Page 27 of Taste of Forever
“At least admit I’m funnier than your boyfriend!”
She carried on without looking back, despite my yell across the room. I only saw a flash of her side profile as she went out the front door and turned onto the street, but I swore a smile curved her lips in that moment.
She’s going back to him,I thought bitterly. The human she chose years before she even knew I existed.
The thought of her with someone else soured my stomach almost as much as all the rancid blood that wasn’t hers. But it truly didn’t matter that she had another partner at the moment. Heather was still my blood mate. Her care and safety was my responsibility.
I only waited a beat before leaving the club, and began to follow her from a distance.
Chapter 7
Heather
Iwalked to the edge of the vampire city, up the hill, and through the woods as if in a trance. My body was on autopilot but my mind was back in that club, sitting with Laith at the bar. From the moment I walked out to when I reached my car, I asked myself several times why I had been so quick to leave.
The logical answer was simple. I had a life. A job I worked hard for, and a partner I hoped to spend the rest of my days with. It would be insane to give up everything I had to become a vampire’s wife-slash-meal.
And yet there was a discomforting tug pulling me back in the direction of Sanguine. Back to the tall vampire with an angel’s face and a demon’s teeth.
Laith was deadly, there was no doubt in my mind about that. My instincts had been on edge throughout our entire conversation, like something deep in my DNA recognized him as a natural predator.
That kiss, brief as it was, felt like licking honey off the edge of a knife. Sweet and a little dangerous. I could still feel the press of his lips and the long fangs just inside his mouth. His tongue flicking inside for that curious, playful moment had done toomuch to me for such a small action. Sensation had rippled over my whole body during that kiss, and that was exactly why I’d stopped him. Exactly why I didn’t stay.
I left because I had to. Because talking to him felt too much like flirting, which felt like a betrayal. Because in the brief few times he touched me, my physical response had been more intense than it had been in years with Justin.
It wasn’t until I’d been sitting in my car for a few minutes that I realized I had completely forgotten to take any pictures or video.
“Goddamn it,” I groaned, scrubbing my hands over my face.
Even before I’d seen Laith, documenting had slipped my mind. I was too fascinated by my surroundings, like all the mismatched currency the bartender had shown me. And after Laith and I began talking? It felt like nothing existed outside of him and me.
Just another reason why I had to remove myself from the situation.
My fingers drummed on the steering wheel as I started the drive home. If I went back to Sanguine again to document proof, chances were good I’d run into Laith again. He seemed like a dog after a bone. A little obsessive, to put it lightly. The guy basically said we, despite being total strangers, were destined to live happily ever after, and he was more than ready to start our life together.
As if that wasn’t a blinking neon sign to stay the hell away. Not just from him, but Sanguine altogether.
The whole concept of blood mates was crazy to me. Absolutely bananas. Not to mention presumptuous as hell. How were two complete strangers supposed to deal with the fact that they were expected, even predestined, to become life partners? It sounded like disaster and a lifetime of misery waiting to happen.
And strangely, I wasn’t as pissed off or horrified by the idea as I expected myself to be. I could probably do worse than someone as hot and funny as Laith.
A smile broke out across my face, remembering his silly little quips and comments. The playfulness in his magenta eyes and those fanged smiles that made my heart skip a beat, and not entirely out of fear.
Yeah, I could certainly do worse. The fact that he seemed all-in, ready to do the vampire equivalent of walking down the aisle and saying vows, was oddly flattering.
But he didn’t even know me, so how could any of it be genuine?
You’re flattered by the attention of a stranger because your relationship hasn’t moved toward real commitment in years.
Ah, there she was. My little resentment demon back to haunt me again.
“I love Justin,” I said out loud, as if that would make the declaration more real. “We may not be married yet, but weareserious about each other, no matter what some vampire says. We’re committed. And I won’t do anything to jeopardize that.”
Keep telling yourself that,my resentment demon said.And are you 100% sure Justin feels the same way?
“Course he does,” I muttered.
Still, the doubts lingered. They came and went in waves throughout our whole relationship, but were more frequent over the past year. Since we’d moved in together, honestly. But was there a single couple out there who had zero doubts of their partner’s feelings? No one wasthatcertain about their relationship, were they?
