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Colby and the others took my proclamation as a sign to come out of hiding. I felt an intense breeze all around me as they appeared, surrounding Tom. I should have realised they would, considering they're just as vampiric as any other vampire.
"Colby Brock," Tom muttered, his eyes on the man over my shoulder. His entire demeanour changed — he wasn't aggressive or defensive, purely terrified.
Colby responded to the recognition, shifting forward about to attack, but I held my hand out to stop him. His chest bumped my forearm and I felt him look at me.
"No," I said simply. "Tom, why would someone like you be allied with Aiden and Paula?"
"Someone like me?" he repeated slowly, taking a big step back away from us. Unfortunately for him, he stepped into Mike, who hadn't quite gotten the memo of what was happening and punched him.
"Mike!" I snapped, rushing forward to kneel beside Tom. The guy had gone down like a brick, almost panting as he tried to scurry away from Mike and the others. "I said no. Leave him alone."
"Amira, what are you even doing? The plan was to ambush these guys, not make friends." He narrowed his gaze. "You're being impulsive."
I huffed. "For the record, I was going to have you ambush him here and bring him unconscious back to his clan before we take them down, too, because it sounded fun. But I've changed my mind. So back off." Twisting my head to catch Tom's gaze, I gave him an apologetic smile. "Do you have a One, Tom?"
"No," he muttered.
"When you find them, you better treat them like you've treated me. You're not a bad vampire, in fact you're one of the good ones." I patted his shoulder as I stood up, taking a step back. "For a word of advice, get away from Aiden or this won't be the last time we show up out of the blue."
I began to turn, intending on just walking away, but Colby stepped to the side into my path. "Amira, we're not leaving empty-handed. We haven't sent a message yet."
"I set their restroom on fire" — I briefly turned to Tom, who looked slightly annoyed suddenly — "sorry about that" — and back again — "so I'm pretty sure enough of a message has been sent."
"Not to Aiden," Colby argued.
I rolled my eyes. "Don't be brutish, some people are allied with bad people because they have no choice. That doesn't mean they are bad, too." My arms crossed over my chest as I felt my lips tugging up at the corner. "I'm a werewolf, which you hate, but you have no problem fucking my lights out still. So do what you did before and get over yourself to be nice for once to this guy."
"You're hot, he isn't," he replied with a shrug. "Pretty girls get away with a lot more."
"He's not so bad," I mused.
"Amira."
"Alright, alright. We're going to ignore the fact that's the first time you've called me pretty and I'm going straight to the part where I tell you I'm not backing down on this." I was staring up at him directly into his eyes, my arms still crossed and my body firmly in place. I refused to move until he backed down instead.
A few moments passed. I could hear Mike's voice very faintly trying to convince Colby otherwise, to ignore me and deal with Tom and his clan without remorse. But Colby was silent, considering. I'd never seen him quite so conflicted before.
Tilting his head back in frustration, he sighed, and I knew exactly what it was he had decided. Man, being pretty had so many perks.
I spun quickly to the vampire who was still on the ground. "Looks like your life is spared."
He glanced at Colby apprehensively, his eyes shifting up to Mike behind him. I snapped my fingers so he found me instead and nodded toward his car. He finally got the message, zipping over to the driver side door. I thought I saw him take a second to look at me first, but then he was driving away.
"Pretty girls really do get away with a lot, huh?" Mike grumbled as he glared at me across the road.
"You wouldn't know."
"You're on thin ice, don't push me."
"Scary," I deadpanned before rolling my eyes. "Are we gonna go, or what?"
"Colby?" Sam asked, a stern tone to his voice. I hadn't heard it before so it startled me a little, drawing my gaze to his face.
Colby didn't answer him, just nodding and taking my wrist. He pulled me to him, but instead of lifting me up normally, I was thrown over his shoulder, causing a loud shriek from the back of my throat. And then we were moving — so fast that I didn't even know what was happening until I felt a bed beneath me.
"What the fuck?" I complained, adjusting so I was sat upright. "Not cool."
He dropped on one knee on the bed right beside me, capturing my jaw with one hand as his lips crushed to mine. His body slid easily between my legs as he laid me down beneath him, easily shuffling me further up.
"Where's this come from?" I breathed as I got a chance to actually take oxygen into my lungs.
He trailed a hand down my thigh, curving over my hip with a slight arch to his brow. "Does it matter?"
I smiled. "Yeah, guess you're right." Before he could reply again, I dragged him by his shirt back to me and wrapped one leg around his waist. I could already feel him pressing against me even through his jeans, his lips working over the top of mine...
