Reborn Yesterday - Tessa Bailey Page 0,14
Cloves and mint. “Have you considered there might be a limit to it?”
No, she hadn’t considered that and frankly, she was beginning to question her conviction when it came to Jonas. Was she really so reckless as to put herself in dark, private places with a man who could clearly overpower and kill her? Or was there something almost…familiar about Jonas that made her so trusting of his intentions? “Why do you need so much willpower?” Ginny murmured. “What are you stopping yourself from doing?”
“Oh, Ginny.” He took her chin in his hand, studying her mouth with…fascination? Hunger? Before turning her head to the right and exposing her neck to the moonlight. “What am I not stopping myself from doing?”
The speed at which her nipples hardened caused Ginny to blink rapidly. She was already quite aware of her attraction to Jonas, but had he just implied he wanted her blood? She didn’t imagine it, right? And instead of recoiling like she ought to, a flame licked at her veins like a dragon’s tongue. Unexpected, that.
Very unexpected.
She’d liked members of the opposite sex before. She’d even let Gordon Collingsworth bring her to the movies once—an event he’d been eager to repeat ever since—but she’d only experienced a mild curiosity when it came to kissing Gordon. As in, would it be as clammy and moist as his palms? How long would it continue? If she let him French kiss her, would he stop begging her to come to Sunday dinner with his mother?
Things like that.
This was no awkward evening with Gordon. She was on a rooftop in the moonlight with Jonas towering above her and the implication that he wanted something from her still hung in the air. She pulsed head to toe, her lips and neck tingling under his rapt attention—and even in her state of hormonal excitement, there was a sense of finally. Finally, she was there with him.
Jonas gave a slight head tilt. “What are you thinking about?”
“Mostly that…this is nothing like my date with Gordon,” Ginny mumbled.
He was already so still by virtue of his nature, but he went even stiller somehow, his left eye twitching. “Gordon?”
She waved a hand. “He’s neither here nor there.”
“Oh? Then where is he?”
“Not here. Not there.”
“Well he has to be somewhere.”
“I was just thinking…well, I’ve never kissed him. But I’ve never wanted him to kiss me, the way…” Her blurted words lost steam as his expression shuttered. “The way I think you would kiss me.”
“I’m not going to kiss you,” he rasped, leaning down to speak inches from her face. “You won’t be finding out.”
His rejection embarrassed her. The fact that her nipples were still in tight buds didn’t help. Had she assumed too much? Had she been around so few men her age that she grasped onto the slightest sign of interest?
He’s not a man.
He’s a vampire.
Her body and heart clearly weren’t making that distinction, no matter how hard she tried to make them. However, her heart was sputtering like a five-day-old party balloon that someone had finally got around to popping and squeezing out the dull air. Ginny turned and walked to the other side of the roof, hoping for a few precious seconds to gather herself before asking more questions.
Jonas sighed as she walked away. “Ginny…”
“So what are the other rules?” she asked brightly, settling her forearms on the cool stone perimeter wall. Jonas came up beside her, leaning a hip against the barrier with his arms crossed, a healthy distance away. She ached to look at him, to see his gorgeous face surrounded by starlight and the glittering boardwalk amusement park in the distance. Instead, she tracked the silhouette of the buildings across the street and let the autumn wind cool her flushed face.
His answer came after a stretch of time, his voice more subdued than before. “There are three rules, although breaking one usually means you’ve broken all three.” In her periphery, she could see him count the items off on his fingers. “One, no relationships of any kind with humans. Two, no taking of human life. And three…”
Finally, she judged her face had lost enough pinkness to look at him. “Yes?”
“No drinking from humans.” He dropped a hand to the perimeter wall, seeming to hold it in a tight grip. “Not directly, at least.”
Her mind raced with the unusual knowledge. “What if you used a straw?”
Jonas’s tight expression gave way to astonishment. Slowly, he turned and looked out toward the coast. “How could I not want