Dark Secrets (Dark Secrets #1)(136)
Author: A.M. Hudson

“But you told me you were leaving.” I smiled sheepishly, forcing down a rising yawn.

“Which is rare, mon amour, like I said. Now, come on—” he offered the seat in the car, “—let’s get you home before you fall asleep where you stand.”

I sat down and the door closed behind me, giving my head support as I drifted away, feeling my seatbelt clip around me a second later, followed by a cool kiss on my hand, then nothing more until the quiet thud of door woke my mind a little.

“Shh,” David whispered into my brow, lifting me from the car.

Quietly conscious of his embrace, I rolled my head into the hollow of his shoulder and fixated on the gentle, soapy smell of his shirt, seeping into my nose with each restful breath.

“Oh, she’s exhausted,” Dad’s voice hummed as a pale ring of light broke the darkness under my eyelids.

“Shall I carry her upstairs?” David asked, holding me a little closer.

“Uh, yeah, sure. No need to disturb her further.”

The front door closed behind us. I stayed in the blissful elation of dream world, in David’s arms, until the cold touch of my pillow fell along my cheek and I sunk into the softness of my mattress. My shoes came off and a still silence filled the room; it sounded like no one was there, but I could feel David’s presence. “Goodnight, my love.” He pressed a cold kiss to my brow.

I lifted my mind out of sleep just long enough to whisper, “David?”

“Yes, sweetheart.”

“Stay with me tonight?”

“I planned to,” he whispered, and the bedroom door closed, leaving me in darkness.

Outside, the sound of Dad’s voice farewelled David as his car pulled away from our house. And the only other sound, after Dad’s footsteps trailed away behind his bedroom door, was the quiet, rhythmic tick of the clock on the wall by the front door, timing my dreams while I slipped away.

Just before the grasp of sleep possessed me, two cool, strong arms fell around my shoulders, and I let myself wander into the peaceful harmony of the night, against David’s chest.

Chapter Twenty-Five

The sweet, chocolaty smell of David stirred my senses through the night, waking me with surprise when I looked up and saw the golden morning sun on his cheek. “You stayed!”

“Of course.” He stretched his arms out above us. “You asked me to.”

“Hasn’t mattered in the past.”

“Yes, well,” he said, his arm landing back down around my shoulders. “In the past, I didn’t only have two days left with you.”

That put a dampener on the day.

“Sorry.”

“It’s okay.”

“No, it’s not.” He rolled me onto my back, his long body against the length of mine. “Just don’t think about it. In fact—” He couldn’t help but smile, his eyes drifting to a thought. “Why not go back to thinking about that dream you were just having?”

My mouth popped open. “You saw that?”

“My love—” He kissed my nose, “I saw everything.”

“God damn mind readers!” With a feisty huff, I threw the covers back and headed for the shower—and maybe a few minutes of unheard thoughts.

“Your thought patterns are not mollified by short distances, Ara. I can still hear you,” he called out as I shut the bathroom door.

“Argh! Stop it.” I covered my ears, as if that would help, but I couldn’t stop seeing those images; David and I—naked, tucked in a loving embrace. And the worst part was, all of it was my own imagination forming dreams out of desires. It was like writing a  p**n  entry in a diary and having someone read it out loud. It was just too personal to share.

I took off the jeans and green sweater I slept in last night and stuffed them in the laundry basket, burying my undies and bra in case David needed to use the bathroom.

“I’ve already seen your underwear, my darling girl,” he called out. “You don’t have to hide them now.”

My shoulders dropped with a vocalised breath. At least there was one good thing about having a mind-reading vampire boyfriend—I’d had plenty of practice at emptying my thoughts and focusing on nothing. I was sure, in some odd way, that could be a good skill to have.

“Speaking of skills,” David said from just outside the bathroom door, “we need to rehearse for the benefit concert. I’m not even sure which song we’re supposed to be playing now.”

I reached into the shower and twisted the faucet on, then stood back and waited for the water to get hot. “Um, we’re doing that one from that movie—the one Nathan liked.”

David chuckled softly. “He liked a lot of movies, Ara.”

“Well, you know which one I mean,” I said, getting frustrated. “I can never remember the title.”

“Are you still doing a solo performance?” His voice echoed slightly too loud through the door, making me cringe a little in case Dad should hear.

“Yeah, and we’re also doing Somewhere Over the Rainbow.”

David didn’t respond. I waited, looking over my thin body in the reflection of the shower glass for a second, but when the silence lasted, I stepped into the welcoming steam whorls and ran my hands over the water falling through my hair. The running water and locked doors offered me a kind of privacy I wasn’t used to anymore—one where I could imagine my thoughts were unheard…just like my shower singing.

“Ara!” I jumped out of my skin at the sudden thud on the door. “Save some water for future generations, please.”

Geeze. “Yes, Dad—just rinsing my hair.”

“It doesn’t take your mother that long.”

By mother, he meant Vicki. “She has short hair, Dad.”

He groaned aloud.

“Hmph. You’d do a lot more than just groan if you knew I had my boyfriend in my room right now,” I said under my breath. Thing was, Dad would freak if there was a boy in my room, but I bet he’d take it really well if I told him David was a vampire. I think he’d see it as a rare opportunity to hear tales of History firsthand.

I sighed heavily, feeling the full weight of everything I learned about David and his history yesterday. I pictured him there still, by the grave, but when he folded over and buried his face in his hands to hide his tears, it was my name carved in stone behind him. And one day, that scary thought would be a reality.

Slowly, my hand rose up through the swirling steam cloud and rested against the foggy glass. Droplets of water melted around the base of my palm, and as I exhaled a breath of sorrow, the delicate touch of David’s long fingers appeared on the other side of the cold barrier. “Don’t cry, Ara,” he said in a deep, soothing whisper. “Please, please just don’t cry.”