My Blood Approves (28 page)

“
You’re going to be the
death of me,” he murmured in a voice so slow I could barely hear it
over the pounding of blood in my ears.

Defiantly and provocatively, I raised my
chin in the air, revealing the smooth skin of my throat. I tempted
him brutally, even though I knew that it could only lead to our
demise, but it still seemed worth it.

Closing his eyes, he leaned forward and very
tenderly, he licked the fresh blood off my skin. He wrapped his
mouth around my lip, drinking as much of my blood as he could, and
he moaned softly.

As soon as his lips touched mine, a
wonderful weakness spread through me, and I arched my back. An
intense quivering started in my heart but radiated out all over me,
so my whole body shuddered.

When he kissed me fully on the mouth, I
thought I would explode. I could taste my blood on his tongue and
the intense excitement that went along with it.

His mouth felt hungry and needy, but there
was nothing forceful or rough about it. His muscles trembled with
restraint. I knew the things he wanted to do me, the things that I
would gladly let him do, and I could feel how hard he had to fight
that off.

Carefully, he pushed me back onto the bed,
his lips never leaving mine, and he pressed me into the soft
mattress. His body laid on me, and I felt his heart pound against
mine.

Burying my fingers in his hair, I tried to
pull him to me. No matter how close he got, I knew he’d never be
close enough. I wanted him underneath my skin, and when I breathed
in deeply, I smelled that tangy perfect scent I associated with
Peter.

I slid my hands under his shirt, desperate
to feel him. His normal temperate skin burned hot. It felt amazing,
so I dug my fingers into his flesh, and he moaned against my mouth.
His hands found their way under my shirt, smoldering against the
trembling skin of my belly.

He managed to pull his lips from mouth, and
they traveled down to the exposed skin of my throat. He pressed his
lips against my veins, feeling the pulse against his skin.

There was a hunger so strong it was painful.
I thrust my body against his, begging him to drink, and suddenly,
he growled and sprang from my arms.

“
What?” I cried, sitting
back up on my knees. He stood on the other side of the room,
panting heavily and shaking horribly.

“
He’s going to kill you.”
Jack let out an unsteady breath, and his eyes were wild with
passion. “I want to so bad, but he would kill you.”

“
So?” It was hard to
breathe, let alone speak, and I barely managed. “It would be worth
it. I want you to, and I don’t care what the cost.”

“
Yeah?” He looked unsure,
then nodded. “Yeah. Me neither.”

I was at the edge of the bed, and he ran
back over to me, wrapping his arms so tightly around me that I
couldn’t breathe. Oxygen didn’t feel much like a necessity
anymore.

All that mattered was the way his lips felt
pressed against mine. He kissed me so hard that my lip sprung fresh
blood, and he moaned desperately.

My fingers dug into his hair and I waited
for him to bite me.

“
You’re going to get
yourselves killed!” Mae hissed, and I whipped my head over to see
her standing in the doorway, glaring at us. Jack had stopped
kissing me, but I was reluctant to untangle myself from his
arms.

“
We didn’t do anything.”
Jack kept his eyes on me and his voice was husky, so I knew he was
still locked in a trance from the bloodlust.

“
Yet,” Mae
glowered.

“
Yet,” Jack agreed, and he
kissed my throat again, right where my pulse still pounded
heavily.

My body slacked in his arms, but Mae rushed
over, smacking Jack hard in the arm before he could do
anything.

“
Jack Allen Townsend!” Mae
shouted.

“
Okay, okay!” He took a
step back from me, causing me to collapse backwards on the bed, and
held up his hands defensively, but Mae swatted him again. “You can
stop now! I’m done!”

“
You better be!” Mae
obviously didn’t trust him because she stood directly in front of
me, blocking his path to me. “You’re going to get her killed! Is
that what you want?’

“
You know that’s not what I
want,” Jack groaned, but a guilty expression passed across his
face. The heat of the moment was rapidly dissipating, and the
realization of what he had almost done to me, to us, was taking
over.

“
Then what the hell did you
think you were doing?” Mae demanded. He scratched his temple and
sighed.

“
Being a vampire?” He kept
his tone sarcastic, but I could feel how afraid he really
was.

“
You are such an idiot!”
Mae turned away from him to inspect me for bite marks. When she saw
the blood on my lips, she gasped and turned back to him. “Did you
do that to her? You drew blood?”

“
No!” Jack insisted, his
eyes wide. “She did that! She bit her lip!”

“
Why would you do that?”
Mae whirled on me, and I’d finally regained enough strength to sit
up. “Do you have any idea what that does to him? Do you both have a
death wish?”

“
It was an accident,” I
mumbled.

“
You need to shower and use
a lot of mouth wash.” Mae held her hand to her face, looking
distressed but sounding matter-of-fact. “If he even hints at
smelling Jack on your blood…” Her eyes welled with frightened
tears, and she pointed to the bedroom door and snapped, “Go! Right
now! Go downstairs and use my shower!”

“
Sorry.” I scrambled out of
Jack’s bed, which was easier said than done since my ankle tangled
in a mass of blankets. “Sorry.” As I stumbled down the stairs, I
heard Mae yelling at him.

“
How can you be so careless
with her life? With your own?” Mae admonished him. “She’s only a
girl, Jack! What were you thinking?”

“
I wasn’t!” Jack
said.

“
I know how hard this is
for you-”

“
You have no idea how hard
this is for me!” Jack growled fiercely, and I winced.

By kissing him, I had only made it harder.
It was impossible for him to ever be with me, unless we wanted our
life expectancy reduced down to a matter of hours. Still, that kiss
had hinted at how amazing those hours would be, and maybe it would
be worth it…

I shook the thought from my head and hurried
into Mae’s bathroom. Immediately, I opened the medicine cabinet and
pulled out the Listerine. The alcohol burned my lip, but I used it
until it went numb.

