“I told you blood is like a treat to me and you worry about me seeing you naked?” he asked.
I shrugged. It still didn’t feel real to me. I was still waiting for him to start laughing and say that he couldn’t believe I thought he was serious. Maybe that’s why I was avoiding the serious questions.
He sighed, “No… nothing like that. Just sharpened human stuff. My hearings better than normal, my eyesight’s better than normal, I’m faster, sense of smell is stronger than normal. Stuff like that.” I could tell he was uncomfortable about talking about these things. Any trace of doubt I had that increased over night was quickly disappearing the more he explained and the more I saw how much he hated talking about it.
“That makes you a vampire? No immunity to garlic or ability to become a bat. Rip-off.” I joked trying to lighten the mood.
“Vampires are glorified. In the end of the day, they’re just a monster. I’m just a monster.” He said bitterly staring at the food then looking up at me with a forced smile, “Look… after what I told you yesterday…if you want to see other people I understand. But…I can’t leave you knowing you’re in danger. I will still watch over you.”
The word ‘break up’ gave me a twisty feeling in my stomach and I knew that would never be an option in my opinion. “I don’t want to break up with you. This would be the stupidest reason to break up.”
“I think finding out the guy you’re seeing is a monster is probably the best reason to break up, baby. And for future reference, if he says they are without showing you proof. They’re probably insane, run the other way.”
“Stop calling yourself a monster. You don’t look like one, you might be gifted with sharpened skills and want to bite me occasionally… but your still you. You’re not just ‘some guy I’m seeing’. And some people are into that kind of stuff. What’s the big deal?”
He smiled, “I won’t bite you.”
“Damn.” I smiled back.
His smile faded and he darkened again, “But I do look like a monster… you just haven’t seen it yet…you’ll realize soon enough.”
“Show me now. I can handle a sharp tooth or two.”
He shook his head, “No… I don’t want you seeing me as that…yet.”
I stared at him trying to see how on earth he could think he looks like a monster when he looked up to meet my gaze. He smiled and had a forced smile, “You look extra beautiful today. What are you up to?”
“Tiffany… she wanted to talk about her date with Daniel.” I said not really wanting to go and would much rather spend time with him and continue with my million questions. I noticed he looked kind of disappointed too. “I want to cancel though. Could we stay in?”
He smiled, “Of course, but talk to her. I think she already hates me because she thinks I ‘keep you to myself’.”
“David talked to you?”
“Yes.” He smirked, “I’ll clean up; you go change into something more comfortable.”
“Okay.” I said walking to my room. I looked at the table of pictures I had in my tiny hallway to my room and noticed the picture of James and me was face down. I looked back towards the kitchen but James wasn’t looking at me. He was washing dishes and his mind was millions of miles away.
Shrugging it off as someone might have just bumped into it, I put the picture back to its original position and went back to my room to change.
***
It had been two weeks since James had been basically living with me. His things were still at his house so he would still have to go back to his home every morning before work but he would always come with me after my work to sleep at my house. I thought it was a waste of his time to do all this but he refused to let me be alone.
Since he did all the major production in Los Angeles, the city that lives on production, it seemed he did every job possible. He was off to work a lot. And even when he was off, he was working from home or on the phone talking about whatever needs to be done with whoever takes his place when he’s not there.
Every day was the same. He slept in my house. Woke up in my house. Went to his house to change and get ready for work. Picked me up from work and then we spent the rest of our night together. It was weird, but it worked.
Tiffany and Daniel had also been dating for two weeks. Apparently their first date together worked out great. Tiffany and her big mouth agreed to go to the cabin with Daniel, James, and Chris. James didn’t want to go on their annual cabin ‘camping’ trip with the guys because he still hasn’t caught the monster that has been attacking me. I felt bad that James was canceling something he had always done with his best friend and cousin to babysit me. I was going to somehow convince him to go, but Tiff already volunteered us in anyway.
“You and I both know we don’t camp and neither of us have been skiing before.” I said as I looked through the racks of the snow clothes and cringed. I picked up a cute black yoga tracksuit zip up sweater with a sequin design in the back. If I must rough it up in a cabin, I’ll do it in style. I don’t care if I’ll be freezing to death with the thin material. Plus, it was more of an excuse to cuddle with James and I will look good.
“I used to camp all the time! We’re going to be in a cabin, how bad could it be.” she said.
“You camped once. In a fully stocked RV when you were six.” I mumbled, “The fact that we’re even shopping for clothes to go roughing it up in a cabin is a sign that we should rough it up in any, way, shape or form.”
“It won’t be so bad.”
“RV camping and roughing it up with three guys in a tent is as bad as it gets.”
“I know you’re right.” She groaned, “But sorry, I just started my relationship with Daniel. We’re still fresh. I want to spend as much time with him as I can.” she vented.
“I’m going aren’t I?” I vented back.
“You are. And as a treat, I won’t nag at you for not coming to yoga Mondays for three straight months.”
“You said you wouldn’t nag. But you just technically did.” I winked.
