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“Amenable, huh?” His smile races through me.
“Don’t even pretend not to know what it means.”
He shakes his head, slow and weary. “I’m not the one who’s pretending.”
“Being indirect isn’t the same as pretending. Especially when you know if you ask straight up, you’ll get shot down.”
“Why don’t you try it and find out?”
“Not tonight.”
“You already got what you wanted tonight.”
I readjust the strap of my bag on my shoulder. Rise up on my toes, bringing my face a little closer to his. My mouth a little closer. “Not even close.”
The breath explodes out of him. He turns his head away. “There’s no reason you have to hang around till I’m home, you know.”
“I can’t lock the door behind me.”
That gets me another smile, slower and wider, though he still won’t look my way. “Now you’re gonna tell me you need a key.”
“I don’t mind hanging around until you get back.”
“Some nights I’m on till two.”
“I know. Frankie said.”
Now he looks me over, head to toe. “You sleeping bad again?”
“Sometimes.” Most of the time. I stay up late, sleep a few hours, wake up and work, take a nap late in the day if I don’t have meetings.
My vampire schedule. It was one thing West and I used to have in common.
Still do, I guess.
“I’ll get you a key,” he says. “You can leave when you want.”
“Thanks.”
I brush past him, hyper-aware of his body and the narrowness of the staircase. Conscious that he could reach out, put his hands on me, touch me anywhere, and I’d let him.
Does he feel that, too? He must. It’s right here between us, that knowledge, that love song our bodies never stopped singing.
Even mad at him, I’d kill to be able to go with him to his room, help him get his boots off. I’d die to be able to crawl into the crook of his arm so he could sleep and I could keep him safe.
Keep vigil over him.
“Goodnight, West.”
“ ’Night, Caro.”
I hold that image of us in my head when I get into the car and start driving through the tunnel of my headlights down the deserted country road. Me and West in his bed together.
Me and West, wandering through a wilderness of stars with our hands clasped.
Me leading him out.
West
