Crave (28 page)

“Yes. See you in a few minutes.” I ended the call, put the phone back in my pocket and turned around.

And nearly collided with Tristan's chest.

“I would really like a second date with you.” He gave a crooked half smile, but his eyebrows were still drawn together.

He wanted to see me again.

Part of me was leaping around inside, whooping with joy. He wanted to see me again!

But the other part of me didn't know what to do. Obviously I wanted to go on another date with him. Desperately. But…

He slid his hands up my arms to my shoulders and ducked his head until his mouth was an inch above mine. “May I?” His breath whispered over my lips, making me shiver.

Oh, Lord. Should I? No, I really shouldn't.

I nodded anyway.

He touched his lips to mine, a small brush, then again, lingering. The need rose up, making me want to fall through
the floor and fly at the same time. Someone whispered, it couldn't be me, I'd never sounded like that before. I grabbed his shirt at his lower back, hanging on to the soft folds for dear life as the kiss deepened.
This
was what I had needed so badly in history today. I knew how to define that craving now. His mouth on mine, his arms around me, was food and water enough to survive on for the rest of my life.

He moaned, the sound filling my mouth like a dessert to savor. Something told me I should stop kissing him now, that continuing this kiss could be bad in a way I didn't understand. There was something I was supposed to remember. But that nagging thought was gone, lost beneath the swamping need. He tasted so good, his warmth filling up that cold cavern inside that had tried to drown me in icy waves in class.

Then he staggered, breaking off the kiss, and rested his cheek against the top of my head.

I listened to his ragged breathing with a dazed smile of my own, and had to bite my still-tingling lower lip. Wow. I could swear I'd just swallowed the sun. I was filled with light and heat. Kissing Greg had never felt like this. Not even close.

When I eased back, I was surprised to feel Tristan shaking a little. Wait. Boring, plain-Jane me had made the most gorgeous guy in school shake? Impossible. I stepped away, and he leaned back against the wall with a grin.

“Um, are you okay?” I asked with a laugh. Now he was just being goofy.

He gave me that little-boy grin and laughed, too. “Yeah. Your kisses are…a whole new ball game for me.”

Hmm. “Um, is that good or bad?” Biting my lower lip, I moved over to our picnic area and began to gather up our drinks and trash. I let my hair fall forward to hide my face. Could he tell I'd only kissed one other boy besides him?

“Definitely good. Maybe too good. I'll probably need some
practice to get used to them.” He startled me when he was suddenly there beside me and pulling me to my feet again.

I laughed, my hands grabbing on to his shirt for balance. “Tristan, we have to go! I don't want to go, either, but I told Nanna I would be home in a few minutes and—”

“I know.”

“Then…” I waved at our things still left to be cleaned up.

“I'll do it. I don't want you cleaning up for me. I meant it when I said I don't need a slave.” His hand coasted over my hair in the lightest of caresses, making me glad I'd left it down tonight.

“Helping others isn't being a slave, Tristan. It's called teamwork and getting things done.”

He grunted in response, apparently unwilling to argue any more about it tonight, and helped me gather up everything. I waited for him to reach the hall door. Then I shut off the closet light, which I made the mistake of looking up at first. Temporarily blinded, I had to find my way over to him by following the soft sounds of his breathing. For once, my supersensitive hearing was actually helpful.

I knew I'd found him when my hands touched the hard curves of his upper arms.

His hands were full of the pizza box and plastic bag. The darkness hid me, made me bolder, and the temptation was too much to resist. Grinning, I slid my hands up to his cheeks, stood on tiptoe, leaned in and whispered, “May I?” before I kissed him.

I understood then why humans have noses. So we can find each other to kiss in the dark.

I held the kiss long enough to make us both breathless. Then I pulled away while I still could and led him down the stairs, my entire body buzzing.

Once the building was locked up again, we headed down
the cement ramp to our trucks. He shoved the pizza box under one arm so he could reach out and hold my hand. During the slow walk together across the campus in the dark, the silence broken only by the occasional cricket and our feet rustling over the grass, a sudden thought hit me.

Mom had been a senior here at JHS when she'd met my father. Had my parents done this? Walked side by side across this same campus, defying the rules so they could be together, risking starting a war, too, just because they loved each other?

They'd ended up getting married, yet even that hadn't started a war between the vamps and the witches. But it had ended up getting my family kicked out of the Clann.

Then again, what could the Clann do to us now? They couldn't exactly kick us out again. I was already banned from learning magic. And Mom could've been exaggerating about our starting a war anyways. Not to mention…talk about her being a hypocrite! How could she have the nerve to tell me to stay away from all descendants when she'd
married
a vampire?

He followed me to the driver side of my truck, waiting while I got in, snapped on my seat belt and rolled down the window.

“Can I see you again next week?” he asked.

I frowned. All arguments aside, we were still breaking the rules. “Tristan, let me think about—”

He leaned forward and kissed me. By the time he stopped, I couldn't think straight again. “Ohhh, no fair using kisses….”

I felt his lips curve into a grin against mine, teasing me as he whispered, “Please, Sav? We can keep it a secret if you want. The Clann and our families wouldn't find out.”

Could we really manage to date each other without anyone finding out?

He kissed me again, slowly this time, the tip of his nose nuzzling mine, robbing me of breath and reason.

Before I knew what I was doing, I found myself nodding in agreement.

And then praying during the entire drive home that we weren't making the biggest mistake of both our lives.

 

Nanna met me at the door, already dressed for bed in her favorite long, old-fashioned cotton and lace-trimmed night gown. She held the cordless phone in one hand and a slip of paper in the other. “Your father wants to speak with you.”

