“So you’ll swim with me?”
“Sure.”
Her smile was so wide he got a flash of fangs. That strange sensation—like someone had tossed sparklers into his chest cavity—had him gripping the side of the table. Oliver figured it was some strange fetish, because that would be just like him. He was a man-whore, no doubt about it. Never mind the fact he was doing his level best to keep his sights off the sweet, lovely vampire he was spending his time with. So it made total sense that he’d find some kind of sexual fascination with those sharp canines. The thought of Bijou sinking those razor-sharp teeth into his—
“I’m going to grab a snack first. Then I’ll go get changed,” Bijou said. “Meet you down there?”
Shaking off the crude image superimposed in his head, Oliver nodded. “Yep.”
His gaze shifted to her denim-clad ass as she strolled out of the game room, disappearing into the hall.
Oliver exhaled as he replaced the stick on the wall, then gathered all the balls into the rack, leaving them in place for whoever came to play after them.
He rubbed a hand over his stomach, attempting to ease his intestines. He wasn’t sure what was causing the ruckus, but for the past few days, he’d felt … he wouldn’t so much say he was sick, but there was definitely something up. The more time he spent with Bijou, the worse it seemed to get. At first he’d mistaken it for desire. Because, duh, she did it for him in a major way.
But then the cramping had started, as though his stomach was attempting to eat itself. It was almost like a hunger pain. On steroids.
“Probably nerves,” he muttered as he stepped into his bedroom, closing the door behind him.
That made him smile. Him? Nervous? No way. Not when it came to chicks.
Then again, stranger things had happened.
Orianna hugged the toilet, her face paleand clammy, sweat beading on her brow.
It was the same position she’d been in for the past few hours, ever since they’d returned to the mansion. More specifically, ever since Eclipse had turned her into a mist and relocated her back to his private quarters.
“Sezari?”
“Hmm?” No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t lift her head from where it rested on her forearm. It was hard enough to lift her eyelids, much less the heavier parts of her body.
“I amsosorry,” he said for the thousandth time.
She wanted to tell him not to be, but until her molecules realigned to the same spot they’d been before he’d ghosted her out of Oklahoma, she couldn’t string that many words together.
Her stomach heaved, her head bobbing as she stared down into the clear water in the bowl. Her eyes closed as her body attempted to expel her stomach. She was convinced that was all that was left because everything else was long gone by now.
A cool rag covered her forehead and she sighed, turning her head on her arm. The toilet flushed thanks to Eclipse, but she knew aheurospwas pacing the hallway, eager to get in here to clean up so neither of them had to.
She wanted nothing more than to fall into bed and sleep for a millennium, but until she could get her body under control, relocating was only going to make it worse.
Eclipse squatted down beside her. “I’ve got Reidar trying to find a human doctor.”
Orianna managed a smile. A human doctor? What were they going to do? She seriously doubted there was a cure for motion sickness induced by teleporting.
And to think, Eclipse had warned her it might be uncomfortable.
That was the freaking understatement of the year.
Uncomfortable was wearing jeans to Thanksgiving dinner or riding a bus next to a woman with pointy elbows. This… It was as though her brain had registered the fact she’d been splintered into the ether, her chemical makeup splattered across time and space only to be pulled back together at the end. Yeah. She’d take sitting in a car for nine hours, thank you very much.
She couldn’t imagine anything worse than this. Not the worst hangover in the world held a candle to having your body split apart and miraculously pieced back together.
The bad news? Well, that would be the fact that the magic reset button on her hormones had been pressed, and not only did she want to expel her innards, Orianna also had a bad case of the wants. Her body needed Eclipse’s despite the fact she was in no shape to accommodate. Which she figured was part of the reason for the sweat on her brow.
A knock sounded, and then Eclipse was gone, leaving her to hug the toilet all by her lonesome. Orianna could hear the soft rumble of voices followed by a click, more footsteps.
“I think we’ve got a solution.”
