Page 56 of Hot Blooded
“We need to do that more. Maybe you could build up a sort of tolerance,” she proposes as she slides back down the bed. I roll off and turn out the lights before slipping in next to her.
“Maybe,” I sigh at the hopeful thought. “Maybe.”
“Reign?” she asks, sounding sated and sleepy.
“Yes, sweetheart?”
“Are you my boyfriend?”
I chuckle at the unexpected question. “Yes, sweetheart. You’re my beauty, and I’m your cursed beast.”
She gives the softest and lightest of giggles. “Okay. But you know that means one day my love will turn you into a prince?”
“Maybe it will, princess. Maybe it will.”
In a matter of seconds, Tressa’s breathing deepens as she falls into her slumber. I’m half-tempted to fight the sleepiness that consumes me, things aren’t totally resolved for us, but at least we’re making some kind of inroad.
I don’t know if this will all blow up in my face, but I have shown I can at least somewhat restrain myself. And I may be ready to stop punishing myself for what happened with Daniella. I’ll never forgive myself, but I can at least move forward with my life. At least, Tressa makes me think I deserve that much.
Chapter 29
Tressa
Having a vampire for a boyfriend is a lot like having a regular boyfriend. Well, except for the fact that he’s not exactly the warmest sleeping partner…he runs a little cooler than me. That and the fact that even though we spend every night together in his bedroom, he still refuses tosleepwith me. I wish I was kidding. Me giving him that impromptu blow job? I’m trying every way I know how to tempt him into more.
I never worried anymore that he would lose control. Even if Reign sometimes did. He still didn’t completely trust himself not to hurt me.
We still shared ourone truthswith each other, and I knew that him admitting he was scared sometimes about taking things to far, or taking too much from me was his way of being truthful. It was something we both valued in our relationship—honesty. Complete honesty even when it scared us. Complete honesty even when the truth hurt.
It was why I’d told him about my sister so early on in our relationship, even when I never usually told people in my life. Reign was different—right from the start. Our relationship was deep and intense, and I trusted him completely. He was still learning to trust himself.
Things with his brother Alastair were still somewhat strained, but I encouraged Reign that he’d eventually have to forgive and get over some of his misgivings. He assured me that he was quite adept at holding a grudge and could keep his cold-shoulder up at least another forty or fifty years. He was mostlykidding. But I didn’t like when he spoke like this—in finites, in time-periods during which I would no longer walk the earth.
Okay in forty years, yes I probably would still be here, but I’d be an old lady and Reign would still be as handsome as ever, a superhuman in his prime. It broke my heart to think that I’d continue aging and growing frail and weak while he remained unchanged. I wanted to be with him till the end of always, but that was something Reign and I didn’t see eye to eye on.
But I have to put a pin in all my questioning right now, because today Reign has planned an outing for me and Lena.
It’s thoughtful of him. I think Reign rightly understood that I needed a friend. Being alone out here in the mountains of Colorado could be very isolating. Winter had come on hard and fast, turning everything frosty, white and frigid. Two feet of snow sat glistening outside and hung heavily from the massive pine trees outside. And while I was happy to stay tucked away inside the library most of the time, it probably wasn’t doing my mental health any favors.
Since his sports car is stored away for the winter, Reign has switched over to driving his large black SUV with the studded snow tires. There are no chains on the tires today, but I’ve seen him tinkering with them in the garage.
I’ve often wondered why in the world Reign would want to live all the way out here in the middle of nowhere up on this mountain, but now I think I know the reason. I think he enjoys the changing seasons. He himself remains unchanged season after season, year after year, but here, there is always something new to look forward to. The glorious summer with its endless blue skies, wildflowers, and bird visitors, fall with its crisp air and turning leaves, winter, which is inexplicably frigid… andspring, which I haven’t been here long enough to see yet, but I hear it’s lovely, if a little muddy. And apparently there’s a creek that begins running through the canyon at the end of the property as the snow melts off the mountain.
“Are you ready?” Reign asks, standing beside the front door. He’s not wearing a coat, but I suppose he doesn’t need one.
I nod and lace up my knee-length boots, then follow him out in the circular driveway. The air is dense with moisture, and the fog has swallowed the trees. Moths flutter around the porch lights and the evening breeze rustles through the rose bushes.
There’s some kind of heating mechanism under the concrete and stone, and as a result, it’s never icy out here. One bonus of being fabulously rich. Most people have thirty years to pay off a mortgage. Reign on the other hand has owned most of his homes for well over a hundred years. He has five or six, I believe. It boggles the mind.
I slip into the warm cab of the SUV and Reign cranks the heat as I turn on my seat heater. “Is it warm enough for you?” he asks. The cold doesn’t bother him, of course, but he wants me to be comfortable.
“I’m fine,” I say, burrowing my chin down farther into my scarf. He chuckles at me as he pulls out onto the snow-packed road. We drive in silence for a moment until he reaches the turn-off for the McAllister property.
“I’m glad you’re doing this,” he says, maneuvering the car toward the guest apartment behind the estate.
“Me too. I’ve been looking forward to seeing Lena again.”
She’s outside waiting for us, and she waves when we pull in, her brightly-colored mittens flapping excitedly.
