Strangers

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Eighteen

   Fluttering my eyes open, surprised that I had actually fallen asleep, I rolled over to face him. Once I had opened my eyes fully he stared back into mine with a softened expression; I went to speak but he brushed his fingers along my lips to hush me before he leant over and sealed them with a kiss. Still starring in his eyes throughout it, I touched his chest with my palm and pushed him off slightly.

   ‘Good morning to you too, baby,’ I whispered across the minute gap. ‘How was your night?’

   He averted his narrowed eyes to the pillow then answered. ‘Long and restless, you were so relaxed that, well, your human side came out really strong. Yes, I’d already fed on you a little earlier but the smell of it tempted me too much... so I...’ His hesitation and his still averted, frowned eyes told me the worst. Gasping in horror, I bolted upright and launched off the bed, planting myself hard against the wall while feeling down my neck. ‘No, Tif, I didn’t do that.’ He had sat up himself, only he was poised so similar to a cat ready to pounce on its prey that it unnerved me slightly. Kneeling instead, he opened his arms out for me to clamber into. ‘Tiffany, I’d never do that to you. What I meant was that I had to leave last night. I couldn’t take the temptation anymore and I forced myself out of that front door to go hunt something else other than feast on you while you slept. You mean everything to me, I care so much about you that I can’t lose you now. You shouldn’t have to fear me anymore.’

   Nuzzling my nose to his neck, I stroked his back to reassure him first. ‘Mike, I don’t fear you. I’m just cautious that’s all, I know how much this means to you.’ Hopefully he knew I meant our shared predicament.

   ‘Then why jump off like you did?’

   ‘Because I was shocked and I didn’t let you finish. Besides, there’s not much I can do about the smell. I’m so used to yours by now that I forget how mine has a different effect on you. And I can only guess when it thickens more.’ I pouted my lips into a smirk, and alluringly narrowed my eyes.

   He, on the other hand, gulped and stuttered. ‘Now, now, there’s no need to tempt me ri...’ I stopped his words with a slow, long kiss; but he didn’t want it or from me like this, I guessed. ‘Tif, Tif. Please you can’t do that to me. As much as I... erm, love you, I don’t want you to hold me like that. I know you don’t mean to but to me it’s like you’ve got me caught up in a trap and when it’s at its most viable then I have no sense of escape or freedom. Please, my sweet, try to control your own self and temptations. For me, hmm?’ He was so careful with his words; I found it impossible to get even the slightest bit mad at him making me seem like his captor.

   My fingers ran through his hair as we smiled agreeingly into each other’s eyes. ‘Mike, what would I ever do without you?’ The small breath he took told me my scent was normal again, normal for him. ‘You accept me as I am, flaws and all, yet you still hold onto the me you’ve always known. Yeh, physically I might have changed and mentally too in some cases but it is still me. And I will never do it intentionally again to you, unless I have to. I just wish there was a way I could control it. I mean the times when it comes out are the times when I’m the happiest I ever feel in a day, and that’s when I’m near you; and kissing you, well you have no idea what that does to my head.’ I felt my cheeks fill with blood and I bit my lip to prevent me from smiling like a five year old, but it still happened. His fingers once again brushed along my jaw line and he held my head in his hands as he leant down to strongly place his lips on mine.

   Internally, my pulse quickened as my heart pumped harder and faster within my frozen chest; frozen because I was paralysed with the tingling feeling of being wanted pulsing through my veins.