“Bastard,” she muttered with a scowl as she decided that her sanity couldn’t take another surprise tonight and got off the couch and headed for the hallway, forcing herself to keep moving no matter how badly she wanted to turn around and run back to the couch and into the bastard’s arms.

*-*-*-*

“This isn’t so bad,” she mumbled, squeezing her eyes shut even tighter as she pulled the blankets all the way up to her chin and shifted onto her side as she tried to convince her brain to fall asleep quickly with promises that everything would be back to normal by tomorrow morning.

Apparently her brain wasn’t buying a single syllable of bullshit that she was giving it. Tomorrow wouldn’t be fine and most likely the day after wouldn’t be either. She wasn’t sure that anything would ever be fine, not when she was now confined to a life of secrecy and drinking blood out of coffee mugs.

How exactly was she supposed to hide what she was? she wondered with a disgruntled groan as she shifted onto her side and-

Let out another scream!

“Shhh, it’s just me,” Christofer whispered soothingly as he gently pushed her hair out of her face and gently cradled her face in his large, warm hand.

“That’s why I was screaming!” she snapped, reaching up and shoving his hand away even as she noticed that her heart wasn’t beating frantically against her ribs and her breathing was normal when she should be freaking out and struggling to take her next breath after finding a man suddenly lounging in bed next to her.

She shouldn’t be feeling her body start to relax, but that’s exactly what it was doing. As soon as her body registered that Christofer was in bed next to her, she’d felt herself begin to relax, her breaths evening out and her eyelids becoming increasingly heavy in a matter of seconds as she struggled to remain awake so that she could finally give him a piece of her mind for all the bullshit that he’d put her through and for continuing to scare the shit out of her. It soon became apparent that finally telling him off wasn’t going to happen, at least not tonight.

Not when it felt so good to lie next to him.

But her pride refused to accept this situation, needing to put up the façade of a fight for self-preservation, because even as she muttered, “Get out,” she knew that if he tried to leave her right now that she would tackle his ass to the ground and make him stay. At least, for tonight, she told herself, once again more than willing to lie to herself so that she could take the comfort that Christofer was offering without hating herself.

“Is that what you really want, mein Schatz?” he asked softly as he lightly ran the back of his knuckles along her jaw, sending a wave of pleasure through her body that had her unconsciously shifting closer to him, greedy for his touch.

“Yes,” she whispered harshly. She reached out to push him away, but as soon as her hand touched the warm bare skin of his shoulder, she found herself wrapping an unsteady hand around the back of his neck in a desperate attempt to keep him close.

“I’m not going anywhere,” he promised her as she registered the feel of his large warm hand mimicking her hold on him. He gently pulled her closer until his forehead was touching hers.

“Yes,” she said, opening her eyes to find herself staring into glimmering blue eyes, “you will.”

For a moment he didn’t say anything as he stared into her eyes, his hold on the back of her neck turning caressing as she waited for him to lie to her and to make promises that he would never be able to keep. Just when she prepared herself to call him out on any bullshit promises that left his mouth, he took her by surprise.

“Everyone leaves you, don’t they?” he whispered softly in a tone that should have softened the blow of his question, but nothing could have stopped her from flinching from his words.

“No, they don’t,” she bit out, releasing her hold on him so that she could put some much needed space between them.

His hold on her tightened as he kept her from fleeing as his gaze bore into hers, searching for an answer that he had no right to demand.

“No, they don’t,” he murmured softly after a painfully long moment as he pulled her closer and pressed a kiss against her forehead. “You leave them before they get a chance,” he said against her forehead as she struggled to breathe.

“That’s not true,” she lamely argued, unaware that she was once again holding onto him, refusing to let him go.

“You’ll never have to worry, mein Schatz. I’m not going anywhere,” he promised her.

“Don’t make promises that you can’t keep,” she whispered helplessly as she closed her eyes and savored his touch, the warmth from his body and the feeling of being enveloped in a protective pocket where nothing and no one could harm her.

“Why do I feel so safe with you?” she found herself asking him, hating how much she needed him even as she prayed that she never had to endure another day without him.

“I don’t know,” he whispered as his hold on her gentled and he was once again caressing her nape.

She gave a humorless chuckle at that. “Well, that makes two of us then, because I honestly don’t know why I’m not doing everything in my power to get away from you.”

He pressed another kiss against her forehead as he confessed, “I’m still waiting for you to kick my ass for everything that I’ve put you through.”

She heaved out a sigh as she admitted, “I should have kicked your ass a hundred times over by now.”

“Yes,” he said, pressing another kiss against her brow, “you should have.”

“Especially for that sandwich,” she said, cringing at the memory of all that mayonnaise pouring out of the sandwich like a-

“There was nothing wrong with that sandwich!” Christofer argued, softening his words with another kiss.

“I’ll probably have nightmares for years to come thanks to that sandwich,” she teased with a laugh when he released a sexy little growl that had her toes curling in pleasure.

“That sandwich was perfect!”

“That sandwich was terrifying,” she said solemnly, loving the sexy glare that he was giving her, surprised that somehow through all of this they’d managed to slip back into taunting and teasing each other, something that she’d truly enjoyed before her world had been destroyed.

It gave her hope that one day everything would be okay.

Chapter 31

“Are you awake?”

“Mmmhmm,” Cloe murmured as she lay there, staring out the large window at the beautiful city sky as she continued to absently trace her fingers over Christofer’s arm where it rested around her waist.

“Are you hungry?” he murmured, pressing a soft kiss to the back of her head, something that he’d been doing a lot tonight. Not that she was going to complain, because she wasn’t.

It felt too good in his arms to complain or find fault with the way that he held and touched her. They’d talked for a little while about absolutely nothing at all, neither of them wanting to broach on a subject that would jeopardize this overwhelming sense of peace that they’d somehow managed to stumble across. For about two hours now, they’d been lying there, staring out at the night sky, the tranquility broken only by murmured questions and a gentle touch.