Page 62 of A Vampire Bewitched
Right as she was about to resign herself to walking back holding her shirt together, and having to deal with Aiden when they got there, a clean piece of black cotton appeared in front of her face.
“Here you go.”
With a mumbled “thank you”, she gave him her back and yanked off her ruined clothes, using them to wipe off any lingering blood on her skin as best she could before pulling on his shirt. It nearly swallowed her whole, but it was clean and warm, and it covered her. Rolling the sleeves up and tying up the bottom to shorten it, she turned around to find Nik already dressed in a matching clean shirt, his jeans, and combat boots. She gave him a questioning look.
His eyes glowed as they traveled over her wearing his shirt. “I always carry extra clothes when I travel. Us vampires tend to get bloody.”
An unexpected surge of jealousy rose in her before she remembered he only drank bagged blood. At least before she came around. He must be talking about fighting.
Right?
“I get into a lot of fights.” He answered the questions running through her mind before she could ask them. She probably didn’t need to. The connection between them from sharing blood was already growing. Even she could feel it.
“Of course,” she answered blithely. Holding out her bloody, ruined clothes, she asked, “What should I do with these?”
Nik took them from her and shoved them in a pocket of his pack. “We’ll burn them later.” Scanning the area for anything they may have forgotten, he asked, “You ready to go, Em?”
She looked anywhere but at him. “Yeah. Let’s go.”
He cocked his head at her behavior, but didn’t press the issue. With a last, longing look at her bare breasts filling out his shirt, he took her hand and led the way out of the carnage.
They walked through the darkness in a circular route that would take them back around to the cavern where Aiden waited, both lost in their own thoughts.
Emma took advantage of the lack of conversation to try to sort out her feelings. She knew she’d instigated it all, and she was glad Nik had finally given in. She was. And it wasn’t that she wasn’t attracted to him, or that she didn’t want to be with him. She did.
But, forever? The implications boggled her mind. Forever was a very, very, long time forregularhumans. For a vampire and his mate?
She was having a hard time wrapping her head around it.
True to her nature, she’d been more worried about him not feeding from her—and therefore causing his own death—that she hadn’t thought much past that.
Well, shehadthought about it…just not that seriously.
But now she wondered, did he even want to be with her? Really? He’d certainly fought hard enough to prevent it. She’d finally convinced him to feed, and the bond had been completed (and then some!), and she sort of expected him to be all, like, miserable and angry at her for goading him into it.
Sooo not the case.
In fact, his behavior was the complete opposite of what she’d expected. As she watched him swagger along amongst the trees in front of her, he appeared to be back to his old self. The cocky, carefree vampire she’d met at the bar a lifetime ago. Maybe, now that the pressure was off and the deed was done, he felt relieved because he didn’t have to fight it anymore?
Or, had this all been his idea from the very start?
Was that it? Was she really so gullible? Sadly, she had to admit the answer was a most probable yes. She was. She was no match for the charm of an obscenely handsome vampire who’d had six hundred years of practice seducing women. After living that long, could she really blame him for finding ways to amuse himself?
Damn right, she could. She was not here for his amusement.
But, he wouldn’t really have made all of that up, would he? And what about Aiden? He couldn’t have been faking all of that concern for his friend. No one was that good of an actor. But, then again, Aidenwasa little…off. Had it really all been nothing but a big act the two of them had conjured up to amuse themselves?
Emma glared at the broad, muscular width of his back in front of her. She didn’t like this. She didn’t like this at all.
Had he been tricking her this entire time just to get her to sleep with him? Making it seem like it washeridea? The more she thought about it, the more convinced she became that he’d been playing with her all along.
Bastard.
Chapter 34
Nik found it impossible to keep walking with such pointy daggers stabbing him in the back.He’d felt the rollercoaster of Emma’s emotions ever since they’d left the clearing, but thought it would be better to leave her to work out…whatever it was she was trying to work out.
He was going through quite a ride himself.
