Page 94 of Bleed

“Uh huh,” she snorts, lifting her glass.

“I’m not dating him,” I clarify. “Just finally getting that big vampire dick.”

She chokes on her margarita, doubling over coughing while I just give an innocent shrug.

“What?” I ask sweetly.

She points at me accusingly between coughs. “I hate you.”

I wave a dismissive hand. “Psh, you love me.”

Her lips twist into a scowl, but she knows I’m right. If she didn’t, she wouldn’t have pried herself away from her cozy little vampire-king-love-nest just to meet me for cheap margs and girl talk.

Taylor finally recovers, taking another sip before setting her glass down. “So…” she says, steering the conversation back on track. “How do you actually feel about the contract?”

“I don’t know,” I admit, my smile fading a little. “I mean, I know I want to have sex with him.”

“Shocking,” she deadpans.

“But…” I gesture toward my phone. “Some of the stuff in there is outside my wheelhouse. I’m an adventurous girl, but not tie-me-to-a-cross-and-flog-me adventurous.”

Taylor’s eyes widen as she snatches up my phone. “Is that seriously in here?” she asks, swiping through the contract.

“Well, not specifically,” I admit. “But if I let him restrain me, how far does it go?”

She huffs a laugh, shaking her head as she sets the phone back on the table.

“What?” I ask.

Her forearms come to rest on the sticky tabletop, her eyes locking onto mine. “That’s actually a completely reasonable concern, Bex. I’m proud of you for taking your time with this instead of blindly jumping into it.”

I snort. “Thanks, Mom.”

“Seriously,” she says, fully committing to the parental bit. “You know I love you, but your choices have always been… questionable, at best.”

“Like signing up for an underground vampire blood agency?” I shoot back.

She clucks her tongue. “Exactly like that.”

“And look how it’s worked out for us.” I point at our drinks. “These are the cheapest margs in the city, but we had to flirt our way into getting them bought for us. Now, we’re running up a tab we actually know we can pay. We’re moving up in the world, bitch.”

She rolls her eyes, a reluctant smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. “Just because it worked out doesn’t mean it couldn’t have ended in disaster. I’m not judging, I’m–”

“Oh, you’re absolutely judging,” I cut in with a grin. “It’s alright, though. That’s kinda your brand.”

Taylor heaves a long-suffering sigh, tipping back the rest of her margarita.

“So,” she says, setting aside her empty glass. “Back to the contract. If there are certain things in there you’re uncomfortable with, you need to tell him. Have an actual conversation.”

I flinch back with a grimace. “Ew, no. If I do that, he’ll make it all clinical and un-sexy.”

She picks up my phone again, the screen glowing back to life. “Be that as it may…”

“I hate when you start sentences like that.”

“… you still need to have the conversation.”

I groan, scrubbing a hand over my face.