Total pages in book: 133
Estimated words: 122946 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 615(@200wpm)___ 492(@250wpm)___ 410(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 122946 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 615(@200wpm)___ 492(@250wpm)___ 410(@300wpm)
I giggled when I saw the look on their faces.
“Ahhh…much better.”
He was such a freaking player!
Chapter 16
“How are you fairing at your first ball? You’ve picked up the dancing very quickly.” Taelon spun us around in the middle of the dance floor.
“Thanks, but hardly; however, that is the easiest thing to focus on instead of feeling like I’m caught between a vampire inquisition and the vampire diaries.” I made sure to shuffle my feet the right way. I was determined to get at least the first few steps right. “I can hear them all talking about me. Some have even come right out to ask me what I did to win him over. Like I cast some magical spell on him.”
“You have captured the attention, desire, and heart of the most eligible vampire in society, and you think no one will talk?” he mocked, spinning me around. He glanced over his shoulder when I came back to him. “I can feel his gaze burning a hole in my back right now.”
“I don’t like being caged up.” I looked over his shoulder to see Theseus watching us even as he danced with Lucy, who was even smaller next to him. It was odd that he and Taelon were almost the same height and build, and yet, Taelon seemed the only one perfectly matched for Lucy.
“Lucy tells me you spent most of your time in a lab or your home. How is that not a cage?” he questioned.
Good point.
“Let me clarify. I don’t like to be controlled then. He’s had fun with women, the least he can do is stand by and be silent as I dance with other people. He has no right to ban me from touching or even speaking to any other man.”
“So, in order for him not to control you, you are using me to control him?” he mused and then sniggered at my expression.
“This makes me a hypocrite, doesn’t it?”
“Yes.” He nodded. “But I’m sure he’s enjoying that you’re jealous.”
“I am not.”
He gave me a look.
“Really, I’m not.”
“Okay.” The way he said that made me think he didn’t believe me. “If it were me, personally, I’d be a little jealous to know my mate had slept all over the—”
“All?” I growled.
And he laughed. “No, but does it matter if you’re not jealous?”
“I’m not liking you right now.”
“Fine, let me give you some insight, young one,” he replied.
“Please.”
“You are not fond of the idea that he had other women when he came here looking for you, correct?” he asked, and I made a face and looked down to make sure to watch my feet; I wasn’t stepping on his like I had done with Theseus. “Many people want to know who their mates are, but it’s hard, especially if they are human. What if they haven’t been born? What if they are married and in love with someone else? What if they have already passed? Knowing gets harder to bear with each day you do not meet them. You start to wonder if you will ever meet them. You start to want to forget them so you can move on. Don’t you know hope is the worst thing that came out of Pandora’s Box.”
I glanced over to the Theseus, but he wasn’t watching. His lips were in a tight line, and he held on to Lucy.
“He would search for you and search for you, then get heartbroken at not finding you, dejected that you were already gone or with someone else. Then he tried to replace you with another, someone who was close, who was here, and then he’d feel guilty and dive back into his search for you. Just because we are vampires does not mean we are not flawed men. Lucy taught me that.” When he said her name, Lucy’s head snapped toward us—I was sure he knew, but he went on anyway. “Well, her dramas did. I hate almost ninety percent of the male characters in those shows she watches. I hate that they are always so weak-willed, doormats for their parents’ ambitions or expectations. I want them to speak up, defend themselves, their right to love their women. I want them to threaten to disown their own mothers for daring to bring that red envelope.”
I laughed at the expression he made, his nose bunching up. “You really watch a lot of those.”
“My mate is Lucy Ming,” he said as if that should have been explanation enough. “I did not realize my emotions toward those males was because of my anger toward myself. I always wanted the characters to be what I sometimes can’t. I want them to be perfect: perfectly independent, perfectly in love, perfectly strong enough to provide on their own and vulnerable enough to speak of their emotions. I want them to be better than me, so I hold them to a higher standard, and rebuke them for failing to be the perfect version of what I want them to be. Doing so makes me a hypocrite. I know it. I can see it, but I can’t help it.”