Dark Secrets (Dark Secrets #1)(105)
Author: A.M. Hudson

“Haven’t you learned not to walk with your eyes closed?”

So much for private thoughts. “Well, I’m happy. If you want me to get across the road safely, you’ll just have to walk me home.” I opened my eyes to look at David. He looked so normal with a schoolbag on his back—just a boy, just as everyone else saw him. His dark side was a secret. No one could ever imagine he was a vampire, and no one would ever know. Except me.

“So, I was thinking?” He glided along beside me, at my pace, with his hands behind his back and that cheeky grin slipping into place.

“Mm. I’m listening.”

“I want to buy you a dress for the Masquerade.”

“A dress? Why?”

We stopped for a second, and David took my hands. “This will be your first real ball. I want you to feel like a queen. And—” he turned and started walking again, smiling, “—I won’t take no for an answer.”

“But…Vicki?” I ran after him. “She wants to take me shopping.”

“And she can.” He spun around and walked backward. “But when you find the right dress, I want to pay for it.”

“David, I can’t—”

“Ara.” He cut in with a finger to my lips. “I’ll have no more of this. Just accept it, as a gift—a token of my affection for you. It will do me great honour to escort you to the ball in a dress fit for a queen—for my queen.”

My throat stopped passage of all vocabulary. I froze in place, my hands and feet numb under the weight of his perfect words. All I could do was nod and swallow the sentence that had been my retort.

Sam’s schoolbooks engulfed the dining table, leaving one space left for me to do my homework; the kitchen counter. I slumped over my books, munching an apple, spinning my hips from side to side on the swishy stool. I’d deliberately moved my schoolbag off the seat beside me, hoping David would sit there to either help me with my homework or just plain old be close to me, but he went and sat next to my pesky brother instead, and helped him. Except, he wasn’t helping him with his math—he was doing it for him.

“David, will you stay for dinner tonight?” Vicki asked, casually chopping away at vegetables.

David looked up from the page. “That’d be great, Mrs Thompson. If Ara doesn’t mind.”

A giant, invisible question mark formed above my head. Why would I mind, dummy? Unless you plan to eat us for dinner.

He smirked.

“Great,” Vicki beamed, without needing my answer. “It’s nothing special. Although, I am making apple pie for dessert.”

My vampire flashed the most incredibly charming smile and said, “Apple pie happens to be my favourite.”

“Oh, really?” Vicki’s whole face lit up. “That’s great then.”

I groaned quietly, rolling my eyes. I think my stepmother has a crush on you, David.

He nodded to himself, his eyes small with humour, aiming the pen tip to the top of the page. He went on then to explain some number jargon to Sam, and I turned back to my books, a breath away from asking for his help. I really just didn’t get this Pythagoras’ Theorem crap. I never had.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw David look over at me for a second, but as the numbers on the page started to shift into place in my brain, I fazed him, Sam, and Vicki out, and concentrated on my homework—taking a sideways glance every now and then to see David look up at the same time. All I really wanted, though, was to go upstairs to my room so David and I could do our ‘homework’ in private. The idea made me smile to myself.

A roll of paper hit my forearm then and bounced up, landing between my wrists.

David winked at me, rolling his hand in the air as if to say ‘Open it.’

As I unfolded the paper, perfect Victorian cursive handwriting stared back up at me in the words: What exactly would we be doing in your room—other than homework?

Stay out of my head!

He laughed and took a sip from his coffee cup; I ditched the paper back at him, but he caught it without even looking.

Smart arse, I thought. But if you were any decent sort of mind reader, you wouldn’t need to ask what I wanted to do with you in there.

He looked over at me, his face tight with a frown, his cup just in front of his lips.

I waited until he dared to take another sip, then showed him what we’d be wearing if Vicki trusted me alone upstairs with a boy in my room.

Brown liquid burst all over Sam’s homework, spraying from David’s mouth as he jerked up out of his chair, wiping his chin on his sleeve. “Ara!”

That’ll teach you. I giggled, covering my mouth.

Vicki stared between David and I, and Sam, oblivious to all other life forms aside from himself, simply shook his head, sighed, like we were immature, then went back to his homework.

“Ara,” Vicki said, handing David a dishcloth. “What did you do to the poor boy?”

“Nothing,” I said innocently.

“I’m sure.”

David placed the cloth and his cup in the sink, shaking his head the whole time, then popped up beside me when Vicki turned to the stove, and whispered quietly in my ear. “You need a filter on your thoughts, Ara-Rose.”

I scraped the side of my face down his chin, closing my eyes for a second when his soft lips left a kiss behind before he walked back over and sat beside Sam, still shaking his head.

“So, Ara,” Vicki said casually, “you have the girls coming for a sleepover this Saturday, right?”

“Mm-hm.” I nodded, quickly looking back at my homework.

“When are we going dress hunting then? I assume you’ll want to do it soon, before Mike arrives?”

“Did Ara tell you, Mom?” Sam interjected, winking at David. “David’s gonna buy her a dress?”

My head whipped up to look at my vampire; he smiled behind his book, keeping his eyes on the text and nowhere near my infuriated glare.

Vicki looked at me, then at David. “That’s a very kind offer, David. Are you sure?”

“I’m positive, Mrs Thompson. If you take her shopping, I’ll cover the costs.”

“Dresses can be expensive,” she said in a remarkably condescending tone.

David leaned back in his chair and lopped his arm over the backrest. I knew he was looking at Vicki, probably thinking, I’m about eighty years older than you, lady. I think I know what things cost. “There is no price too high. I want Ara to have the prettiest, most extravagant dress money can buy,” he said instead.