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call the smut police cus you ain't gettin' any smut today 😏
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My lids lifted slowly, flickering repeatedly as I tried to adjust to being awake. It felt like my entire body was aching in the best way, memories of the night before still in my head. It wasn't any different to the other times we'd done it, but something about Colby's face and demeanour had changed — I couldn't put my finger on why yet.
As I finally came to be, I realised there were gentle tugs at my scalp, my hair falling randomly on my back. There didn't seem to be any rhythm to it, just mindless movements. A little annoyed and simultaneously pleased, I turned my head over my shoulder to see Colby sitting upright staring straight ahead of him, his hand in my hair slowly stroking it. His face was blank, zoned out.
"Don't stop," I murmured, curling into myself so I was a little closer to him. I thought I heard him exhale sharply, his fingers sifting through the strands right at my scalp. I hummed in appreciation.
"What a surprise, the dog-"
I swatted at him. "Shut up."
"Alright."
I laid there for a while just enjoying it. He'd started to purposely pull a little and massage into my head and twist my strands around his fingers. It felt so good I didn't ever want to move. This was the best thing that had happened to me for a while.
Although I was most definitely falling asleep, there was one thing on my mind that I just couldn't let go.
"Colby?" He hummed in response. "Why did you jump me earlier?"
"We agreed that it doesn't matter," he muttered back, his voice quieter as if he was turned away from me. I pulled his wrist and sat up, spinning to face him. He was indeed looking toward the wall instead, his shoulders tense.
I extended my hearing beyond the bedroom, into the rest of the house. It was dead silent — aside from Kevin's snores, which were hard to ignore or miss. It must have been some time during the day, which meant no one else was awake to hear us talk. Perfect.
"It didn't matter then, Colby, but now I want to know." I tilted my head to the side as he glanced at me. "No one else is awake, they won't hear what you have to say."
He hesitated but muttered something too quiet for me to hear. I didn't even realise he'd spoken until I saw him looking down to his lap in embarrassment. I frowned at him, reaching out for his jaw, and he let me meet his gaze. Lips pressed together, he wrapped his fingers around my wrist and said, "It was because I was feeling... a lot for you."
"Why?" I questioned in interest.
"A couple of things," he admitted, trailing his fingertips down my forearm, "but mainly... mainly because of your conversation with that Tom guy."
I frowned. "My conversation with Tom? Why would any of that stick out to you? The guy I was talking about doesn't exist."
"Yeah..."
He was silent for a few moments so I shifted closer, leaning my shoulder against his. We were side by side now, and once I'd copied his pose, I raised my brows expectantly at him.
"The guy you were talking about doesn't exist but it was toward the end of your time alone with him. You probably didn't even think anything of it."
"Tell me directly," I insisted, getting frustrated.
"You asked if you'd ever told him your boyfriend's name, Amira. Maybe I'm being stupid to think... that's how you think of me."
Oh.
Oh.
Did I consider Colby to be my boyfriend? He was right, I had absolutely implied he was and even expected him to come out after I'd asked Tom that question. As if I thought he would respond to the title. We hadn't touched labels, hardly even admitting that we'd accepted each other as mates, let alone confirmed a relationship together.
Shit. Now I was stuck thinking about it.
The last thing I expected was for Colby to be up all day wondering if that's what I really meant — maybe I was being delusional in thinking so, but if that truly was the only thing on his mind... did that mean he wanted to be called that?
"Why you gotta make me think?" I grumbled.
"I don't see what there is to think about."
"Seriously?" I glared at him as he just stared back at me without a word. "Don't act like this hasn't apparently kept you up. In truth, I don't even know if I meant anything by that."
"Well, decide," he suggested casually.
I crossed my arms. "Excuse me?"
"Decide," he repeated and lowered his head so his nose bumped mine. His eyes were down but not quite on my lips, and I naturally responded to him by tilting my head up. I almost kissed him out of instinct alone.
"Is this your way of asking me to be your girlfriend?" I whispered, capturing his gaze with mine. I surprised him with a kiss, causing both of us to breathe in sharply.
"Yeah." He took my bottom lip between his thumb and index. "We gonna make this official already, or are you happy to stay my side piece?"
I shot upright in a second. "Side piece?! Who's your main piece?"
"Sam."
I tried. I tried so hard not to laugh, but the sound and escaped me before I had much of a chance to stop it. I was sure I snorted too, as I composed myself. "You have a weird tendency to be cute sometimes, Colby," I said between my giggles. Finally serious, I raised one leg over his lap and sat down, taking his face in my hands. "Yes, I suppose I would rather not be the side piece."
"Works for me," he murmured before kissing me again.
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