Part 17 (2/2)
We made it as far as the hallway before he stopped me, before he sidled me against one of the few parts of the wall that weren't covered in Carmichael family photographs. Then he tucked his index finger into a belt loop on my jeans and tugged me closer.
He leaned in, smelling of bright, gra.s.sy cologne. It was kind of an odd smell on a night-dwelling vampire.
”I really didn't get a chance to say h.e.l.lo and good night properly,” he murmured.
”I think you were gearing up for the salmon.”
His voice was barely audible, a sultry rustling of sound. ”Exactly. I got distracted, and I really don't think I gave it my best.””In that case . . .” was all I got out before his lips found mine. This kiss was just as eager as his last had been, his mouth hungry and urgent, tongue teasing and insistent. His hands slid around my back, enveloping me in his arms and his spring-green scent. He sighed at the contact.
”Hey, did Morgan ever-Oh, dear G.o.d.”
Morgan's head popped up, and we both looked to find Mallory just outside the kitchen door, hands over her eyes. She waved.
”Uh, hi, Morgan. Hi. Oh, G.o.d. Sorry,” she sputtered, and immediately turned on her heel and walked back into the kitchen.
I grinned happily. ”Andnow she knows what it feels like.”
”Except we were actually clothed,” Morgan pointed out, then looked back at me with a knowing smile.
”But we could remedy that pretty easily.”
”Yeah, getting naked to teach Mallory a lesson ain't real high on my priority list.”
He barked out a laugh, leaning back with the force of it, our bodies still pressed together at the hips, then smiled down at me, eyes bright, grin wide. ”I missed you, Mer.”
I couldn't help it-my smile faltered, and I hated myself for it. I hated that I couldn't return that careless, joyous smile. I hated that I didn't-or maybe just didn't yet?-feel that same spark that lit Morgan's eyes. I wondered if it could grow, with time and with nearness. I wondered if I was being too hard on myself, expecting too much to think that I could fall for someone after just a few weeks. Maybe I needed more time. Maybe I was vastly overthinking it.
Morgan's smile dipped a bit at one corner. ”Everything okay?”
”Yeah, I'm just . . . It's been a really long night.” That was entirely true, so it was really only a lie of omission.
”Yeah?” He pushed a lock of hair behind my ear. ”You wanna talk about it?”
”Nah, let's go get some food and make fun of Mallory and Catcher.”
He closed his eyes, a tightness at the corners. I'd hurt him, by not telling him about my night, by not sharing more of myself with him, and I slapped myself mentally for it. But when he opened his eyes again, his expression was forgiving, a corner of his mouth tipped up into a smile. ”You're going to have to help me out here, Merit. I can't be the only one doing this.”
I gave him points for honesty, and for not saying that I owed it to him to try, given that Ethan had all but ordered our courts.h.i.+p. I half smiled back at him, simultaneously feeling a sense of relief, that at least he'd put the relations.h.i.+p issue out there, and a sense of foreboding, that I was going to be the one to bring that relations.h.i.+p down around us.
”I know,” I said. ”I know. I'm really about as good at relations.h.i.+ps as I am at being a vampire. I'm kind of a smart but surprisingly inept girl.” That was the entire truth.
Morgan laughed full out, then pressed a kiss to my forehead. ”Come on, genius. Let's eat.”
Dinner was ready by the time we made it into the kitchen, our fingers linked together as we walked.
Morgan slipped his hand away and presented his bundle of red-tipped white tulips to Mallory. ”Thanks for having me over.”
”Oh, these are gorgeous.” She enveloped him in a hug he didn't look like he was expecting, but seemed inordinately pleased by. ”And you're welcome. We're glad you could come.”
Mallory gave him a bright smile, and gave me a concealed thumbs-up, then set about finding a vase for the flowers while Morgan and Catcher said their manly h.e.l.los-consisting of a symbolic head bob from Catcher (of the ”You're in my lair now” variety) and a responding nod from Morgan (of the ”You are clearly the king of this castle” variety).
