Passions Page 16

  “I’ve only met one other vampire in my life, and he was just as warm as I am. I shook his hand, that’s how I know. I don’t know how to explain it to you. Perhaps it had something to do with our diet.”

  Chloe regrouped herself and took a moment to word everything perfectly again. “I figured out that you have super-speed and strength. Is there anything else you can do that’s special?”

  Gavin’s lips puckered in thought for a while. “I have noticed I can heal remarkably fast. And, because of my predatory nature, I have extraordinary stealth abilities.”

  “I noticed that, too. You’re really good at sneaking up on me.” Chloe primarily remembered all the times she turned and he had magically appeared out of nowhere. Each time was still a shock.

  Gavin smiled, probably remembering the same things. “Yes, and I do apologize for that. I have made an effort to be less sneaky.”

  With a shy smile still plastered on her face, Chloe began to think of her next questions. Of course, she wanted to know how any one person could be so smoking hot, charming, and smell so amazing. But, those questions were better left unasked and didn’t really require an answer.

  “If I think of any others, can I ask you on the spot?”

  Gavin raised a hand and flattened it to his chest as he gave her a gentlemanly bow. “Of course, my lady.”

  Chloe blushed and giggled again, the same way she had in the kitchen that night he bowed to her the first time. “Stop doing that!” she exclaimed teasingly.

  Gavin straightened. “Why?” he asked, a bit of a lilt to his tone.

  “It’s just too funny to see you bow and use that accent and everything.”

  “I’m glad I can amuse you,” he replied with an air of playfulness.

  Chloe thought to herself that he did much more than amuse her. She bit her lip and turned away to look across the creek. With the woods so shrouded in night, she could barely distinguish the silhouettes of the trees and bushes.

  It was a calm night, and she was more than glad that Gavin had suggested this walk. Even though they had unsettling conversations, she was glad that the subject hadn’t turned to her. It would have been fair that Gavin ask questions in return, but he didn’t seem as prying and curious as she was.

  “Are you tired?” he asked.

  She shrugged. “Maybe a little.”

  “I know you’ve been sleeping through the day so you can stay up at night.”

  Chloe had never tried to hide that fact from him. But she also knew that she was not indefatigable. She hadn’t gotten quite used to his cycle after living years under the system that the rest of the world operated in for the most part.

  And she hadn’t been tired until he mentioned it. Without meaning to, she yawned and covered it with the cuff of his jacket.

  Gavin chuckled and moved away. “Come. That’s enough night air for you.”

  Chloe agreed and fell in behind him as they walked back up the hill to the cabin.

  The climb reminded her of the night they first met, and she asked, “When I twisted my ankle, the next morning it was completely fine. Did you do that?”

  Gavin grinned back at her. “I did. It’s something I learned years ago with your aunt. I helped the arthritis in her knees.”

  “And when I got sleepy that one night when I tried to stay up waiting for you, did you make me go to sleep?”

  Gavin gave her a slightly more sheepish smile. “Yes, I did.”

  Chloe snorted. “That explains why I never had trouble sleeping when I came to visit. Did you make the whole house fall asleep like that?”

  He shrugged. “I had to. If your aunt or grandmother had been up late cleaning the kitchen, how else would I have gotten out unnoticed?”

  It was a peculiar idea that Gavin had so many supernatural abilities. She wondered if he caused the sleepiness she felt now, but she shrugged it off when they reached the back deck.

  Chapter 13

  Gavin had excused himself for a moment after escorting her inside the cabin. And that was fine with Chloe. It gave her time to fix some fresh coffee to ward off the sleepiness that had overwhelmed her so suddenly.

  As she poured water into the coffee maker, she recalled how Gavin hadn’t even mentioned anything about working on the story since they first left the house for the movies. Even when she was showing how tired she was, he didn’t insist that they go inside to continue on to the next chapter.

