Forbidden Alliance: A Werewolf's Tale (Forbidden Alliance Trilogy) (12 page)

That’s so damn hot.

He handed me a small porcelain plate and motioned towards the appetizers covering the table.
“Me system processes alcohol differently than yours,” he said, addressing my drinking and driving concerns.
“It would take many, many gallons of wine
for me to
even feel squiffy.”

That was an interesting bit of information
,
and obviously a major difference b
etween vampires and werewolves
:
werewolves got drunk as shit just as a human would, gallons of overly priced wine wasn’t necessary.
I saw
Jarvis get shitfaced off
the
two cans of
Pabst
he stole from our uncle’s cooler when he was fourteen.

“Why do it then?” I asked.

Tanis absently shrugged.
“I suppose
I drink it because
I enjoy the taste of a fine wine...it reminds me of home,” he added the latter as more of an afterthought.
It was more than obvious that his mental and verbal filters were suddenly missing, and that he just admitted something that he possibly hadn’t spoken about in centuries.
It made me feel good that he was so comfortable around me that he could open up, but it scared me at the same time because it made me as vulnerable as he was inadvertently making himself.
“Clean water was not something that was in great supply when I was a nipper, thus we would have wine with nearly every meal.”
He absently swirled the wine in his glass, intently watching the dark red liquid slosh around in the delicate crystal stemware
as it
form
ed
a small vortex.

“How did it happen?” I whispered.

Again, he shrugged but I don’t think that he actually heard my question.

“I mean...you didn’t bite yourself and turn into a vampire, right?” I clarified and nervously picked up
a
bread thing that was on one of the plates and sniffed it.

Tanis looked up at me and chuckled.
“It will not bite,” he assured me before snapping his teeth at me and I blushed.
“No pun intended
, of course
.
It is Bruschetta,” he explained and I cocked an eyebrow so he clarified, “which is crostini with tomato, basil, garlic and fresh mozzarella.
Splash some of olive oil on it since that is how the Italians eat it.
And to answer your question, I did not bite meself.
Me sister and I were bitten by our older brother who had been turned eight years prior.
d’Artagnan was the eldest of nine siblings.”

My eyes widened
as
I slowly chewed, trying to swallow the lump in my throat so I didn’t choke on the overly price
d
Italian food.

“Sic
kness swept through our village
,
killing nearly three-quarter of the
villagers
.
Only meself, Georgiana and d’Artagnan survived in our family.
Fearing for our livelihood, d’Artagnan went in search of a wealthy bride.
He found one, however he found m
ore than he was bargaining for
:
she was a vampire.
Eight years later, when I was barely nineteen years of age, he turned us and we have been vampires ever since.”
He looked up at me.
“Not the romanticized tale that you were expecting, was it?”

I shook my head before I could stop myself.

A small, sad smile pulled at the corner
s
of his mouth but
it
quickly fell so he turned his attention back to his wine.
“Hollywood and lonely spinsters with too many cats and
a typewriter
have romanticized vampirism into something dark and sensual yet beautiful; a way for love to last for all eternity; a mea
ns to never have to say goodbye; a commercialized means to push one’s sexiest and undermining to a woman’s worth religion on the unwitting preteen masses.
But very rarely do you hear of the penned tale of one’s own brother that viciously, like a starved, blood crazed animal, sank his
fangs
into the flesh of his own little sister and brother, force feeding
his
polluted blood into their mouths, forcing them to forsaken all they knew and once loved.
Like a thief in the night, he took away our futures and the destination which await
s
everyone
:
the serenity and absolution of death.”
He looked up at me and the ancient sadness and regret that
was
so very visible in his eyes caused mine to tear up.

“I am so sorry,” I whispered.
“About your sister and what your brother did and...your family and...” my words trailed off; what was there to tell him that he hadn’t already heard countless times before throughout the centuries?

Tanis laughed once,
humorlessly.
“Thank you,
Miss Jay Dee,
but there is nothing to apologize for, and as for me family, they died long ago.
I do not remember their names or what they looked like; memories fade with time.
It is a give and take...you give up your past to embrace the dark gift.
Georgiana wanted it and I did not.
However, d’Artagnan did not give us a choice, as usual.”

I gasped; Jarvis would have never done anything like that to me, and I wouldn’t have done it to him...we loved each other because that’s what family was: love.

