Page 85 of She is the Darke
“I didn’t want to wait for you to come tell me good night. Or…good morning? I wanted to spend extra minutes with you.”
Aric chuckled and lifted her knuckles to his lips, let them linger there before he said, “You missed me.”
She giggled and play-nipped his chest. “I always miss you.”
“Who are you?” a man called from the open door of the firehouse garage. A taller man in a fire department T-shirt jogged over and stood beside the other, who was squinting into the dark at her.
Aric nodded his head toward them and pulled her hand, led her back to the station. His eyes might be dark and roiling with something she didn’t understand, but Aric’s steps were light and confident as he pulled her in front of him and rested his hands on top of her shoulders. “John, Nick, this is Sadey. She’s my…” Aric cleared his throat and frowned at them each in turn. “She’s mine.”
The taller one, Nick, jacked up his dark eyebrows. “Whoa, vamp has a girlfriend.”
But that didn’t sound right. He was more to her, and from the way Aric acted, she was more to him as well.
Beside her, Aric was as tense as a stretched rubber band, and his eyes were narrowed suspiciously on his fellow firefighters like he expected them to stake him at any moment.
He’d told her about the tension in the crew already. They were supposed to be close-knit, because their lives often depended on each other when they were out on calls, but Aric was struggling to adjust to the new station.
Sadey shook their hands and politely murmured, “Nice to meet you. Aric has told me a lot about you.”
“Oh, yeah?” John asked. “Anything good?”
“Hell no,” Aric muttered. But his tone was softer, teasing maybe, and when she looked up at him, he wore a slight smile just at the corners of his lips.
Sadey giggled and played along. “It’s true. He goes on and on about what assholes you both are.”
“My feelings are hurt,” Nick said with a grin at Aric.
“I’m pretty sure it’s impossible to hurt your feelings,” Aric murmured. He intertwined his fingers in Sadey’s. “Night.” Aric led Sadey to her ride, but behind them Nick called out, “Bye, Sadey!” in a baiting tone.
John was making kissing sounds and poked a finger rhythmically into the hole he’d made with the other hand.
Sadey laughed. She couldn’t help it. “Y’all stay out of trouble.”
“Youstay out of trouble, Sadey!” John called. “Protect your neck from Blood-Suck Aric!”
She was snickering like a lunatic as she climbed into the passenger’s seat. Aric was holding the door open for her, but he had a troubled furrow between his dark brows.
“What’s wrong?” she asked as he climbed in behind the wheel.
He turned the engine and pulled out onto the two lane road. “I wouldn’t bite you without permission.”
“I know that.”
He ran his hands over his clean-shaven jaw and took a left, headed back to her house. And it struck her. His dark eyes, the gaunt look of his face. “How long has it been since you fed?”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“It does to me. How long?”
Aric clenched his jaw once before he leaned back in the seat and draped one arm over the steering wheel. “Since you.”
“Aric,” she drawled out in admonishment. “It’s been a week!”
“Well it hasn’t felt right calling one of the girls after bonding with you. Everything has been perfect.” He flashed her a dark-eyed glance, then dragged his gaze back to the road. “I know you don’t like the idea of me drinking the other girls, and I don’t want to rock the boat when you make me this fucking happy.”
“Wait, is this why you’ve been avoiding intimacy with me?”
“Hell yeah. The first time we slept together, I bit you and bonded us, and I wanted to give you time to wrap your head around a relationship with me.”