Cursed (The Brookehaven Vampires #4) (30 page)

While Oliver occupied himself with his laptop, I spent my time staring at the ceiling or folding clean clothes. It was so not awesome.

When we got back to the apartment with our loads of clean laundry, Carter was home.

“You’re back!” he shouted as we came through the door. He jumped up from the couch and gave me a big hug around the basket of laundry I was holding.

Without a word, Oliver walked right past us and into our room with his own laundry basket.

Carter pulled me to the couch. I set my basket on the coffee table and took a seat beside my friend.

We chatted for a while. He asked about my trip. I shared the appropriate details. Then Carter told me about, well, nothing, really. Nothing had happened while we were gone, except the angel crap, but he’d already told me that.

At first the news of nothing “exciting” happening made me hopeful, but then I realized all of the bad crap was probably just waiting for our return.

“How was your Thanksgiving?” I asked. “And the full moon, did anything happen?”

He huffed. “I don’t even wanna talk about it,” he said, then he got up from the couch to get himself a beer.

When he sat back down on the couch, he went back to watching TV, and when I figured he would share no more, which made me even more curious, I picked up my laundry basket and headed to the bedroom.

Oliver all but jumped me as soon I walked into the room. He’d startled me and I dropped my basket of folded laundry
, causing it to drop its contents all over the floor.

Within seconds, he had the door closed and me on my back on the bed.

“What’s with you,” I mumbled against his lips pressed to mine.

He didn’t answer, and his hands were busy trying to remove my clothes. Whatever. I was game. We hadn’t had a chance to really be together for quite a few days due to Levi’s constant need to
NOT
be alone.

Mid-kissing and clothes being removed, Carter tapped on the door. Oliver growled. I laughed. Oliver glared down at me. I laughed again, and covered my mouth to try to stop it, but it was too late.

“Hey, guys,” Carter called. “Kiera’s on the phone. She wants to know if you wanna join us for dinner.”

“Sure,” Oliver croaked out.

I raised both eyebrows at him and mouthed, “What the hell?” I mean, we were “busy,” if you know what I mean. At least we were about to be.

He shrugged.

“Great,” Carter said from outside the door. “You mind if I ride with you guys?”

“That’s fine,” I called back.

It was Oliver’s turn to give me a look.

I smiled at him and then stuck out my tongue.

I caught a glimpse of fang as a half-smile formed while he gazed down at me. Then he tickled me until I screamed for him to stop.

As we replaced the articles of clothing that had been removed, Oliver caught me by my belt loop and pulled me to him. “We need our own place,” he said as his arms wrapped around me, his fingers trailing up and down my back. Chills covered my body.

I draped my arms around his neck. “I like the sound of that,” I said, a mischievous grin forming.

“We can’t really be together here,
not with others around. It’s just not right,” he said, then he planted a sweet, soft kiss on my lips.

When he removed his lips from mine, I raised an eyebrow at him, questioning what he had meant.

“You’re loud, Laney,” he said, grinning playfully as he let go of me.

“Am not!” I smacked him on the arm.

He laughed and made for the door.

“You’re not so quiet either, you know,” I said as he opened the bedroom door for me.

I brushed by him, but he grabbed me from behind and slipped his arms around my waist. He pressed his lips to my bare neck for a moment, then he whispered in my ear. “I’m not complaining, I just don’t want to share
any
part of you with anyone. Not even the sounds that escape your perfect lips.”

Holy hell…
My knees actually went weak, and my whole body yearned for him. I turned in his arms and looked up into his smoldering, emerald eyes. I hesitated for a second, and then I crushed my lips to his. His arms tightened around me.

“Please,” I breathed against his mouth.

His eyes met mine. I could see him wavering on whether or not we were staying or going.

Then Carter came out of the bathroom.

“Oh, hey,” he said, glancing over at us, finding us embracing just outside of our bedroom, gazing hungrily at each other. “I wouldn’t go in there for a while, if I were you.”

So nasty!
I started laughing, and so did Oliver.

“See what I mean,” Oliver said through his burst of laughter. “We definitely need our own place. We should not be subjected to such things.”

He took my hand and we headed out the door.

As we made our way to the car, I was still laughing and wiping tears away.

“Shotgun!” Carter called as we reached Oliver’s car. He hurried to the passenger side door.

“Oh, hell no! You are not
even
making me sit in the back of my boyfriend’s car.”

“Rules are rules, Laney. I called it,” Carter said. He grinned at me.

Oliver glanced at us from over the top of the car while he unlocked the doors.

I crossed my arms and glared at Carter. “You, my friend, suck,” I told him.

He grinned like a goofy idiot.

“I’m not riding in the back
,” I protested. It was one thing to ride in the back when Levi was with us, but that was different. I was pretty sure there were people somewhere on the planet who actually bowed to that man; the least I could do was let him ride in the front seat. But this was Carter, nobody was bowing to Carter, and I definitely wasn’t going to cave and let him ride shotgun.

“You have to. It’s the rules,” Carter
argued.

We went back-and-forth like this for some time, all the while Oliver
watching us from across the roof of the Challenger.

In the end, Oliver made the both of us ride in the back. I couldn’t believe it! He got a good chuckle out of it all the way to Shakes, especially when he looked back and saw the two of us sulking.

“I cannot believe you!” I said to him as he got out of the car and folded his seat forward to let me and Carter out of the backseat.

“Hey, at least I didn’t take his side,” he said, grinning down at me and pulling me closer.

I glared at him.

