“It’s okay,” I repeated.
“You’re being reasonable.” Suspicion entered her eyes. “You’ve either done something you shouldn’t have or you’re after something.”
I gave her a devilish grin. I’m only after the same thing I always want.
What would that be? My blood, or my body?
Put those two together.
She shook her head at me, stifling a giggle.
Max snickered. “I’d say he’s done something and feeling guilty about it.”
“Jared doesn’t do guilt,” she told him.
Except with you, I almost said. Christ I’m losing it.
The playful banter continued as we all strolled to the apartment building. Max got increasingly agitated about it and tried further marking his territory by touching her or complimenting her. She only giggled each time. I was pretty sure that she knew what he was trying to do and she was just humouring him. But even that didn’t make me want to pound him any less. Max saw that and so done it all the more. Therefore I was already beyond incensed when he turned up at my apartment door forty-five minutes later.
“What?” was all I said.
He pushed past me, took a quick glimpse at the interior of my apartment and then exhaled heavily at me. “I want you to leave her alone.” The nervous tremor in his voice disappeared as he continued to speak, “I’m not here as a squad member talking to his superior, I’m here talking to you as one guy to another. Leave her alone.”
As a gesture of boredom, I stuffed my free hand in my pants pocket while using the other to swirl the contents of my NST bottle. “I’m afraid I can’t do that.”
“All she’d be is another notch on your bedpost. You can get sex anywhere, you’ve got three consorts to give you it whenever you want, just leave this one woman alone.”
“What would you know about what I want?”
“I’ve heard all about how you treat women, that you’re only out to get laid. Fine, that’s your business. But Sam’s worth more than that. Or at least she is to me.”
Inwardly I groaned before shooting a rhetorical question at him. “Are you and her together?”
“No.”
“Then I don’t see how what Sam and I do or don’t do has anything at all to do with you.” I gestured toward the door with my head but he remained still. Like an idiot.
“Okay, let’s look at it this way. We both want her. But you don’t care about her, I do. So don’t you think it’s only fair that you just leave her be?”
“Let’s look at it another way. Sam doesn’t want someone to care about her, she wants to keep it simple.”
He frowned. “How would you know?”
“She told me. After everything she’s been through, I don’t blame her.” Yes, that was me making a point to him that there were things about her and her past that he didn’t know and that she had trusted me with. “I’d seriously think before you go declaring your undying love for her. She’ll run a mile.”
“Yeah, right, like I’d listen to your advice. You’d say anything that’d mess up my chances with her. What’s the matter? Feeling threatened?”
“You obviously are or we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”
“I – I – Oh fuck you, Michaels. Be smart and leave her alone. You’ll be sorry if you don’t.” His tone was sharp and clipped.
In vampire speed I placed myself nose to nose in front of him. “I really hope you can follow up on that threat ’cause you’re going to need to.” What bothered me more than the threat was the way he talked about Sam like he had rights to her. “Let me ask you, she ever let you kiss her?” His silence answered that. “You mean you’re making all this effort and not even getting any action?” I shook my head and whistled. “You’re missing out. She’s one really good kisser.”
His eyes widened and lots of veins and tendons in his face and neck were bulging. It could have been mistaken for envy, but it was more to do with anger. He had realised that he was only embarrassing himself by coming here with this all high and mighty attitude only to find out that he’s not the expert on Sam that he thought he was.
Once his face was no longer contorted he flashed me an ugly smirk. “I better go, I don’t want to be late for my dinner with Sam.”
“Don’t choke on your food now, will you,” I called over my shoulder as he passed and left the apartment.
What a son of a bitch. Barging into my apartment. Confronting me. Threatening me. Acting like he had any rights where Sam was concerned. I should’ve just decked him. Full points for me for not losing it. But did that mean I was going to just let this go, that I could let this go? Oh no. Not a chance. His evening was going to be cut short.
(Sam)
I stared hard at the menu, not really reading it, trying my hardest to ignore the anger that was steaming off Max and making him unbelievably uncomfortable to be around. I’d already asked four times if he was okay, each time getting a ‘yeah, great’. Only he wasn’t great – far from it. And now I was brassed off. He was the one who wanted to come here. How was it that I’d become the one keeping a conversation going to fill the silence? I’d given up on that now, meeting the silence with silence, fully intending to walk right back out if he didn’t perk up within the next ten minutes.
At last he spoke. “I never got a chance to ask you what all the crap was about with that guy last night.” He sounded like a deflated version of himself, like someone had sucked the enthusiasm out of him. “Something about him being responsible for the death of his best friend...?”
I nodded. “Who also happened to be my boyfriend at the time.” I consulted the menu again, hoping for a subject change. “What’re you ordering?”
“I tried to see if you were okay. Last night, I mean. I went over to see you, but Jared was holding you. He wouldn’t budge.”
“Oh.” Well of course I knew that, but Max wouldn’t understand that I just couldn’t deal with talking to everyone about it. He was the type of person who could talk about anything. Anything at all, no matter how personal, and not feel awkward or embarrassed. He never seemed to ever experience the feeling of needing to keep anything private.
“And then I came by your room. You didn’t answer.”
I hoped I was imagining the element of suspicion in his voice. “I must’ve been asleep when you knocked.”
“How long did Jared stay with you? Or did he just leave straight after teleporting you there?”
“What’s with the round of twenty questions?”
“I’m just asking.”
“Where there’s that waiter?” I didn’t need the waiter, I needed the exit.
“Have you and Jared ever...” He started playing with his own fingers, keeping his glare fixed on the table. “I mean, I wouldn’t blame you for falling for his bullshit.”
“I haven’t fallen for anything, or haven’t you noticed that he’s not here?” It came out much snappier than I’d intended. Max didn’t seem fazed by my change in tone. His mind was very much somewhere else. “Has Jared said something to you?”
“Has Jared said something to me?” He laughed – a miserable laugh with a cutting edge to it. “Jared says a lot of things. Are you referring to how he made it obvious you talk to him about personal stuff, or that he told me you and him had kissed?”
The first seemed to bother him most. Like I said, Max didn’t feel the need to keep things private, so for him to hear that not only do I keep things private from him – realistically though that’s not exactly uncommon with people you barely know but the fact that I have no problem sharing those things with someone else is just incomprehensible to him.