Total pages in book: 254
Estimated words: 240032 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1200(@200wpm)___ 960(@250wpm)___ 800(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 240032 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1200(@200wpm)___ 960(@250wpm)___ 800(@300wpm)
His frown got even worse. “What do you need to roll down the window for?”
I grazed my fingers over the buttons on my door lightly, not pressing them in yet. “You look like you’re mad right now.” I paused. “Because of the cinnamon smell.”
Or that was what I thought before those light-colored eyes bounced around my face. I watched his throat bob, his jawline getting more defined. There was no missing the way he seemed to force his teeth to unclench before gritting out, “That’s not it.”
It wasn’t?
“I….” His thick throat worked, like even saying words was difficult. “You crying… your tears… makes me want to bite you.”
I blinked very, very slowly.
“You smell like a cookie when you do it.”
But werewolves didn’t even eat cookies.
I lifted my face and wiped at it some more. Henri was looking right at me. Glaring, even. I pointed at him. “I swear, if you bite me, I’ll bite you back.”
I didn’t think it was my imagination that some of the tension on Henri’s face disappeared.
“Not as hard as you can bite me, but I’ll try my best,” I warned him. “I used to give Matti bruises when we were kids. You remember that?” Not that I ever got in trouble over it. His mom used to say a nip got a message across better than any word ever could.
“No,” he took his time answering. “You bit him?”
“His mom told me to.” I had loved her almost as much as I’d loved my parents.
He didn’t exactly look like he believed me.
A honk from behind had me blinking and remembering where we were. I put the truck into Drive and pulled onto the road. I waited until I was back on the highway that would take us to the ranch to speak again. “Right after his magic presented and he started turning into a fluffball, Matti started nipping me. Duncan’s gotten me too, and that hurt like hell. I’m glad we got over that phase.” I imagined how much it would hurt to have those full-grown adult teeth do the same. “I don’t like pain.” I gave him a side-eye. “You could nibble instead?”
His lips slightly parted. “You’re telling me to nibble on you?” He sounded like he’d swallowed nails.
“Instead of biting me,” I clarified.
Henri faced forward. His hands fisted and then released over and over again as we pulled up to a stoplight.
Maybe I’d made this weird. That hadn’t been my intention. I’d just been joking. “You know what you remind me of right now? There are these movies about vampires that you probably haven’t watched, but I’m sure you’ve heard about them. The vampire likes the way the girl in the movie smells, and he’s like, ‘Grr, she’s the best thing I’ve ever smelled,’ but he looks constipated instead of hungry.”
Both of Henri’s eyebrows rose up a whole millimeter if not more. “I’m not going to bite you or… nibble on you.” He side-eyed me. “Vampires usually do look constipated.”
My mouth dropped. “They’re real?”
Those thick eyebrows stayed right where they were. “You didn’t know? There aren’t a lot of them, but they’re around.”
I made the closest sound to a squeal that I was capable of. Vampires! They were real!
Why wouldn’t they be?
Like he could sense the million and one questions suddenly going through my mind, Henri raised a hand. “I don’t know much about them other than they drink blood and they’re more sensitive than allergic to light.”
My next semi-squeal was a little quieter, but it still counted, and the corner of his mouth twitched like he wasn’t totally irritated with my shock at vampires existing.
Were they good-looking? Were they immortal? How much blood did they drink? And why was that what I was curious about? “Can I tell Sienna about them?” I whispered, the secret feeling huge in my truck cab.
Henri shrugged, pinching the tip of his nose between his thumb and the middle of his index finger while he turned toward the windshield.
Another wave of guilt went through me. “Want me to turn the vents away from blowing on me so that my smell isn’t circulating so much?”
He was still focused forward. “No.”
“Are you sure?”
“I’m sure,” he insisted, not really sounding that sure.
I reached over and moved the vent anyway, ignoring his sigh.
And here Matti wanted me to convince him to marry me. What was he thinking? What had I been thinking? Henri and I couldn’t even sit in the front together.
That was kind of depressing because I really did want him to like me, at least as a friend.
I was going to have to tell Matti how dumb of an idea it was the second I could do it in privacy, because the last thing I needed was for someone to overhear us talking about that.
Plus, why hadn’t he or Sienna or my parents ever said anything about my scent when I cried? I didn’t get upset that often, but I had definitely done it around them, more than once. If anything, they hugged me tighter than usual when I was sad.