Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 72519 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 363(@200wpm)___ 290(@250wpm)___ 242(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72519 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 363(@200wpm)___ 290(@250wpm)___ 242(@300wpm)
“Ah, he’s cute,” the brunet cooed.
“Are you sure we can’t have a taste? A tiny one,” the blond wheedled.
“No biting him. Go after the old lady across the street. She’ll invite anyone inside for coffee and gossip.”
The vampires exchanged a single look and were gone in a flash.
Tuk groaned and continued to take the deeply sleeping Luke up to his attic apartment. Gently, he laid the man on his bed, slid off his shoes, and placed a blanket over him so he wouldn’t get cold in the night.
Okay. So maybe Tog had a point. Luke was very hard to scare.
Chapter 9
Thump That Melon
LUKE
Luke sighed and stared at the selection of melons. Should he toss his money away on fruit?
Yes, actually, he should.
Recently, he’d been surviving too much on ramen, pizza, and burgers. Deep down, he knew french fries stopped counting as a vegetable after being cooked in so much oil.
He couldn’t remember the last time he’d eaten a raw vegetable or a piece of fruit. He was probably in danger of getting scurvy. Of course, if the odds were that high, it was likely that most American college students across the country were likely to get scurvy, and he couldn’t remember hearing of any cases of scurvy on campus.
He closed his eyes and groaned at his thoughts. That was all ridiculous.
But when he opened his eyes again, he was still standing in the produce section of the market one bus stop away from the house. He’d enjoyed having the day off from work. Classes had flown by. He’d caught up on his laundry and located a rare book through the college library loan system.
On his way home, he’d thought he’d pop by the store and pick up something healthy to eat. Unfortunately, healthy meant chopping, mixing, and cooking many ingredients. But he didn’t want to get a bunch of food to cook one meal and then have the leftover ingredients end up going bad before he found the time to make another meal.
Plus, there was the whole overload from trying to decide between too many options.
Not to mention that it had been a long day, and now he was out of the energy he needed to even make a decision.
Ugh.
This was a mistake. He should get a frozen pizza and call it a night.
And now he was back to getting scurvy.
Stupid melons. Why is adulting so exhausting?
“Do you know how to tell if one is ripe?”
Luke jumped at the sudden voice on his right. He’d been so lost in his wallowing that he’d not even heard someone approach him. He twisted around, expecting the speaker to be one of the grocery workers or even a nosy customer, but it was neither.
It was Matteo.
Holy. Shit.
“You thump it,” Matteo continued, a huge smile on his face.
Luke continued to gawk at him, his brain a useless lump of gray mush filling his skull. Matteo was here. Matteo was talking to him. Smiling at him.
Say something, you idiot! Make some noise! Bark, goddammit!
Before Luke could so much as grunt, Matteo lost his grin, and his beautiful face scrunched up as if he were wincing. “Wow! That sounded a lot better in my head. Now that the words are out, I…wow…that was bad. Did that sound creepy and perv-y?”
“No!” Luke blurted out. His brain gave a tiny cheer at locating the cells that controlled his mouth. Now, to keep from saying anything stupid.
“Are you sure? Because that sounded bad to me.”
“Yes! I m-mean no! I-I mean, it didn’t sound bad to me. I-I was just surprised, that’s all. Lost in thought.” Luke clamped his mouth shut to stop his stammering and applauded his brain for only sounding like a partial idiot instead of a full-blown idiot.
“Okay. Good.” Matteo exhaled loudly, and his grin returned in full force, killing off the few working brain cells Luke had left. “I don’t think we’ve ever been introduced. I’m Matteo Zito.”
“Yes, I know.” The words tumbled out, and all Luke could do was slap his hand over his mouth after the fact. “I mean, I’ve seen you around.”
That was not better. He sounded like a stalker now.
But Matteo continued to grin at him. “I’ve seen you, too. Luke, right?”
“Yeah, Luke Carter,” he breathed, pretty sure he was going to expire on the spot. His body couldn’t take the roller coaster it was on. Yet, if he died right here in the middle of the grocery store, he was okay with it. He was having sort of a conversation with the hottest man he’d ever met, and Matteo was smiling at him. What more could he possibly ask for?
“The guy with the ravens.”
Now he really wanted to die. Of course, that was what Matteo remembered him for. He’d probably heard all the weird rumors and obscene talk.
“Crows, actually.” He corrected Matteo in a mumble and turned his attention back to the long shelf of fruit in front of him, but he didn’t see it. His appetite was gone now. Maybe he should swing by the frozen-food aisle and get a pint of Rocky Road.