“I’d be the exception to the rule.”
I tilted my head to the side.” You can talk and talk and talk, but you’ll never convince me you’re not worth bringing home to Mom.”
In the most subtle way, Max’s face lit up, like I had just said something life changing, and the way he looked at me was unlike anything I had experienced before. I could feel an actual radiation of love coming from him. It was such a romantic, loving expression that I couldn’t even keep eye contact without blushing. I just whipped my body around and focused on getting my bedroom door open.
I walked a few steps inside and stopped when I realized Max wasn’t following me. He lingered near the entrance like there was some kind of magical border spell that was prohibiting him from entering.
“You a vampire now?” I teased. “Do I need to invite you in?”
I laughed, but shit, I still didn’t know if those things existed. I never thought werewolves did and look how that turned out.
“It’s late, I should hit the sack,” he told me.
With Max standing in my doorway, not ill like the last time, but healthy and strong and masculine, with the dimly lit wall lights glowing against his skin making him look so warm and gentle, and the way the crescent moon hung in the sky outside the balcony put my mind in a very, very…non platonic place.
“I’ll head back to my room now,” he said. While the words were definitely coming out of his mouth, he wasn’t making any effort to walk away. His eyes were relaxed, almost drunken, and there was a longing there that seemed to plead: make me stay.
It was a look one only fantasized about seeing.
Suddenly, I felt like a six-month-old cat in heat, discovering my yearnings all in one moment and wanting to pounce. I could see it in his gaze—he felt the same way, too, though he had an actual animalistic excuse.
“You don’t have to leave,” I told him softly. I had to swallow the large lump that had grown in my throat. I had imagined it was the lust inside my body rolling into an actual physical form and trying to escape out my mouth. Strange, I’m aware.
“No, no, I should get going,” he assured me in a weak voice. He didn’t want to go, and I didn’t want to let him leave.
Max attempted to step backward out the door, but I grabbed him by the front of his shirt and pulled him into me, landing my lips onto his, hard and passionately. Immediately, I felt his body react to mine; the way the muscles in his arms tightened as he wrapped his hands around my waist and guided my body back into the bedroom.
I wasn’t expecting it, but our passions overtook us, and before I knew it, we were kissing fast and recklessly, in a way that was new for both of us. Max’s hand let go of my waist momentarily, and then I heard the loud slam of my bedroom door closing. I was too busy kissing him to even look if he had done it or a damn ghost had. I didn’t want to focus on anything other than Max’s body pressing into mine, gently forcing me back toward my bed.
His lips were on my neck, my throat, behind my ear, making my heart race a mile a minute and my skin heat up. I could smell his cologne, his skin, the fabric softener I had been instructed to use on the laundry. It was an erotic blend of scents—it was uniquely Max.
I fell onto the bed, and before I was able to get into a comfortable position, Max was on top of me, locking his moist lips onto mine. I arched my back and scooted across the mattress as we kissed, hoping to find a cozy position where I could really get into it. I found one, sunk into it, and then wrapped my arms around Max like a sloth clinging to a tree, kissing him deeply. Max rolled off of me and lay at my side, but let his leg remain tangled between mine, so there was always a part of him against my body.
His hand went across my stomach, slowly stroking back and forth, pressing firmly enough, so I felt the weight and strength in his hand, but also keeping it gentle, so I was never uncomfortable. It was enough to throw my body into a tizzy. Every inch of skin that he touched broke out into goosebumps, and I felt a flutter in my chest and a stirring in my gut. I wanted him on top of me again, kissing me until I could hardly breathe. I wanted to be crushed beneath his weight.
Max’s lips trailed to my neck, suckling and dragging his tongue over my flesh, and with every second that passed, I felt an urgency and a hunger take over him. There was a chaotic nature to Max in that moment, with how fast his body was grinding into mine as his breathing became more erratic and choppy.
