“It is what it is,” I finally said, aiming that at both of them. “I love David, and you don’t have to want him here.”

“Fine.” She thrust her arms to her sides. “Then don’t ever talk to me again. Any of you!”

“Emily.” Mike chased her, stopping by my door to look at me. “Ara. How could you keep this from me?”

“I didn’t keep it from you, Mike. I just couldn’t tell you.”

“How does that make any sense? How does any of this—” He paused when a shadow flashed past my door and bright, white light filled the entranceway. “Emily, wait?”

She didn’t, and an internal battle began to rage within Mike, his steps edging between the two choices; scold his best friend, or chase after the girl he loves. He breathed out hard and bolted from the room—slamming the front door behind him.

David and I looked at each other; he nodded. “She’ll be fine. She’s just in shock. Mike will bring her back.”

“Why didn’t you stop me? You must’ve known it was going to slip out—about Jason?”

“Yes. But she needed to know. Emily’s had Jason on her mind all night.”

“What? Why?”

David hesitated, then slid closer to me. “She can’t understand why I came back—but Jason never did.”

I looked at my door. “Are you mad at Mike—” David’s eyes met mine when I turned around, “—for telling her the truth about you?”

“No.”

“Why? He broke the rules, and look what’s happened because of it.”

“Technically, Ara, we broke the rules by being careless.” He smirked, nodding at our bloody movie set. “Mike told her the truth because, in his mind, secrets nearly destroyed you. He won’t let that happen again. So I let him say it.”

Which I guess is fair enough. I rubbed my face, releasing all the tension with a quick huff. “I can’t believe she walked in on us.”

David laughed and, sliding one hand around my back and the other under my legs, swept me back into his arms. “Well, it could have been worse.”

“How? How can it possibly have been worse?”

“She could have seen me naked.”

“Funny.”

As David’s face hovered above mine, all his thoughts flooded his eyes—filling them with an emerald-green stare of intense love and desire, mixed with a glint of mischief. He shook his head.

“What?” I asked, my cheeks turning hot with the thought of what might be behind that smile.

“I just can’t believe how beautiful you are. I’m so lucky that you love me.”

I smiled and took a shaky breath, blowing away the embarrassment of my wake-up-call. “I enjoyed last night.”

“Yeah? You didn’t last long after, though.”

“I know.” I sat up and stuck my leg out from under the sheet, rolling my thigh to look at the bite. “But look—I’m healing fast.”

“I know.” David sat up too and ran his finger over my small bruise. “And your teeth, they—”

“Broke the skin.”

“How did it feel?”

“Magical.”

“Told ya vampirism isn’t all bad.” The sideways smirk he gave made me want to bite him again.

“Yeah, I kinda see what you mean now.”

“I’ve never been bitten by a human before,” he said, thoughtful. “I’ve heard of other vampires doing it; they starve themselves for a few weeks, then take a victim, making it bite them before they feed off then kill them. It’s called a Bane Tryst.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, it’s like a sport—to see how long you can resist before killing the human.”

“Disturbing.”

He smiled at that. “It’s not for everyone. Nobody told me how much it hurt though.”

“Hurt?”

“Yeah.” He cupped his palm over his neck. “You may have a soft, sexy little bite, but boy does it sting.”

“So, you won’t let me do it again?”

His hand dropped with his smile. “No, my love. It’s not safe for me to be that hungry around you.”

“What’s the worst that could happen?”

“Uh, I kill you.”

I nearly burst out laughing at the sarcasm in his tone. “You’d be doing me a favour.”

“Stop saying things like that.”

“Why? Look at my life, David.” I motioned an open palm to the end of my bed where, minutes ago, I destroyed my two best friends. “Mike’s moved on, Emily hates me.”

“Emily doesn’t hate you, and, I thought you wanted Mike to move on.”

I swallowed my own stupidity, then shrugged in response. He wouldn’t understand the truth.

“Ara, are you saying you haven’t moved past Mike—even though I’m here?”

“But you’re not back, are you?” I sat up, folding my arms across my body to hold the sheet in place. “You’re leaving again, David. You can’t expect me to just change my heart overnight because you fly in for a few days. I love Mike. I’ve always loved him.” I stopped when David’s soul seemed to slip out the proverbial back door of his heart. His face actually even went a little white. “I’m sorry. I know you didn’t want to hear that.”

Silence hovered between us for a while.

“But you do love me, right?” he said.

I scoffed loudly, looking at him with utter disbelief. “Of course I do. But I’m not going to give my heart to you fully just so you can snap it in two again when you leave.”

“What do you mean you’re not going to give your heart to me?”

I held back the knowing smile—the one that acknowledged my careful thinking while he slept, unaware of my thoughts. “You’re here now, but my life has to keep going on either way. If Eric calls me or Mike wants to break up with Emily and take me on a date, I’m going.”

He sat up, studying my face, leaning right around to look at me. “Are you saying...I don’t get exclusive rights?”

My smile kept trying to escape. “Yes.”

“Ara.” David’s brow pulled at the centre of his pained gaze, and the whole doe-eyed expression sat atop his parted lips. “Please don’t be like that.”