“Delilah finds others appealing very rarely. It takes a particularly special individual to capture her attention.” His eyes smouldered into me. “We are very similar in that way. When somebody turns our heads, we become fixated on them to the point of obsession.”
“Has anybody ever mentioned that you two are a weird family?”
He smiled. “Not in so many words.”
“So, Delilah has the hots for Ira, is what you’re saying?”
“In sum, yes.”
“Interesting.”
I had to be honest, I wasn’t sure Ira was interested in the opposite sex right now. He was still finding himself and figuring stuff out since his curse was broken. Then again, Delilah was incredibly beautiful. I could think of worse people to break a twenty-five-year dry spell with.
“We should probably get down from here.”
He pressed his palm to my outer thigh. “Hush, I think she’s going to approach him.”
My eyes wandered back down to Delilah. She walked towards Ira, then sat down on the grass a few feet away from him. Ira opened his eyes but didn’t comment on her appearance.
“You knew I was standing there, didn’t you,” Delilah said, her voice carrying up to us.
“I heard you breathing,” Ira answered after a long stretch of silence. I was stunned that he spoke to her. As far as I knew, I was the only one he’d spoken to so far. Well, and Emilia that one time.
“And yet you ignored me until I approached,” Delilah sighed.
“Does that bother you?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“You don’t talk to anyone. It’s frustrating.”
“I speak when I have something to say. I don’t see the point in spewing words just to fill a silence. My mother used to say that the loudest mouths are often attached to the emptiest vessels.”
“That might be true, but those who don’t speak make me suspicious. It usually means they have something to hide.”
“I’m an open book,” Ira replied calmly. “Ask me a question, and I’ll answer it for you.”
“I take back what I said about your silence. You’re even more frustrating when you speak.”
Ira’s eyes shot open again. “If I have offended you, it wasn’t my intention.”
“You haven’t. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have snapped at you. I’m very much on edge these days. I’ve had a rough few weeks.”
“You look like a woman who has survived worse,” Ira commented.
“You could say that,” Delilah agreed, gathering herself. “I apologise for interrupting your meditation. I should go.”
“You can join me, if you’d like,” Ira offered, gesturing to the empty patch of grass beside him. “If you’re stressed it might help to clear your head.”
Delilah seemed unsure, pausing as if weighing her options, before finally, she took a deep breath and went to sit beside him. Once they both closed their eyes, Ethan pulled us away from the roof edge.
“Hey,” I whispered in protest. “It was just about to get interesting.”
He smirked at me. “Quite the little voyeur, aren’t you.”
“Well, when you put it like that you make me sound like a pervert.” Though to be perfectly honest, if things had gotten sexy, I probably would have stayed and watched. Maybe I was a pervert.
Ethan moved me to the centre of the roof and pulled me to his front as he stretched his body out with me on top of him.
“It’s strange being up here,” I said after a few quiet moments of staring up at the starless sky.
“Ah, déjà vu,” Ethan muttered, tracing his fingers up and down my arms.
“Déjà vu?”
“The first night I met you,” he explained, “it was a starless night just like this one. I sat on the roof of my house with Delilah, staring up at the sky. We spoke about the perils of loving a human.”
“I think it’s slightly more perilous for a human to love a vampire,” I countered, tingles rushing through me at the thought of Ethan’s love. I was certain it would be a truly spectacular thing to possess.
I sensed him smiling when his jaw moved against my hair. “The perils go both ways, I suppose.”
“Okay, explain it to me then. How is it dangerous for a vampire to love a human?”
“Isn’t it obvious? You age and die, while we stay young and unchanged.”
Thinking about it, that did sound rather depressing. “I guess. But then why don’t you just date vampire women? It would save you the heartache. Besides, vampires are a hell of a lot more attractive than humans, so I can’t imagine it’d be too hard to fall in love with one.”