Total pages in book: 111
Estimated words: 105144 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 526(@200wpm)___ 421(@250wpm)___ 350(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 105144 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 526(@200wpm)___ 421(@250wpm)___ 350(@300wpm)
He takes his eyes off the road, looking at me for a concerningly long time yet doesn’t so much as swerve out of the lane. “I didn’t know you spoke Italian.”
"Non lo parlo molto bene."
He smiles. "Possiamo fare pratica, se vuoi."
And now I’m smiling. “Yeah, maybe we can practice a bit. Ya know, so I can be ready when I make my escape. I’m going to steal money from you too, by the way.”
“You don’t have to steal. We are married now, and you have access to some of the bank accounts.”
“When do I get access to all of them?” I reply without missing a beat.
He laughs, and damn, he looks good when he does. Probably because it makes him seem human, making me forget about the countless people he’s killed over his nearly seven hundred years. But at the same time, there are things I’ve done that I’m not proud of. Things that went against my morals and values but I did it anyway because the Order said so.
It was what I had to do to survive.
Or at least that’s what I told myself at the time, but really, I always had a choice. And it was my choice to allow myself to believe that I needed the Order, that I owed it to Vivian and Marco for saving me. But if it turns out they didn’t and this whole time I was living a lie…
My breath hitches and I squeeze my eyes shut, trying to stop the feelings before they take over.
“Are you all right?” Xavier’s hand lands on my thigh.
“It’s really fucking unfair you can hear changes in my heartbeat,” I say as I open my eyes. For some reason, I put my hand on top of his, finding comfort in his skin against mine.
“I can sense other changes as well.”
I raise an eyebrow. “Like what?”
“I can tell when you’re aroused.”
“Gross. And I already knew that. Vampires in general are like horny teenage boys.”
He laughs again and curls his long fingers around mine. “I won’t argue against that, though there are some of us who are better at controlling ourselves than others. It tends to come with age.”
“So definitely like teenagers.”
“I can hear your heartbeat,” he starts. “But there is more to it. Your heart can beat faster because you are scared, excited, turned on, or because of stress. I don’t quite know how to explain it, but there is a very obvious difference.”
“It’s an invasion of privacy.”
“I’m sure some would say so is your ability to sense what others are feeling.”
“Oh, it totally is,” I agree right away. “I can’t help it. Though now that I’m saying it out loud, I realize you can’t like turn off vampire hearing.”
“No, we cannot.” He turns his hand and looks at me again. His fingers tighten around my hand as he does so. “Hearing humans chew food is one thing I wish I didn’t have to hear.”
“It’s so weird you not only don’t eat food, but have an aversion to it.”
“Food has gotten a lot more interesting since medieval times,” he chides. “Though all the additives in your American food are starting to make the blood taste worse as it used to.”
I look at him, blinking. “I suppose it would. I never thought about it like that but it makes sense. What you eat definitely impacts your health.”
“Why do you think we have a private chef?” he asks seriously and then grins. “It’s because vampires don’t cook.”
“You could, though, if you wanted to.”
“True. I microwaved popcorn once.”
“Wow. Master chef over here,” I say and we both laugh. “Why did you make popcorn?”
“Mabel wanted to put it on string for the birds.”
“Oh.” Instead of asking more about her, I just nod and look down and Xavier’s hand in my lap. His long fingers cover up the huge engagement ring, pressing it against my skin even more.
“What are we doing after dinner?”
“We are meeting a photographer at Romare Bearden Park.”
“Right,” I say, remembering Nina telling me about it. “We can’t do that before dinner? I plan to eat my weight in whatever they’re serving and I don’t want to have a food baby in the pictures.”
“A what?” He tips his head, looking genuinely confused.
“Food baby.” My lips turn up into a smile. “You don’t eat, so you wouldn’t know. It’s when you eat a lot and your stomach is so full you can kinda look pregnant. It’s actually awful we mere mortals worry about what we look like so much.”
“You’re very thin.”
“I’m athletic,” I correct. “And I have killer abs, I know. But it’s basic physiology, especially for women.”
“Interesting.” He slows down to turn. “Do you want to have photos first?” he asks slowly, as if he’s still trying to figure out how a human can eat so much that their stomach is distended.