“You looked stunning in that sweater, and the skirt is a definite keeper.” He would have thought it impossible, but her face turned redder. “Get the clothes and I’ll take care of paying for them.”
Mia retreated to the dressing room and gathered the clothes she’d set aside for purchase. Throwing them over her arm, she walked out of the room to stand beside him.
“I’m coming with you,” she said.
He took the clothes and went to turn away from her, but she took hold of his hand before she could really think about it. David froze before his head turned back to her. Mia waited for her chest to constrict and her breath to leave her as she continued to hold him.
Instead, she was gripped with the overwhelming urge to start sobbing as his touch only brought her a measure of calm.
“You okay?” he asked.
“Yes.”
The grin that burst over his face and the happiness blazing from his eyes stole her breath. He bent and kissed her forehead before rising away from her. She walked beside him to the cash register. She knew how well a vampire’s ability to take control of another’s mind worked, knew they wouldn’t remember a thing, but her heart still fluttered in her chest as they approached the women behind the counter. Her face felt like it was on fire.
She’d seen more than her fair share of sex and prostitution while on the streets. Over time, she’d become immune to it all. Her embarrassment over stumbling across someone giving a blow job had faded away until she barely acknowledged it. Now she felt like an inexperienced sixteen-year-old and she had no idea why.
She glanced at David out of the corner of her eye and her blush deepened. Because he made her feel like that, she realized. He made her feel as if she were experiencing everything for the first time all over again, and she loved it.
The women behind the counter didn’t notice her tomato coloring, as they remained focused solely on David. Both smiled at him when he placed the clothes on the counter. The young one fluttered her lashes in a way that caused Mia to almost punch her. Instead, she stepped possessively closer to him. The young one turned dismissively away from her to focus on the register.
When the woman was done ringing up Mia’s purchases, David paid her, lifted the bags off the counter, and carried them out of the store. “Where to next?” he asked her.
“I think I’ve had enough shopping for one day,” Mia said.
“How about we put these bags with the others and hit one more store?” he suggested. “A store for me.”
How could she tell him no when he’d spent the whole day buying her things and not uttering one word of complaint? She couldn’t.
Mia walked with him out to the parking lot where he placed the bags into the back of his green Range Rover alongside the numerous others. If she didn’t gain any more weight, Mia would have enough clothes for the rest of her life. Not gaining weight would probably be impossible if she kept feeding from David though. She’d never had blood as satisfying as his before, and her body was thriving on it.
“I think you spent too much money on me today,” she said.
“No such thing,” he told her as he reclaimed her hand. She tensed at his touch, and though she’d sought him out earlier, he waited for her to jerk away from him. Her hand remained in his as her body eased beside him, and she gave him a small smile.
Big progress, he realized. If he remained patient, it was only a matter of time before she allowed him to touch her without reservation.
He kept hold of her hand as they walked back into the mall and toward the final store. Mia gave him a disbelieving look when he stopped in front of the lingerie store. “This is for you?” she inquired.
His gaze raked over her from head to toe before he gave her a devilish smile. “Hell yes, it is.”
Mia couldn’t stop herself from laughing when he led her inside.
CHAPTER 14
It had taken Mia a good week to learn everyone’s names and to keep them all straight, but she was fairly certain she had the whole family down now. Ethan, the oldest of Sera and Liam’s children, was married to Emma. They had a newborn son named Levi, after Emma’s grandfather. They called him Lev.
Isabelle was their second child. She was married to Stefan and had a five-year-old daughter named Hope, and a baby son named Bodhi, or as everyone called him, Bo. Ian was the third oldest and married to Paige. They had two sons—Darius, who was four, and Colton, who was a year old.
She’d met the fourth oldest child, Aiden, at the training compound, and as they gathered around Sera and Liam’s living room on Christmas Eve, Aiden smiled and waved at her from across the room. Mia waved back at him, happy to see him and Abby here.
She knew that Abby and Vicky came after Aiden in the family order. Abby had arrived with Brian and Aiden the night before, but Vicky remained at the training compound. The three of them planned to make the drive back to New York that night to spend Christmas with Vicky tomorrow. Mia knew Sera wasn’t happy with Vicky’s decision not to come home, but she hadn’t argued it either.
Staring at Abby, Mia recalled the conversation she’d had with Sera three days prior, after Sera had found out about Vicky’s decision to remain in New York.
”Vicky will come home when she’s ready,” Sera said. “Pushing her on it will only make her unhappy, and she’s had far more unhappiness than I ever wanted her to have in her life. I just wish I could hug her again.”
Mia saw the tears in Sera’s eyes before she turned away from her. “She knows that,” Mia assured Sera, hoping to ease some of her sorrow. “And given time, she’ll move on from what happened to her. I am moving on.”
”Yes, you are” Sera replied with a smile and a decisive nod. “Hopefully Vicky will soon. I miss her.”
Mia was brought back to the moment when Hope squealed in delight and threw herself at Brian, who stood in the corner. No matter how much Brian frowned at them, the kids were determined to climb all over him. Hope wrapped her arms around one of his legs as she clung to him while most of the family tried to hide their laughter. Ethan and Ian laughed loudly, and Mia had a feeling the two of them had put the kids up to driving Brian nuts while he was there.