She smirked and handed me a really cute sweater knowing it was my style. “This doesn’t clear you from forcing me to do this, missy.” I said and grabbed it going to the cashier, not even attempting to go to the long line of the dressing room to try them on.
Chapter Fourteen
“Five hours till we reach the snow?” I asked as James drove. We took separate cars so that we could spend time with each other and carry more stuff over.
“If we’re lucky and there isn’t too much traffic, yeah.” He smirked.
I wore some distressed jeans and a black t-shirt with gallons of SPF 50. It was extremely hot and I was actually starting to look forward to when we were going to reach the snow.
“Yeah… we always went as far as possible from the city when we went to a cabin. It gave us a chance to be free. David used to come with us too but lately I haven’t been getting along with him.” he said gripping onto the steering wheel. “But today we’re going to a park that’s not too far.” James said sounding apologetic but he was doing a horrible job of hiding his amused smirk.
“City boys roughing it up in the snow. That’s surprising.” I mumbled, “Why aren’t you getting along with David now?”
He shook his head, “I don’t want to talk about him. But… you need to know something. If you see him around and I’m not around, could you avoid him?”
I nodded making a note of it to ask him more later. He didn’t want to talk about it and we were using this trip to de-stress. I wasn’t going to bring up monsters today. “So how is it that city boys got into cabins?”
“It’s in my nature, remember? I like colder weather and it’s nice to get away from electronics for a while.” He smiled and winked.
I raised my eyebrow, “And what are we going to eat?”
“I’ll get the meat and we’ll cook together on a fire.”
“You’ll get the meat!? How!?” I exclaimed. I was not eating some cute animal meat he ‘hunts�
�. However he was planning on doing the hunting.
He looked at me in shock and laughed, “Um… I packed bread and sandwich stuff. But I mean… if you want bear I could see what I can find.” He teased.
I hit his arm, “Jerk.”
He laughed, “I should have mentioned I was…” he hesitated, “a vampire, a long time ago. It’s fun teasing you with it.” He elongated the word vampire. He’s still getting used to calling himself that. But I prefer it over monster. I didn’t like him calling himself a monster.
“Men.” I huffed and looked out the window causing him to laugh again. I looked at the mirror and saw Tiffany and Daniel in the car behind us. Chris couldn’t come because he and his fiancé were going location shopping for their wedding.
“Baby…wake up, we’re almost there.” James said leaning closer to unbuckle my seatbelt. He kissed my cheek tickling me awake.
“I didn’t even realize I fell asleep. Why didn’t you wake me up? You must have been lonely and bored.”
“No. I like watching you while you sleep.” He said smiling.
“Pervert.” I yawned.
“Again with the pervert. Would you meet any other man that hasn’t put moves on you this far into a relationship?” he said and I noticed he regretted mentioning.
“No actually. Why haven’t you?”
“You want me to?”
“Yes.” I answered honestly. I was embarrassed about it, but I ignored it. I wanted to know if something was wrong with me.
“It’s not you… if you think it is. It’s me.”
“You did not just use the ‘it’s not you, it’s me’ line.”
He smiled, “No it’s not a line. I’m being honest with you. It’s me.”
I was about to ask why again but he changed the subject, “We’re here before them.”
I looked out the car and noticed the dirt parking lot surrounded by snow in front of the log cabin. We were there. It looked cozy and inviting I couldn’t wait to go in. He put the car in the reserved spot as we stepped out of it and were finally able to stretch our arms and legs. The freezing weather hit me like I walked into the freezer of a supermarket. I was shivering and wished I brought a thicker jacket. We waited for a moment for Tiff and Daniel before taking our stuff to the reserved spot.
The view was spectacular. Snow and trees. A winter wonderland. Nature was a beautiful thing. As much as I hated being away from the comfort of my own apartment, I’d give the scenery credit. And if I had to choose, I think I like the cooler weather better too. I just hoped our phones didn’t all die at the same time.
As I admired the nature and froze to death, I felt James sneak up behind me and slip his arms around my waist. He kissed my shoulder as I melted into his warm arms, “Not so bad is it?”
“Only if you keep your arms around me like this,” I whispered.
“Not too much PDA you two. There might be kids and families around at the other cabins.” I heard Daniel’s deep voice.
James laughed and turned me around before giving me the most passionate kiss for show. “We weren’t even doing anything. And we’re the only ones out here today.” James said innocently as I was left dazed by the sudden affection.
“Ooh that’s just a recipe for a scary movie.” I shivered.
“That was the longest ride ever.” Tiffany complained.
“We could have gone to Vegas and back in that amount of time. But no Miss. I-Love-Cabin Camping.” I said making James and Daniel laugh as Tiffany groaned.
“I’m going to help Daniel bring their stuff. You two talk and make yourselves as comfortable as you can.” James said clearly amused by Tiffany’s city girl panic.
As soon as the guys were out of the view, I narrowed my eyes at the makeup case Tiffany had. “You’re worse than me! At least I know the basic rule that makeup and roughing it up don’t mix. Especially no hair straighteners.” I smirked evilly.
She looked at me in shock, “What…”
“No outlets no hair straighteners…genius.”
“No!” she said in disbelief.
