Page 33 of Shift in the Blood
“I am sorry I offended you.”
“I’m sorry I threw myself at you.”
“I’m not.”
His words stilled my brush, and for the first time since he’d come up, I met his gaze. “I couldn’t tell that.”
“Will you believe that I am not trying to hurt you?”
I turned back to my painting, adding a slash of black and then one of blood red. “No.”
“I’m not. I just think…” He stopped, and rubbed his hands in his hair.
It was the most human thing I’d ever seen him do. Ever since learning he was a vampire, I watched him. That was my thing anyway, people watching. Didier had the same movements, the same things that humans did, but there was something more. Something alien. It was if he shadowed the movements of humans, and added to the way we moved.
I found it beautiful and fascinating. I wanted to feel his movement around me. A week of being rejected hadn’t changed what I wanted.
“You think what?” My voice came out in what I hoped was a hard, bad ass boss bitch tone. I wasn’t going to let this man or any man hurt me again.
“You’re beautiful and talented and young and I want to give you all the opportunities you deserve. What you seek… it may happen. But I would like to take things slowly.”
I looked at him again.
“Very slowly.”
I looked away.
I knew a ‘Maybe later’ when I heard it. I was going to paint his six paintings, wish him well, and go away once I was done. Then maybe I’d be able to heal.
How could a man who I’d just met affect me this way? I didn’t know, but I didn’t like it. I’d been resisting men for a long time. And now I meet Mr. Tall Cool Handsome Sexy Vampire, and I fall to pieces?
No. I would be the master of my domain.
“Okay. Thanks for the talk.” I focused on my painting.
I didn’t hear him slip away but when I risked a glance at where he’d been standing, he was gone.
Chapter Twelve
Didier
The next three weeks were some of the most miserable of my life. I wanted Clara. My heart beat in time with hers. I knew how sad she was, and how that swung back and forth between anger and heartbreak within her. I knew what I was doing to her.
But I’d seen her when she said she had no choice with regard to the patronage. I wanted her to have complete choice. Complete free will.
I got her a private viewing into see the Laferriere exhibit at the museum. She took pictures and studied them carefully. Then she began the work. The first work she chose was theFemme au Repos.
After she began work, I rarely saw her. Neither did Mrs. B., or Neville.
“She’s crying up there in that attic again.” Mrs. B. came in and slammed the tray she’d brought up to Clara earlier on the counter. “What is going on, Didier? What have you done to her?”
“I am trying to give her free will. The choices she never had.” I didn’t understand why this was so hard for others to see.
“I’m thinking she’s made her choice and you’re being a stubborn ass.” She crossed her arms and glared at me.
“I can’t even have peace in my own kitchen!” I walked out, tossing my hands in the air.
“Not until you make peace in this house!” Mrs. B. took nothing from anyone, not even me.
