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He sighs. “It’s all I can do.”
“With you two, I know that’s a lie,” she counters, stepping out of reach, and then they have a conversation with their eyes that I don’t fully understand—only it doesn’t appear to be the first time they’ve had it. Her gaze is soft while his seems slightly exasperated and tired, the frenzied intensity from earlier long gone. She nods when it seems she wins whatever the battle of wills was.
“I’ll be fine,” he states like it’s something he’s been told to recite.
“I know you will be,” Callie affirms and then turns toward me. She gives me a hard stamp of a kiss but quickly dances away when I try to hold her in place to steal another chance to taste her. With a pointed finger at me, she demands, “Behave.”
A salacious grin takes over my mouth. “I promise nothing.”
Callie huffs, flaps her hands in the air, and then drops them at her sides. “You’re both impossible. Just try to remember to sleep.” Before I have the opportunity to mention that orgasms are great for sleep and how I would happily show her, she’s down the stairs and out the door.
“How does she do that?” I ask, shaking my head. “One minute she’s all hot and bothered, and then the next she seems completely fine.”
Nolan shrugs and then rests his head back against the pillow, the long column of his neck looking particularly lickable. Talking to the ceiling, he guesses, “Super spirit witch control? That, or she’s really good at compartmentalizing. Either way, the venom is still running through her veins, and Connor will be able to smell her arousal. I doubt he’s going to ignore it when he has her all night.”
“Lucky bastard,” I mutter, flexing my hand around Nolan’s hip.
“I don’t know if I should be relieved that she’ll be taken care of after I fed from her, or jealous that I’m not the one doing it,” Nolan muses, his eyes drifting half closed. “Not that I’m really capable at the moment.”
Looking pointedly at his erection, I joke, “You seem more than up for the challenge.”
He gives me a deadpan stare before returning his attention to the ceiling. “Problem is I don’t have the energy to do anything about it.” He swallows, his Adam’s apple bobbing in his throat. “Sometimes I’m so tired, I can’t do much more than cuddle her while I know she’s burning from the bite.”
“I don’t think she minds,” I reply, getting that uncomfortable itch from knowing we’re about to end up in feelings territory when all I want to do is take care of our blue ball issue. “Why were you feeding directly anyway? I thought you were drinking from a cup these days.”
“Apparently, I was still looking pale, so she offered,” he answers, drumming his fingers on his chest. “I can keep her blood down from the cup, but I only really get the hit of energy when feeding directly from her.”
“So that’s what I walked in on?” I tease with a grin. “A burst of energy?”
He nods. “It doesn’t last for long, but for a little while, I feel like my old self.” Sighing, he rolls his head to the side so he can look at me. “You know she turns eighteen in two months.”
“I know,” I say slowly, not sure what this has to do with him being too tired to fool around.
He licks his dry lips. “Every time I’ve ever had sex, it was so I could feed. It never meant anything, not like when I’m with her, and soon she’ll be eighteen. She’ll be eighteen, and there’s a real chance I won’t see my eighteenth birthday.”
I hate the finality in his voice and growl, “You promised.”
“I’m not giving up,” he insists, crossing his arms over his chest. “That’s just a fact. Everyone will do their best to save me, but some things can’t be fixed. This is all beside the point.”
Resisting shaking him by the shoulders, I ask with a tight smile, “What is the fucking point?”
Nolan’s gaze drifts to the bedspread beneath us, seemingly unable to look me in the eyes as he admits, “What if I die before we can be together?”
“Ignoring the fact that you will get better,” I argue, because I don’t like where those thoughts are going, “what the fuck does her being eighteen in two months have to do with anything?”
“The age of consent is eighteen in the state of Oregon,” he mumbles, some much-needed color rising in his cheeks. “I looked it up.”
It takes me a beat to finally put the pieces together, and I laugh at the stupidity of it all. “Are you seriously worried about the age of consent laws after you nearly murdered someone?”
“It’s different,” he mumbles. “I don’t want our first time together to be fucking illegal.”
“We do illegal shit all the time,” I counter, holding my hand up so I can count on my fingers. “Underage drinking, you driving with under eighteen-year-old passengers, oh, and, you know, covering up fucking murder.”
“I’m never living that down, am I?” Nolan grumbles, finally looking up at my face again.
Shaking my head, I run my hand through my hair. “Look, dude, wait to be with her because it’s what’s right for both of you. I understand wanting to be at your best again to make it good for her, but don’t hide behind something dumb like waiting until you’re eighteen. If she’s ready, and you’re ready, fucking do it.” I lean over him, bracing myself on either side of his hips. “Now, does your new law-abiding leaf mean you don’t want me to do something about the tent you’re still pitching?”
“It’s too late for you.” He laughs softly, and then his brows knit together. “I wasn’t kidding about how I can’t do much more than lie here. This fatigue is fucking awful.”
