romance

He has been mad for you these many months, ever since you prodded him in the nether regions with a hedgehog.

Of course. Anyway, do you want to get together sometime this week? I haven__ seen your face in a few days; I__ starting to forget what you look like._ She snorted. __hat a tragedy._ ____ serious, let__ do something._ __ou mean, like a date?_ she asked skeptically. __ell I wasn__ going to give it an official title, but sure._ __ don__ know how to date._ This time, I snorted. __t__ easy, we decide on something to do, set a place and time, and then_.we follow through with it. Sometimes food is involved._ __ like the sound of food._ __ thought you might. So, what do you say? Will you go on a date with me?_ She had paused a few seconds before she spoke and for a second I actually thought she__ say no. __kay, I will go on a date with you. But I expect food.

What would angel lips taste like? Sunshine? Marshmallows? Or something altogether different? Maybe buttered-popcorn jelly beans.

I once knew a girl who was like a dying rainbow. Her colors were incomparable, her countenance a whirlwind of brilliance. As much as she shone, however, she faded into nothingness, at times so quickly that I was unsure whether she had existed at all.

Can we get out of here?""Your chariot awaits.""In the form of a blue Ford ute?" I curved my brow."But of course," he said in an over-the-top French accent."Sacre blur, bad accent alert!""Wow," he said, "Le rude?""Le sorry?""Le hurt." Toby clutched his heart."What can I do to soothe your shattered ego?"Toby drummed his chin thoughtfully, pacing around me. He stopped just near enough to whisper in my ear."Le kiss?

But eggshells were made to be broken, and slamming into a 100-story skyscraper at the speed of light would likely do the deed.

That__ the thing. I__e never met anyone like you, Tess. You think you__e a no one? You__e so wrong. So wrong. You stand in a room with all the Angelas, even the Ellies. None of them can compare to you. I remember when you started working at the Onslow, I couldn__ keep my eyes off you. You were so terrified. You weren__ full of yourself like other girls. Every time you walked into the bar, you were like a breath of fresh air. Even when Angela was a bitch to you, you rose above it. You made me see the difference in people. You__e not a nobody, Tess, you__e a somebody.

I saw you, and I wanted to be close to you. I wanted you to let me in. I wanted to know you in a way no one else did. I wanted you, all of you.

I__ always the one who doesn__ have a date, the one guys walk up to and say, __o, is your friend, you know, with someone?_ and I may not be the only girl without someone, but it feels like it sometimes. A lot of the time.

Evangeline," he sighed. "It ain't ever goan to be easy with you, is it?

And you_ do you know what you are?___tupid?___eautiful,_ he says, his face turning red.

She is something else.

He slid over to me and grabbed me closer to him. My smile fell from my face with the unexpectedness of it. His hands cupped my face, his lips hovering above mine.__ou seriously want to know, Tess?__e closed the space and claimed my mouth with an urgent, hot, delving kiss.He smiled. __ou are sexy, in your own goofball way, you__e sweet and beautiful and smart and funny and, although you kiss to the point where I feel like I want to go back for seconds, you__e my best friend, and that__ why I don__ want to tap that.

Love, really? We're vampires, not teenagers. Lust is for the weak.

When you got captured, I didn't know..." He trailed off, had to chug whiskey before he could continue. "If it'd be like...""What?""Like it was with Clotile.""Oh, Jackson, no. I was okay. I'm unharmed.""Didn't know if I'd get there too late," he said with a shudder. Then he crossed over to me, until we stood toe-to-toe. "Evie, if you ever get taken from me again, you better know that I'll be coming for you." He cupped my face with a bloodstained hand. "So you stay the hell alive! You don't do like Clotile, you doan take that way out. You and me can get through anything, just give me a chance."--his voice broke lower "just give me a chance to get to you." He buried his face in my hair, inhaling deeply. "There is nothing that can happen to you that we can't get past."..."When you say we...?"He pulled back, gazing down at me, his eyes blazing. "I'm goan to lay it all out there for you. Laugh in my face--I don't care. But I'm goan to get this off my chest.""I won't laugh. I'm listening.""Evie, I've wanted you from the first time I saw you. Even when I hated you, I wanted you." He raked his fingers through his hair. "I got it bad, me." My heart felt like it'd stopped--so that I could hear him better."For as long as you've been looking down your nose at me, I've been craving you, an envie like I've never known.""I don't look down at you! I'm too busy looking up to you."..."The corners of his lips curled for an instant before he grew serious again. "You asked me if I had that phone with your pictures, if I'd looked at it. Damn right, I did! I saw you playing with a dog at the beach, and doing a crazy-ass flip off a high dive, and making faces for the camera. I learned about you"- his voice grew hoarse -"and I wanted more of you. To see you every day." With a humourless laugh, he admitted, "After the Flash, I was constantly sourcing ways to charge a goddamned phone--that would never make a call."I murmured, "I didn't know...I couldn't be sure.""It's you for me, peekon.

Thanks for not trying to see me when I looked like hell.___o be fair, you still look pretty bad.

Tess, there isn't a drunken, screaming netballer in the world that would have made me not want to ... continue.

He was talking. I tried not to think of how he looked and instead of what he was telling me. Once I accomplished that, my brain couldn__ get past the __unning_ part. __ don__ run._ I walked the mile run at school. True story. I abhorred any kind of physical exercise. I wasn__ good at it. I was skinny, but I was soft; had absolutely no muscle mass at all. That__ the way I liked it. Who was he to try to change that, change me? I wouldn__ let him. No way, no how. One half of his mouth lifted. He seemed to be enjoying this a little too much. __ou do now. You have to be fit, you have to be strong, Taryn, if you__e to stand any chance of surviving this. Come on, we__l start with stretching._ He forced me to twist my body into unimaginable positions. I even had to touch my toes. The agony. Luke took pleasure from my pain; even laughing as I moaned and groaned through it all. Then, the worst came about. He. Made. Me. Run.