had been nowhere near the Hematoi world for the last three years. Even in the normal world I hadn’t stopped doing stupid things.
Actually, I was prone to random acts of stupidity. I considered it to be one of my talents.
“You’re doing it again, Alex.” Matt’s hand tightened around mine.
I blinked slowly, bringing his face into focus. “Doing what?”
“You got this look on your face.” He tugged me against his chest, snaking an arm around my waist. “It’s like you’re thinking about something universally deep. Like your head is a thousand miles away, somewhere up in the clouds, on a different planet or something.”
Matt Richardson wanted to join Greenpeace and save some whales.
He was the pretty boy next door who’d sworn off eating red meat.
Whatever. He was my current attempt to blend with the mortals, and he’d convinced me to sneak out and go to a bonfire on the beach with a bunch of people I barely knew.
I had bad taste in boys.
Previously, I’d crushed on a brooding academic who’d written poems on the back of his school books and styled his dyed, jet black hair so it’d covered his hazel eyes. He’d written a song about me. I’d laughed, and that relationship had been over before it got started. The year before that was probably my most embarrassing—the bleached blond, JV football captain with sky blue eyes. Months had gone by with us barely exchanging a “hey” and “do you have a pencil?” before we’d finally met up at a party. We’d talked. He’d kissed me and mauled my boobs, all the while smelling like cheap beer. I’d punched him and broken his jaw. Mom had moved me to a different town after that and lectured me about not hitting as hard as I could, reminding me that a normal girl couldn’t throw punches like that.
Normal girls didn’t want their boobs mauled either, and I wholly believed if they could’ve landed a fist like I could, they would have.
I smiled up at Matt. “I’m not thinking about anything.”
“You’re not thinking at all?” Matt lowered his head. The edges of his blond hair tickled my cheeks. Thank the gods he’d gotten over the
“trying to grow dreads” stage in his life. “Nothing going on in that pretty head of yours?”
Something was going on in my head, but it wasn’t what Matt hoped for. As I stared into his green eyes, I thought about my very first crush—
the forbidden, older guy with thundercloud eyes—the one so far out of my league he might as well have been a different species.
Technically, I guess he was.
Even now, I wanted to spin-kick myself in my face for that one. I was like a walking romance novel character, thinking love conquers everything and all that crap. Sure. Love in my world usually ended up with someone hearing “I smite thee!” as she was cursed to be some lame flower for the rest of her life.
The gods and their children could be petty like that.
I sometimes wondered if my mom had sensed my budding obsession with the pure-blood guy and that was why she’d yanked my happy butt out of the only world I’d known—the only world I really belonged to.
Pures were so off limits to halfs like me.
“Alex?” Matt brushed his lips over my cheek, moving ever so slowly toward my lips.
“Well, maybe something.” I lifted up onto the tips of my toes and circled my arms around his neck. “Can you guess what I’m thinking about right now?”
“That you wish you hadn’t left your shoes back at the fire, because I do. The sand is really cold. Global warming is a bitch.”
“Not what I had in mind.”
He frowned. “You’re not thinking about history class, are you? That would be kind of lame, Alex.”
I wiggled out of his grasp, sighing. “Never mind, Matt.”
Chuckling, he reached out and wrapped his arms back around me.
“I’m just kidding.”
Doubtful, but I let him lower his lips to mine. His mouth was warm and dry, the most a girl could ask from a seventeen-year-old boy. But to be fair,
Actually, I was prone to random acts of stupidity. I considered it to be one of my talents.
“You’re doing it again, Alex.” Matt’s hand tightened around mine.
I blinked slowly, bringing his face into focus. “Doing what?”
“You got this look on your face.” He tugged me against his chest, snaking an arm around my waist. “It’s like you’re thinking about something universally deep. Like your head is a thousand miles away, somewhere up in the clouds, on a different planet or something.”
Matt Richardson wanted to join Greenpeace and save some whales.
He was the pretty boy next door who’d sworn off eating red meat.
Whatever. He was my current attempt to blend with the mortals, and he’d convinced me to sneak out and go to a bonfire on the beach with a bunch of people I barely knew.
I had bad taste in boys.
Previously, I’d crushed on a brooding academic who’d written poems on the back of his school books and styled his dyed, jet black hair so it’d covered his hazel eyes. He’d written a song about me. I’d laughed, and that relationship had been over before it got started. The year before that was probably my most embarrassing—the bleached blond, JV football captain with sky blue eyes. Months had gone by with us barely exchanging a “hey” and “do you have a pencil?” before we’d finally met up at a party. We’d talked. He’d kissed me and mauled my boobs, all the while smelling like cheap beer. I’d punched him and broken his jaw. Mom had moved me to a different town after that and lectured me about not hitting as hard as I could, reminding me that a normal girl couldn’t throw punches like that.
Normal girls didn’t want their boobs mauled either, and I wholly believed if they could’ve landed a fist like I could, they would have.
I smiled up at Matt. “I’m not thinking about anything.”
“You’re not thinking at all?” Matt lowered his head. The edges of his blond hair tickled my cheeks. Thank the gods he’d gotten over the
“trying to grow dreads” stage in his life. “Nothing going on in that pretty head of yours?”
Something was going on in my head, but it wasn’t what Matt hoped for. As I stared into his green eyes, I thought about my very first crush—
the forbidden, older guy with thundercloud eyes—the one so far out of my league he might as well have been a different species.
Technically, I guess he was.
Even now, I wanted to spin-kick myself in my face for that one. I was like a walking romance novel character, thinking love conquers everything and all that crap. Sure. Love in my world usually ended up with someone hearing “I smite thee!” as she was cursed to be some lame flower for the rest of her life.
The gods and their children could be petty like that.
I sometimes wondered if my mom had sensed my budding obsession with the pure-blood guy and that was why she’d yanked my happy butt out of the only world I’d known—the only world I really belonged to.
Pures were so off limits to halfs like me.
“Alex?” Matt brushed his lips over my cheek, moving ever so slowly toward my lips.
“Well, maybe something.” I lifted up onto the tips of my toes and circled my arms around his neck. “Can you guess what I’m thinking about right now?”
“That you wish you hadn’t left your shoes back at the fire, because I do. The sand is really cold. Global warming is a bitch.”
“Not what I had in mind.”
He frowned. “You’re not thinking about history class, are you? That would be kind of lame, Alex.”
I wiggled out of his grasp, sighing. “Never mind, Matt.”
Chuckling, he reached out and wrapped his arms back around me.
“I’m just kidding.”
Doubtful, but I let him lower his lips to mine. His mouth was warm and dry, the most a girl could ask from a seventeen-year-old boy. But to be fair,
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