Now as I walked hand in hand with Jasper, the only thing making me nervous was him. He was a picture in black and white, the only color the blue of his eyes that flashed whenever he stepped into the light of a streetlamp. With his long black coat and the shadows dancing across his face, he looked as mysterious and intimidating as the protagonists of the crime novels on my bedside table.

That was until he offered me a bright smile and asked, “Is there any place you’d like to eat at?”

“I don’t know,” I said. “I’ve only been to town, like, three times so far. I had dinner at Giovanni’s with Eve once, I really liked it there.”

“Giovanni’s it is then.”

We were silent for a moment. In the distance, the town came into view.

Jasper asked, “Can I ask you something?”

“What is it?”

“Why were you acting so strange all day? You barely looked at me during class and ran off immediately afterward, and now you’re so quiet.”

I was silent for a moment, feeling his gaze boring into my cheek. I couldn’t really explain my nightmare to him; it seemed bloody stupid now that I looked back at it. Still, I decided to go with most of the truth. “After we, you know, kissed last night, I kind of panicked. I couldn’t sleep all night because my brain kept replaying the whole thing and going down this spiral of thinking that maybe it was just a one-time thing and you don’t actually like me like that.”

Jasper had slowed his steps during my explanation. Now he came to a complete stop. “Are you serious?”

I swallowed hard. “Yes?”

“Mon dieu,” Jasper said. “I’m sorry, I should have made that clearer. This isn’t like what I had with Sammy. It’s not a pastime.

I like you, Seth. So much.”

His words punched all the air out of my lungs. My voice came out almost inaudible when I asked, “Really?”

“Yes.” A furrow appeared between his brows. “Why is that so hard for you to believe?”

“I don’t know. You’re you. And I’m me. And I’m not like Sammy or the other people you’ve been with, I think. I’m . . . a bit strange.”

“I like strange.”

I breathed a nervous laugh. “Fucking hell. If you had said that last night, I maybe wouldn’t be running on one hour of sleep on our first actual date.”

Jasper’s smile widened. “For what it’s worth, those dark circles under your eyes are strangely attractive.”

“Guess I’m never going back to sleep.”

Jasper chuckled, a low sound that was ridiculously charming, and tugged me closer by my hand. “I still prefer it when you’re emotionally stable and don’t seem like you might faint any second.”

“Noted,” I murmured.

A moment later, Jasper caught my chin in his hand and his lips found mine, soft and unrushed. It was different from last night’s frenzied kiss but felt just as head-spinningly, earth-shatteringly amazing, to the point where we had to stop kissing because I couldn’t stop grinning. Attraction. That was what I had settled on in the hours leading up to dawn last night.