, as I headed toward the bathroom. “But one of them was always out of town on business so it might as well had been three.”
Miranda followed me, her hand casually encircling the hilt of her sword strapped to her hip. I grabbed a fresh towel to mop up my sweat as she nosed around my apartment, opening closet doors and poking into the different rooms. “Your stutter is gone. Is that a vampire thing?”
Straight to the point as always. Miranda never pussyfooted around what she was thinking. A trait I found incredibly reassuring in a friend as well as amusing at times.
“Nah, after I left, I hit my speech therapy with a new zeal. Got it mostly under control.” It did still surface, but only when I was under extreme anxiety or exhausted.
She opened my fridge.
