Page 17 of Bitter Sweet Love

I folded my hands together to keep from clapping. “Try not to sound too excited about it.”

He laughed. “It’s a mall. Maybe if we were doing the skinny-dipping today, I’d be more excited. Correction. I’d be a lot more excited.”

I wanted to kick myself for suggesting that condition. “You know, I could probably think of something more important than that to do, like—”

“Oh, no, no take-backs.” He winked. “Can’t make any changes now. We’ve already started, and I know the perfect place for the skinny dipping. And honestly, I am counting down every second until then.”

My cheeks flushed. “I hate you.”

“No, you don’t.”

“Go shower.”

“I am.”

“Then go.”

“I’m trying to, but you keep talking to me and looking so damn adorable.”

“I’ll stop talking or looking cute,” I said, fighting a grin. “Go.”

He smiled widely. “I said adorable.”

“Go!” I laughed.

“Going. I promise. Right now.”

As he walked past me, he swooped in like a damn bird of prey. Dez kissed me before I realized what he was about to do. His lips were on mine, warm and firm. The kiss was brief, nothing like last night, and then he was going, walking into his bathroom, and I was standing there, feeling the touch of his lips for endless minutes.

My mind was in a thousand places while I packed a small suitcase for our trip, partly stuck on my mall condition, which we’d fulfilled yesterday. Dez and I had... we’d had a lot of fun. We hadn’t talked about the past and our conversations hadn’t been serious as I forced him from one store to the next. He’d displayed an inordinate amount of patience while I tried on clothes and sorted through a hundred scented candles, picking out the perfect one for Danika.

It had been hard not to look at him and blush after everything I had seen in his bedroom and it had been equally hard not tonotice how the human girls checked him out. He turned the heads of the young and old in every shop we went into.

And it had been damn near impossible not to want to tackle the chicks by the food court and rip their arms out.

We’d ended our trip at a tiny ice-cream parlor in town, and as we walked back to the car, Dez had completed his condition. When he kissed me, he had tasted like chocolate and man, a mind-numbingly intoxicating flavor.

He’d also stayed with me until he left to hunt with the rest of the clan, talking about nothing important while we pretended to watch a movie. No one bothered us even though I’d been in his room. I’d fallen asleep before it was time for him to leave and woke before he returned, scrambling back to my bedroom before I had done something stupid, like waited for him in his bed. It had been hard leaving. His scent had been everywhere.

And now I was preparing to leave my home for the first time in forever. I’d never been anywhere before, and I’d already packed and unpacked three times. Why did I think I needed two outfit choices for each day?

While we’d been at the mall the day before, Dez had announced that we’d be leaving the following afternoon and traveling by car. Excitement hummed in my veins at the prospect of all I would get to see.

Danika sat on my suitcase while I zipped it shut and then she bounced off. “I expect mementos. Something cheesy. Like an authentic I Love New York City T-shirt.”

“Okay.” I grinned as I pulled my suitcase off the bed. It thumped on the floor when I set it down. “What about from DC?”

“A naked picture of Zayne?” she asked.

I laughed, shaking my head. “And how do you expect me to pull that off?”

She shrugged. “He’s got to take a shower at some point, right?”

“I’m sure he does, but I have a tiny problem with Jasmine taking a picture of a guy naked.”

We both turned at the sound of Dez’s voice. He stood in the doorway, hair damp and an easy grin on his face. I flushed, but Danika looked unrepentant.

“But she’s doing it for me,” she reasoned. “It’s not like she’s going to be looking at his goods.”

---