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How the fuck did he just do that so fast?
He barely even touched me.
I really am an animal around him, aren’t I?
And then reality fights through the haze.
I’m in a restaurant.
And he just made me come in public.
I carefully look around, afraid that others would have seen it all, but it seems I’m of no interest to anyone.
To anyone but Solon that is.
“You bastard,” I growl at him, grabbing his wrist and pulling his hand away from me. Now it comes off me easy and he takes it back. He breathes in deeply, closing his eyes for a moment, and I don’t have to guess what he’s smelling.
“I’ve been called worse things,” he says, supressing a smile as he looks at me. He reaches out and quickly rubs his thumb across my lips, the blood glistening on it, then rubs it across his own lips, licking them delicately.
I swallow uneasily as I watch him, wondering if my blood will do anything to him. He’s shown so much restraint before.
“I seem to recall a time you were begging me to make you come,” he adds, after a thoughtful moment.
“You know you have no right being here,” I tell him, getting angry all over again. What I went through in bloodlust has no bearing on the way I am now around him. Does it?
This is how your body will always react, he’d once told me.
“Need to keep an eye on you, moonshine,” he says, reaching for my glass of champagne and having a gulp before setting it back down. “You’re on fragile ground. It’s a dangerous world now.”
“Dangerous?” I snap. “You’re the one who put me in danger by parading me in a room full of vampires.”
He gives me a steady look. “I told you why I did that.”
“And how am I supposed to trust you? You already lied to me.”
“When?”
“When I found out that you’re the one who sold out my parents, my real ones. You made a trade. You helped kill them. And you wanted me dead too, didn’t you?”
He jerks his head back like I just slapped him, his brows knitted together, eyes on fire. “What?”
“Should we order food?”
Elle’s voice makes me pull away from him and I see her approaching the table. From the wary look on her face I can tell she stayed as long as she did in there to give us some alone time.
I give her a reassuring smile, even though I’m beyond pissed off at Solon for even being here. He needs to leave, now.
Elle sits down, glancing between the two of us. “Everything okay?” she asks, still giving Solon the dreamy eyes.
“Solon was just leaving,” I tell her. “He’s a vampire, you know. Shouldn’t be in the daylight for so long.”
Solon goes stiff beside me, all his muscles tensing, and I swear I hear his heartbeat increase.
He angles his head and gives me a hard, cold stare. Careful. Humans aren’t so easily compelled when they’re faced with the truth.
I frown, knowing Elle obviously knew I was joking.
But when I look at Elle now, she’s sitting up straight in her chair, and I can smell a sharp tang in the air, her blood. It must be adrenaline making it more potent. Her eyes are watching Solon closely, her face contorting. She’s no longer compelled. She’s completely afraid of him. Revulsed, even.
I attempt to smile, open my mouth, about to joke that I’m a vampire too when Solon suddenly grabs my wrist.
Don’t! he yells in my head, his word a dagger. I meet his eyes and they’re impossibly blue, his pupils pin pricks. Don’t tell her the truth unless you want her to believe it. Unless you want her to look at you like she’s looking at me. Unless you want to lose her as a friend.
I suck in my breath, fear running through me now, the fear of losing Elle, my only friend. Then I look at her and try to smile but she’s still staring at Solon, like she really believes he is what he is, and that she’s his next meal.
“If you’ll excuse me, I need to be going,” Solon says, letting go of my wrist and swiftly getting to his feet, towering over the table. “It was nice to meet you Elle,” he says, but she doesn’t say anything back, just presses her lips together.
He leans in close to me, his mouth going behind my ear, the feel of his breath making my lids flutter. “Keep your truth between the two of us,” he whispers, creating goosebumps. “Come find me when you’re ready.”
Then he kisses the skin behind my ear and I feel like I’m totally coming undone. My eyes close, and they don’t open for a few moments. When I finally do look, he’s gone.
And Elle is staring at me with a grim expression, rubbing her hands up and down her arms like she’s cold.