  She also thought about all he had said by the creek. It was a dizzying amount of information to process. She’d never be able to look at him the same way again. All those disgraceful thoughts and fantasies about Gavin made her feel ashamed. How could she think of him in such a way when he had lost someone dear to him so tragically?

  It wasn’t as if it were an ex-girlfriend that he hated. If that were the case, she wouldn’t feel a bit of remorse for the way her heart beat faster at the thought of him. Or the way her palms sweated and hands trembled when he came too close. Perhaps this new knowledge that Gavin was a widower would help in curbing those unwarranted emotions that raged within her.

  Chloe took a deep breath, fixed her cup of coffee, and walked to the desk to start up the laptop. Another night of hard work lay ahead, and she hadn’t the time to mourn over vain hopes about Gavin. Her heart wanted to break over him, but the pieces were too sore and minuscule from the last catastrophe in Atlanta. She should have been prepared for this kind of disappointment.

  As she was booting up her laptop, she heard Gavin come through the back door. She didn’t bother to look up, knowing he would be at her side the moment he saw her sitting in front of the computer.

  But, as she navigated through the folders on her hard drive to pull up the novel in progress, she heard a noise coming from the fireplace. Chloe turned to see Gavin carefully placing logs on the iron grating inside the firebox.

  Slightly nonplussed by his actions, she watched in silence. Once the logs were placed to his liking, he knelt down by the hearth where she had left some old newspapers she had used for packing and began stuffing the open cavity below the logs.

  But she found her voice when he struck a match.

  “What are you doing?” she asked.

  “I thought it would be nice to have a fire going. Would it bother you?” he asked, looking up at her with the lit match held tightly between his fingers.

  She shrugged and tried not to think about how handsome he was. “No, it wouldn’t bother me.”

  He then leaned down and angled the flame under the kindling paper until it was set ablaze. Gavin shook the match to extinguish the flames and tossed it on the stone hearth before moving around the coffee table.

  It was then he looked up and saw what she was doing. Both exchanged confused looks until he broke the silence.

  “I thought you wanted a break tonight?”

  Chloe blinked away her mild shock. “Can you read minds?”

  Gavin smiled but shook his head. “No, I can’t. I just assumed from your desire to go see the movie that you were getting a little tired of being cooped up here.”

  Chloe grinned playfully. “For a man who hasn’t spent a lot of time with people, you sure are good at reading them.”

  He gave a nonchalant gesture and sat down heavily on one side of the couch. Flames began to slowly overtake the logs in the fireplace, and that empty spot beside Gavin was beginning to look warm and inviting.

  However, she knew that the safest place would be as far as possible from him. She wasn’t afraid of him but of what she would do in a moment of weakness. Chloe turned away and began to refresh her memory of the story plot. Writing was the last thing she wanted to do, but it seemed the most logical course of action. It just might be the thing to distract her from the crushing disenchantment about what she and Gavin could have had.

  That is until Gavin shattered her resolve with one simple question.

  “Would you like to join me?”

  Chloe squeezed her eyes shut so tightly she could feel her eyelashes
touch the upper part of her cheeks. Common sense told her to stay at the desk, but everything that ached and burned for companionship urged her to join him.

  With a pitiful sigh, she stood—coffee mug in hand—and sat down in the armchair about five feet away from him. This was a reasonable compromise. She curled her feet up onto the cushion, and she realized with a twinge of embarrassment that she was still wearing both of their coats.

  Setting the mug down on the hearth, she stripped both layers down and hung them over the back of the armchair before resuming her comfortable position.

  Chloe took one sip and glanced at Gavin over the rim of her mug. His arm was stretched out over the back of the sofa while the other was leaned against the armrest. It was a perfect pose, one worthy of the front cover of a magazine or romance novel cover. But what drew her attention most was the way his eyes were solidly fixed upon her.

  She could almost see the flicker of fire glow in his eyes that sparkled like emeralds. And that soft smile spread across his lips made her want to melt, and her core went tight with anticipation.

