Tears of the Broken (61 page)

“
Eating?” I whispered, leaning closer, trying to keep our
not-so-private-conversation private.

David let out a short breath of laughter. “No. It’s very
normal for me. I mean—” He looked over his shoulder at Dad, then
leaned closer. “It’s not totally necessary, but I still enjoy it. I
guess it’s like chocolate; you don’t need it, and you can’t survive
on it, but you can enjoy it now and then.”

“
Oh.” I nodded.

“
Things taste better,” he added when he handed me another
plate, way too slowly. Is he stalling, or just trying to look
human? “My senses are very finely tuned, so taste is enhanced,
touch is enhanced. Everything.” He smiled suggestively.

“
So?” I said slowly, running one finger at a
snail’s pace down his spine. The soft, silk fabric of his shirt
bunched under my finger as it glided along and stopped at the waist
of his jeans. “
This
feels better when you’re a vampire?”

“
Shh.” He turned and smiled at me, nodding toward my dad.
“And, yes. That feels incredible.”

Dad
stood up and walked out of the room. I held my breath. “Is he mad
at us?”

David listened for a second, then shook his head. “He just
wants to talk to Vicki about Mike coming to stay.”

“
Well, what about it?” I snapped. “Is he worried I’m going to
sneak into Mike’s room or something?”

“
No,
sweetheart.” David smiled. “He’s just talking to her about moving
the furniture from the spare room—tidying things up. He’s going to
ask me to help.”

“
Oh,
well, that’s okay then. I thought he might’ve been offended about
my touching you.” Since Dads don’t like to think their daughters
are human. Maybe he’d be happy that I’m with a vampire, at least I
can’t get pregnant.

“
Not
entirely true.”

“
Damn it, David, stop reading my mind!” I slapped him with the
tea towel.

He
laughed and looked at the pile of dishes. “You know, I can think of
at least three better ways to be spending our evening. You want me
to get this done in record time?” A hint of mischief shimmered
behind his eyes.

“
Okay,” I said slowly.

He
whirled into a blur of grey and black, like watching the road out
the window when driving down the highway, while I stood helpless in
the middle of the kitchen, hearing the tap or a cupboard door every
now and then.

“
All
done.”

I
blinked rapidly when a handsome vampire with an egotistical grin
appeared in front of my face, dusting off his hands. “I only
counted to ten!” I said.

“
Told you—” he jerked one shoulder up and dropped it, “I’m
fast.”

“
Hm.” I wrapped my arms along the sides of his waist and
pressed my cheek to his buttons. “I knew there was a reason I
should keep you around.”

“
Shall we go upstairs? I’ll give you a few more.”

“
Tease.” I smiled, squeezing him tighter. We both know he
won’t come upstairs with me. It’s late, and he has his
rules.

“
It’s out of respect for you, Ara. Not to tease
you.”

“
I
know, but it’s annoying.” I pulled my scarf away from my neck a
little and allowed the bruising there to breathe.

“
Look at you.” David ran his thumb over the skin just beside
the mark. “We shouldn’t have done that. You’re going to have
bruises for weeks.”

“
I’m
fine.”

“
No,
you’re not.” He covered the bruise over again. “I watched you
fidget with that all night. I know it’s bothering you.”

“
It
was worth it.”

“
No.
I was way too rough with you.”

“
I
liked
it.” I looked up, my voice and my eyes filling
with all the guilt of a child who just stole the last
cookie.

He
let a breath out through his smile. “You’re not the shy, meek
little thing I thought you were, are you?”

“
No,
I’m really not—and, you know, when you did that to me, it made me
feel—I don’t know?” I shook my head, lost for the right
word.

David smiled warmly. “I do. I believe the words you are
looking for are excited, lustful—” his voice lowered before he
said, “aroused.”

My
cheeks turned hot underneath. He’s right. I’ve never felt that
before—but that’s exactly what it felt like. “What does that mean,
though? That being bitten makes me want to…to have
sex
with you?” I
whispered the ‘s’ word.

“
Yes, but I prefer to think of it as…” he stroked the backs of
his fingers slowly over my cheekbone, “making love.”

My
breath shuddered. “Surely that’s not right—for me to be
turned on
by you doing
dangerous things to me?”

“
Of
course it is—what’s not right is taking pleasure in taunting me
when I’m about to kill you.”

“
Is
it—” I chewed the inside of my lip. “Is it wrong for me to want—”
Gah! I huffed the rest of my words out in one gust. Forget it. I
can’t finish this sentence without feeling like a fool. I wish my
mouth had never opened.

“
Ara?” David stepped even closer, towering over me a little,
with eyes of concern. “S’il vous plaît, mon amour? What is
it?”

“
I—I
want you to—”

“
Ara,” Vicki called before she walked through the doorway.
“It’s late, time you were getting to bed.”

Oh
the frustration. My shoulders dropped. “Sure, Vicki.”

Come
back
? I looked up at David.
When she’s gone to bed
?

David nodded and his lukewarm breath brushed my brow.
“Goodnight, Ara.” He kissed my hand, then backed away, releasing it
only once the distance was too great to hold on. “Goodnight, Mrs.
Thompson, and thank you for a lovely meal.” He smiled with all the
charm and sincerity of an eighteenth-century prince—Vicki totally
fell for it.

“
Well, you’re welcome, David. Any time. Maybe next time I’ll
cook something a little more interesting.”

“
To
be perfectly honest—” David smiled, “—I’ve not had a meal that
delicious in a long time.”

Vicki’s chest puffed up, and the smile on her face spread so
wide my mind pictured her as a big feathery chicken that just laid
an egg.

