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I raised my chin and began to chuckle, my eyes locking with hers. Again, a familiar blaze rocked through my chest, and a tug crisscrossed over my heart.
“That’s kind of what I’ve been saying,” I replied dryly, but I was still entranced by the eerie arch over my heart. “What is this?”
She bit down hard on her lower lip, and I was jealous of her teeth. I wondered if she tasted like those hints of vanilla I kept catching. Her gestures were so animated for someone who tried so hard not to display her emotions. Several times, I forced myself back on my barstool, my torso leaning into her as if I was possessed.
But if she noticed, she made no comment, shaking her head.
“I don’t understand,” she grumbled, sounding dejected. “How did this happen? How do you just ‘forget’ who you are for two hundred years?”
“Your guess is as good as mine,” I said, reaching for my beer nonchalantly. “I’ve been asking myself the same thing.”
Staring at me, she shook her head.
“No, Elijah, you’re the one who has explaining to do. Not the other way around. You just walked back in here, alone, claiming amnesia…”
She paused, perplexed.
“I still can’t believe that the Elijah Webb I know would do that.”
I gently set my glass back on the bar and stared at her.
“I’d like to know more about him,” I urged her. “Tell me all about him.”
She hesitated, but before she could fully lower her guard, Abby squinted again.
“How did you come to be here if you really don’t remember?” she insisted. “I don’t believe you just happened to come back here after two hundred years, Elijah.”
The suspicion in her voice was understandable, but I felt like I had just as much right to be skeptical of her. She clearly had history with me—or whoever I’d been before. And she didn’t seem to want me here. But at the same time, the attraction was magnetic, forceful. She had come looking for me, sought me out. She wanted to be close to me, but she was pushing me away simultaneously. Nothing about this lined up.
“I lived here two hundred years ago?” I asked directly, thinking that perhaps more pointed questions might lead to firmer responses.
She scoffed again, her eyes darting over the bar nervously.
Why did she keep looking around like that? I decided to ask.
“You worried your boyfriend is going to catch us together?” I joked, but even uttering the word “boyfriend” in relation to this magnificent creature, who had captured the very essence of my soul, burned a hole in my stomach.
The edges of her mouth twitched, and she locked her gaze with mine again.
“You really are an asshole, you know that?” she spat.
I chuckled indifferently. “I’ve been called worse.”
“And you are worse, too,” she agreed, standing as if she’d decided. “Come on. You can’t stay here.”
My eyebrows rose slightly, but I didn’t follow her lead. Instead, I lazily reached for my beer once more and took a long, leisurely sip.
“No. I don’t think I’m going anywhere without some answers from you,” I replied.
Her mouth parted in shock. “What?”
“I’ve already paid for my room, and I get the sense that you’re not offering a nightcap at your place… are you?”
I winked teasingly, enjoying her rising ire. Abigail’s eyes became slits of fury, and she grabbed my arm, pressing her nose almost into mine. Her nearness excited me, the urge to snatch her by the waist insurmountable. I clutched at the pint glass with such force, the mug cracked in my strong hands.
I wanted to bite down on that full, furious lower lip so badly, but with every ounce of willpower in the universe, I managed to contain myself, returning her stare with a steadfastness of my own.
“If you really don’t remember, and you value your safety, Elijah, you’ll come with me,” she hissed. “Now.”