  Combined with the way he stared at her, the subtle scent of wood smoke, and the residual smell of him on her shoulder, it was enough to drive her mad.

  She fought back any foolish ideas with the image of him cuddling with another woman from the eighteenth century. They probably had romantic moments like this all the time. Chloe’s chest ached with the sharp pain of bitterness towards the situation.

  She looked away and gazed into the building fire until her eyes burned from the brightness and heat.

  “I remember,” Gavin began softly, “years ago, when you and your aunt would roast marshmallows past your bedtime.”

  Chloe knew any more talk of her childhood and what Gavin thought he knew of it would push her over the edge. She didn’t reply but ran a hand over her forehead and down her flushed cheek. The movement suggested exasperation, but it didn’t deter Gavin from continuing.

  “Your aunt loved to sit in that chair and read late into the night with a fire just as this. After we became more open to each other, she read aloud to me.”

  Chloe closed her eyes. She didn’t want to hear about her aunt, either. She was over her period of mourning for the woman who had so influenced her life. All that was left was to honor her memory by succeeding in this new one Chloe had created.

  Silence reigned once more, except for the crackling and gentle roaring of the fire. Chloe could still feel Gavin’s intense gaze set upon her.

  “Once before,” Chloe said, her voice thick, “you said that you didn’t hear much from the basement. But the more you talk about things from the past, the more I think you were lying.”

  “I suppose I was. The truth is that I hear many things; things I don’t mind hearing, and things that I wish I could forget.”

  Chloe let her arm drape across her chest, her hand resting upon her collarbone. With her legs pulled close and her coffee mug resting on her knee, she appeared as if she were trying to hide or shield herself.

  “What kind of things?” she asked, refusing to let her gaze deviate from the sparking embers.

  It was a while before he replied. “I’ve heard laughter. I’ve heard hateful words spoken in a moment of pain that would be regretted later. I’ve heard rejoicing. And I’ve heard much sorrow over the years, living here with your family.”

  Chloe wasn’t surprised. All of those things were the typical traits of a family. They loved and hated. But in the end, they came together as a strong unit should. Chloe wondered about the fate of her family. Her aunt had not married or had children, and she was the only child of her parents. If Chloe ended life as a spinster and childless just as her aunt, what would become of the cabin that had been passed down through their family?

  “I’ve heard you cry at night,” he said. His voice was gentle, almost musical in the way he spoke something so profound as if it were something simple.

  Chloe raised her eyes and looked to Gavin. The smile was gone, replaced with a thin line of concern.

  Yes, she had cried at night. She had often woken up with tear stains on her pillows. Her dreams were not pleasant, and lying alone at night with only her regrets and doubts to keep her company, it was hard not to get emotional.

  Chloe’s defenses began to weaken. But she would not break. She wouldn’t do that anymore, not for anyone.

  “Why did you come to live here?” Gavin asked. There wasn’t a hint of malice or annoyance in his tone. He didn’t ask it because he didn’t want her there. He asked because he was curious. She wondered when she had given her permission to ask such questions.

  Chloe sniffled and rubbed her thumb against the handle of her coffee mug. “To be a writer,” she said flatly.

  “But surely you could have done that where you were before?”

  Chloe snorted, putting up her defenses once more to deflect the seriousness of the conversation. “No, I couldn’t have.”

  “Why?”

  Gavin was pushing her buttons, trying to pry out what she didn’t want to talk about anymore.

  New life. New adventure. No more past. It was the mantra she had repeated to herself over and over, but it never really took hold. She still saw practically everything through the lens of what happened in Atlanta; through what happened between her and Brent.

  Maybe if he understood, he’d back off about it.

  Chloe took a breath and let her gaze fall to the rug underneath the coffee table. “I guess since you told me about your old life, I can tell you about mine.”

  Gavin was attentive, stone-still as he waited for her to begin.

  “My family lived in Atlanta. My mom and dad met in Carter Lake, got married, then moved there to start a family. Mom never liked this small town. My aunt stayed behind. When I was little, as you know, we visited a lot.

