Page 39 of Unhinged Cravings
“Why did you bring me down here?” she asked, bringing my attention back to her.
Why had I? An impulsive need, irrational and out of character. But then, those had been constant since the night I had met her.
“What is that?” Her sight slipped behind me to where I had tucked the things I’d asked Jill to buy for me on a whim yesterday.
“It’s…” Shit. What was I doing? A desire for self-preservation surfaced, screaming for me to stop this. To force her back up the stairs and forget all of this. Forget that her smile sent warmth to barren crevices. That her spirit woke me, making me feel alive for the first time in over twenty years. That I wanted to make her happy, to hear her laugh, to see her grin and have her babble to me. Forget it all and return to who I had been before the night she crashed into my life.
She ran past me and over to the big tote of supplies for a day at the beach. A day I had planned for her and intended to spend with her. Canceling my meetings and setting aside my responsibilities and worries for just one day with her.
Dragging the bag to the middle of the beach, she spread the blanket out and dumped the contents onto it. Beach toys, sunscreen, a handful of books. I would never forget the excitement that lit her eyes when she lifted them to me.
“You planned a day at the beach with me?”
“I… You need some sun.” That urge for self-preservation returned, and the answer came out more terse than intended.
“Mmm. So you’re saying my skin is pasty? I’m not sure if that’s a compliment or an insult, Mr. Tides.”
I cringed, hating that formal name, but noticing that the inflection she put on it made it something more than just my father’s name or my brother’s.
“Not pasty, but definitely pale,” I returned, heading back to the alcove where an umbrella and cooler sat. Jill had packed it when she had dropped the things off earlier in the morning. “I mean, you’re not quite vampire material, but close.”
She stuck her tongue out at me before picking a few beach toys out. Items in hand, she walked to a spot and sat in the sand. I set the umbrella up, trying not to dwell on how odd the action seemed to my everyday tasks. Picking up the sunscreen, I moved toward her.
“Put this on. I’m not pampering you if you get sunburned.”
Squinting up at me, she frowned. “Are you pampering me now?”
I stooped, throwing the sunscreen into her lap. “This is me pampering, wildcat.”
Her smile could have filled me more than the most expensive meal and left me sated for days. She obliged my request and put on the sunscreen before digging into the sand.
“So, Emerson Tides. How did you come up with Cade?” Her hands deftly shifted the sand into shapes.
Sitting across from her, I ignored the strange sensation of sitting on the sand in my slacks. Her eyes flitted to me, then back to the sand. “I needed an alias when I moved from Bridgeville. Cade was my middle name.”
“Emerson Cade Tides?”
“Emerson Cadon Tides. Like I said, my parents liked names that sounded like we were wealthy.”
“Were you?”
“Eh, middle class. We had enough to never go without. What about you?” I asked, wanting the attention off of me. “Ava Shelton. Any fancy middle names for you?”
Her hands stopped, and I worried I had brought her back to the nightmares, but she chuckled. “Avani Liliya.”
“Avani? That’s your first name?”
“It’s on my birth certificate,” she said with a shrug. “But I prefer Ava. No one but my stepfather called me Avani. If I could bring myself to change my name so I never have the reminder of him again, I would. But it’s the only piece of the sober side of my mother I have.”
I observed her. The strands of her hair had dried in the morning sun, and they slipped forward as she molded the shape of a dragon into the sand. Her brown eyes peeked up at me.
“Avani, huh?”
She gave me a nod.
“Maybe it’s time you take your power back, wildcat.”
Her inhale was beautiful, her eyes widening into chestnut orbs with hints of gold. She swallowed, and those irises held mine with an intensity that burned through me. “Maybe it’s time we both do,Emerson.”
