The crunch of the sugar against the pan was loud as I stirred. Damn vamp pheromones.

“I’m glad Nick left,” Kisten said. “He wasn’t good for you.”

I kept my head down, but my shoulders tensed. “What do you know about it?” I said, tucking a long red curl behind my ear. I looked up, finding him calmly eating my almonds. “Nick made me feel good. I made him feel good. We had fun together. We liked the same movies, the same places to eat. He could keep up with me when we ran at the zoo. Nick was a good person, and you have no right to pass judgment on him.” I snatched a damp dishcloth, wiping up my spilled sugar and shaking it into the sink.

“You may be right,” he said as he jiggled a handful of nuts into his palm and rolled the bag shut. “But I find one thing fascinating.” He put a nut between his teeth and crunched through it noisily. “You put him in the past tense.”

My mouth dropped open. Torn between anger and shock, my face went cold. In the living room, the music changed to something fast and bouncy—and totally inappropriate.

Kisten cracked the fridge open, set the nuts back into the door, and closed it. “I’ll wait for Ivy for a while. She might come back with Jenks—if you’re lucky. You have a tendency to demand more of a person than most are willing to give.” He shook the nuts still left in his hand as I sputtered. “Kind of like a vampire,” he added as he picked up his coat and walked out.

My hand was dripping, and I realized I was squeezing the dishcloth so hard that water was seeping out. I threw it into the sink, furious and depressed. Not a good combination. From the living room, happy pop music bounced and skittered. “Will you turn that off!” I shouted. My jaw ached where I was clenching it, and I forced my teeth to part when the music stopped. Fuming, I measured out the sugar and dumped it in. I reached for the spoon, a sound of frustration coming from me as I remembered I had already added the sugar. “Damn it back to the Turn,” I muttered. Now I’d have to make a double batch.

Spoon held tightly, I tried to stir it in. Sugar went everywhere, spilling over the edge. My teeth gritted, and I stomped back to the sink for the dishcloth.

“You don’t know squat,” I whispered as I scraped the spilled sugar into a little pile. “Nick might come back. He said he was. I have his key.”

I pushed the gathered sugar into the cup of my hand, hesitating before I dumped it into the bowl with the rest. Brushing the last of the grit from my fingers, I looked at the dark hallway. Nick wouldn’t give me his key if he wasn’t coming back.

Music started up, soft with a steady beat. My eyes narrowed. I never said he could put something else in. Angry, I took a step toward the living room, then jerked to a halt. Kisten had left in the middle of a conversation. He had taken food with him. Crunchy food. According to Ivy’s dating book, that was a vampiric invitation. And following him would be saying I was interested. Even worse, he knew I knew.