“Right now?” I froze. I hadn't spoken to my father in months, not since that phone call last spring when he'd made me promise never to dance again and passed on the council's threat to hurt Mom and Nanna if I refused.

“No, he left a message. But he wants you to call him back as soon as possible.”

She took a message for him. I growled under my breath.

“You know I don't want to talk to him,” I said as I quickly circled around her, moving fast down the hallway toward my bedroom in the hopes of avoiding an argument.

She followed me, her bare feet silent on the worn linoleum floor in the hall then whisper soft on my bedroom's brown shag carpeting.

“I know you don't want to talk to him,” she said. “And I'm sure he knows it, too. But he said this time it's important, and if you don't call him back, he'll just keep on calling till you talk to him.”

I keept my back to her to hide my burning face as my heart pounded in my ears. Had the vampire council somehow found out about my date with Tristan tonight? “Did he say why?”

“Nope. I wrote down the number for you.”

Okay, then my father hadn't called about anything too life
threatening or he would've told Nanna. Maybe he was just in an extra-demanding mood or something tonight.

Reluctantly, I accepted the phone and slip of paper from her. After one last stern look, she left the room, shutting the door behind her.

I took off my socks and shoes. But that didn't take long enough. So I went ahead and got ready for bed, brushing my teeth and washing my face in the bathroom. Then I pulled on my favorite long white nightgown, the one with the spaghetti straps that made it almost like a dress. As I brushed my hair, it tangled with my necklace. The only way to free the strands was to take off my necklace and slowly unthread it from my hair. I tried to put the necklace back on, but my hands were shaking too hard to work the clasp. After several frustrating attempts that only wound my nerves tighter, I gave up and dropped the locket on my bedside table.

With nothing else to do to delay the inevitable, I took a deep breath and forced myself to dial the number.

“Do you always stay out this late?” were my father's first words.

Unbelievable. “This is the first time I speak to you in months, and
that's
how you want to start this conversation?” I was shaking from head to toe. I had to sit down on the edge of my bed and take a deep breath before I totally lost it. “And in answer to the question you really have no right to ask…on Fridays, yes, I'm usually this late coming home. Especially when our school has out-of-town games during football and basketball seasons. But shouldn't you and your council already know that from spying on me through Nanna and Mom?”

Silence filled the phone before he sighed. “I understand why you are angry, Savannah. I do not like the situation any more than you do. But I am just doing my j—”

Oh, spare me. “What did you need to talk to me about?”

More silence filled the phone, and I could practically hear him gritting his teeth. Good, maybe I'd finally made a dent in that infamous icy-cold vampire self-control of his. Of course, for him to truly get mad, he'd have to actually care in the first place. Which he didn't.

“I am calling officially on behalf of the council tonight.”

Oh,
crap.
They knew! I held my breath and waited for him to continue.

The silence lengthened for a full minute before he finally spoke up again. “Savannah, is there anything you would like me to tell the council?”

They did know! How had they found out so fast? I slid off the bed to the floor and struggled to breathe as my mind raced. “Umm, no, why?”

“The council has requested my presence at their headquarters overseas, and I am leaving tomorrow. I needed to check for any last-minute updates regarding your changes before I leave. And to be able to truthfully tell them I have received those updates directly from you.”

I tried not to sigh with relief. They didn't know.

He continued. “While I am away, however…”

My heart started racing again.

“I would like you to seriously consider coming to live with me instead.”

Now
that
was random. “Why?”

“The council has expressed concern that you have been raised your entire life by former Clann members, and that this may have biased you. They would like you to consider living with me instead so that you will have a more balanced upbringing during your formative years.”

Of course it would be the council's wish and not his. “I don't mean to hurt your nonexistent feelings. But like you said, I've spent my whole life here. With my
real
family. This
is my home. All my friends are here. And I only have two years till graduation.” Not to mention I'd rather die than live with a heartless council spy like him.

He sighed. “I will suggest to them that such a change in your living situation be delayed at least until you begin college. Perhaps that will appease them for a while.”

“Tell them whatever you like.” He would anyways. The council always came first for him. My needs probably didn't even make it onto his list.

“You should know, while I am there I may not be able to call your mother and grandmother for updates as frequently. So please tell them I will be in contact with them as often as I am able to.”

Well, that sounded mysterious. Was he trying to bait me into asking him questions? Because that would require me to actually care about him.

After another long silence, he gave one last sigh. “Goodbye, Savannah.”

“Bye.” I ended the call then stared at the phone. That's when I realized just how badly my hands were shaking. If the vampire council had found out about me and Tristan…

Unpleasant as talking with my father had been, at least it had revealed one thing. The vampire council didn't know about my date with Tristan tonight. At least, not yet. Because if they had, my father would have asked me about it, or at least sounded disappointed with me.

I'd broken one of their stupid rules. Yet as all-powerful as they claimed to be, they still didn't know about it.

I closed my eyes and instantly remembered how it had felt to kiss Tristan. A slow smile spread across my mouth. If anyone found out about us, we would both be sooo dead. But…it had been totally worth it. Tristan's kisses were beyond addictive. And I was one hooked girl.

I thought of never seeing him again. If the council made me go live with my father now, I'd have to move to another state. I wasn't even sure which state my father was in at the moment; he moved around so much, living for months and occasionally years at a time wherever his latest historical-home restoration project took him. But I could guarantee that he would never live anywhere near Jacksonville, not with so many descendants concentrated here. Which meant living with my father would definitely force me to switch schools.

No more history or Charmers with Tristan. No more glimpses of him in the halls…

I shuddered.

I fell asleep remembering how it had felt to dance with Tristan. So I wasn't surprised when I immediately began to dream about him.

“Hi, Savannah.” Tristan stood at the edge of a forest turned gray with moonlight. “Want to take a walk with me?”