Eventually he stopped, placing a kiss on my neck as he had the day before. With a gentle bite, he took my blood. I closed my eyes, ready for a long feeding to finally make him full, but he pulled back, closing the wound with his tongue.
“Thank you, Maci. Brought my voice right back. Again.”
I shook my head. “You’re not full. You’re not done feeding. Why did you stop?”
“I intend to finish, believe me. But not here. I planned for us a date. Worked on it last night. Let’s go. I can feed later.”
No, that wouldn’t work. “I told Caesar I was staying home.”
“Text him. Tell him your plans changed. He doesn’t own you. If you want to go out, you’ll go out. Griffin’s staying here. You aren’t bound to the house every night.”
As though he’d conjured him by saying his name, Griffin entered the room with a book in hand. “I’m going to get through this monstrosity of vampire history before dawn if I have to literally not look up from the pages.”
I walked over to kiss his cheek. Griffin would never ask for affection, but it didn’t mean he didn’t need it.Maybe it means he requires it more.
“We could stay and help Griffin.” It seemed really important that I stay home. I wasn’t even sure I could explain why.
“No, go.” He kissed my cheek. “It’ll be better if I’m alone and not distracted.”
Wellthat wasno use. Tanner held out his hand. “You’ll be glad you went out. Come on. Let’s have some fun.”
I didn’t have an excuse to say no. Tanner just got his voice back. Did I really want to deny him a night out? Vampires never wanted to have fun; they wanted to torment and destroy.Well...all vampires except these vampires.
Taking his hand, I smiled. “Okay. But I have to be home by midnight. I’m working tomorrow.”
“You’re doing what?” Griffin whirled around. “When did this happen? Where are you working?”
Oh that’s right.We’d never gotten around to discussing any of it. I shrugged. “You said get a life. I got one.”
Tanner squeezed my fingers. “Maci, we’re all very rich. You don’t have to work.”
“We’re sleeping together.” My cheeks heated up as I said it. I wasn’t technically sleeping with Tanner yet. Still, I let the words hang. “It feels really icky to me to spend your money like I have any right to it. I’ll use it for food and things like that, but the rest of it, I’ll figure out. You’ve put a roof over my head and stopped my decline thanks to my withdrawals. I’m so grateful.”
Griffin and Tanner made eye contact. Truthfully, I had no idea what they silently said to each other, but right then, I wasn’t sure I cared.That’s how I feel, so it needs to matter. Period. End of story.
“We can talk about this later. I’ll get you home in time for you to get some sleep for work tomorrow.” Tanner sighed. “Even if tomorrow is the only day you go.”
“It won’t be.” I smiled at him. “Sure, take me out. Where are we going?”
His smirk was all vampire. “You’ll see.”
That doesn’t fill me with a lot of confidence.His idea of fun and my idea of fun were probably twoverydifferent things.
As it turned out, he wanted to go to the movies. I almost couldn’t believe it. I never considered vampires as movie-goers, but Tanner had rented out the entire theater for us. An old building, more of a throwback than a current theater, but there were two different stadiums for seating.
A muscle ticked in Tanner’s jaw when we entered, and by the time we’d sat in our seats, I’d quit asking him questions.
“What’s the matter?” If he wanted to go home, we could leave. I wanted to stay home in the first place.
“I think I underestimated how much smelling the humans would bother me. No one smells as tempting as you do, ever, but as you’ve noted, I’m hungry, and there are a few of them here. I don’t want to feed off them around you.”
I leaned closer. “I thought maybe you didn’t like how I smelled. You were sniffing me pretty hard and then you didn’t feed.”
“You did have a scent on you I couldn’t identify. I don’t know what it was. It’s faded. Maybe you encountered some perfume or something? Not sure how to describe it. No, you smell fantastic. You always do, but I don’t want our relationship to be me just feeding off you. They had you for days during your trip across the country. Griffin saved your life. I’m already at a disadvantage, since apparently you’re going to have to give me back my voice every rising. I need to gain footing, and it seems like the smart move to not use you like my feeding tube.”
I turned in my seat to regard him. “Tanner, this is my second date in my whole life. You took me on my only one before this. You’re not in competition with them. How I feel about you is unique to you. It’s us, and my relationship with them is also that way. You don’t have to win. It’s not a race where everyone else started ten minutes before you.”
“Of course it’s a race.”