“Hope.” Stefan didn’t look at all amused as he walked over and pried his daughter off Brian.
“But I want to hug him!” Hope protested loudly as Stefan carried her away.
“I think you may have some competition,” Issy said to Abby and elbowed her.
“I think so too,” Abby replied, and Brian’s glower deepened to the point where even Mia, who liked the idea of being touched by someone less than Brian did, couldn’t stop herself from laughing.
Willow plopped herself down on the couch in front of Brian, draping her arms over the back of the couch and tilting her head to study him. At eighteen, Willow was three years younger than Abby and Vicky. Her eyes were a pure violet like Isabelle’s, her hair a dark blonde, and she possessed the radiant beauty of her mother.
“How many vampires have you killed?” Willow asked Brian.
“Willow!” Abby blurted. “Don’t you have somewhere else to be?”
“No,” Willow replied blithely. “Do you?”
“Get out of here.” Abby took a menacing step toward her.
Willow yelped and leapt to her feet, nearly plowing into her brother, Julian, in her rush to get away from Abby. If Mia remembered correctly, the lanky Julian, with his black hair and blue eyes, was only a year younger than Willow.
Stefan set Hope down again. She ran back over to Brian and threw herself against his leg once more. Brian’s head tipped down when Hope wrapped her arms around his leg, tilted her head back, and batted her long lashes at him. He stared at the small child as if he didn’t know what to make of her.
Abby bent to pull her niece off, but Brian stopped her with a hand on her shoulder. “It’s fine,” he said.
Abby glanced nervously between the two of them before releasing Hope. “Are you okay?” she asked him so quietly that Mia, who was
only a couple feet away, barely heard her.
Brian hesitated a second before responding, “Yes.”
Mia didn’t understand why he wouldn’t be okay with a child clinging to him, but there were many who would think she was a freak because she jumped whenever someone accidentally touched her. Everyone had their issues.
“Will you be my boyfriend?” Hope asked, her violet eyes beguiling as she peered up at Brian.
“I don’t think your Aunt Abby would like that very much,” Brian told her.
“She doesn’t have to know.”
Abby laughed and turned to Issy. “Good luck with that one,” Abby told her sister.
It was Stefan’s turn to scowl as he stalked over to pry his daughter off Brian once more. “You’re not allowed to have a boyfriend until you’re at least a hundred,” Stefan told Hope as he carried her away.
Hope giggled and blew Brian a kiss over her father’s shoulder. Brian blushed the color of a lobster. Isabelle and Abby laughed loudly.
“Looks like I’ve got some serious competition,” Abby said.
“You really do,” Issy agreed, and Brian pulled at the collar of his sweater.
Mia still felt thrown off by the sheer amount of vampires there, but she had to admit the family made her heart swell with joy. As did David. The endless patience he showed her, and the care he gave her, were things she’d never expected to find again in her life.
She smiled as she recalled going with him to see his boat the day before. They’d driven into town where the sailboat had been stored for the winter. Placed on stands inside a warehouse, they hadn’t been able to go on the boat, but he’d still walked her around it, telling her all about it and how much he enjoyed being at sea. The excitement in his voice as he spoke had enthralled her.
Mia didn’t know much about boats, but she had to admit his was pretty from what she could see of it. Running her fingers over its blue sides, she’d realized she couldn’t wait for spring, when the two of them could go sailing together. She’d then realized she was thinking about things in the future with David, not focusing on the day-to-day like she’d been doing for the past seven years.
Instead of panicking over it, she’d found herself smiling as she’d listened to him talk about knots and winds. Afterward, they’d gone to the beach and settled in to watch as the stars came to life in the night sky. He’d stretched his legs out beside her and rested his hands on his thighs as she leaned her back against his chest.
She’d rattled on about the stars with the same enthusiasm he had for his boat. He listened to her, just as he’d listened to her all the other nights they’d stared up at the sky together since arriving in Maine. They had stayed on the beach until she’d been unable to take the cold anymore. Then they had returned home and locked themselves in his room for the rest of the night.
She couldn’t deny that she was falling in love with him, even if it made her feel as if she’d jumped out of a plane without a parachute. She’d plummeted headfirst into this relationship with him, and she could only hope she didn’t end up splattered in the end. However, she knew if there was anyone who could catch her before she hit the ground, it would be David.
She still hadn’t been able to be embraced or touched by him for extended periods of time, but over the past week, she’d gradually withstood more and more contact with him.
A squeal drew her attention back to the group as Darius bolted through the crowd of vampires gathered around him. Ian bent to scoop his son up. Darius’s tiny fangs were extended, his golden hair tumbled in disarray. He laughed when Ian plopped him onto his shoulder.
“Kyle! Cassidy!” Sera called down the basement stairs. “It’s time to open the Christmas Eve presents! Aiden, Abby, and Brian are leaving soon!”
Mia heard the last two of Liam and Sera’s children bounding up the stairs before Cassidy emerged with her twin brother right behind her. Cassidy was a little younger than Kyle, but she was the leader of the two as the twins jostled against each other to the front of the crowd.
