Werewolf and Vampire Mate [Book 1 Complete]

chapter fifteen.

April

I stand from the bed, reaching out my hand to lace with Reed's. Our fingers fit together perfectly. He takes me down the hallway—the living room and kitchen are brimming with people now, cooking and laughing and watching TV. I spent longer looking through his journal than I realized.

But Reed pulls me right past them and out the front door, down the porch steps and toward the side of the clearing where there's a break in the trees and a beautiful view of the sunset.

A picnic blanket is laid out with a wicker basket sitting beside it. I stop in my tracks.

"What's this?"

"I wasn't just fixing water pipes that entire time," he admits. He grips my waist and pulls me back into his chest, pressing his cheek against the side of my head. "If this is going to be our last night together for the foreseeable future then...I want to make the most of it." He kisses my temple before we go over and sit on the picnic blanket.

From the basket, he pulls out an assortment of fruit and crackers and cheese. I am a little dumbfounded. Is this...a date?

"Here," he holds out a punnet of strawberries for me and I take them.

"Thanks," I say faintly. He bites into an apple but when I don't eat, he pauses.

"You ok? Are you not hungry? I thought you'd be starving. Fuck, I've hardly fed you." He sounds stressed about that, but the truth is I've been too anxious and wrung out on adrenaline to be hungry.

"No, I am. I am hungry." I open the punnet and pick out a strawberry. "This is just...really nice. No one's done something like this for me before."

"No?" He leans back on an elbow, studying me. The sleeve of his shirt pulls up enough that a hint of his tattoo is revealed. "Nikolai Goncharov never took you out somewhere fancy?"

My cheeks begin to warm. "It wasn't like that. We weren't dating or anything. We'd only met twice before that night."

He nods, looking pleased. "Tell me about Yale."

"Uh...what do you want to know?"

His gaze locks onto mine with a warm intensity that I am starting to get used to. "April, I want to know everything about you. I wish I could understand every moment of your life, from your childhood to high school to now. But I'll settle for whatever you're happy to share."

It is startling, to have someone so completely interested in me. I went on a date about a year and a half ago, and I said a grand total of eight words the entire time because the guy was so busy talking about himself that he practically forgot I was there. He texted me later to say he had a great time and he really liked me. But he didn't actually know a single thing about me.

"I'm doing my Bachelor's in Legal Studies," I tell him.

"So you want to be a lawyer?"

I bite into the strawberry, giving myself time before I answer. "I'm not sure," I end up saying.

"Fair enough. Did you grow up here, in New Haven?"

"No, New York. My parents still live there." I try not to think about the fact that they're going to be up when I get home tomorrow. Instead, I lie down next to him, letting my hair spread out across the picnic blanket. I stare up at the darkening sky, watching it turn from burnt orange to a deep blue.

Reed wraps a strand of my hair around his finger. "Are you close with your parents?"

I nearly laugh at the thought. "Hardly. I've seen them like five or six times since I came to college."