After a shower so long and intense that my
skin came out red and raw, Mae decided that it was time that she
sat down and had a long talk with me.

She admitted that she didn’t understand what
Jack and I had gone through because she’d only been turned for six
months when she met Ezra, and they had been together ever
since.

There was obviously something very different
going on with us, but as long as Peter felt a claim to me, I
couldn’t do anything with Jack, or I was risking both of our
lives.

Jack and I would have to find a way to be
friends without ever being caught up in any moments, and that would
probably be easy if I didn’t do anything stupid like, say, bite my
lip so he’s attracted to my blood.

I ended up staying most of the night over
there anyway. I couldn't sleep after that, so we decided to pretend
like nothing had happened.

Jack put in
The Crow
and
The Dark Knight
, and I
curled up on the couch with Mae. He sat on the floor on the far
other side of the room with Matilda because that seemed
safest.

Even with everything that had happened, Mae
let Jack drive me home. She had decided not to tell Ezra about the
“incident” so we’d have to go on like normal, and that meant that
we’d have to get used to being around each other without being
stupid.

When the sky started to lighten, I finally
agreed to go home.

“
This is my favorite time
of day,” Jack mused, looking out the windows of the Lamborghini as
we sped way from his house and towards mine. “The sky is so pretty
right before it changes.”

“
It reminds me of a dream,”
I agreed. “So… I’m really sorry about what happened
earlier.”

“
Don’t be. That was my
fault. I have to learn how to control my impulses. You might not
believe this, but that’s something that I struggle with,” Jack
laughed dryly.

“
I bit my lip. I shouldn’t
have done that. I’m sorry.”

I had done it on purpose, whether I was
ready to admit it to myself or not. He wanted me to, and I could
feel that the same way I could feel my own heartbeat. I had made
the choice to do it, knowing exactly what it would lead to.

“
No, it’s okay.” He paused
for a moment before adding, “You taste really good.”

“
We’re not talking about
that. We’re not even thinking about it,” I corrected
him.

“
I’m not. I wasn’t. I was
just making conversation.” That’s what he said, but I could feel
the hunger ebbing when I stopped him.

“
Well, we can’t talk like
that. We can talk about anything but blood or biting or
sex.”

“
Sure, take out all the fun
things,” Jack grumbled.

“
It’s for your safety as
well as mine.” I shot him a warning look, and he stiffened a
little

“
Okay. You’re right.
Sorry.”

“
Do you think maybe we
should stop hanging out?” I didn’t want to, not even slightly, but
it would be the safest way to avoid anything.

“
No,” Jack answered too
quickly. He let out a deep breath, then looked nervously at me.
“Why? Do you?”

“
I don’t know. I mean, I
still want to hang out with you but…”

My answer hurt him, and at times like that,
I hated that I could feel anything he felt. When we had been making
out upstairs, it had been amazing, but these situations were
murder. His emotions were always so raw and intense. He had very
little self-control when it came to the way he felt.

“
Honestly, I don’t know if
I could stop even if I wanted to,” Jack said finally.

The sky glowed oddly blue-gray as the sun
neared the horizon, and the color seemed to match perfectly with
Jack’s eyes when he looked over at me.

“
Yeah, me neither,” I
agreed and forced a smile at him.

For good or bad, there would be no way I
could ever back to my life before. If it meant that I had to die
trying to live this one, then so be it.

But who can really go back to studying for
history exams and flirting with drunk guys at a party when there
are vampires and the ecstasy that goes along with bloodlust?

Could anyone really shut the door on
immortality?

When he dropped me in front of my house, he
smiled grimly, and promised that he’d talk to me later. As I rode
up the elevator to my apartment, I had to believe that everything
would work out, one way or another.

Ezra was insanely smart, and he’d been
around forever. He had to be able to figure out something that
didn’t involve anyone dying. Well, at least not Peter, Jack, or
me.

They were vampires, after all. No matter how
much they tried to convince me otherwise, I knew that there had to
be a rather high mortality rate for the humans in their lives.

It wasn’t until I opened the door to the
apartment that it really occurred to me what time it was. Milo was
dressed and ready for school, looking relieved to see me. His
happiness was short-lived because my mother cleared her throat
loudly, and he grimaced.

Sitting in the darkened corner of the living
room, she reminded me of some kind of James Bond villain. The dim
light from the window hit the cloud of smoke above her head, and a
light from the kitchen touched only her slippered feet, leaving the
rest of her to hide in the shadows. If she had been stroking a
large white cat and spoke in a German accent, she’d be perfect.

“
Well, well, nice of you to
drop by,” Mom greeted me.

“
You’re welcome,” I said
unsurely, despite the warning look Milo gave me.

“
Where were you all night?”
Her tone had gotten even harder, dropping any pretenses of her
being even mildly happy to see me.

Milo had to be pretty upset that I wasn’t
around, especially since he’d had to deal with Mom first thing in
the morning, but even he’d been relieved to see that I was still
alive. (And there was becoming a very real threat that I wouldn’t
be for much longer.)

“
Why didn’t you answer any
of my texts?” Milo blurted out. I’m sure he’d been texting me and
warning me of Mom’s impending tirade.

“
Sorry. My phone was on
silent.”

“
That doesn’t tell me where
you were!” Mom snapped.

The sun had finally peaked over the building
next door, and light glinted in through the window, revealing the
furious expression on her face. She took a long drag from the
cigarette, waiting for an answer good enough to explain where I had
been until after seven in the morning on a school night.

“
I was at Jack’s.” I
crossed my fingers, hoping that she still had an infatuation with
him that could buy me at least one more Get Out of Jail Free
card.

Unfortunately, her scowl only deepened, so I
knew I was completely out of luck.