Page 28 of Love Lives
"Collin's got him wrapped around his little finger."
"Yeah, that would never happen to you," I said, remembering the way he'd stuck by my side through my hospital stay. The way I'd woken up with my head in his lap just a few hours ago... I didn't think Aldrich was ‘in love’ with me, but it was fun to tease him anyway.
Realistically, I knew he was in lust much more than he was in love. That was okay with me, though. More than okay. The rest of my family might see love as this magical, all-powerful force of good, but I’d seen the damage it could do. I knew better than to be fooled by chemicals in my brain.
Even if those chemicals felt deceptively good.
I sat up, pulling myself back into the present. "Did you get enough blood?" I asked to change the topic.
Aldrich exhaled and sank on his side next to me. "No more than you can stand to lose. Don't worry."
"I wasn't worried about that, but sorry for spoiling your dinner." He'd been waiting for a long time for this, hadn't he? And I'd gone and ruined it by shoving an unpleasant memory at him.
"You didn't ruin anything." Aldrich licked his lips, which were still stained with my blood.
Idly, I wondered what it would be like to kiss him with my blood on his lips.
I shoved the thought aside and denied the way it made my cock pulse because this was so not like me. I wasn't hard anymore, but I had to focus on not getting hardagain.
Was that an after-effect of the bite? Excessive horniness?
"Did you like it?" the vampire asked. There was an undertone to his voice that made me think he knew. "Because we can do it again if you want to make up for shoving that memory in my face."
I swallowed, imagining that. Did I want to let Aldrich bite me again?
The idea was not making it easier for me to keep my dick from rising.
Without waiting for my response, Aldrich moved a little closer. "Thanks, in any case," he murmured, his forehead almost touching mine and his fangs glinting. "For tonight."
My eyes darted to his lips, to the blood around his mouth. He smiled, making me feel caught.
"I'm going to have both," he said. "Your dick and your blood. I promise you. Just wait."
I knew I was supposed to make some sharp comeback or tell him how that was never going to happen, but I'd never been a very good liar, so I only shook my head instead, as if his stubborn streak was exasperating to me.
"Sleep," Aldrich said. "Tomorrow we can..." He paused. "What's that?"
"What's what?"
He pointed at my belly where my shirt had slid up a little. What, was he going to comment on my weight now? Or on the shape of my belly button? I was going to ask, when I spotted what he was talking about. Just below and to the right of my belly button, there was an odd mark that hadn't been there this morning. Probably dirt. I rubbed at it, but it didn't come off.
"Almost looks like a birth mark," Aldrich said. "But that's not your dhampir mark."
No, that was on my inner thigh, conveniently hidden away. "I don't know what it is." I rubbed at it again.
"Sec." Aldrich dug his phone out of his pocket and snapped a picture. "Gonna send this to Puck. He's nerd enough to know."
I didn't love the idea of the crazy witch studying my belly, but Aldrich was right. He was our best shot at finding out what exactly that odd sign was. It kind of looked like… wait… was that a seven? I squinted. “It’s a number?”
Aldrich gave me a blank look. “A number?”
“It doesn’t look like a seven to you?”
“No seven I’ve ever seen.” Aldrich's phone buzzed with a notification. "Puck," he informed me. "Says he's gonna look into it. He’s probably not gonna have anything tonight, though."
I pulled my shirt back down, trying to forget the mark. At least it wasn’t hurting me. No point in worrying about it before we heard back from Puck. "Guess it's time to sleep then,” I made myself say.
"Guess so." But Aldrich wasn't making any attempts to return to his own bed.
