Page 46 of Forever Touched

Lightning flashed through the sky, illuminating his shocked face. Spirits save me, why the hell had I said that?

“What did you just say?” he asked, his voice deathly soft as thunder shook the ground.

Calling myself every bad name I could think of, I straightened from under the hood and said, “That should do it. Can you see if the car will start up?”

“Star.”

I slammed the hood shut and rounded the car to the driver’s door.

“Star.”

“Stopcallingme that,” I snapped, suddenly needing to be anywhere but here. Jumping inside the car, I placed the key in the ignition and begged for it to start. The engine turned over, only to sputter out. Once. Twice. Then rumbled to life on the third try.

Before I could celebrate, something blurred past me. So fast that I didn’t realize what it was—rather,whoit was—until the car died again. I glanced up just in time to see Everett pocket my keys.

“Hey!” I scrambled from the car to confront him. “Those aren’t yours. Give them back.”

“First, tell me what you said earlier and why I shouldn’t call you by yourname,” he replied, staring down at me so intensely that I had no choice but to look away.

“It was ajoke, okay? Forget I said anything. I have to go, so if you could please give me back my keys.”

When I held out my hand and he didn’t move a muscle, I considered turning my knife on him. A quick poke in the arm should get my message across nicely. But as soon as the thought formed, I banned it, disliking the idea of harming him. Alot. Which was incredibly frustrating.

“Why?”

I blinked up at him, caught off guard by his soft, imploring tone. “Why what?”

“Why did you choose to become a blood whore?”

At that, all the air left me in a rush. It felt like he’d justsuckerpunched me, even though the question had been delivered gently. I couldn’t detect any judgment behind the words, but I still felt . . . dirty.

Forcing myself not to look away in shame, I replied, “You should leave. And I don’t think you should come back this time.”

Lightning forked through the sky, illuminating his expression once more. I could have sworn I saw hurt there, but it vanished in a blink.

As we stood there, refusing to voice out loud the many things between us, sudden emotion tightened my throat. Before I could think better of it, I pushed onto my toes and kissed his cheek. “Goodbye, Your Highness.”

The words were final. Permanent.

Whatever this was between us had to end, for both our sakes. We’d shared a moment in time. A confusing, chaotic,electrifyingmoment. One that had left me disorientated, like a ship lost at sea. Problem was, I didn’t want to be found again when I was with him. Being lost with Everett made me feel things.Incrediblethings. Things I’d never expected to feel, least of all with a vampire.

A vampire that had turned my life upside down six years ago, and was doing it now all over again.

I stepped away from him before I could change my mind. Before I could beg him to stay. Before I couldpleadwith him to take me away from this life. It would only be a dream anyway, one that wouldn’t last.

Thiswas reality. I couldn’t run from it. Couldn’t hide.

My future—myfate—wasn’t with him. It was here.

But before I could make it two steps, he grabbed my arm and spun me around. My eyes flew wide. “What are you doing?”

“Giving you something to remember me by,” he gruffly said. “Somethingreal.”

And then his mouth was on mine. I froze solid, shocked to my very core. He was kissing me. Everett D’angelo was kissingme, a disgusting witch.

But when he pulled back a moment later, disgust wasn’t what I found.

“I shouldn’t have done that,” he said, his voice raw with emotion. “I really,reallyshouldn’t have done that.”

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