The Vampire Diaries: Trust In Betrayal (Kindle Worlds) (In Time We Trust Trilogy Book 3) (9 page)

My head snaps toward our enemy automatically, but through the back window all I can see is the blinding luminescence of the encompassing fog and my thoughts are screaming with wordless surprise that somehow, Elena pulled it off. And then grey steals back in, shadows expanding through the car as the Augustines sweep by, unaware.

My mouth falls open and I stare out the back window. They were going so slow this time, they must have seen the strange cloud obscuring the driveway. Unless the fog does more than that, misdirects their attention or makes them see what they expect to see, like some kind of visual compulsion.

“Elena,” I gasp. “You did it. Holy shit, you actually did it!” I turn to her, a grin taking over my face but she’s slumped in her seat. “Elena?”

My eyes widen and Cali lets go of me to lean into the front seat and check on her. Damon’s already there, his shaky fingers stroking Elena’s hair away from her face as he shifts her so she’s propped more comfortably against the door.

“She’ll be fine,” he says, but he’s barely more conscious than she is. “Call Stefan. Tell him to bring blood, however he can get it.”

I start to offer mine, but Damon’s eyes are falling closed and suddenly I get what he didn’t say. We’re humans, in a car with two nearly-starved vampires. I trust them to stop and not to hurt me, but I’m not stupid. There’s no way I’m going to bring out fresh blood around them when Cali’s trapped in the backseat.

I pull out my phone and text Stefan, trying not to think about how he is going to have to bring "blood." It doesn't exactly come vacuum-sealed around here, and so far we've been able to keep Cali from having to see the realities of how vampires feed. I lean into the front seat when I'm done and unease flickers through me as I see both Elena and Damon are unconscious. Maybe that’s safer, at least until Stefan gets here, but I’ve never seen a vampire exhausted to the point of passing out before.

"That," Cali announces, "was the weirdest shit I have ever seen, and these days? That's saying something."

"Welcome to my life," I say with a soft chuckle that feels scratchy in my throat.

I look up to find her watching me, her hair messy from her nervous fingers and eyes luminous in the darkened car. But something about her expression makes my words hang between us like a line we just crossed together.

I swallow, wishing she'd touch me again, that I had the distraction of her soft skin and hard jewelry to ease the tense moments before help arrives, but I'm not sure what she'll do if I take her hand.

I wait, and she doesn't reach for me. But she doesn't look away.

JEREMY

I lean my forehead against the tile to steady myself, the water starting to go cold where it rains down from the cheap hotel showerhead. I barely even notice because in my mind, it’s all steam and slick skin.

In my imagination, Cali’s in here with me, my shoulders pressing hers into the wall while her eager tongue steals drops of water from my lips. The tile is foggy and warm as I flatten a palm against it, wishing I knew how she likes to kiss. Deep and wet and uninhibited, or quick and teasing with a flirtation of a bite to get my heart pounding…

I shudder out an unsteady breath at the thought, and the door to the bathroom bangs open.

I reach for a towel before I realize I should reach for a weapon instead. By the time I realize my mistake, the shower curtain rattles aside and I’m left blinking stupidly at punkish layers of blue-streaked hair and light eyes, narrowed in an expression that there’s no way I’m reading correctly.

“Cali? Jesus, you scared the hell out of me,” I yelp, the towel bunching in all the wrong directions as I try to wrap it around my hips and keep the important parts covered all at the same time. “What’s wrong?” I ask, digging deep to find some functioning brain cells. Cheap pornos aside, there’s only one reason she’d bust into the bathroom while I was in the shower and that’s if we were in danger.

“Nothing,” she says, and crosses her arms impatiently. “Unless you count that I’m sexually frustrated to within half an inch of spontaneous combustion, which is not in any way helped
by the fact that I know you’re in here, not wearing any clothes.” She looks expectantly at me as if waiting for a sympathetic nod. “No. Clothes. At. All.”

I duck my head, sputtering, though there’s not a chance in hell of me ever coming up with the right words for
this
conversation. The water splashing down on my feet is now icy cold and it’s the only sound in the room.

She takes a step back and leans a shoulder against the doorframe, dropping her head sideways against the wood with a soft thud as her eyes fall closed.

“Blunt is not sexy, Cali,” she chides herself, and thumps her head one more time for good measure. “See, my hormones are poisoning my logical thinking processes. I can’t be trusted,” she complains, opening her eyes and then looking guilty when she takes in my expression.

I should say something.

Right.

“Shit.” She bites her lip. “Shit, shit shit.” She throws out her arms, letting them slap to her sides. “Look, Jeremy, I’ve never been all that great at the flirting game. I either go after the guy I want, or I run the other way. I don’t really do the coy little advance and retreat, plus we’re stuck in cars with your whole fam-damily like 90% of the time and all stressed out and—” She shoves her hand through the loose layers of her hair, looking up at the ceiling as a small laugh coughs out of her.

I can’t believe she just walked in when I was fantasizing about her. I am such an asshole.

“And ironically, this is the most free time I’ve had since I was
your
age and the fact that
you’re
supposed to be
seventeen
but the catty, immature bitch down the hall is five
hundred
still just breaks my mind and—” Her chin comes back down and she narrows her eyes at me, almost accusingly. “I like you.”

