“You can’t run from me,” he called. “And human pace won’t even give you two-seconds’ reprieve.”
“I can’t run like a vampire when I’m concentrating,” I called over my shoulder, half noticing Falcon on top of the lighthouse as I turned back, watching on: the protective knight. I knew there was no way he’d hear us from all the way up there, and a part of me wondered what he thought we were up to, running along the beach like a couple of kids, with me screaming and dodging Jason’s every leap to grab me, and him laughing in such a carefree, boyish way, it almost sounded like he was happy.
“Stop concentrating,” Jase said, nearly catching the hem of my dress. “The point of adding high stakes is so you’re not thinking about anything but fight or flight.”
“It’s clearly not working.” I ducked as he lunged toward me again, then took a quick side step at the cliff wall and darted down the beach in the other direction, leaving Jason face down in the sand, laughing. “You’re enjoying this chase a little too much, I think,” I said, stealing a glance to see how far away he was, but my face hit the rock hard centre of his chest instead, and I fell back on my hands, dropping the stone somewhere in the sand.
“You’re not trying very hard, Ara.” He stood above me, his eyes scanning the yellow grains around the circumference of my body.
“That’s the sad part.” I got up on my hands and knees and sifted through the sand. “I actually am.”
“If you’re hoping to find it before I do, I wish you luck.” His voice was littered with amusement; his arms crossed over his baseball shirt, with the cuffs of his jeans wet and folded up above his bare feet. He was waiting for me to find it, I just knew, and it was either so he could steal it and win his kiss, or to prompt me to use this power he was sure I had. But I just wasn't that convinced he was even right. “Which is why you ran in the first place,” he said smugly.
“Shut up, Jason.” I felt a stone pass under my fingertips, and moved my hands opposite it to throw him off. “Just because you’re a scientist, doesn’t mean you know everything.”
“I’m not just a scientist, Ara.” He knelt down and dug into the sand right by my heel, standing up again with the stone in hand; I sat back on my thighs, gasping silently. “I’m a century-old vampire who has seen the birth of every scientific and medical advance in the most significant age of science known to man, and I know—” He held up the stone, “—exactly what I’m talking about.”
I stood up, dusting my hands off on my dress. “What do you want, Jason? Is this whole thing really just so you can get a kiss from a married woman?”
He smirked at the stone between his fingertips, his eyelids thinning into smaller slits until they closed and the stone rose above his palm, floating mid air. “Open your hand.”
“Why?”
Emerald green shone out as he looked directly into me. “Open your hand, Ara.”
I slowly rolled my palm flat, and the stone wandered across the space between us and landed gently there like an invisible man had moved it.
“I don’t need to play games to steal a kiss. In fact, I don’t need to steal a kiss, and let me make one more thing clear to you, Ara-Rose. I don’t want to kiss you.”
I swallowed, closing my fingers over the stone, the cool wind whipping my hair and shawl outward toward the cliffs.
“I am here to help you,” he continued. “To help my brother, and anything I have ever done in contradiction since I came to this manor was purely in either yours or his best interests. I may love you, Ara—” He stepped closer, cupping my tight fist. “But that love only gives me perfect reason to do anything to avoid my lips touching yours, because the repercussions of that kiss would not just affect me, they’d affect David and, in turn, you.”
The lump in my throat wouldn’t shift. He was right. But he had won that kiss fair and square, except I knew it wouldn’t end on this beach. Falcon would see. I would know it happened and, when David found out, which he would because I’d tell him, Jason would be on stable duty for the next year, if David was in a good mood.
I tried not to look at him, but his eyes were locked onto mine, holding me to his gaze, his thoughts centring on the moment our lips would touch—after so, so long.
“You owe me a kiss,” he said softly, and his fingers closed around mine, making my skin burn, gradually getting hotter and hotter like water on a stove.
“What are you doing to me?”
“Helping you find your will to fight.” He took the last step into me and cupped my chin, rolling my face upward so our lips aligned, leaving just an inch and a warm breath between us. I couldn’t feel the ice on the wind anymore, didn’t care that Falcon was behind us or that the ocean tide had moved in as we stood here, getting dangerously close to our feet. The only thing I felt was the roiling cloud of fear in my gut, swirling and thickening at the taste of his breath, sparking the memory of his smooth lips. I couldn’t do it, though. I knew he was waiting—knew he was respectful enough to make it my choice, on my honour. But I couldn’t keep my word. And it wasn’t because David would tear Jason apart if I did, but that the reason David would do it is because the kiss would hurt him more.
“Jase?” I lowered my weight back onto my heels, but stayed close to him—chest to chest, hand to hand, faces angled for a kiss, and the heat in my palm seared around the stone. “You’re hurting me.”
“I’m not doing that,” he said smugly, laughing a little as he looked down at my hand. My fingers were bright pink, small clouds of steam billowing up through the cracks between them, while the scent of melting flesh made my nose twitch. “That’s incredible.”
“Jase, I mean it. It hurts. Stop it.”
He pulled his hand away, stepping back, but the burning intensified. “Only you can stop it, Ara.”
I looked down at my hand: the fist was fused shut by melted flesh, my whole arm shaking violently. “Jase,” I said, panic rising in my tone. “Please. I don’t know how to make it stop.”
“Drop the stone.”
“I can’t.” My hand wouldn’t open.
“Okay.” He took a step closer and the heat raged, as if his skin, his breath, maybe his soul, set the rock in my hand alight. “Ara, fun’s over. Drop it.”