Page 46 of The Monster and the Last Blood Match

Yeah. Out of the question.

“I need to do something. Maybe get a job?”

“Youhavea job already.”

Reyna laughed in his face. “Right now I’m getting paid to sit around in your penthouse and deal with your attitude and preoccupation with your phone. That’s not a job. I can’t live cooped up with nothing to do. I’m restless.”

“Everyone else would die for this opportunity. Why must you be so difficult?”

“I’m obviously not everyone else.”

“Obviously.”

She sighed and felt the space between them heavily. “I didn’t bargain for never leaving or doing anything or seeing my brothers.”

Beckham shook his head incredulously. “Do you not understand the danger? Did last night reveal nothing to you?”

She lifted her chin. He was talking about the attack, but all she could think was the feel of his lips on hers. As she fell asleep last night, she had replayed that moment over and over again in her mind. She had been even more restless afterward. One taste was not enough. Could never be enough.

“Last night simply showed me what I already knew. Some people are good, and some are bad. Some vampires are bad, and some…” Reyna reached out and touched his hand across the car. “Some are good.”

Beckham pulled his hand back as if he’d been burned. “That’s where you’re wrong. Everyone is bad. You just don’t know it yet.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“The good isn’t out there, Reyna. Everyone is corrupt. Everyone is broken.”

“I’m not,” she whispered.

“Oh, Little One, this world will kill the goodness left within your beating heart.”

“But it will not break me.”

“No,” he agreed. He leaned his head into her hair and drew a deep breath. “I will do that.”

Chapter Fifteen

Reyna was ripped out of her dreams by a nightmare of a vampire chasing her in the streets and tearing out her throat. She screamed and bolted upright in bed. Her hair stuck to her back. Her body was clammy. And she couldn’t seem to rid herself of the terrible sense of unease.

She was fine.

She was in Beckham’s penthouse.

It had been days since she had been attacked by a vampire. Nothing had happened. Nothing at all since then. But she couldn’t seem to shake the nightmares.

She hoped Beckham didn’t hear her. She didn’t want to bring it up to him. Not after the distance he had put between them. She had felt so safe and secure in his arms, but as soon as he had let her go, it was as if he had constructed a wall of impenetrable ice to keep her out.

So much effort went into it on his part that she had given up on trying to get through to him. He wanted her to be grateful for her position, and she was. But she still hoped for him, and hope was dangerous.

Rolling out of bed, she hopped into the shower to wash off the sweat. She draped a towel around her body and towel-dried her hair in the mirror. She wound her hair up in a knot on the top of her head and then went in search of something to wear. As soon as she entered her closet, she noticed a bloodred dress hanging by itself. She stopped in her tracks and glanced around. She hated when things just appeared in her room. It didn’t usually mean anything good.

She moved over to the dress and skimmed the silky material between her fingers. It was gorgeous and soft and still so not her. A note was attached to the hanger, and she snatched it up in her hand.

Today.

That was all it said. No further instruction. She sighed, knowing what the word meant, and pulled it on. The dress had a strapless sweetheart neckline with a tight satin bow around the waist of the silky top. The skirt was tulle to her knees and made her feel like a ballerina, though she was hardly graceful and hadn’t actually seen a ballerina since before her life had turned to shit.

After securing the dress at the back, she turned to exit her room but found something that hadn’t been there the night before. On her nightstand was a large blue box. She hurried over to it and procured the card.

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