Wait, is she saying she’d like me but I’m too young?

Should I turn off the shower?

“We may be running for our lives but for once I’ve got five minutes for what
I
want and I don’t want to waste it and regret that when I’m back home and… Hell, Jeremy, would you say something? Because this isn’t really working out the way I pictured it and I kinda feel like a sex offender right now and wow, way to go, Cali, points for a sultry vocabulary.” She rolls her eyes, fidgeting with her shirt.

Was she planning on
joining
me in the shower? My heart kicks up so fast that my hearing stutters out for a second and when I tune back in, she’s taking a breath for another round of explanations.

I turn off the water.

She holds up her hands. “Look, I’m sorry. I’m obviously the world’s biggest jerk and I swear I’ll pack right now and move back in with Motormouth McGee and I won’t breathe a word of complaint about it and I’ll find a way to make it up to you—”

I step out of the shower, and her words cut off as if my foot touching the floor flipped some kind of switch inside of her.

Her eyes light with surprise, and then as I come closer, with an un-veiled enthusiasm that makes me huff out a quiet laugh, even though the last ten minutes have got to be the most embarrassing ones I’ve ever lived through.

I tuck the end of my towel more securely around my waist and flatten my hand on the doorframe above her head to balance myself, because I didn’t get a chance to dry off and my chest is still beaded with water that she probably doesn’t want all over her.

I duck my head until I’m close enough to feel the breath that escapes her lips, and pause because if I’ve read this completely wrong, she deserves the chance to slap me before I really start digging my own grave here.

My heart is slamming so hard I’m not sure I’d even hear it if she started to protest, and I lean in and kiss her before I lose my nerve, only remembering at the last second to keep my lips gentle so I won’t knock her piercing against her teeth.

But at the first touch of her I forget all about planning. My hand comes up, palm settling into her neck and my thumb brushing under the delicate line of her jaw, drunk on the intimacy of the soft skin there. Her lips sigh open and everything between us is lost to warmth and the loosening tug of something deep in my belly that I didn’t know was tight until I let it go.

The metal of her lip ring feels kinky against my tongue and she shivers and presses closer when I play with it, her tank top clinging damply to my overheated chest. A deep moan rumbles up out of my chest and gets caught between our mouths, and I can feel her smile against my lips as if she likes the sound.

My other hand slides down the doorframe and gets tangled in her hair as I press her back, catching her between my body and the hard surface behind her. Pleasure bursts in the base of my spine when she arches against me, the friction of the towel between us some kind of exotic sensation that I could get seriously addicted to.

My thumb beneath her jaw sweeps a trembling path, trying to be gentle despite the roar of everything I want right now. She’s not the kind of girl I want to rush with, but I’m not sure I can help it.

“Cali,” I whisper into her lips, and it sounds like I’m in pain even though I feel
incredible,
even just the caress of her hair wound around my fingers tingling pleasure all the way up into my scalp.

She turns her head away from me with a jagged inhale and I cradle her between my arms, lowering my forehead until it brushes her temple so I can touch her, so I can
feel
her even while I let her catch her breath. But then she’s spinning away from me, ducking out from beneath my elbow and I’m left blinking and gulping air, the towel feeling like the most stifling hot thing I’ve ever worn on my body.

“Um,” I say, turning toward the hotel room, where Cali has already paced all the way to the door and is spinning around for another lap.

She turns scared eyes on me and I flinch, backing up a step.

Oh, shit, did I massively screw this up?

“Look, Jeremy,” she says, almost desperately, “I can’t have a boyfriend right now. You know how things are with my grandma, and once I get back, I’m there pretty much 24/7 with her. I can’t…” She holds out her hands. “I just can’t.”

My head rears back and I remember, in excruciating detail, how it felt the first time I had to watch Vickie kiss Tyler after she said she didn't want anything serious with me.

“Right.” My jaw flexes and I brace my arms to either side of me on the bathroom door, energy steaming through my muscles like I could just snap the whole frame if I pushed the smallest bit. “That was supposed to be a hookup kiss. My bad.”

I whip around before I break something and I grab the door to slam it behind me, looking for my clothes even though I’m not really registering anything passing in front of my eyes right now.

“Whoa, Jeremy,” Cali says, taken aback. “I didn’t mean it like…” She moves quickly across the room. Her hand alights tentatively on my back and my fingers tighten on the edge of the door with a small crack as I stop myself just in time before I close it right into her face.

She grabs my arm and turns me to face her but I keep my jaw clenched and eyes staring out over her head because I’m so not in the mood for a “lost puppy” speech.

“Look, you’re the one who busted in on my shower,” I snap. “So don’t act like this was all my idea.”

“I never said that,” she says fervently, her brow creasing. “Hey, listen, I didn’t mean it like a one-night stand or some throw away thing. I wouldn’t do that to you, and I’m not into that anyway. It’s just…you’re my friend. I
like
you. And I’m attracted to you and I—” Her hand falls away and she shrugs one shoulder. “I trust you.” Her lips twist with a wry, awkward little smile. “I know our lives are way too complicated to throw a new relationship into the mix. But I figured if we were honest about what was happening, maybe we could take care of each other, since we’re both obviously having the same, erm, issue.”