My mouth opened in an O, and I jumped to follow. “Uh, wait a moment, Ivy.”

Still she smiled. “You like me, not the way the damned vampire pheromones make you feel when I bite you. I can get blood from anyone, but if you keep saying no, then it’s me you like. Knowing that is worth the frustration.”

She took the lid off her coffee and threw it away as we passed a trash can. I tried to watch her face and my footing to keep from knocking anyone as we neared the main doors and the traffic increased. Her expression was calm and peaceful. The lines of worry and uncertainty that had looked so wrong there were gone. She had found peace. It might not be the peace she wanted, but it was peace. I, though, was never one to leave anything alone. “So…are we okay?”

Ivy’s smile was full of private emotion. Free arm swinging confidently, she parted the way with her sheer presence and people turned to look at her. “Yeah,” she said, looking ahead.

My pulse was fast, and I felt the tension pulling me stiff. “Ivy…”

“Shhhhh,” she breathed, and I jerked to a halt when she stopped at the doors and turned to put a finger to my lips. Her eyes were inches from mine, and I stared at them, shocked. “Don’t ruin it, Rachel,” she added, drawing away. “Leave me with a little make-believe to keep myself sane across the hall from you.”

“I’m not going to sleep with you,” I said, wanting to make that perfectly clear, and the man coming in gave us a once-over.

“Yeah, I know,” she said lightly. Pushing the door open, she went outside. “How was your run with David yesterday?”

I looked at her suspiciously as we stepped into the sun, not trusting this. “David wants me to get a pack tattoo,” I said cautiously as I pulled the windblown hair from my mouth.

“So what are you getting?” she said cheerfully. “A bat?”

As I walked beside her and told her what I had in mind while we searched for my car, I realized how much our failed blood tryst had been preying on her. She had royally messed up. She had thought I’d been ashamed of her and was going to leave. But we were still friends and nothing had changed.

But as we got into my car and put the top down to enjoy the sun, I found my fingers creeping up to feel the red-rimmed bites, still swollen and sore. Recalling the sensation of our auras becoming one, I shivered.

Well, almost nothing had changed.

Nineteen