Whether or not you like me. We can’t be together.
He stared at her for a beat. For two. The look in his eyes nearly fractured her resolve. Softly, he said, “You think I don’t know that? You think that every time I look at you, I don’t know that you’ll never be mine?”
Mine.The word pinged in the quiet.
Because I’m a monster, she guessed, blinking back tears.Because I’m made of death.
“No,” he countered. “Because you’re disciplined and clever and connected and you have the entire world at your feet and I’m going to spend the rest of my life working odd jobs to make ends meet. Look at me. Look around. I can’t give you anything you don’t already have.”
It was her turn to stare, the breath fleeing her lungs.
“I mean,Jesus, Vivienne,” he said, “you don’t have to remind me.”
She flew up onto her toes and silenced him with a kiss, closed mouthed and careless. He remained frozen for the space of a heartbeat, surprised, and then caught her to him with an immediacy that leveled her. It wasn’t like the other times—stolen moments in sunlit bedrooms and shadowed alcoves. This time, it was only the two of them and the endless night ahead. This time, they met in a clash of teeth and tongues that left her seeing stars.
He didn’t hold back. He touched her everywhere, leaving impressions of his fingers along her jaw, her collarbone, the nape of her neck. A sudden tug at her throat drew a gasp to her lips. They broke apart, his eyes shining in the dark, his finger looped in the chain she’d stolen from his room. Breathless, he drew it out from beneath her shirt.
His medallion flashed in the light, turning in a pivot. His eyes lifted to hers. His stare was as dark as the deepest ocean.
“Say it back,” he ordered.
Say what?
“Tell me you like me.”
I don’t, she signed.I love you, she thought.
“A thiefanda liar.” He let the medallion drop. “I’ll help you. Repeat after me: ‘I like you, Tommy.’”
She shook her head, but he didn’t let up.
“You can do it,” he coaxed. “You won’t hurt me. I’m pretty sure I’m immune.”
She wanted to tell him she’d been biting his name between her teeth for weeks. To admit that she said it all the time, when there was no one else around to hear. But she was afraid, afraid.
What if last time had been a fluke? What if this time she killed him?
When she stayed silent, he let it go. Light from the moon spangled in his eyes as he ducked his head to kiss the place where her neck met her shoulder.
After that, she chronicled each moment in vivid bursts of awareness. His hands in her hair. His mouth at her throat. The soft swell of his mattress at her back and the jackrabbit beat of his heart against her fingertips. It was there she found her courage, buried in the hush of a midnight.
“Tommy,” she whispered into the dark.
He tensed all over, pulling back just far enough to see her face. Reaching out a hand, she pressed a thumb to the crinkle in his brow.
“I like you, too.” The admission came out in a whisper.
“Well, yeah.” His mouth kicked up in a smile. “Who wouldn’t?”
When they finally fell asleep, it was with their hands laced together between them. For the first time in a long time, she wasn’t afraid.
Thomas woke to find the bed beside him empty.
It was still dark—early dawn, the garage black as midnight. Vivienne was gone. Outside, in the living room, the television was quiet. There was a terrible stillness in the house that left him cold. He knifed upright, his heart pounding. In the dark, Molly rose with him. Someone had let her in. Which meant someone had crept out. Panic gripped him. Sensing it, Molly let out a wolverine snarl. The sound woke up Judd, who glanced toward the door with a whine.
Something was wrong.
He climbed out of bed, fumbling hurriedly into his pants. After a quick but futile search for his T-shirt, he fished a new one out of the dresser and shoved out into the hall, leaving the dogs shut firmly in his room.
