In My Veins (11 page)

“Five hours till we reach the snow?” I
asked as James drove. We took separate cars so that we could spend time with
each other and carry more stuff over.

“If we’re lucky and there isn’t too much
traffic, yeah.” He smirked.

I wore some distressed jeans and a black
t-shirt with gallons of SPF 50. It was extremely hot and I was actually
starting to look forward to when we were going to reach the snow.

“Yeah… we always went as far as possible
from the city when we went to a cabin. It gave us a chance to be free. David
used to come with us too but lately I haven’t been getting along with him.” he
said gripping onto the steering wheel. “But today we’re going to a park that’s
not too far.” James said sounding apologetic but he was doing a horrible job of
hiding his amused smirk.

“City boys roughing it up in the snow.
That’s surprising.” I mumbled, “Why aren’t you getting along with David now?”

He shook his head, “I don’t want to talk
about him. But… you need to know something. If you see him around and I’m not
around, could you avoid him?”

I nodded making a note of it to ask him
more later. He didn’t want to talk about it and we were using this trip to
de-stress. I wasn’t going to bring up monsters today. “So how is it that city
boys got into cabins?”

“It’s in my nature, remember? I like
colder weather and it’s nice to get away from electronics for a while.” He
smiled and winked.

I raised my eyebrow, “And what are we
going to eat?”

“I’ll get the meat and we’ll cook
together on a fire.”

“You’ll
get
the meat!? How!?” I
exclaimed. I was not eating some cute animal meat he ‘hunts’. However he was
planning on doing the hunting.

He looked at me in shock and laughed,
“Um… I packed bread and sandwich stuff. But I mean… if you want bear I could see
what I can find.” He teased.

I hit his arm, “Jerk.”

He laughed, “I should have mentioned I
was…” he hesitated, “
a vampire
, a long time ago. It’s fun teasing you
with it.” He elongated the word vampire. He’s still getting used to calling himself
that. But I prefer it over monster. I didn’t like him calling himself a
monster.

“Men.” I huffed and looked out the
window causing him to laugh again. I looked at the mirror and saw Tiffany and
Daniel in the car behind us. Chris couldn’t come because he and his fiancé were
going location shopping for their wedding.

 “Baby…wake up, we’re almost there.” James
said leaning closer to unbuckle my seatbelt. He kissed my cheek tickling me
awake.

 “I didn’t even realize I fell asleep.
Why didn’t you wake me up? You must have been lonely and bored.”

“No. I like watching you while you
sleep.” He said smiling.

“Pervert.” I yawned.

“Again with the pervert. Would you meet
any other man that hasn’t put moves on you this far into a relationship?” he
said and I noticed he regretted mentioning.

“No actually. Why haven’t you?”

“You want me to?”

“Yes.” I answered honestly. I was
embarrassed about it, but I ignored it. I wanted to know if something was wrong
with me.

“It’s not you… if you think it is. It’s
me.”

“You did not just use the ‘it’s not you,
it’s me’ line.”

He smiled, “No it’s not a line. I’m
being honest with you. It’s me.”

I was about to ask why again but he
changed the subject, “We’re here before them.”

I looked out the car and noticed the
dirt parking lot surrounded by snow in front of the log cabin. We were there.
It looked cozy and inviting I couldn’t wait to go in. He put the car in the
reserved spot as we stepped out of it and were finally able to stretch our arms
and legs. The freezing weather hit me like I walked into the freezer of a
supermarket. I was shivering and wished I brought a thicker jacket. We waited
for a moment for Tiff and Daniel before taking our stuff to the reserved spot.

The view was spectacular. Snow and
trees. A winter wonderland. Nature was a beautiful thing. As much as I hated
being away from the comfort of my own apartment, I’d give the scenery credit. And
if I had to choose, I think I like the cooler weather better too. I just hoped
our phones didn’t all die at the same time.

As I admired the nature and froze to
death, I felt James sneak up behind me and slip his arms around my waist. He
kissed my shoulder as I melted into his warm arms, “Not so bad is it?”

“Only if you keep your arms around me
like this,” I whispered.

 “Not too much PDA you two. There
might be kids and families around at the other cabins.” I heard Daniel’s deep
voice.

James laughed and turned me around
before giving me the most passionate kiss for show. “We weren’t even doing
anything. And we’re the only ones out here today.” James said innocently as I
was left dazed by the sudden affection.

“Ooh that’s just a recipe for a scary
movie.” I shivered.

“That was the longest ride ever.”
Tiffany complained.

“We could have gone to Vegas and back in
that amount of time. But no Miss. I-Love-Cabin Camping.” I said making James
and Daniel laugh as Tiffany groaned.

“I’m going to help Daniel bring their
stuff. You two talk and make yourselves as comfortable as you can.” James said clearly
amused by Tiffany’s city girl panic.

As soon as the guys were out of the
view, I narrowed my eyes at the makeup case Tiffany had. “You’re worse than me!
At least I know the basic rule that makeup and roughing it up don’t mix. Especially
no hair straighteners.” I smirked evilly.

She looked at me in shock, “What…”

“No outlets no hair straighteners…genius.”

“No!” she said in disbelief.

“Yep….we would have had blow dryers in
Vegas though…” I sang.

James showed up with some stuff a little
too quickly and I was afraid that Tiffany would have noticed. “Be nice.” He
whispered and laughed.

“Whoa. You’re fast James! Daniel’s still
so at the car!”

James was wide eyed and I realized my
theory of why he was fast was true, “Oh… I like to run. Daniel’s not really
into exercise.” he said and put his arm around me to get me closer to him.
Feeling as though being close to him was helping him calm down, I took a step
back and rested my head on his chest for more intimacy.

