The Thirst Within by Johi Jenkins

Author:Johi Jenkins [Jenkins, Johi]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Amazon: B00C4MD7MA
Publisher: Johi Jenkins
Published: 2013-03-30T00:00:00+00:00

***

I wake up to a hand on my forehead. I open my eyes expecting Corben. What? Oh—yeah, I was dreaming of Corben. Ew. Must’ve been a nightmare. But no, fortunately Corben is not the one touching me while I’m naked and passed out in a bathtub. It’s Thierry and he looks radiant. Then I remember he’s a vampire, and I smile widely. He’s still radiant.

“Hey there, sleepyhead,” he says softly. “Thank you for not leaving. Or drowning.”

“My pleasure.” I blink, and my eyes feel odd because I fell asleep wearing my contacts. However, they aren’t dry as they usually get when that happens, and I wonder how long have I been sleeping. The water’s still hot, and the foam still covers me. “How long were you gone?” I ask him. My fingers are pruney and it feels like a long time has passed, but it can’t have been that long if the water’s still this hot.

“Only about fifteen minutes. Okay, let’s get you out of there.”

“But I haven’t rinsed.” I actually feel like I could stay here another fifteen minutes. Or an hour.

“Trust me, you don’t want to rinse that stuff off. Here, I brought you this robe.”

A robe! My eyes light up like he just gave me a puppy. It’s the robe I had envisioned: white, super soft, sumptuous. Now I do want to get out and fall asleep in that. Thierry holds up the robe wide open, holding the arms out for me. He makes a show of turning his head the other way, and even raises the robe past his eyes so that he can’t see me.

I stand up in the bathtub floor, and Thierry immediately wraps the robe around me, which is great because I’m feeling lightheaded again. He pats me down to soak up the excess moisture and the bubbles that cling to me, and I almost fall into him.

“How are you feeling?” He asks me.

“Wonderful. Sleepy.”

“Okay, Tori. I’m going to take you home,” he says.

Home! I forgot I had one. “No, don’t take me home,” I plead, as I climb over the tub.

“But your guardians will be wondering where you are,” Thierry says sensibly.

“I’m not sure that’s true.” I think of Uncle Roland, never around to begin with. He’s a good guy but definitely not a father figure; not to me, and not even to his stepdaughter. And June, I swear, if I came home knocked up one day, she’d be so happy because then she’d be able to marry me off to the baby daddy and get rid of me.

“Here,” Thierry says, and hands me the pile of my clothes. “Put this on and meet me in the room outside.”

“No! Don’t let go of me. What if I fall?”

He shakes his head disapprovingly, but he smiles and looks so amazing that I want to kiss him. “Quit making this so hard on me, Tori. But sure, okay. Put your clothes on. I’ll just stand here and watch.”

“What? No… turn around.”

He rolls his eyes at me and turns around, one arm behind his back holding on to my shoulder.

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