Page 41 of Taste of Forever
The seconds crawled by while I waited for an answer from Heather. When she didn’t respond, I said, “Don’t you dare protect your boyfriend if he’s hurting you.”
That seemed to snap her out of whatever trance she was in, and she pulled her arm away from me. “I told you Justin’s not hurting me. That’s ridiculous.”
“Is it?” I challenged.
My gaze fell to the fading purple dots on her upper arm that could only be from fingertips digging into her soft flesh. There were four of them in a vertical line with just over an inch of space between. I’d bet my luckiest pair of boxers that she had one more bruise on the inside of her arm where a thumb would have squeezed. Five marks from the fingers of a strong, aggressive man.
Faster than she could perceive, I reached for her other arm and drew it forward for a closer look. My vision went red at the sight of matching bruises on that side too.
“What the fuck, Heather?” I hissed.
She drew back and started feeding her arms through the sweater she’d just taken off. “What the fuck, yourself. You can’t just grab me, Laith.”
“I want to know who hurt you. If not your boyfriend, then who?” I couldn’t bring myself to say his name. It would have sounded too familiar, too close to the man who had the woman I needed.
“No one,” she insisted.
My pretty little liar. Why would she lie to me about this?
Then again, why wouldn’t she? We were complete strangers in her eyes. She didn’t know the significance of the blood mate bond. At least, not yet.
“I can keep you safe,” I said, forcing my tone to soften. My own anger was making her defensive, and I needed her to realize I was on her side. She didn’t need another angry man demanding things from her.
“Whoever is doing this, they’re no match against me. I can promise you that. Not only am I a vampire, I’m part of the ruling clan of Sanguine. We’re powerful and we protect our people.”
Heather hugged around herself, hands rubbing her arms where the bruises hid. “I’m not your people,” she said. “I’m not one of you.”
“You can be,” I said. “We have humans. Well,ahuman. And a couple of brusang, who are human-ish. Let’s say we have one and three-quarter humans already. You’ll feel right at home.”
She let out a soft breath of laughter.
“And if you come with me as my blood mate, the whole clan will go to war for you if need be,” I added.
Heather gave me a skeptical look. “Yeah, right.”
“They will. We take these types of bonds very seriously.”
She sighed deeply, her hands falling to clasp loosely around her elbows. I felt a surge of elation, like this was it. She was finally going to admit that he had done it, express what a piece of shit he was, and that she didn’t want to hold on to that farce of a relationship any longer. Not when she could have something real, lasting and satisfying with me.
“It’s stupid,” she said with a sheepish glance. “They had just mopped the floors at work, and I forgot a document in one of the labs. So I went back and slipped on the floor. My feet just went out from under me. Luckily the janitor was there and he caught me right before I hit the ground. But he had to grab my arms pretty hard. I was dead weight.”
Heather, Heather, Heather. I should spank you for lying straight to my face.
She started to squirm, her heartbeat quickening in my ears the longer I sat there with no response. It was interesting how she clearly didn’t enjoy lying. She wasn’t naturally deceptive and seemed uncomfortable with dishonesty. So why do it?
Either she was protecting someone, the stupid boyfriend mostly likely, or she felt like she had to because of some threat or danger. But there was nothing more dangerous to a human than a vampire.
Regardless, she didn’t trust me enough to come clean. And forcing the information out of her was not a great way to start a relationship of our own.
“That’s unfortunate,” I said after a prolonged silence. “You sure there wasn’t a banana peel on the ground?”
Heather snorted an adorable little laugh. “I don’t know, there might have been. I do feel like a cartoon character sometimes.” She straightened, smoothing her hair back. “So, when should we do this again?”
“Again?” I repeated, surprised. “You want to do this again?”
I could smell the arousal from her before and after I had fed. It was even more potent than the first time without the sterile environment of the blood bank. Moving away from her had been the hardest thing I’d ever done in my life. All I’d wanted was to sink in and give her the pleasure and release she so desperately needed.
But I could also sense her distress, the guilt and betrayal she felt. Along with a touch of fear. It all tainted her scent, made it bitter. I hated that she couldn’t let go and just enjoy this for what it was. My fangs would never bring her pain.Iwas the one she was supposed to be with. Biology and fate had decided it. Would she even feel any guilt or betrayal over me when she went home to him?
