Page 41 of Taming His Vampire Mate
I didn’t like this about-face one bit. Somehow, he was different now. Too… relaxed. The tension was gone. He’d stopped shooting me furtive looks like I might tear his throat out at any moment. What on earth had changed? It wasn’t like I’d been especially nice to him.
“Sadly, we didn’t bring a kennel,” I said, making my tone as icy as possible.
When he just looked at me, eyebrow raised, I sighed.
“Alright, fine,” I said, pointing to the armchair in the corner. At least if he was inside the darkened room with me, there was the slimmest chance I could protect him if Godric attacked. “But touch me and die.”
“You’re not ready for me to touch you again,” Jeremy replied evenly.
No, he didn’t seem the least bit afraid of me anymore.
Irritated, I strode forward and yanked the covers back. Then I fixed him with a glare. “If you enter this bed while I’m in it, you won’t be leaving in one piece. I do hope you’re aware.”
“I’m starting to realize that a conversation with you wouldn’t be complete without a death threat,” Jeremy said with a snort that had no business being as cute as it was.
“I’m quite serious. Deadly so.”
“Here’s how it is, vampire,” Jeremy said, watching me for a long moment, his expression unreadable. Then he smiled, gaze locked on mine, pinning it in place. “You and I won’t be having sex again until there’s enthusiastic consent involved.”
“As if you even know the meaning of the word.” I glared, but I might’ve had better chances staring down a freight train. Giving up, I sighed. “Fine. Do us both a favor and hold your breath until it happens.”
“Get some shut-eye, vampire,” he said softly. “We can trade barbs when you rise again.”
With that, he crossed to the armchair in the corner and settled in.
I lay down and closed my eyes, listening to Jeremy’s breathing, his steady heartbeat. It was a surprisingly nice sound.
It was… soothing.
I tried very hard—and quite unsuccessfully—not to realize that Jeremy had noticed I wasn’t okay and had immediately acted to fix it, the first chance he got.
Naturally, he was still an unmitigated asshole.
But even so, though I wasn’t ready to admit it—it felt too much like defeat—I couldn’t help but notice there might be layers to the wolf.
And back in that sunlit kitchen—even with the grisly evidence of what had happened there—I had almost told him there was a way to bring a murderous vampire back from the ledge. I had almost told him everything. Because the look of horror and dismay on his face when he realized what became of this town had made me want to spill all my secrets, just to banish those emotions for him.
Thank goodness I’d stopped myself—because truly, what had I been thinking?
I’d almost forgotten who Jeremy was. And at any moment, the other shoe would drop. I couldn’t allow myself to be caught beneath it.
No, I needed to watch what I said around the wolf.
Besides, I shouldn’t care about his feelings at all. In fact, I should be delighted he’d shown me a weak spot I could jab. Repeatedly. With great fervor.
But instead, his reaction unsettled me. Because it was evidence he cared about other people. And I was having a hard time matching that with the selfish, violent monster Pierce and James—or, well, mostly Pierce—had described.
If Jeremy was truly anything like Magnus, he wouldn’t have cared about anyone but himself. In fact, I half-expected him to insist we leave town immediately, now that we knew what had happened here.
After all, it wasn’t bleeds that caused this.
Instead, he stubbornly refused to leave.
As I lay in bed with my eyes closed, Jeremy only a few feet away, I expected my senses to stay on high alert, keeping me awake in case he came at me with a wooden stake in his fist and a song in his heart. But my body knew that wasn’t a real possibility, because it refused to stay tense. Somehow, the opposite was true.
Knowing he was there, watching over me, made me feel safer than it should have.
The last thought I had before sleep took me was that I was in very deep shit indeed.
