thighs apart, palming them as he lowered his nose to my neck and inhaled. “Your scent haunts my dreams,” he rasped, brushing his mouth along my jawline. The sensual move solicited a small moan from me. At the noise, Ethan gripped the back of my neck, his bare palm like silk against my skin. “You’ll be the death of me,” he said, and then, just like that, he was gone.
Damn vampire speed!
I shook my head. If Ethan wanted to continue pretending that he hated me more than he wanted me, then so be it. I began cleaning the kitchen, trying to distract myself from the fact that he’d turned me on and left me hanging. The trash was full, so I tied up the bag to bring it outside. Stepping into the back garden, I swore I heard a voice. Whoever it was, it sounded like they were praying. I took another step, and it ceased immediately.
Squinting my eyes in the dark, I spotted Ira sitting cross-legged on the grass.
“What are you still doing out here?” I asked. “It’s getting late.”
Obviously, it was pointless waiting for him to answer, but I did it anyway. I was convinced it had to be him I heard praying. Ira sat still, watching me silently. I put the bag down and walked over to him.
“I thought I heard someone talking. You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that, would you?”
He gave me nothing, not even a nod or a shake of his head. I wasn’t prepared to let it go though. If Ira could speak, then I wanted to know, and I wanted to know why he chose to be mute. I sat down next to him and crossed my legs like his.
“It’s sort of nice out here at night. Peaceful,” I commented.
I might as well have been talking to myself for all the response I got. Ira closed his eyes and inhaled deeply.
“You know,” I continued. “If you have a reason for not talking around everyone, you can tell me. I promise to keep it secret. That way you’ll have at least one person you can speak to.”
He opened his eyes and speculatively studied me.
“I won’t breathe a word. You can trust me,” I promised.
I thought he was about to say something then, but the words never came.
“I know you can understand me,” I went on. “I can see it in your eyes when I look at you. I’d like to hear you speak, Ira. We’re friends, at least I think we are. When you were a dog, I really adored you, you know. You were such a comfort to me.”
When I still got no reply, I fell silent, resigning myself to the fact that he wasn’t going to speak to me tonight, even if it was him I heard. A few more minutes passed, and I leaned back to lie on the grass, closing my eyes and enjoying the soothing coldness of the earth.
“I don’t know how to … be like this anymore,” came a deep voice, and I startled, blinking my eyes open as I sat up to gape at Ira.
“Please tell me that wasn’t my imagination. You did speak just now, didn’t you?”
He inclined his head. “I did.”
I smiled widely. “Wow, you have a lovely voice.” It was deep and masculine and sexy, but I didn’t mention that.
He returned my smile with a small one of his own. “Thank you.”
Several moments passed before I asked, “What did you mean when you said you don’t know how to be like this anymore?”
He didn’t speak for a long moment, then said, “I don’t know how to be human. I spent twenty-five years confined in my animal form, voiceless, always on the outside looking in. Now that my original body has been restored, I don’t know how to be in it. I feel like a stranger in my own skin.”
I stared at him, finding it odd to hear him speak so many words when he’d been silent all this time. “You’ll adapt. Twenty-five years is a long stretch. It’s going to take more than a few weeks for you to get used to it.”
He soaked in my words. “I don’t speak because it’s my one last comfort to be without a voice, to be like I was as a dog.”
“Oh,” I replied, thinking it over. “Well, that makes a lot of sense. I’m sorry for being pushy. It’s just that I heard you praying, and I really wanted you to talk to me.