All of the sudden, I felt his body lift off of mine as he lunged completely away from the bed. It was like a vacuum had been placed into the darkest, most distant corner of the bedroom and it had sucked him away from me as quickly as possible.
I was out of breath and struggling to sit up when I asked, “What’s wrong?”
Max’s face was turned to the side, so the thick brown locks of his hair acted as a curtain to shield me from reading his expression. All I could judge was his body, which was panting heavily and slumped forward.
“I just… I need a minute,” he warned me.
A minute? Why was he stopping? I didn’t want him to.
“What is it?” I asked. I knew something was terribly wrong.
Max took a shallow breath, stepped into the light, and turned his gaze toward mine. With his hair now tucked behind his ears and the shadows no longer there to hide him, I was able to see the truth.
His magnificent pale blue eyes were now a filmy yellow color with black vertical slits for pupils. It was downright animalistic looking. Good God, those were werewolf eyes.
I gasped and jumped out of my bed. “Oh, my God, Max.”
He threw his hands up, and through a heavy breath said, “It’s all right, it’s going to be fine, this happens.”
“What exactly happens?” I knew his eyes were that of a werewolf, but it wasn’t a full moon, so what the hell.
“After a shift, I’m like a raw nerve. It can be triggered when I get…worked up.”
“Oh.”
I managed to be both terrified and flattered at the same time.
“Well… are you all right?” I asked.
“I will be in a second.” He was panting, with his body turned slightly away from me as he rested his hand on his chest and then eventually leaned into the wall. He looked completely winded, like it was taking everything out of him to fight the turn.
“Is there something I can do?”
“No, no, I…” He stopped speaking and an agonized expression took over his face. Max lowered his head, bawled his hand into a fist, and then pounded his forehead over and over again. The sound was so loud I knew he was hitting himself for real. “I shouldn’t have been in here in the first place.”
“Max.”
“I need to leave,” he said and went charging passed me and to the door, unable to even look in my direction. I attempted to take his arm and pull him back, but he was going so fast it was like trying to catch a bullet. Before I knew it, he was out the door, and I was left reeling.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
I was dreading going downstairs that morning for breakfast. I knew I’d run into Max and I had no idea how I was going to deal with that. I had my fair share of rejection throughout my life (okay, let’s be real, I’ve had more than my fair share of it), but the difference was in how it was done. I had never been on a bed, panting, ready to do the deed and have a man literally jump off the bed to escape me. My brain told me it wasn’t anything to be ashamed of, but the rest of me still felt utterly embarrassed. It’s not the ideal situation for a new relationship.
Speaking of ideal situations—as soon as I stumbled into the kitchen, I noticed Travis was already there, sipping coffee. I attempted to turn around and head upstairs, but our eyes locked, which resulted in me doing an awkward spin in an attempt to pretend I wasn’t trying to avoid him.
I slumped my shoulders, put on a brave face, and walked into the kitchen.
“Hey, there, Cookie!” a perky voice called out to me. It was Kat. She was sitting right on top of the kitchen counter, feet swaying off the edge, kicking the lo
wer cupboards with her heavy boots while holding a bowl of cereal. She had poured it from a cartoonish looking box that had a fairy princess on display.
“Hi,” I said politely and then headed for the coffee pot.
Before I could get there, Travis stepped in front of me. It was eight in the morning, yet he already smelled like marijuana. “I can’t help but notice we never finished our talk yesterday,” he said. When he spoke, the aroma of pot hit me in the face like a heavy brick. I had to wonder if he was even high or if this was what he did to regulate.
“Sorry about that,” I replied, holding my breath. “I had some things to do.”
“Or people to do,” Kat interrupted with a giggle. She sounded like some kind of mythical small creature in a fantasy story.
“I was thinking more about that hobby thing you brought up the other day and I think I came up with one,” Travis said.
I did my best not to make a strange face at the fact it took him a whole night to come up with something he likes to do that wasn’t drugs.
“Okay, shoot,” I told him.
