Vampire Kisses(31)
I looked away, embarrassed.
Jameson wheeled over some pastry on a cart. He lit a match and flames rose around the dessert. “Flambé!” he announced. And just in time.
Alexander extinguished our desserts and told Jameson we would finish our dinner outside. “I hope you aren’t afraid of the dark,” he said, leading me into the dilapidated gazebo.
“Afraid? I live for it!”
“Me, too,” he said, smiling. “It’s really the only way to see the stars properly.” He lit a half-melted candle on the ledge.
“Do you bring all your girlfriends here?” I asked, fingering the used candle.
“Yes.” He laughed. “And I read to them by candlelight. What would you like?” he asked, pointing to a stack of textbooks on the floor. “Functions and Logarithms or Minority Group Cultures?”
I laughed.
“The moon is so beautiful tonight,” he said, staring out the gazebo.
“Makes me think of werewolves. Do you think a man can change into an animal?”
“If he’s with the right girl,” he said with a laugh.
I moved closer to him. The moonlight softly lit his face. He was beautiful. Kiss me, Alexander. Kiss me now! I thought, closing my eyes.
“But we have all of eternity,” he suddenly said. “For now let’s enjoy the stars.”
He placed his dessert bowl on the ledge and blew out the candle, and I quickly grabbed his hand. It wasn’t a Trevor hand or a skinny Billy Boy hand. He had the best hand in the whole world!
We lay down on the cold grass and gazed up at the stars, holding hands.
We relaxed in silence, our hands warming together. I could feel the prickly legs of the spider ring.
I wanted to kiss. But he just stared up at the stars.
“Who are your friends?” I asked, turning to him.
“I keep to myself.”
“I bet you met tons of cool girls before you moved here.”
“Cool is one thing. The kind of girls who accept you for who you really are is another. I’d like something…lasting.”
Lasting? For eternity? But I couldn’t ask that.
“I want a relationship I can finally sink my teeth into.”
Really? Well, I’m your girl! I thought. But he didn’t turn toward me; instead, Alexander gazed at the sky.
“So you don’t have any friends here?” I asked, trying to pump him for more info.
“Just one.”
“Jameson?”
“Someone who wears black lipstick.”
We both stared up at the moon in silence. I beamed from his compliment.
“Who do you hang out with?” he finally asked.
“Becky is the only one who accepts me, and it’s because I’m the only one who doesn’t beat her up.” We both laughed. “Everyone else thinks I’m weird.”
“I don’t.”
“Really?” No one had ever said that to me in my whole life. No one.
“You seem a lot like me,” he said. “You don’t gawk at me like I’m a freak.”
“I’ll kick anyone who does.”
“I think you already did. Or at least smacked him with a racket.”
We laughed in the moonlight, and I placed my free arm on his chest and hugged him, as my Gothic Mate softly stroked my arm.
“Could those be ravens?” I asked, pointing to a flurry of dark wings circling high above the Mansion.
“Those aren’t birds—they’re bats.”
“Bats! I’ve never seen bats around here, until you moved in.”
“Yeah, we found some hanging in the attic. Jameson set them free. I hope they don’t frighten you. They’re wonderful creatures.”
“It takes one to know one, right?” I hinted.
“But don’t worry. They never swoop down and get tangled in jet-black hair like yours. Only in mall hair.”
“They like hairspray?”
“They hate it. They know mall hair looks terrible!”
I laughed, and he began softly stroking my hair. His touch calmed me. I thought I was going to melt into the earth.
He was certainly taking much more time than Trevor had. I began stroking his hair, which was silky from his gel.
“Do bats like gel?” I asked.
“They love the way it looks with a silk Armani,” he teased back.
I wriggled over him and pinned his arms down. He looked up at me with surprise and smiled. I waited for him to kiss me. But he didn’t move. Of course, he didn’t move—I was pinning him down! What was I thinking?
“Tell me your favorite thing about bats, Bat Girl,” he asked, as I anxiously stared down at him.
“They can fly.”
“You want to fly?”
I nodded.
He wrestled me over and pinned my arms down. Again I waited for him to kiss me, but he didn’t. He just stared into my eyes.