“Well, I suppose he did give us a choice,” Tanis said, bringing his glass of wine to his lips, “however when I said no
,
he took it as a yes and did what he wanted,” he snarled the last part before taking a drink, draining his glass in two gulps.
“Do I hold ill-will towards him?” he rhetorically asked, refilling his glass.
“Not anymore.
A part of me got over it after the first century, but there are always those moments that get me knickers in a twist.
Are you enjoying the food
, Miss Jay Dee
?” he asked, changing the subject.

“It’s good, thank you,” I whispered, not even remembering what the appetizers tasted like; hell, I didn’t even remember eating any of them.
I was too wrapped up in the story of Tanis Ashton and the overflow of ancient emotions that wrapped around each word that left his lips to worry about myself, food, or my empty stomach.

“Think nothing of it,” he said with a warm smile.

Thankfully, the rest of dinner was filled with lighter
conversation
.
We laughed, teased, told jokes and talked shit to each other, but most importantly, we were both smiling and it was simply because of the other.

Dinner was...it was the perfect first date, it honestly was.
I sampled off of every plate. To my amazement
,
everything was delicious and it was the perfect way to have dinner—not that I’d ever admit to Tanis that he was right.
By the time dessert came, five
or six
bottles of wine were gone and I had moved my chair next to his so we could share the delicate desserts
...that was my excuse, honestly,
I couldn’t stand to
not
be near him any longer.
And I don’t know what made me do it, most likely it was the wine, but I did, I flicked a spoonful of chocolate mousse at him, hitting him in the cheek with it.

“
Miss
Jay Dee, this is a fancy restaurant,” Tanis scolded with a smile.

I pouted my bottom lip out.
“Sorry.
Want me to lick it off?” I teased.

His eyes widened so I did just that, I licked the little smudge of dessert off of his cheek.

When I was done
,
I smiled at him but his eyes were closed and he wasn’t breathing, and my smile fell.
“I’m sorry,” I instantly apologized.

“Do not apolog
ize,
Miss Jay Dee,
” he said and opened an eye, looking
over at me.
“That was most enjoyable.
I guess we should have started with dessert,” he purred.

“Ha ha,” I snorted and rolled my eyes.
“Goddamn wine.”

“Goddamn wine indeed,”
he mused
, lick
ing his lips.

I settled the check while Jay Dee used the loo.
I didn’t want her to see the thousand-dollar plus tip tab.
It drove me nutter how cheap and humble she was.
Usually when you tell a
woman
to order whatever she wants, they order the most expensive thing on the menu simply because it’s expensive.
But no, not Jay Dee.
Heaven forbid Jay Dee do something completely expected of a six-foot, blonde, supermodel looking seventeen year old!
She picked the shonkiest thing on the menu simply because it was shonky!
And obviously she was hungry; she ate as much food as I did, which was saying a lot.
Never had I met a
woman
t
ha
t could put down two eighteen-ounce steaks and some of everything on the menu.
It was beyond impressive, and as ridiculous as it was to say, really sexy.

Women
with appetites were a major turn on.

The wait staff
eventually
asked us to leave as it was well past closing time, and well past the time Jay Dee was supposed to be home; I was silently praying that she wouldn’t get into a barney
,
because if she were grounded
,
it’d mean that I couldn’t see her tomorrow and I so desperately longed to see her again.
The amusing thing was
,
neither of us had noticed that we were alone in the small restaurant; we were completely preoccupied with each other.

As we talked, our chairs moved closer and closer,
until
our bodies
were
eventually touching and her leg wrapped around mine under the table.
The contact sent a burning line of desire
ripping
through me, and more than once I had to look away from her as I struggled to remind myself that she was human, a mere teenager, and that I was a three-century vampire that didn’t fancy young, blonde humans.

It did very little to resolve the problem that had aroused in my trousers.

It had been more years than I cared to attempt to remember since I’d felt so at ease talking with someone.
There was something about Jay Dee
that caused me to open up and say the words that I had fought for centuries to bury deep within me.
Somehow she
effortlessly
resurrected within me the poet, romantic, human, but most importantly, Tanis.
It didn’t
matter what I said, or how off-
colored and slightly morbidly depressing it came out, she never questioned it.
Jay Dee was completely accepting of everything I told her, and more than once a tear formed in the corner
s
of her eye
s
from my admissions.
It was a strug
gle to keep my hands to myself;
they were literally shaking with a longing
which I had never known before. Never had I wanted
to caress
a woman’s
cheek, to wipe away the tears building in her large, onyx eyes,
more than I did during dinner. And
it was damn near the death of me to keep from pressing my lips to hers for a snog.
I wasn’t sure if she’d welcome the intimate exchange or hit me over it—the
stubborn woman
was rather difficult to read at times.