Flutter by Amanda Hocking Page B

Jack, hoping that hanging onto
him would make me more alert. He laughed at my struggle against
sleep, and it resounded through me. He kissed my forehead and held
me in his arms, and that was too comfortable for me to fight to
stay awake anymore.
    I was curled up in the crook
of his arm when I woke up, and the faint sounds of Depeche Mode
filled the bedroom. Jack had one arm around me, and the other one
held a graphic novel, The Killing
Joke . It was one of his favorites, so it
was battered and beaten. He was so into it that he didn’t even
notice when I opened my eyes.
    “ Hey,” I smiled up at him.
He pulled his head back so he could look down at me, already
setting the book aside. “Sorry I just passed out like
that.”
    “ No, it’s cool. I
understand,” he grinned.
    “ I missed you.” I snuggled
closer to him, pressing my body against his, and his heart sped
up.
    “ For awhile there, I wasn’t
sure if you’d ever come back.” When he pushed a strand of hair from
my eyes, his face went stormy, re-imagining all the horrible things
he had thought happened to me in Finland.
    “ But here we are!” I hurried
to erase his dark thoughts, rubbing my hand over his chest. “In
your room, in your bed, alone .” My expression faltered, and
his face fell with concern. “We are alone, aren’t we?”
    “ What do you mean?” His arm
tensed up around me, and his voice had an edge to it. He
incorrectly assumed that I was thinking of Peter, but he was the
furthest thing from my mind.
    “ Milo and his new ‘friend.’”
I nodded to the thin wall that separated our rooms.
    Listening to Milo and Bobby
fool around earlier had been rather nauseating, and I didn’t like
the idea of them overhearing me messing around with Jack. I was
really, really hoping to finally take things to next level with Jack, and I wanted
it to be as intimate and private as possible.
    “ Oh, no, they’re long gone,”
Jack smiled and relaxed next to me. “They went to a club a few
hours ago.”
    “ A club?” I arched my
eyebrow and knew I was ruining the mood, but I couldn’t shake my
concern. “Is that safe?”
    “ Yeah,” he shrugged. “Milo
is a vampire. He can handle himself.”
    “ What about Bobby?” I didn’t
really care much for his safety, but Milo would, and if other
vampires moved on him, I wasn’t sure how wisely Milo would
respond.
    “ They’re okay,” he said.
“And if they weren’t, they have cell phones, which they know how to
use. Unlike some people.” So he hadn’t entirely forgiven me for not calling him
from Finland, but that was okay. I planned on making up for
it.
    “ So what you’re saying is
that Milo is gone, Peter is gone, and Mae and Ezra are too
preoccupied to notice anything? And we are completely, entirely,
alone?” I said, sliding my leg up over his.
    “ It would appear that way,”
Jack smiled wickedly.
    I tilted my head up towards him and his mouth
pressed softly against mine. The kiss was only gentle for a minute,
though. As soon as I felt his lips searching mine, this frantic
need took over me.
    Throwing one leg over him, I moved so I was
sitting on top of him, straddling him between my legs. Jack moaned,
but it was barely audible through our kisses. His hands searched my
body, and his skin was already smoldering. My temperature would
soon match his, and I felt the warmth racing through me.
    I pulled away long enough to tear off my
shirt, and he smiled appreciatively at me. He looked like he wanted
to say something, so I silenced him with kisses. I loved talking to
him, but right now, words weren’t enough.
    We’d been forbidden from being together
almost since day one, and even after I turned into a vampire, we’d
been forced to stay at arms length.
    After he slipped off his shirt, I took a
moment to take him in. His skin was tan and soft over the smooth
muscles of his chest and stomach. Jack was completely perfect. A
painful happiness spread over me as I thought about how lucky I