Page 116 of Bitten By Desire
“All aboard!” the conductor yelled. But I stayed firmly rooted in place.
“Are you a vampire?”
Callum lowered his eyebrows again. He looked perfectly brooding and sexy. And I knew what he was going to say before he said it.
“Yes.” His voice was barely a whisper.
I just stared at him.
“Don’t look at me like that. I’m one of the good ones, Emma.”
He’d finally admitted it and I wanted him to take it back. I wanted him to take it all back. Callum was supposed to be my dream man. But he wasn’t even human. I’d fallen for the villain. No wonder he kept breaking my heart. That’s what villains did.
He reached out and touched my cheek, his fingers stopping my tears. “Don’t get on that train. Please just stay. Let me explain. I will never hurt you. I swear, Emma. And I’ll never let anyone else hurt you either. You’re safe with me.”
I did feel safe with him. I knew it was stupid. But I did. I always had.
“Are you two coming?” the conductor yelled over to us.
“Tell him no.” Callum’s hand slid to the side of my neck. “Let me show you that you don’t have to be scared of me. Let me prove it to you.”
How was he going to prove it to me? I thought about last night when we were under the moonlight. He hadn’t hurt me then. I’d felt so alive. I wanted that again. I wantedhimagain.
I shook my head.
Callum’s face fell.
But then I turned to the conductor and shook my head again. “No, we’re staying.” Every part of me was screaming at me to go. Except my heart. My heart waswith Callum. It had been for ten years. And I couldn’t keep running. He’d just keep haunting me.
The train started chugging away.
Callum and I both stared at each other.
“So you…” my voice trailed off. “You’re really a vampire?”
He nodded.
“Do you kill people?”
He shook his head. “No. Not anymore. I mostly drink animal blood.”
“Mostly?”
“And occasionally I may raid a blood blank. On a bad day.” He cracked a smile like it was a funny joke.
“So that’s why you knew where I was? You could smell the cut on my hand?”
“Blood is sweet.” He closed his eyes for a second and took a deep breath. “Yours is so fucking sweet.” He opened his eyes and stared at me again. “Like a moth to a flame. Even though it’ll hurt. Because it fucking hurts when I give in to it. It kills me, Emma. I don’t want to be that man.”
I believed he didn’t want to be that man. But…he was. He’d hurt me without meaning to and then feel bad about it. But I’d be dead.
“Don’t be scared, baby.”
“How am I supposed to not be scared when you say something like that? How am I supposed to believe you’ll be able to control yourself and not hurt me?”
“Because I told you I wouldn’t. And I’m a man of my word.”
“A man of your word? I don’t think upstanding citizens have one night stands without using a condom andthen ghost the person for ten years. I was so worried I was pregnant. Or had a million STDs.”
