“Well, you’re not.”
“I’m not well behaved?” She fought another smile. Delilah liked the idea that he thought she had something wild in her, trapped in a steel box beneath her heart. If he would only kiss her, maybe it would all come tearing out and claw at him.
“I suspect you’re not that, either, but I meant you’re not typical,” he said. He reached forward, took a strand of her hair and wrapped it around his finger, sliding to the end and tugging gently. “Not even a little. And when you look at me like that, I want to lick your lips until the sun is gone.”
A thousand horses galloped in her chest. “You could, you know.”
He ignored this, saying very quietly, “No one has ever looked at me the way you do.”
She believed him. She’d never seen anyone the way she saw him, either. “Why won’t you kiss me?”
“I’m afraid I won’t be able to stop, and you’ll miss your curfew.”
She thought of her father’s angry face and her mother’s worried one as they both hovered in the kitchen, as close to the clock as they could get. “It might be worth it.”
He pulled his bottom lip between his teeth as he seemed to consider a kiss. Soft red flesh turned white where he pressed down with a sharp canine. He was too much for her. He was the most sensual person she had ever met. Delilah closed her eyes.
“I think about kissing you a lot,” he whispered.
She inhaled sharply, squeezing her eyes shut more firmly. Wanting him to stop and hoping he never would.
“And other things. Like how it would feel if you bit my shoulder. Or whether I could bite you back and if you’d like it.”
Delilah thought she would, knew she would. That unknown dark and dangerous thing about him was what pulled her in, but what kept her feeling more and more and more infatuated with Gavin was the reality: He would say every thought he had and wasn’t embarrassed that he was different and a little dark.
She considered opening her eyes and seeing what he looked like when he said these things to her, but before she had a chance, she felt the brush of his lips across hers, fingers wrapping around her waist, and a small, sharp bite to her bottom lip. The pain made her gasp and then immediately want another taste.
“Tell me tomorrow if you liked that.”
When she finally managed to open her eyes, Gavin was a small black dot in the distance as he disappeared down the sidewalk.
Chapter Ten
Him
Gavin told his room what he could about his afternoon with Delilah without turning into a lovesick poet. How she had a thousand smiles, how she was smart and unafraid even though when she stood close to him, she was positively tiny. All around him, the room grew warm.
“I’m exhausted, though. Talking to her wipes me out. It’s like she just looks at me and it pulls every thought I have from my brain. I couldn’t keep a secret from her if I tried.”
The room cooled.
“She’s already been here, Room. She knows about all of you, so you’re not even a secret anymore. Plus, she thinks you’re all wonderful.”
The edges of Blanket lifted up, wrapping Gavin in its embrace. Who knew that the objects inside House could be collectively sensitive, so possessive, so meddling?
“Do you watch me when I’m out there?” He’d always wondered this, and the conversation with Delilah tripped that same curiosity again. When he was little, something from House would always accompany him on walks or to school. But as he grew older, he had the sense that House wanted him to feel like he could be independent, even if he was never really alone.
He suspected House did watch over him most of the time, though he never completely understood how. Through a network of trees or wires buzzing dully in the sky? He’d never bothered asking, because he’d never really cared before.
But now he needed to know whether he could be alone with Delilah if he wanted.