A vase in one hand and the flowers in the other, Mallory paused at the threshold of the kitchen. ”Merit, do you need blood?”
I didn't even need to think about it. Although I hadn't had a run of overwhelming bloodl.u.s.t since my first week as a vampire-the First Hunger that had led me to nearly plant my fangs in Ethan's neck, and a second bout of drinking roused by an unpleasant discussion with my father-I wasn't going to risk it, and tried to be preventative by drinking theCanon 's recommended pint every other day. Vampires werehardly the monsters we were made out to be in fairy tales and television shows. We were hardly different from humans, but for the genetic mutation, fangs, silvering eyes, and periodic penchant for blood.
What? I saidhardly different.
”Yes, I need blood,” I told her, petulant as a teenager reminded to take her vitamins, and s.n.a.t.c.hed a bag of Blood4You Type A from the refrigerator. Although Mallory, as a now-former ad exec, found the name embarra.s.singly soph.o.m.oric, she appreciated not being my lunch.
I glanced back at Morgan, waved the bag at him. ”Hungry?”
He moved closer to me, gaze surprisingly possessive, arms crossed over his chest, and leaned down.
”You realize that we'd be sharing blood?”
”Is that a problem?”
His brow furrowed in confusion. ”No, no. It's just. . . .”
He paused, and I blinked. Did I miss something? I tried to flip mentally back through chapter three of the Canon (”Drink Me”), which discussed some of the etiquette of vampire drinking. Vampires could drink directly from humans or other vampires, and I'd witnessed firsthand the sensuality of it when Amber had been Ethan's beverage of choice. But the intimacy of drinking prepackaged blood in front of an audience escaped me. I'd seen Ethan do it just the other day.
On the other hand, Morgan was a Navarre vampire, prohibited from drinking blood directly from humans. TheCanon didn't get into the emotions of it, but maybe even drinking from plastic a.s.sumed a greater importance when it was the only way you could share the act.
”Is that a problem?” I asked.
He must have reconciled my ignorance, as he finally smiled back. ”Must be a House thing. Yeah, I'll take a pint. B if you have it.”
There was a bag of B in the refrigerator, and I concluded his palate was more sensitive than mine if he could taste the difference in the coagulant qualities of a bag of blood. I was about to reach for two gla.s.ses when I realized that, in addition to the apparent philosophical differences, he might ingest differently, too.
My hand on the open cabinet door, I turned back to him. ”How do you take it?”
”Just pour it into a gla.s.s.” He frowned, scratched absently at his temple. ”You know, maybe we need to have some kind of mixer. Get Cadogan and Navarre vamps together, get them talking. It seems like there's a lot we don't know about each other.”
”I was just thinking that the other day, actually,” I said, thinking Ethan would be thrilled at the opportunity to build rapport, and potentially an alliance, with the folks from Navarre.
I pulled down waffle-etched gla.s.ses from a cabinet and opened the plastic valves in the top of the bags, filling a gla.s.s for each of us. I handed one to Morgan, and took a sip of mine.
Morgan sipped from his own gla.s.s, eyes on me as he drank. His eyes didn't silver, but his predatory, seductive gaze left little doubt about his line of thinking. He drained the gla.s.s without taking a breath, chest heaving when he finally finished it.
And then, with the tip of his tongue, he grabbed a single drop that had caught on his upper lip.
”I win,” he said, very softly.
It took Mallory's voice to drag my gaze away from his mouth. ”All right, kids,” she said from the dining room, ”I think we're ready.”
I took the final drink from my gla.s.s, put both our gla.s.ses into the sink, and accompanied Morgan into the dining room. His tulips were in the vase and the accessories of fancy dining-place mats, cloth napkins, silverware, and winegla.s.ses-lay on the table before each of the four chairs. Our plates were already laden with food-fillets of salmon, herb-sprinkled rice, and spears of steamed asparagus-larger portions for the calorie-sucks that were modern-day vampires.
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