“Yep….we would have had blow dryers in Vegas though…” I sang.
James showed up with some stuff a little too quickly and I was afraid that Tiffany would have noticed. “Be nice.” He whispered and laughed.
“Whoa. You’re fast James! Daniel’s still so at the car!”
James was wide eyed and I realized my theory of why he was fast was true, “Oh… I like to run. Daniel’s not really into exercise.” he said and put his arm around me to get me closer to him. Feeling as though being close to him was helping him calm down, I took a step back and rested my head on his chest for more intimacy.
“Thanks baby.” He whispered burying his face in my neck leaving a trail of kisses.
By nightfall, it was dark and cold. We made our food and cuddled around a bonfire eating marshmallows and warming up a bit before calling it a night in the cabin.
The only advantage of the freezing temperature was that it gave Tiffany and me the excuse to cuddle with our guys as we ate. We heard a ruffled sound from the bushes and trees. All of us jumped except for James.
“Oh my gosh…could it be a bear?” I whispered.
“There are no bears at this park, baby.” James whispered back, “It’s the ranger we saw earlier.”
I looked in the direction and sure enough, the ranger emerged from the bushy plants near the tall trees. “Hey folks, bonfires are out in an hour.” He said tipping his ranger hat before saying goodnight.
“Okay, thank u sir.” Daniel said.
“See.” James whispered to me.
“Hmm… I’ll never get used to this.” I giggled.
Before putting out the fire, we roasted one last marshmallow because it was cliché and being cliché was fun at times. I fed James a marshmallow and giggled as he fed me. My lips felt sticky and I was about to wipe it off with my finger but James grabbed it before I could.
He brought his lips to mine before licking off the sticky goodness from mine. That slowly morphed into the most delicious kiss ever. Who would have thought marshmallows were romantic. “I officially love marshmallows.” I mumbled against his lips.
“Me too.” he smirked.
We both pulled away when we remembered we were with other people. But Tiffany and Daniel had already left us leaving us with cleanup.
“Goodnight Tiff.” I knocked on her door hoping I interrupted them from whatever they were doing for leaving us with bonfire cleanup as we walked past their shared room to the one James and I were going to be sharing.
We entered our somewhat spacious cabin room and he all of a sudden hugged me. “Thanks for earlier. It means everything to me that you understood what I needed.”
“Earlier?”
“The running.” He explained.
“I told you I love you, I’ll help you in any way I can.” I said rubbing his back as he kept me close to him. He pulled back and smiled.
“I love you too. I don’t think I can ever say that enough.” He said and kissed my forehead, “Just being with you calms me.”
“How so?”
“Your scent.” He started, “It actually has a weird effect for me. Sometimes it’s torture because it causes me to fight the temptation of... my cravings.” he said in such a low whisper I could barely understand, “Other times…it calms me. Like today.”
“My… scent?” I laughed nervously, “Do I smell bad?”
He laughed, “Far from it. Everyone is attracted to the scent of the person they’re attracted to. Even normal people who aren’t cursed. They just don’t know it…but since I have better sense of smell… I can sense the difference.”
“Well…being out in the middle of nowhere with no hot running water and my boyfriend saying he likes my smell, makes me feel stinky.”
He laughed and buried his nose in my hair, “Time for sleep, beautiful.”
***
I couldn’t sleep. James and I were wrapped up in each other’s arm
s for warmth and it was comforting. But sleep was not working out.
I stared at every little detail of his face since I didn’t want to move and wake him. It wasn’t torture or anything but I felt creepy. I closed my eyes in an attempt to sleep again but it didn’t work. He untangled away making me open my eyes again. I looked at him and thought it was so cute how he was so peaceful in his sleep. He was lying on his back now and shirtless as usual.
I finally took a moment to ignore his abs and toned arms and shoulders to look at his tattoos. He had them strategically so that they wouldn’t be visible with dress shirts and suits. Some were on his shoulders and the upper part of his back was covered. I saw a piece the dragon tattoo mixed with the other designs.
Even though he was lying on his back now, his face was towards me still. I lied down with my face next to his and examined his features again. I tried to imagine him as a monster but I couldn’t. I wondered what he would look like with red eyes like the ones I’ve seen. How he would look like with messy raven hair. But I couldn’t see it.
I saw nothing monstrous about him or in him.
If anything… he was perfect. The perfect skin, perfect nose, beautiful eyes that look kind even when he’s sleeping and of course, his extremely perfect lips.
I slowly reached my finger and touched his kissable lips and smiled. Suddenly he twitched and a smile formed on his face too.
I pulled my finger back and sat up quickly. I held my breath and hoped I didn’t wake him up.
He moved into a more comfortable position, that didn’t even look that different from the previous position. He was still asleep though.
I looked at his muscles as they flexed and felt heat run through my body. I think he was right about that whole scent thing because I had never felt like this with any guy before. Sure I’ve seen models and thought they were hot but James was irresistible. I let out the breath that I was still holding and suddenly felt too hot. I fanned myself with my hand but it was no use. I needed some fresh air. I snuck out of our bed to go open the window but the old window wouldn’t open.
In My Veins Page 10