Page 21 of Midnight Kiss
“Sensible,” Mike said.
“Boring.”
“Really, that’s the word you were struggling to find? I have a dictionary at my place if you want me to get it for you,” Mike said.
“Guys, stop arguing,” I said. “This is getting out of hand.”
Mike waved off my words and focused on my face again. “You’re not going to see him again, are you?”
“Why wouldn’t I? He’s handsome, a nice guy, he saved me, he—He’s interesting.”
“Interesting. What does he do for a living?”
“He’s an investor,” I said.
“That’s not a real job,” Mike replied.
“He’s rich,” Morgan put in as she flopped back down on the sofa. “He’s got a Porsche and everything. All I’m saying, Mike, is that he’s got something to offer.”
I didn’t care about what Alex had to offer. I was intrigued by him, that was the main thing. I wanted to understand why he had that effect over me—almost like when he was close by, I couldn’t look away.
The words from the book returned to me again. I sighed. “Anyway, can we stop discussing my love life?”
“Did you kiss him?” Mike asked.
“Yeah, did you kiss him?” Morgan asked, with a completely different energy.
“I am not telling either of you anything,” I said. “Can we please just focus on watching the movie?”
Morgan hit play and glugged down some more beer. Mike settled back, his arms folded.
The scene played out on the TV, and I tried to focus on it, but Mike kept huffing beside me. After the end of our first movie, he said goodnight and left.
“See what I mean?” Morgan asked. “He’s only pretending to be your friend because he wants to get with you. He’s a typical nice guy. Or a ‘pick me.’ Or both. Yeah, definitely both of those things.”
“Morgan.” But she had a point. Mike was acting weird. I’d made it clear that we were just friends though. The funny thing was, before I’d met Alex, if Mike had asked me out, I might have given him a shot. But my gut said that it wouldn’t have gone anywhere.
He was nice, but that was just it. He was nice. I didn’t want nice. I wanted exciting.
Morgan nodded off halfway through our second movie, so I covered her with a blanket, muted the TV, and went to my bedroom. The book was where I’d left it on the bed, and I fell down beside it, then rolled onto my back and stared up at the ceiling.
Where was Alex right now?
Was he staring at a ceiling somewhere, thinking about me? And why hadn’t he at least given me his contact details?
Thoughts of him set my blood racing, and I trailed my fingers over my pj top down to the waistband of my bottoms, thinking back to that night and the tension between us, the moment in the cemetery when I’d been sure he was about to kiss me.
8
ALEXANDER
Fear was not something that had concerned me for many centuries now. Not since I had left Sanguine Nox and joined the United Covens. I didn’t fear death or what would come after it—if there was anything—nor did I fear physical pain.
But for the first time in my recent memory, a kernel of fear was seated in my chest. It was a strange thing. A twisting knife of anxiety, a cold rush that sent my thoughts spiraling, and it was all thanks to her.
I sat on top of the apartment building opposite Emily’s watching her through her bedroom window. Her room was dark, but she was easy to make out, her body moving on the bed, her hand in the tight pink shorts she wore to bed.
She cried out softly, a whisper of my name on her lips, and adrenaline rushed through my veins. The fear grew thicker, mingling with a desire to leap from the top of this building to hers, to make my way into her bedroom in the dead of the night.