“Hunting,” he said proudly. I must have made one of my faces over the mention of hunting, because I immediately saw regret dart into his eyes. “Unless your sister is one of them veterinarians, too.”
I was too tired to correct him. “Look, Travis, I’m sure you’re a nice guy, but I’m probably the last person to come to on how to date my cousin. She pretty much hates me. If I say up, she says down. If I pimped you off, she would reject you out of spite.”
“Oh.”
I felt bad. Maybe I was being too standoffish with Travis. He was a little…off, but then again, there have been people who accused me of the same.
I heard Melanie’s voice from behind me. “What a festive bunch,” she said, entering the kitchen still in her pajamas—which was an oversized t-shirt that hung past her knees, hopefully paired with some form of shorts underneath, but with Melanie, I could never be sure.
Melanie’s presence drew my eyes back to the entrance of the kitchen, and I was a little taken aback when I realized that in the corner of the room, seated at a table enjoying a bowl of cereal, was Corbin. He had been so quiet, I didn’t even notice him. A simple gesture like lifting a spoon full of milk to his mouth somehow looked menacing when done by Corbin. His brow was lowered, his mouth a straight tight line, and his eyes were focused on the newspaper lying flat on the table in front of him. I figured he was reading it, until I noticed it was in fact upside down. He was faking it. For what purpose, I had no freaking clue.
Best to pretend I didn’t notice him.
“You look, uh, nice,” Travis told Melanie.
“I know,” she said in a very matter-of-fact manner, and then sashayed to the cupboard to retrieve a bowl for her cereal. When she reached for the top cupboard, her night shirt lifted and all you could see were her tiny, tiny shorts that barely covered her ass. Travis creepily watched like a pervert, and I felt like smacking the goofy expression right off his creeper face.
“You eating cereal?” he asked her.
“You’re very perceptive,” she noted and then added milk to her filled bowl. She scooped up a spoonful and placed it into her mouth slowly and chewed. Travis continued to leer at her like she was performing a sexual act.
I felt like I needed to take a shower.
“It looks tasty,” Travis said.
Melanie moaned. “The tastiest.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted Kat watching the exchange. She had a malevolent looking smirk on her lips as the spoon was raised to her mouth, but she wasn’t eating. She was too distracted to chew and was merely enjoying the show.
I was too nervous to check, but I’m pretty sure Corbin was watching as well.
What a bunch of freaking weirdoes.
“Do you guys think I could slide in to get a cup of coffee or do I have to use the hose on you?” I asked. They were standing directly in my way, so it wasn’t like I could work around them.
Without a word, they slipped out of the way and I quickly poured myself a cup. I felt relieved to sip it, giving me an excuse to occupy my mouth and not to have to come up with some form of small talk. Travis was being awkward, Melanie was half naked, Kat and Corbin were creeping me out, and I was pretty sure I had forgotten to put on deodorant. I couldn’t feel any more uncomfortable if I tried. At least the air conditioning was on.
“So, Cora, you get a good night’s sleep?” Kat asked in a perky voice. When I looked at her she was grazing the tips of her teeth with her tongue in a half smile, like she was holding back making a dirty joke.
I swallowed my coffee and said, “It was fine.”
Her eyebrows danced upward. “I bet it was.”
What the hell? Why was she staring at me like she knew Max and I almost slept together? She’d be about the last person Max would talk to (I would think), so for her to know something happened she must have been… eavesdropping. Shit, from the way she was looking at me up and down, I’d swear she had been watching.
I was suddenly sweating.
My craving for coffee died and I promptly dumped it in the sink. “I think I’m going to take a shower,” I said and did a speed walk out the kitchen.
I heard Travis and Kat talking and cackling like they already forgot I was there, but Corbin…he leered. His face was completely still, but his eyes followed me like the Mona Lisa painting. Under the bright lights of the kitchen, Corbin’s scar on his face looked deeper and whiter and it clashed against his cocoa colored skin in such a way that only reminded me that it shouldn’t be there. That he had earned that mark.
