On it sat a gold picture frame.
She was too far away to make out the photo, so she ventured closer, feeling rather than seeing Jonas’s tension mounting.
Ginny slowed her progress and sent Jonas a questioning look. “May I?”
“Yes, of course.”
Inside the frame was a faded sepia photograph of two people who appeared to be in their fifties, sitting at a table with a half-eaten birthday cake in front of them. Jonas stood behind their chairs, smiling. “Is this your family?”
His nod was uneven. “By blood, yes.”
“What do you mean, by blood?”
He sat down on the corner of the bed, his fingers loosely hooked together. “Those are my parents.” His stare was far off. “Once I became…like this, I couldn’t have any contact with them. After hurting them so badly, I’m not sure I deserve to call them my mother and father.”
Ginny set down the picture from and sat down beside him on the bed, noting the way his nostrils flared at her closeness. The way his whole body seemed to constrict. “You don’t seem the type to hurt them if you could help it.”
“At the time, it seemed like it couldn’t be helped. You know what they say about hindsight, though.” He looked down at his loosely clasped hands. “Another lifetime ago, I was an entrepreneur looking for an investor in this invention of mine.”
“What invention?”
His lips jumped. “Super glue.”
She bashed him in the shoulder. “Get out of here. You invented super glue?”
Jonas nodded slowly.
“So obviously you found the investor.”
“If only I’d known I was going to live forever.” He winked. “I would have negotiated a royalty deal.”
“This is bananas.” She buried her face in her hands, dropping them away. “What does this have to do with you becoming a vampire?”
Based on his facial expression, she could see he was recalling memories and playing them back. “I wasn’t getting anywhere. Steel was the big industry. Cars. Manufacturers didn’t want to hear about a different version of something that already existed. The name alone sounded like a gimmick. I had to find a way to produce and market it myself. That took money I didn’t have.” He was quiet for a beat. “My father wasn’t able to work after a factory accident. My mother was…entertaining men to make ends meet. I needed to help, Ginny. I thought I was helping. But I went looking for capital in the wrong places. One loan shark referred me to another and another until I was face to face with him.”
“Him?”
“My sire, Clarence. The man who created what I am. I impressed him with my tenacity, I believe he called it. He…” His laughter lacked any humor. “He took a liking to me. Which is pretty damn ironic when you think about it. Liking someone so much that you barter money for their humanity.”
Ginny swallowed the lump in her throat. “You did it for your family.”
“Mostly. I also liked someone telling me I was good at something. I’d never…had that. By the time I realized I’d sold my soul to the devil, it was too late to get it back.”
“No,” she whispered, aching in the center of her belly for what he must have gone through. “You still have it.”
His gaze shot to hers. “I’ve learned some hard lessons about being selfish, Ginny. I won’t repeat them.”
Even as he said the words she was positive were meant as a reminder to keep a heathy distance, Jonas’s body gravitated toward her slightly, pushing a wave of cloves and mint in her direction and muddling her brain. Her lips parted in response, tiny explosions going off at every pulse point. Was he going to kiss her, despite his iron willpower and what he’d revealed about the past?
Lord, she wanted that so bad. When his face was right in front of hers, cloves and mint wafting around them like smoke, she could only think in terms of moments, not forevers or consequences or right and wrong. Only that her senses, and maybe even her soul, told her to move closer and hold on for dear life.
“Ginny?” he breathed.
She could practically hear the jazzy boudoir music simmering in the background, the way it would right before the two onscreen leads had their first dramatic kiss. “Yes, Jonas?” she all but whimpered.
His eyelids drooped and suddenly the bed behind them was a giant, magnetic place, despite it’s lack of comforter or decorative throw pillows. What would it be like to have Jonas on top of her when the last of his self-control crumbled?
Divine.
Earth-moving.
Inevitable.
“Yes?” she prompted again, leaning closer.
A curse escaped him. “I’ll get you some crackers and peanut butter.”
He was off the bed and halfway to the door before she processed her first wave of swamping disappointment. She fell backward on the mattress and threw an elbow across her eyes. “Bring the pie crust, too, please.”