One Immortal - Tia Louise Page 0,49
to his ability to put me at ease. All I know is when we’re together, I’m not afraid or shy. Quite the opposite.
“Patrick said you were sick of him by the end of the afternoon.” A grin lifts the corners of his mouth.
Standing here, looking like a model, teasing me about the most devastating time of my life, I can’t resist. I clutch his forearm and rise on my toes to kiss his cheek.
“I guess we have to do another exchange.” I say the words in a pointed way, and it has the desired effect. His expression darkens.
“Dinner first. We have things to discuss.”
“Also, I’m hungry,” I wink. I’m so grateful to have one safe harbor in the middle of this storm.
He’s a hunter. If I’m safe anywhere, I’m safe with him. It’s the justification I give for the inexplicable way I feel when we’re together. I’m easy. I’m happy. He promised me last night he’d save me, and for whatever reason, my heart has decided to believe him. My body craves him, and when I take his arm, all my fear dissolves.
“Are you up for walking a few blocks to Bayona?”
“I’d love that!”
The upscale slow-food restaurant situated in a two hundred year-old French Quarter cottage is a luxury I’ve only had once. After my day of tense wandering through the market trying not to worry about him, it seems like the perfect setting to relax and get to know each other better.
The rain never came, and as we walk up Royal Street, I imagine us as a carefree couple strolling to dinner on a warm fall night. Only the tiniest flicker of anxiety manages to penetrate my mood. I look over my shoulder a few times, wondering if he might be there watching me. A touch of dread chills my insides at the thought of his cold blue eyes, but all I see are tourists looking in windows or running into bars.
His voice has been silent since this afternoon in the market. I don’t know if I somehow got closer to him or if Derek’s presence gives me the strength to block it out. Again, I’m handicapped by my ignorance of what’s happening to me and how fast the changes are taking place. Did my dose of shifter blood truly reset the clock or am I’m right back to where I was before I drank it?
“What are you thinking about so seriously?” Derek glances down, giving me that little smile that launches a thousand butterflies in my stomach.
My feelings for him haven’t distracted me from the fact I know so little about him, about his work. “Can you tell me what you did today?”
“Probably not. Let’s just say it was informative.”
We walk down the side streets, away from the main tourist lanes, and I feel closer to him, like we can share more intimately here.
“I worried about you today. I was afraid you might try to take matters into your own hands and be hurt.”
His smile tightens. “As much as I’d like to do that, my partners won’t let me. We’ll have it all planned out before we do anything.”
Taking a deep breath, I look up at the twilight sky. “I was thinking today how little we know about each other.”
“Me too,” he says.
We’re at the corner of Royal and Conti Streets. Two blocks north, and we’ll be at our destination. Before we resume our walk, however, he puts both hands on my waist, holding me steady in front of him.
“What would you like to know?” His steely eyes are utterly sincere, and I feel myself fall for him a little more.
“Everything?” A breathy laugh escapes with the word, and I’m embarrassed that I sound like a swoony teenager. “Where did you grow up?”
“Right here in this city.” He nods toward the streetlamps, taking my hand as we resume our walk. My heels make a soft clicking noise on the flagstones.
“Really? Here in the Quarter?”
“My parents have a place further west, by Audubon Park. Near Tulane and Loyola.”
“It sounds beautiful. Did you go to college there?”
“When I graduated high school, I joined the military. I’d just started my degree when the first Gulf war broke out. I was sent overseas.”
The image of him in uniform fighting bad guys is an incredible turn-on. “Did you serve for long?”
“I was back and forth,” he says as we approach the small cottage.
A line of white French doors punctuates the terracotta-orange façade of the one-story building. We pass through a green wrought-iron gate