“No.”
I thought about it, then nodded.
He looked surprised. “That’s it?”
I shrugged. “I can scream if you’d like. Maybe faint.”
He smiled and shook his head. “There’s more to tell you, but it’s getting dark and we should probably get somewhere warm. I think you’ll have to put your sweater back on if you don’t want your aunt to freak out.”
He let go of me. It occurred to me that I had basically wrestled with him half naked in the snow, and now that I was neither ambivalent about dying, nor delusional about already being dead, I couldn’t decide if the whole thing was funny or humiliating. I skimmed off his sweater and handed it to him. He dropped his coat and we both put our clothes back on.
It was a weird moment.
His blush finally brought to the front of my brain a thought that had been nibbling at the back of my mind. I turned slowly and stared at him, horrified.
“Oh my God, you’re not gay. You’re a vampire. You’re not gay, you’re a vampire.”
“I am not gay,” Adrian confirmed. “Though your promise to keep it a secret was very kind.” He cocked an eyebrow. “Does it disappoint you, that I’m straight?”
“I—what—no?” I stuttered, mind exploding with the implications.
Holy mother of Santa Claus. He wasn’t withdrawn and secretive because of his sexual orientation, he was withdrawn and secretive because he wasn’t human. I had slept next to a not-gay Adrian de la Mara in his own bed.
I had snuggled him against his will.
Trying, and failing, to suppress a smile, Adrian wound the scarf around my neck.
“My family has … resources,” he explained. “I’ve always had nice things. I believe you made a comment about my shoes costing more than your laptop? All I can say in my defense is that everyone in my family is a bit fashion conscious. I adopted their tastes to fit in. As for why I’ve never been on a date, I think you can see why that might be difficult. I’m afraid Trish will lose the pool.”
I choked. “You know about the pool?”
“I started the pool.”
Oh my God, of course he did.
“One more thing,” Adrian said as he stepped close to me again. He put his hands on either side of my face and looked me in the eyes with his burning silver ones and for half a second I thought he was going to kiss me. But his eyes began to swirl, and I realized what was happening.
“No-no-no!” I stuttered, remembering the vivid pain that had come last time he’d done this.
He kept his eyes locked on mine. “It’s not like before, I promise. Just hold still.”
I don’t think I could have moved if I wanted to. His eyes flared brightly and he murmured in that lovely language I couldn’t understand. All of a sudden I felt sort of calm and tired and warm. Tears ran down my cheeks again as I kept my eyelids open involuntarily. Then he blinked and I blinked and it was over.
“Feel better?” he asked, stepping a polite distance back.
I did a quick check. “Yeah, actually. What did you do?”
He looped his arm through mine and started walking back toward the ranch. “I transferred some of my body heat to you.”
I stared at him. “You can do that?”
He smiled his half smile and it looked a little bit wicked. “I can do a lot of things.”
Well, then.
We walked side by side in the quiet forest. Before I knew it, we were back at the house. When I opened the front door, Rachel looked frantic as she came and enveloped me in a hug.
“I thought something had happened to you! Are you all right?” She looked down at me and blinked. “Why are your clothes all wet?”
“My apologies, Mrs. Master,” Adrian stepped in. “I forgot to give Caitlin her birthday present at school, so I was walking over here when we ran into each other on the road. We started a snowball fight,” he grinned sheepishly, believably, “and I accidentally pushed her into a pile of snow.”
“Oh,” Rachel said, unsure of what to make of this.
“It was slushy snow,” I clarified.
“Very slushy,” Adrian confirmed.
“Well, come in! Dry yourself off. I was going to start dinner soon; why don’t you stay?”
“Thank you,” he said, stepping into the house and pulling me with him. “I’d really appreciate that.”
“Just hang up your wet things on the rack there. Would you like some coffee?”
He grinned. “I’d love some.”
Rachel smiled and went off into the kitchen. As soon as she was out of earshot, Adrian murmured, “Consider me your personal shadow from here on out.”
“Why?” I whispered back.
He frowned. “I guess I forgot to mention that part.”
I jumped at the sound of my aunt speaking. “Caitlin, get out of that sweater; it’s soaked! Here you go,” she said, handing Adrian a cup of coffee. “Do you want any sugar or creamer?”
“No, ma’am; black’s just fine.”