Any distance between them now hurt in really surprising ways.
Her eyes flashed to the pack of flower seeds on the nightstand. Had he realized he’d bought her flowers she would never see bloom? As soon as she turned vamp, the only thing she could hope to see was the closed flower buds at night, in the darkness, where she would dwell. A part of her wished she could be a shifter instead. Stupid ears and stupid hearing impairment. Without it, the choice would’ve been easy. Her whole life she’d prepared to be a vampire, but now she wanted to be like Dustin. She wanted his bite, wanted to run the woods with him, wanted to fit into the crew better, wanted to be Dustin’s tiny pack within the Blackwings.
She wanted to be like him so neither of them would ever feel different or alone again.
A knock sounded on the door, but before she could tell them to, “Hang on, I’m coming,” the door lock clicked and Dustin sauntered in, pocketing the key card. He looked like sex on a stick in a tight black sweater, dark jeans, and his hair flipped to the side. He’d probably done that out of habit, but it looked mussed and sexy as hell. His blue and green eyes collided with hers, and a smile stretched his face. It was slight, but a real one this time. Relief.
She squeaked and ran to him, jumped up in his arms, and wrapped her legs around him. “I like you having a key.”
He chuckled too low for her to hear, but she could feel the vibration against her cheek. Easing back and giving her a view of his lips, he asked, “You want some help?”
“With folding laundry?”
“Any chance for me to touch your panties, I’ll take it. Even chores.”
She laughed and rubbed her nose against his. God, that was so dorky, but his smile got a little bigger.
“John gave me a bag of popcorn when I was doing laundry earlier. I can pop it and we can put on a movie. You can rent them for two dollars. It can be like a room date.”
“Sounds perfect.” His tone sounded different, a little off, a little sad, and his eyes weren’t dancing like they usually did.
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah.” He kissed her gently, then brushed his tongue past her lips on the second sip of her mouth. Easing back way too soon, he said, “I’m just having a weird night. A room date is just what I need to set me right again.”
Emma grinned. “Good. Glad I can help. And I hope you are good at folding because I have very specific tastes in folded clothes.”
“High maintenance.” He grabbed a pair of mismatched socks and wadded them together. “How’s that.”
“I knew you would be bad at this.”
“What? How?” He folded a pair of her see-through lacy panties in half.
“Because you’re bad at everything, naturally.”
Dustin snorted and held up a finger. “One, I’m good at sex.”
“Okay, I’ll give you that. You’re great at humping.”
“Thank you.” He held up a second finger. “Two, I’m a decent driver.”
“Slow driver,” she mumbled.
“To keep you safe, human, and three, I’m pretty good at pissing everyone off. Beast just tried to trip me when I passed him outside.”
“Why?”
“Because I told him it was me who broke into his room and ate all of his pizza bagel bites. And popsicles. And I kept hiding his shampoo and shaving cream in different spots in his room every day. I drank the whole bottle of moonshine he kept hidden in the air vent, but I replaced it with the empty mason jar. I was also pissing in his toilet three times a day without flushing just to make him think he’d gone crazy.”
Emma laughed and shook her head as she worked on another T-shirt. “That’s my man. Beast is a little scary, though. Why did you admit to all that?”
Dustin’s smile dipped from his lips. “I felt like confessing my sins tonight. I bought him a new jar of moonshine, but he’s still mad. Thank God. A smiling Beast would be weird.”
“So weird. What sins do you have to confess to me?”
Dustin cast her a quick glance, then gave his attention back to the pair of comfy cottons he was folding. “Sometimes I sneak in your room when you are sleeping just to watch you.”
Oh, this was serious. And also unsettling because she hadn’t known that part at all. “Why do you do that?”
“Because I like the way your face looks when you sleep. Like you don’t have a care in the world. Your lips go all pouty, and your hair sits wild on the pillow. And you smell different in your sleep. You smell so good when you are awake, but your sleep smell is like a secret that only I know.” He smiled brightly. “Plus, I like the way you snore.”
She shoved him and laughed.
“Tell me something good,” he said suddenly, his eyes downcast and his hair hiding his face.
“Something real or something make-believe?”
“One of each.”
“Okay, something real. I remember when I was brought home from Russia. My parents had traveled to pick me up from the orphanage and fill out all the paperwork. I was scared of them because they had pale skin, and their eyes changed colors. Even though they tried to hide it, they were hungry on their trip and couldn’t help their fangs being out. I was only six and didn’t understand about vampires except the scary stories people told me. But on the plane ride home, my ears were popping because of the altitude, and they hurt. I’d never flown before, and I was crying softly because I didn’t want to be weak around the vampires. But my mom scooped me up in her lap and hugged me. I fought it for a few minutes, but I was really crying about everything, not just my ears hurting, you know? Leaving Russia, leaving the orphanage I’d lived in my whole life, not really understanding where I was going, or why vampires wanted me as their kid. And I remember my mom crying, face all buried against my neck, like she knew it was more than the pain, and she whispered, ‘You’re safe. We’re going to take care of you for always.’ And I remember clutching onto her blouse. She wore this red, silk shirt that was so pretty, and I was wrinkling it with my fists and staining it with my tears, but she didn’t care about anything other than holding me.”