Oliver looked over to Carter who was standing not far from us, scanning the dark area around the side of the parking lot near the diner. “Hey, Carter,” Oliver called. Carter spun around and looked at him. “Just so we’re clear, Laney’s always got shotgun when I’m driving.” A crooked grin formed on Oliver’s lips when Carter huffed in defeat.

“So much for not taking sides, dude,” Carter said as he headed inside the diner.

“Can you blame me,” Oliver said, mostly just for me to hear.

I smiled up at him. “I love you,” I said, my tone soft.

“I know,” he said, flashing me a breathtaking half-smile.

Zoey and Kiera pulled up in Zoey’s green box of a car a few minutes later. They both acted like they hadn’t seen me in months. I felt a little bad for not missing them, but when Oliver was your constant distraction, the rest of the world just kind of vanished.

They both hugged me and started asking a million questions at once, not giving me a chance to answer a single one of them.

Then, looping her arm with mine, Kiera pulled me toward the diner. I looked back to make sure Oliver was following, and he was, with a very sexy grin in place.

We sat at a table big enough to fit all of us. Kiera, Carter, and Zoey sat on one side, while Oliver and I sat on the other.

Kiera talked nonstop about wedding stuff and all the wedding related things I’d missed.

Oliver rested his arm
across the back of my chair, and I leaned against him while Kiera rattled on.

Carter’s eyes kind of glossed over after a while, and I wondered if Oliver and I looked the same.

After several long minutes of listening to Kiera, we placed our orders. Oliver couldn’t eat anything at Shakes, but he quietly teased in my ear about how he would be eating when we got home. He trailed a couple fingers along my neck as he told me this. Shivers of excitement raced through me.

“I can get my order to go,” I quietly responded as my eyes met his.

He smirked in response. “Tempting,” he whispered as his intense green eyes held me in place.

Kiera interrupted our silent debate, informing me I would be hanging out with her and Zoey the following day. Yes, I
was informed, not asked.

Kiera quieted about wedding mumbo-jumbo when our food arrived, but she continued talking about other things.

Zoey and Kiera both wanted to know about my trip. I really didn’t want to share. Under the table, I squeezed Oliver’s hand as I sucked down my chocolate shake. I told my friends that we’d had a nice time, minus the crazy angel stuff, of course. They both already knew what had happened with Zane, and we were in a public place, so there was no need for more details than they already had.

We ate and chatted for the next hour or so. I felt a bit relieved that life was returning to normal, but I was also fearful that, as usual, “normal” would probably soon end.

I could only hope the Brookehaven Vampires finally had their shit together. Maybe “Treeville” was finally safe.

Or not…
Some creeper was wandering by the front windows of the diner. His eyes settled in our direction a little too long in my opinion. But when I went to point the man out to Oliver, the guy was gone, so I said nothing.

“There’s something wrong with them. With Carter and Kiera,” Oliver whispered as he pressed his lips to my temple.

I glanced up at him, forgetting altogether what I was previously thinking.

“They’re on edge, nervous even
,” he said.

I eyed my friends. I could
tell there was something off between them, but I figured it was nothing big.

“Probably just pre-wedding jitters,” I responded to Oliver, quietly.

“I don’t think so…” he trailed off, watching my friends a little more closely. “I think they are…afraid of something…”

Concerned,
I looked back to my friends for a few seconds and then back to Oliver. He shrugged one shoulder. I eyed them again as I finished the last of my fries. I had nothing. No clue what was up with them…

By the time we left the diner, it
was clarified that when I’d been told I was going to be hanging out with Zoey and Kiera the following day, they’d meant we would be doing wedding crap. I mean stuff!
I
would be, as the maid of honor, doing wedding
stuff
with Kiera and Zoey the next day.

Super.

It would be the first day Oliver and I would be separated since bonding. I was actually feeling a little…nervous. I wondered if he was, too.

From my permanent spot in the front passenger seat of the Challenger, I questioned Carter, who was of course, in the backseat. As we rode home, I asked him if he and Kiera were okay.

“We’re fine, why?” His voice was a little too high when he answered, but the look I got from Oliver told me not to pry, so I didn’t.

When we got home, Carter plopped down on the couch and was quick to turn on the TV.

Oliver and I headed for our room where we both got ready for bed and crawled under the covers.

Dreading the next day, I snuggled Oliver all night. And all we did was snuggle. Oliver was uncomfortable with the idea of Carter possibly hearing anything from our private moments, so he avoided letting me entice him into anything other than cuddling. I even tried tempting him by inviting him to feed from me, but he didn’t, because it almost always led to the other. Although, I did see him start to waver.

In the end, it was a night of nothing but snuggling. Better than nothing.

Wedding Crap

The next afternoon, as I
was driving to Zoey’s, which is where Kiera had stayed the previous night, I felt a tug in my chest the farther I got from Oliver. It was as if an invisible rope was being pulled tighter the farther I got.

Once I parked my Civic in front of Zoey’s grandmother’s antique shop, I texted Oliver while still in my car.

I can feel you. You’re too far away from me. :(

He responded a second later:

I know. I feel it too. Hurry back to me.

I will.

My heart actually ached being away from him. It made me dread the idea of Oliver going back to work, and especially the day he would be gone at Brookehaven documenting our bonding. That day was going to suck.

Maybe the strain would
lessen with time… I hoped.

I spent the next couple of hours going over magazine pictures, color ideas, cake pictures, flowers, shoes, dresses, and blah, blah, blah…