I left that room with the sensation of his eyes on the back of my head.
“You really taking a shower?”
I jumped, completely unaware that Melanie was walking beside me. I guess my moment with Corbin made everything around us turn foggy. He had that affect.
“You’re so socially awkward,” she said with a laugh, like I wasn’t aware of this. “You’re like the most outgoing uncomfortable person I’ve ever known.”
“Not all of us are at ease walking around with no pants.”
“I’m wearing pants,” she said, and hiked up her shirt to show her tiny, tiny shorts.
“I have underwear bigger than that.”
“I’m sure you do, Granny.”
“I do not wear granny panties, okay? How did we even start talking about this?”
“You were giving me a good stern talking to about showing all that skin.”
“I detect sarcasm in your voice. It’s not cute.”
“Neither was what happened in there. Is Kat onto something? Were you doing something last night?”
I must have blinked a thousand times while trying to come up with something to say. I ended up blurting out, “Travis likes you.”
A blank expression took over her face. “Who’s Travis?”
“The guy you were talking to a whopping twenty seconds ago.”
“Oh, yeah,” she replied with a big head nod. “I was thinking his name was Charlie.”
“They don’t even sound remotely the same,” I confusedly said. “Anyway, he was asking me if you’d be interested in going on a date. He sounded kind of nervous. It was endearing in a weird way. If you want I can try to let him down easy.”
“Who says you have to let him down easy?”
That wasn’t the response I was expecting. “Are you saying you’d be interested in dating him?”
She yawned, and then with sleepy eyes said, “I guess. I don’t know.”
Well, she certainly sounded confident, didn’t she?
“Do you even like him?” I pried.
“He’s weird looking, but since he smokes a lot of pot, he wears really strong cologne, so he smells good.”
“Yeah, but do you like him?”
She shrugged. “I’m not sure yet.”
“You don’t know if you like him but you’d date him? Melanie, tell me you wouldn’t just go for a guy you don’t
even like just because he simply asked you.”
“It’s not like I have a lot of options,” she said with another shrug, though this one seemed less unsure of the situation and more hopeless about it.
Why did my chest ache?
I was feeling sad.
“Guys have always liked you,” I told her. Ever since we were kids, Melanie had been the gorgeous cousin with the boys fighting over who got to take her to prom, yet now she was acting like she was… high school me.
“No one is interested in the chick dumped by her husband. I can’t expect young, attractive men to be crawling up my bedroom balcony looking to be ex-husband number two.”
“Why are you talking like that?”
“I’m being realistic, Cora.”
“Yeah, well, if you date guys like Travis you’ll end up working on ex-husband number three, soon after.” She folded her arms and pouted. “Look, I’m not exactly the right person to be telling someone who is mature and who isn’t, but the guy has to be thirty or more and he thinks smoking pot is a legitimate hobby.”
“You’re right, you have no place commenting on what is mature.”
I rolled my eyes and fought the urge to make a juvenile comeback.
Just then, I heard Travis jogging from the kitchen toward us, and I peeked over Melanie’s shoulder to see his gum filled smile bigger than I had ever seen it before. Because he had picked up speed, the wind was hitting his face, expanding his mouth into new, bizarre alien like ways. If his mouth was this big as a human, what did it look like in werewolf form?
He caught up to us, and in between awkward giggles said, “I’m heading to the beach. You want to hang out for a while?” His eyes never even once glanced at me, so I knew I wasn’t invited.
Melanie did—what I was beginning to believe was her signature move—a carefree shrug and said, “Sure, why not?”
I didn’t even bother to stop them from taking off together. I had no idea if Melanie was even seriously interested in him or just killing time until we got out of here.
If we got out of here.
Anytime I thought about the uncertainty of my future, my stomach did a summersault and my heart pumped harder than it was designed to. I hated not knowing my fate.
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