“Thanks baby.” He whispered burying his
face in my neck leaving a trail of kisses.

By nightfall, it was dark and cold. We
made our food and cuddled around a bonfire eating marshmallows and warming up a
bit before calling it a night in the cabin.

The only advantage of the freezing
temperature was that it gave Tiffany and me the excuse to cuddle with our guys
as we ate. We heard a ruffled sound from the bushes and trees. All of us jumped
except for James.

“Oh my gosh…could it be a bear?” I
whispered.

“There are no bears at this park, baby.”
James whispered back, “It’s the ranger we saw earlier.”

I looked in the direction and sure
enough, the ranger emerged from the bushy plants near the tall trees. “Hey
folks, bonfires are out in an hour.” He said tipping his ranger hat before
saying goodnight.

“Okay, thank u sir.” Daniel said.

“See.” James whispered to me.

“Hmm… I’ll never get used to this.” I
giggled.

Before putting out the fire, we roasted
one last marshmallow because it was cliché and being cliché was fun at times. I
fed James a marshmallow and giggled as he fed me. My lips felt sticky and I was
about to wipe it off with my finger but James grabbed it before I could.

He brought his lips to mine before
licking off the sticky goodness from mine. That slowly morphed into the most
delicious kiss ever. Who would have thought marshmallows were romantic. “I
officially love marshmallows.” I mumbled against his lips.

“Me too.” he smirked.

We both pulled away when we remembered
we were with other people. But Tiffany and Daniel had already left us leaving
us with cleanup.

“Goodnight Tiff.” I knocked on her door
hoping I interrupted them from whatever they were doing for leaving us with
bonfire cleanup as we walked past their shared room to the one James and I were
going to be sharing.

We entered our somewhat spacious cabin
room and he all of a sudden hugged me. “Thanks for earlier. It means everything
to me that you understood what I needed.”

“Earlier?”

“The running.” He explained.

“I told you I love you, I’ll help you in
any way I can.” I said rubbing his back as he kept me close to him. He pulled
back and smiled.

“I love you too. I don’t think I can
ever say that enough.” He said and kissed my forehead, “Just being with you
calms me.”

“How so?”

“Your scent.” He started, “It actually
has a weird effect for me. Sometimes it’s torture because it causes me to fight
the temptation of... my cravings.” he said in such a low whisper I could barely
understand, “Other times…it calms me. Like today.”

“My… scent?” I laughed nervously, “Do I
smell bad?”

He laughed, “Far from it. Everyone is
attracted to the scent of the person they’re attracted to. Even normal people
who aren’t cursed. They just don’t know it…but since I have better sense of
smell… I can sense the difference.”

“Well…being out in the middle of nowhere
with no hot running water and my boyfriend saying he likes my smell, makes me
feel stinky.”

He laughed and buried his nose in my
hair, “Time for sleep, beautiful.”

                                                                           *
*
*              

I couldn’t sleep. James and I were
wrapped up in each other’s arms for warmth and it was comforting. But sleep was
not working out.

I stared at every little detail of his
face since I didn’t want to move and wake him. It wasn’t torture or anything
but I felt creepy. I closed my eyes in an attempt to sleep again but it didn’t
work. He untangled away making me open my eyes again. I looked at him and
thought it was so cute how he was so peaceful in his sleep. He was lying on his
back now and shirtless as usual.

I finally took a moment to ignore his
abs and toned arms and shoulders to look at his tattoos. He had them
strategically so that they wouldn’t be visible with dress shirts and suits.
Some were on his shoulders and the upper part of his back was covered. I saw a
piece the dragon tattoo mixed with the other designs.

Even though he was lying on his back now,
his face was towards me still. I lied down with my face next to his and
examined his features again. I tried to imagine him as a monster but I
couldn’t. I wondered what he would look like with red eyes like the ones I’ve
seen. How he would look like with messy raven hair. But I couldn’t see it.

I saw nothing monstrous about him or in
him.

If anything… he was perfect. The perfect
skin, perfect nose, beautiful eyes that look kind even when he’s sleeping and
of course, his extremely perfect lips.

I slowly reached my finger and touched
his kissable lips and smiled. Suddenly he twitched and a smile formed on his
face too.

I pulled my finger back and sat up
quickly. I held my breath and hoped I didn’t wake him up.

He moved into a more comfortable
position, that didn’t even look that different from the previous position. He
was still asleep though.

I looked at his muscles as they flexed
and felt heat run through my body. I think he was right about that whole scent
thing because I had never felt like this with any guy before. Sure I’ve seen
models and thought they were hot but James was irresistible. I let out the
breath that I was still holding and suddenly felt too hot. I fanned myself with
my hand but it was no use. I needed some fresh air. I snuck out of our bed to
go open the window but the old window wouldn’t open.

“Stupid old window.” I mumbled and
cringed when it finally slid up. I looked back at my super hearing boyfriend
and hoped I didn’t wake him again. After he didn’t wake I smiled to myself, he
must have gotten immune to my voice. I stuck my head out the window to feel the
fresh breeze felt good against my warmed up skin. After feeling satisfied I
pulled away and forced the window shut. I flinched as the window punished me by
pinching my fingers.

“Stupid window!”

I pulled my finger back and I was
bleeding. I groaned and looked for napkins and anything I could get the blood
to stop nearby. I heard James moving in his sleep and cringed. Did I finally
wake him up?

I looked back and he had his face buried
in his pillow. The way his back muscles were flexing and the tattoos were
moving I could tell he was breathing hard. He looked like he was struggling in
his sleep.