“No. It didn’t hurt,” he replied, still looking serious.
“Liar,” Lily shot back, growing angry at him and herself. “This was a bad idea. I knew it! I should’ve listened to my gut,” she added, standing. She wanted to get away from James and her now growing guilt.
She only took a step when James grabbed her arm. “I’m not lying Lily. It didn’t hurt,” he told her as he looked up at her from his leaning posture.
“If it didn’t hurt then why do you look like that,” she demanded, crossing her arms over her chest.
“Because it didn’t hurt at all, but the opposite. I figured serious looked a lot better than embarrassed,” he replied, looking almost bashful as he spoke.
“James what are you going on about? So it felt kind of nice. So what? What’s supposedly so embarrassing about that,” she replied, crossing her arms over her chest.
“It didn’t feel kind of nice. It felt… I mean I… sort of…,” he said then hesitantly removed his other arm from his lap so she could see what he was talking about. Apparently her drinking from him had made him feel very good.
“Oh. I see,” Lily replied, not sure what else to say.
“I didn’t even realize it had gone that far until it happened…” he said, his cheeks a clear shade of pretty pink now. “God, and he was right there, too! Do you think he noticed?” He asked, rubbing a hand over his face as if trying to rub away the humiliation then narrowed his eyes as he saw her pressing her lips together. “Don’t laugh!”
Despite all her intentions not too, Lily started to laugh. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to,” she said through her laughter, unable to stop it once she’d gotten started.
“Right, I can see that,” he said sourly and grabbed her hips, pulling her down into his lap. “Damn woman,” he cursed then placed his hand behind her neck, bring her down for a kiss that ended her laughing. “Much better,” he said when he pulled back but before he could say anything more Lily got up.
“Don’t get that look James. You hear lord leech, no mixing sex and blood. All you’re going to get is a cold shower,” she said smirking at him.
“You can’t be serious,” he complained then when she laughed as a reply he sighed. “That’s not fair! I should at least get a little something” he continued to complain.
“Looks like you did that already,” Lily told him with a smirk, still feeling a little evil. He groaned again before getting up and heading into the bathroom.
James took a shower, still feeling the embarrassment of earlier burn his face. He knew vampires had the ability to make a feeding feel good. When Silvano had taken him and allowed vampires to feed off of him, Bianca had tried to make him think he was enjoying it. However, James didn’t think Lily feeding on him would’ve caused such a feeling. Especially since she was so against the idea of it in the first place.
“Hurry up James,” he heard her shout. “Chris says Greg is going to call in about ten minutes with an update. I am not your secretary to take notes while you play around in the shower,” she demanded, but her tone was more playful than angry.
A cocky, proud smile spread across his face as he realized that she had to have been feeling better then. “Yes, ma’am,” James replied, hurrying to finish his shower.
“You take a shower like a girl,” Lily complained before taking a deep breath and turning pale. A clear sign she was giving her vampire more influence.
“I do not,” James shot back as he put on his coat and ran a wet hand through his hair. It was going to suck going outside with his hair still wet. He just couldn’t get used to this northern climate. “You’re just impatient. I know for a fact that your showers take as twice as long as mine does, if not more,” he told her as he opened the door, letting her leave first.
“For a fact? Have you been timing me?” She asked, taking a few steps outside. The sound of her steps over the rock salt crunched loud in the silent night.
“I might have,” he replied with a smirk, shutting the door the shuddering as a gust of wind blew past them.
“That’s kind of creepy. You know that right,” she teased him.
James hunched in on himself in some meager attempt to conserve what little body heat he had left and laughed. “But you like creepy,” he teased her right back. “Do you really feel nothing like that?” He asked, referring to her now vampiric state.
“Not a thing,” she said gloating and practically skipping along side him with a smug smirk on her face.
“Seems like someone is in a good mood,” Dorin said as they came up to the main entrance. “You finally got over yourself and decided to drink.”
“Go to hell,” she snapped at him.
“I already am when you’re around,” the vampire told her with a grin.
“Touche,” she replied, flipping him off.