Page 30 of The Boy With The Sharp Teeth
"Ihave, and always will, look out for you Sana, you just need to trust me,” hesaid, his gaze heavy with meaning.
Asudden anger sparked within her chest like flint over dry tinder before curlinginside of her as a painful memory she long tried to forget came crashing backinto her mind. Trust! That was laughable. Buffeted by her pride, she let theanger burn away any sort of feelings the previous memories might have conjured.
"Ofcourse," she replied, not caring if he heard the crisp note to her tone asshe set down her glass with a thump against the table.
Gatheringherself, she turned and met his gaze fully now, noticing the way hispenetrating eyes narrowed at her change in mood. The look only served to makethe naturally austere bone structure of his face and pale scar over his eyeeven more intimidating, but she refused to crumble under the weight of hisstare like she used to.
Holdinghis gaze, she gave him a demanding look. "Did you really buy the old movietheater?"
Fora moment, he didn't say anything, as if he was deciphering the sudden change intopic. Adjusting himself to the corner of the couch, Zach stretched both armsout over the top of the armrest and the back of the couch. Smiling, heanswered. "Yep."
"Why?"she asked, frustrated. She could already sense that getting a straight answerfrom him was going to be like pulling teeth.
"Doyou really need to ask?"
Angrilyshe looked away from him. She wanted to get up and walk away, to do somethingto keep herself busy as the meaning of his words settled in, but she refused togive him the satisfaction of seeing her rattled.
Steelingherself, Sana sat straighter in her seat and looked directly at him. "Whydoes it feel like I'm being cornered, Zach?" she asked, cutting directlyto chase. She was tired of playing games with him.
"Becausethat's exactly what I am doing," he grinned wide, revealing his sharpwhite teeth.
Aripple of awareness went through her body at the full sight of his teeth. Whenthey were younger, he rarely ever gave full smiles. Only glimpses here andthere pieced together over time gave her the full makeup of the boy's ratherpredatory grin. Not to mention the jolting feel of them scraping against herskin. For years she thought of his teeth, imagining the feel of them runningacross her collarbone once more or lightly over her nipples. She had even triedwithout success to Google what kind of genetic trait it was that caused hiscanine and incisor teeth to be so unnaturally sharp. Hoping if she could justput a mundane name to the trait, it would lessen the appeal of her memories.But of course, she found nothing. And now, without any sort of permission fromher mind, Sana could feel the tingling warmth of awareness tighten her skin andraise her senses just at the sight of them.
"Well,stop," she spoke suddenly, for her own sake and to him. "I didn'tcome back to be accosted by you."
"Sureyou did," he said as he leaned forward in his seat, resting both elbowsonto his knees and turning his head to look at her. "Just like I came backand waited patiently for you to come back to me."
Yeah,sure he did, she mentally scoffed.
"Andwhat would you have done if I didn't come back, huh? What then?!" Sheasked as she stood up and snatched their plates from the coffee table. She allbut stomped to the kitchen.
Marchinginto the kitchen, Sana could feel Zach's silent presence as he followed behindher. Setting the dishes in the dishwasher, she pulled a cake knife from adrawer. Sensing what she needed, Zach stood next to her, holding two dessertplates he pulled from the cabinet.
"Toanswer your question, I would have driven up to thirty-nine hundred GardeniaDrive in Seattle, apartment 5E, and I would have calmly knocked on your doorand made my impatience known," he said, accepting the plate of thick lemonpound cake.
Droppingthe cake knife in the sink, Sana turned and stared at him in shock. "Youknew where I lived? How?"
Placingin the coffee pod, Zach pressed the button on her coffee maker and slid heryellow mug under the spout before turning towards her and resting his hipagainst the counter, and crossing his muscular arms over his chest. "Didyou know that every male Waatese, once they reach the age of eighteen, mustsign up for military service? It's like a family requirement. And some chooseto stay enlisted and gain all sorts of handy skills that the family can call onfrom time to time," he informed her with a challenging smirk that gratedat her pride.
Hermind reeled with this information. "Like stalking women and giving awaytheir addresses?!"
Pullingaway from the counter, he took her mug and walked over to her. Sana tensed asZach set the mug on the counter to the left of her, but he didn’t move his arm.Instead, he kept his hand there, gripping the counter's edge just as his otherhand did the same on the other side of her, caging her in.
Withhis face inches above her, Zach looked down at her, giving her a serious look."Like acquiring the address for a family member's future wife and motherof their children—yes," he growled so low in his chest, Sana shuddered atthe aftershocks. "And besides, I didn't need to use that contact. You gaveit to me yourself, remember?" he reminded her before leaning in andnuzzling the side of her face and hair.
"Thepaint samples," she whispered with a dawning realization.
"So,you see, destiny." He held out his hands as if that explained all.
"No,not destiny! Harassment," she tried to argue, but there was barely anyconviction in her words, not like there should be. She couldn’t stop thinkingof his words, of their future. The idea of black-haired children running aroundthe house suddenly plagued her thoughts.
Grabbingtheir cake plates with one hand and his coffee in the other, he silentlygestured for her to grab her mug and follow.
"Yousay harassment," he said from over his shoulder as they walked back intothe living room. "I say determined wooing."
Sanacouldn’t help but smile at that as she settled back into her spot.
"So,tell me, why were you interested in the old movie theater?" Zach askedbefore taking a huge bite of his pound cake.
