“When he bit into the flesh there softly, I almost accused him right there of lying to me about me being his first girlfriend, because he was way too good at this.”

“You almost got hit by a truck because you were checking me out?" I joked and he laughed loudly."Yeah. Good thing you saved me. It would have been your fault if I didn't make it," he said through a grin.”

“I want to save her because..." Even though he was speaking to her, he never took his eyes off mine. "Because I'm a better man with her. Because I can't imagine going back to being who I was before I met her. Because I'm afraid...that I could be that monster again without her here loving me.”

“You’re not gonna touch or kiss me for a week are you?” I said, letting him know I knew what he was doing. He turned to look at me poignantly. “Absolutely not.” “We’ll see about that,” I countered. “You need time to heal-” “Oh no. I’m going this way and not listening.” I pointed toward the commons room. “In my book, you just issued me a challenge, buster. And I accept.”

“Will you sleep with me?" he asked softly, before grinning suddenly. "In the tub?”

“Drunken party friends can still kiss, right?” His voice was low and rumbling and I heard my breath catch as I fought to steady my voice. “We’re not drunk.” “You didn’t answer my question,” he breathed. I licked my lips again subconsciously and once again regretted it as I saw his eyes watching me intently. He probably thought I was doing it on purpose to taunt him. “Um.”

“His eyes opened and he smiled at me like he understood everything, like I was everything.”