“
I’ll see you tomorrow.” I waved as he walked away.

“
Until then,” he bowed his head, “tu es dans toutes mes
pensées.”

Vicki gushed. Sucker.

But
as the door closed, my heart fluttered and a pathetic girlie giggle
shook my chest. I don’t even know what he said, but I’ll bet it was
romantic. All I know, from growing up with Mike saying stuff like
that all the time, is that
S’il vous
plaît
is please and
mon amour
is my love—not that Mike
ever said that to me, but I heard him groaning it to other girls
when I slept over his house.

Shaking off the shiver that David made my entire body feel, I
turned to Vicki, said goodnight and toddled upstairs to meet David.
He never stays past nine o’clock—he must really want to know what I
was going to say. Hm, perhaps I can use that to my advantage in the
future.

“
David?” I whispered into the dark of my room, and my smile
dropped when no one replied. Guess he’ll wait ‘til my parents are
in bed before he comes back.

The
night moved slowly. I took a shower, washed my hair and slipped
into my nice pyjamas—the ones that actually match—then jumped into
bed to keep warm in the cooling air. I could close my window, but I
don’t want David to think I went to sleep while waiting.

The
cold turned to frost and my tired eyes felt sandy by the time Dad
and Vicki finally shut their door. Then, with a stealthy silence
that even the cat on the end of my bed didn’t hear, David slipped
through my window, lifted the covers on my bed and snuggled down
beside me, pulling me onto his chest.

“
Hello,” I whispered.

“
Hello.”

Mmm,
he smells even sweeter now than he did before—like a concentrated
version of his scent. I breathed in deep through my nose and
thought of those yummy candy-covered chocolate baubles I eat at the
cinema. “What’ve you been doing? You’re all hot, and you smell so
nice.”

“
Do
you really want to know?”

“
Were you…hunting?”

“
Would it bother you if I was?”

A
minute’s silence passed in a second. “I’m not sure.”

“
Just don’t think about it, sweetheart.” His strong, long
fingers swept my hair back over my forehead, leaving behind a warm
sensation under the tingling cool.

“
So,
that smell—it’s the blood you just had?”

He
laughed a little. “Kind of. It’s how my body
interprets
the blood. It’s unique
for every vampire.”

“
I
like it.”

“
That’s because you like me.”

“
So,
it’s also why you’re so warm all of a sudden, then?”

“
Yes.”

I
guess that explains the warm and cold all the time. “So, why are
your hands cold when the rest of you is so warm?” I traced a line
over his index finger.

“
Because it’s cold outside. I’ve been waiting for your dad to
go to bed.”

“
Why? He wouldn’t’ve known you were in here.”

“
I
wouldn’t be so certain about that, my love.”

“
I
like it when you call me that.” I smiled and snuck my fingertips
under David’s shirt, resting them on his belly. “I like it even
more in French.”

“
I
know,” he said.

“
How
do you know?” I’ve never had any thoughts that might lead to that
conclusion.

“
Your body temperature changes when I speak
French.”

“
Hm.” My eyes narrowed with a disapproving grin. “I’m not sure
I like that.”

“
Don’t fall in love with a vampire, then.” He kissed the top
of my head.

“
So,
what did you say when you were leaving tonight—when you said ‘Until
then,’ and added a whole string of words I doubt were in
English?”

He
laughed once and combed his fingertips gently through the front of
my hair. “Until then, you are in
all
my thoughts.”

“
And
then you went hunting?”

“
Yes.”

“
Do
you think of me…when you hunt?”

“
Sometimes.” He let the word hang for a minute then added,
“But not in the way you think.”

“
In
what way?”

“
I
imagine you with me, enjoying the uh…the life of a vampire.” He
paused and lifted his head off the pillow a little to look at me.
“Does that bother you?”

Hm,
does it? “Not in the way you think?”

“
In
what way, then?”

“
I’m
not sure.” Maybe it bothers me that I don’t know how he hunts or
what it looks like, so I can’t really picture him when he’s gone. I
mean, if he were human, doing human things, I could picture him at
home, on the couch, watching TV or eating dinner with his uncle,
but no, my boyfriend has to go into dark alleyways and stalk my
species. I bet he’s graceful, though. I bet he’s quick and light on
his feet—like Skittles when he hunted the mouse.

I
wonder how he does it, how he makes the final move—goes in for the
kill. Is it like a lion that tears his catch apart or like a spider
that paralyses his prey, then kills it slowly?

My
heart picked up, watching his body in my thoughts, strong and fast,
how he’d hold his victim with unyielding arms, leaning her across
his body and tilting her head slightly before…

“
Ara. Stop it!”

“
What?”

“
I
can see that. I can see what you’re thinking.”

The
blankets rustled under me as I sat up to look at David, blinking to
focus in the dim light of the moon shining through my window. “Does
it bother you? I mean, is it because I can picture it, or is it
because I picture it wrong?”

“
Neither of the above.” He grinned.

“
Well, what then?”

“
It’s because you were picturing the girl—as you.”

He’s
right. Without even realising it, I had pictured myself in his
arms—about to be bitten. And I
liked
it.

“
That’s it, isn’t it? What you were trying to tell me in the
kitchen, tonight?” David sat up and grabbed my arm, squeezing it
gently. “Ara? Is that what you were trying to say—you want me to
drink your blood?” His eyes narrowed on the inner corners and his
lip lifted over his teeth on one side.

Without a word, I lowered my head and nodded, letting my
drumbeat heart fill the empty silence that surrounded my
awkwardness.