She looked in the mirror at herself. Wild curls tumbling down her naked back, swollen lips, body littered with bite marks…
Holy Jumpin’ Dracula, Batman!
She had bite marks in three places on her neck as well as on her left shoulder. Her cheeks were pink and rosy and her eyes were glistening, looking wet, the green vivid like sparkling emeralds. She shook her head and rubbed her eyes, barely recognizing herself. She leaned toward the mirror and examined the most prominent mark on her throat. Then she felt a tingling roll through her body almost like a warm wave had gently washed over her. Wow.
That was the only word she could muster and she was pretty sure she’d said it aloud. Her stomach rumbled loudly so she finished up and got into the shower. When she was done and back in the bedroom she saw him putting a lit tray of tea light candles on the table. He walked over to her,
“Mademoiselle?” He stood by the door and held open the red silk robe for her. She dropped the towel she was wrapped in and put her arms into the robe. He wrapped her with it and planted a soft kiss on the top of her head. His actions were so endearing, it was totally disarming. (Clearly she was disarmed as she’d just dropped a towel covering her naked self in front of him!)
He signalled to a plate of food on the table and then sat across from her. He was gorgeous. Rock hard body, bright blue eyes, sexy bedhead, and he had just cooked food for her after making sweet love to her and helping her through that emotional …whatever that was.
“You aren’t eating?” Kyla asked.
“I’m quite full, as it happens,” Tristan said, smirking, cheeks dimpling, eyes sparkling like bling that had the light shone on it just right. He lifted his wine glass and dipped it slightly in her direction and then drank from the glass.
She felt the heat rise in her face and felt a swish of moisture between her legs. She clenched and shuffled uneasily in the chair and sipped her wine.
Kyla devoured a plate of linguine in a rich sweet tomato and wine sauce. It was heaped with mushrooms and peppers and meatballs and the sauce tasted like it had been cooking all day.
Tristan poured her a second glass of wine. She had hardly looked at him throughout the meal, just focused solely on the food, which she must have desperately needed due to lack of much to eat in the past 2 days and a whole lot of calories expended. And blood lost…
He smiled at her as she sipped the second glass of wine and put her fork down.
“Thank you; that was delicious.” she said.
“You’re delicious. To your health.” He clinked her glass with his, “All this must agree with you. You have an appetite, colour in your cheeks, you’re beautiful, Kyla.”
She blushed.
Agree with me? Imprisonment? Vampires?
Kyla felt whatever ease and happiness she’d been feeling the last few minutes drain out of her. She suddenly felt empty. Gutted and empty. She put the glass down.
No. No, this is all so wrong. I can’t just let myself get caught up in this. This isn’t me. This isn’t right.
His expression dropped. He quickly reached across and covered her hand with his,
“Wait, don’t do that, don’t…”
Kyla snatched her hand back and picked up the wine glass with both hands. She downed the rest of the wine. They sat in silence for a moment. It was suddenly beyond awkward. Tristan looked like he was getting ready to say something but then his phone started to buzz.
He rose from the table, “Be right back.” He fetched his phone from the floor and swiped at it as he left the room, his head down, shoulders slumped.
She sat quietly for a moment, contemplative. Then she refilled her glass and took it into the closet and turned the light on and began to rifle through the box of clothes. She found a pair of cheap black thong flip flops, her favourite flip flops. She sighed, remembering buying them at a beach kiosk last summer on an outing with Daisy and a few other neighbors from the building. They’d all chipped in and rented a van and spent the day on Wasaga Beach, the night at the midway, eating junk food, drinking beer and vodka coolers, and people-watching, and then camped out at a campsite near the beach. It had been one of the few carefree days she’d had in a very long time. Could she have more days like that with bumper cars and cotton candy and giggles? Probably not, not if she lived with a vampire and wasn’t allowed to leave his bedroom.
She put the $5 flip flops on and stepped out onto the balcony with her wineglass. Everything was dark, except for a few dim lights around the pool. It was a starry night and the aroma of all the flowers in the courtyard together with the near quiet, just the sound of the pool pump, was relaxing. She inhaled the scent and tried to clear her head. Across the way she saw a light go on in a room directly opposite her.