  “But, as I got older and mom started limiting the trips, I got side tracked with my own life. I made friends and spent time with them rather than with my own family. I grew up, graduated and moved out. I worked odd-jobs through college and finally landed a job as a receptionist at a dentist’s office.”

  Chloe shifted uncomfortably. “One day, a patient walked in, and he was very charming. We went out a few times, and we thought we were a good match. Brent was a successful businessman and owned his own apartment. I had been rooming with my best friend from high school for years.

  “When we got serious, I moved in with Brent.” Chloe swallowed hard. “And that’s when it all started. I didn’t notice it at first. I thought he was just trying to be romantic. When I wanted to go out with the girls, he begged me to stay home, and we’d watch movies on the couch or cook dinner together.”

  She sighed. “But then it got worse. I hadn’t seen my friends in weeks. He even took away my phone when I tried to text them while we were spending time out together. My family tried to reach out to me about reunions, but Brent insisted that we couldn’t take a weekend off to drive down to Carter Lake or anywhere else I wanted to go.

  “One of my friends from college happened to be a guy, and when Brent saw that I’d been texting him, he overreacted and told me to cut him out of my life because I could only have room for one man.”

  “And that man was him,” Gavin added in something akin to a growl.

  Chloe nodded. “Yeah. And one by one, I lost my friends. They stopped inviting me out, saying that I was flaky and too absorbed in my relationship with Brent. I never told them the truth, that he practically kept me in a cage. The only place I was allowed to go was work and home unless he was with me.”

  She took a shuddering breath, fighting the tears that pressed against her eyelids and threatened to ruin her mascara.

  “I never knew someone could be so controlling, so demanding. I thought it was just his way of showing he loved me. But then one day, I talked back. I don’t even remember what we were fighting about when he hit me.”

  Chloe immediately felt the wave of anger pulsate off of Gavin. She wasn’t sure whether to be f
rightened by it or gratified.

  “That night, I realized that I couldn’t be with him anymore. That night, while he slept, I packed my bags and left. My parents had already bought their RV and were half way across the country at the time, but I was able to stay with one old friend. I explained everything, and she took me in as a refugee, so to speak.”

  Chloe pulled her legs in tighter, her socked feet gripping the edge of the cushion. “Brent was furious, of course. I broke up with him over the phone, and that was the last I heard of him. I changed jobs, got a cheap apartment on the other side of town, and a couple of weeks later, my aunt passed away and gave me this cabin.”

  Chloe lifted her gaze up to the wood planks on the ceiling. “I guess I’m here to escape from Atlanta, from Brent, and everything else. I couldn’t rebuild any of the bridges that I’d burned over the years, but I figured I could make some new ones here.”

  It sounded terribly poetic, and Chloe wished she could have been writing that down. Gavin didn’t speak for a while, probably still boiling with rage over the way she’d made Brent out to be the bad guy.

  But it wasn’t all Brent’s fault. She had let him control her the whole time. She could have stopped it from the beginning, but she did nothing. All because she thought she loved him. But that wasn’t love, at all. Chloe wasn’t sure what it was anymore.

  “I cry at night because I’m lonely. I miss my friends, I miss my family, I miss my aunt. But, most of all, I miss the way this cabin was when it was so full of all those things I don’t have anymore. This place just isn’t the same.”

  Her throat grew tight as her overwhelming sadness came forward. But Chloe sipped her coffee and pushed back the demons once more. Even though he had heard her cry at night, she wouldn’t cry for him now. She refused to even look him in the eyes.

  “Not to take away from your misfortune, but I get lonely, too.”

  Chloe swallowed her coffee and let the tepid liquid warm her. “I can’t imagine being cooped up here for centuries with no one to talk to.”

  “It wasn’t so bad in those years your aunt was here.” Gavin’s tone was reflective and thoughtful. “I can’t recall a time when only one person lived here. It’s always been a couple or a family, but never one solitary person.”