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“Until you bailed.” Bitterness coats each of the words. I stand, moving toward the bed and taking a seat.
“I’ve already explained that I didn’t have a choice. I did it to keep you safe.”
I groan. “I know. I’m sorry. I’m being a brat.”
She sits next to me and turns so that we’re face to face. “I, for one, am glad to see that nothing much has changed since I’ve been gone.” She grins and begins tickling me.
“Stop,” I squeal, trying and failing to get out from underneath her.
We’re laughing and I’m nearly in tears from her onslaught of tickles when a hard knock comes at the door.
“Glad to see you two have picked right up,” a smiling Julian says from inside the door.
“Julian,” I yelp, jumping to my feet and running into his open arms.
He holds me so tight and I want to tell him never to stop. He places a kiss on top of my head before stepping back to look into my eyes. His hands run over my head and down my cheeks, looking me over as if to verify that I’m fully intact.
“I missed you, Marina.”
I throw my arms around his neck, crashing my lips to his. A moan escapes my lips at the feel of his tongue against mine.
“Ew. Could you two get a damn room?” Maggie jests from the bed.
I pull away, giggling at the reminder that we’re not alone.
“Sorry, Maggie,” he grins. “But not very.” He winks at me and a goofy, lopsided smile takes over my entire face.
He walks toward the bed. “I’m so happy to finally have you here and safe,” he says to my sister, holding out his hand.
“Same,” she says, sounding almost awestruck. Her cheeks are a deep shade of pink and her eyes flutter a little too many times for my liking.
“Okay,” I say, laughing a bit at my sister’s blatant ogling of my man. “You can go find Law, Maggie,” I say, gesturing toward the open door, trying to give her the hint to get lost so that Julian and I can have a proper reunion.
“I’m afraid Law and I are going into a meeting that can’t be avoided. I need to debrief him on what I found and fill him in on the next steps.”
My face falls at the knowledge that he just got here and already he’s leaving me.
He walks back to my side, picking up my hand and lacing our fingers together. “I won’t be long. I’ll be right back,” he says, leaning down to my ear. “I don’t plan on leaving your side tonight.”
That bit of news has my bad mood quickly changing.
“Law had me pick up pizza on the way here. It’s in the hallway,” he says, gesturing toward the door. “You two eat, and when we’re done, you’ll have me for the rest of the night.”
He leans down once more and places a lingering kiss on my lips before leaving Maggie and me alone to eat.
“Whoa,” Maggie calls as I’m walking back in, pizza box and two cans of soda in hand. “I was not expecting that.”
I lift a brow, signaling her to elaborate. Based on her reaction to Julian, I can only guess where this is going.
“He’s so good-looking, Marina. Like romance novel fantasy boyfriend wrapped up into one hot-ass vampire package,” she says, eyes wide. “I mean, I saw him at Marcellus’ but there was so much commotion I didn’t have time to truly appreciate all that is him.”
“Yeah well, Law is just as handsome,” I point out, wanting her to focus her sights elsewhere, even though I know she’d never even consider pursuing Julian, knowing how I feel about him.
Maggie and I never fought over boys. Maybe because we never really had a chance to date in the first place. Our lives were too preoccupied by monsters, addicted parents, and therapy to fit in boys. But even if we had been more normal, we’d always been too close to allow friends or anything else to come between us. Boys would’ve been no different.
Maggie had always been a bit boy crazy, but her maturity level was always so far beneath other girls our age, because of how little exposure we had to them. The times when she wasn’t hospitalized and attempted to talk to a guy, it had always gone wrong.
“I know,” she sighs in response to my comment about Law. “But he doesn’t look at me like Julian does you. It was so hot, Marina. Like on a scale from one to one hundred, your chemistry is a five hundred. It almost made me sick.” She pulls a face and pretends to gag.