Liam walked over, grabbed the plug for the Christmas lights, and held it into the air. Everyone followed his movement as he bent to light the fifteen-foot tree that filled the room with its pine scent. Despite the height of the tree, the angel on top didn’t reach the living room’s cathedral ceiling. When Liam plugged the cord in, applause erupted as red and green lights blazed to life around the tree.
A smile tugged at Mia’s lips as she gazed at the colorful tree and the vast array of mostly handmade decorations covering it. She guessed most of them had been forged by the hands of Sera and Liam’s children. The papier-mâché angel on the top lit up to reveal her broken wing and her twisted tilt to the right side. All of the many imperfect and loving crafts on the tree made it even more beautiful.
Sadness tugged at Mia’s heart as she recalled the Christmas trees she’d had with her parents over the years. Like this one, many of the decorations on it had been created by her. Others were reminders of the years her parents had experienced as humans, before they’d met each other. More of the decorations had been from her parents’ time together. Each ornament on their tree had told a story, and Mia had known all of those stories as they’d been retold every year while the three of them decorated the tree together.
Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath to rein in her grief. It was a time of celebration, not of sorrow, and she was determined to celebrate.
David felt Mia tremble as she opened her eyes to gaze at the tree. Unable to stand the distress in her eyes, he decided to give her Christmas present to her early. “I have a surprise for you,” he told her.
“What is it?” she inquired.
“If I told you, it wouldn’t be a surprise,” he teased and bent to kiss the tip of her nose. Rising, he took hold of her hand. “But I’ll show you now.”
“Now?”
“Yes.”
“What about everyone else and the presents?”
“They’ll understand. Besides, the kids only get pajamas or slippers tonight. They won’t start jumping for joy until tomorrow.”
He gave her hand a subtle tug and led her out of the living room that comprised more than half the downstairs of Sera and Liam’s home. The wide pine floors creaked beneath their feet as they walked to the hall. Stopping by the front door, David pulled her thick winter coat from the closet and handed it to her. He removed her scarf from the hanger afterward, wrapping it around her neck with deft fingers and securing it into place.
Mia rested her hand over her right breast, where the stake pressed against her chest. Even there, with all of the security and protection, she couldn’t bring herself not to have the weapon on her.
David opened the door for her. She walked outside, and he stepped out behind her into the blustery wind. The ocean waves crashed against the shore and rolled back out again as he clasped her hand. The salty tang of the sea called to him as they hurried across the frozen snow toward the house he shared with Mike, Jack, and Doug.
If all went well, David intended to start work on a house for him and Mia in the spring. She didn’t complain about sharing a home with his friends, but he wanted a place for them alone. There were many things he planned to do to her in every room of that house that he couldn’t do without risking his friends walking in. Mike and Doug would both exit in a hurry, but Jack would probably sit down to watch the show.
Mia’s head tilted back to gaze at the vast sky as the first star burst to life in the velvet night. She smiled as more of them illuminated the darkness. She’d assumed he was taking her home, but he detoured around it to the woods beyond.
“Where are we going?” Mia asked.
“You’ll see.”
She frowned at him as he led her toward a pathway in the woods that she hadn’t known was there. The branches of the trees clicked over their heads as the wind blew through them while they climbed a hill. At the top of the hill, the tress thinned out a little and he led her toward the ocean.
They were
almost to the edge of the cliffs when she spotted a small building that looked like a large shed, sitting a few feet away from the edge of the drop-off to the sea below. Her brow furrowed as she glanced up at David. He’d been relaxed through most of their walk, but she sensed an odd nervousness in him as he remained focused on the building.
He opened the door and moved aside to allow her to enter first. The scent of kerosene wafted to her, the heat coming out the door warming her frozen cheeks before she stepped inside. Mia’s eyes widened when she took in the small structure.
A single lantern burned beside the bed that would be large enough for them both to sleep in comfortably. The bed was pushed against the right wall. The flickering flame of the lantern illuminated the room, revealing the best thing in it. Directly in front of her was a wall made of glass. Before the glass stood three telescopes, all of them pointed at the stars.
She squealed and jumped up and down before racing across the room to examine the telescopes. Her jaw dropped when she saw that one of the three was a Celestron computerized telescope. Not just any Celestron, but the top-of-the-line Pro model.
Aware of how much it cost, she’d never expected to be able to touch one. Not unless she stole it, and she hadn’t stolen anything since she’d given up her nomadic lifestyle and returned to Connecticut. Once she’d decided to get her life back together, she’d vowed she would earn everything on her own from then on and not rely solely on her vampire abilities to get by, unless she absolutely required them to survive.
One day in the future, she probably would have had enough money to buy the telescope. She would live forever, after all, and she’d already started to save and invest, but it still would have been years before she ever could have justified purchasing one.
Her fingers barely grazed the telescope when she ran her hand over it, afraid to get too close for fear she might break it. She lifted her head to take in the other two telescopes. They were both amazing too, better than she ever could have hoped to obtain anytime soon, but her gaze kept coming back to the Celestron with the pretty red bow stuck on top of it.
Fractured (Vampire Awakenings, Book 6) Page 13
