Monday morning, I opened my eyes to find no one standing beside my bed. I frowned at the lack of breakfast, especially when I could hear the low murmur of voices coming from the kitchen, but I rushed to get ready regardless.
When I emerged, I found Gran and Morik in the kitchen but no Mom or Aunt Grace.
“Where is everyone?”
“They already left since you have a ride,” Gran said.
I hadn’t had a chance to talk to them last night about their dates but guessed that it didn’t really matter. Not if I could make it work with Morik. My gaze slid to his.
“Thanks. I really appreciate this. We better hurry, though.”
When I started to move past him, he caught me by the hand and stopped me.
“I have something for you.” He nodded to the pile of leather draped over the chair next to him. I’d thought it was only his coat. When I looked closer, I saw there were two.
He lifted the one on top and handed it to me. The weight surprised me, and it almost hit the floor. He smiled, took the coat, and helped me into it. I felt the difference as soon as it settled on my shoulders.
“Are there plates in there?” I tapped an elbow and it made a thunk sound. It felt like there was one on my back as well.
“You worry about falling. I thought this type of jacket might make you feel safer while keeping you warmer, too.” He unzipped the side pockets and pulled out new, black leather gloves. “And, these will protect your hands.” He paused, met my eyes briefly, and gave a small smile. “Not that I minded cold hands on my skin.”
I felt the blood rush to my face as I tugged the gloves on. They matched the black riding jacket.
He picked up his jacket and shrugged into it. I noticed that a red fleece scarf still hung over the back of the chair. The knit cloth matched the zipper material that ran down the front of my new jacket and the pockets on the front and the arms.
He smiled slightly when he noted me looking at it, and I tried not to flush further when he picked it up and looped it around my neck. Rather than focusing on the way he carefully tucked it in, I tried to focus on what these gifts meant. My upper body wouldn’t get cold, but I didn’t think my legs would be any better off.
He stepped back to eye his work.
“For the longer rides, I have insulated jeans, too, but didn’t think you needed them to get to school.”
“Thank you.” His consideration meant more to me than the jacket did.
Gran whistled low. “That’s a sharp sight.”
I grinned and gave her a quick hug good-bye while Morik waited by the door.
“Don’t you ever get cold?” I asked as we walked outside. The jacket and gloves were amazingly warm, but the cold air chilled my face.
“Rarely. If I do, something’s usually wrong with me.”
“What do you mean? You get sick?”
“Or hurt. It’s happened a time or two.”
The thought of him hurt or sick made him seem more human. And it worried me.
“You should be wearing a helmet, too, then,” I said, settling behind him. He laughed and took off. My hands tightly circled his waist.
My arrival at school, decked out in form-fitting leather, drew more attention than I anticipated. When I handed the helmet to Morik, his eyes swirled with orange. No red.
“Will I see you after school?” I asked.
He nodded before he took off again, weaving through the morning school traffic.
“You are smokin’ hot in that,” Beatriz said, coming up behind me.
I smiled self-consciously.
“Friends share, right?” she prodded.
“Any time.” Hopefully, Morik wouldn’t mind if I loaned out the jacket when I didn’t need it.
“Good.” She sighed and stared off in the direction he’d disappeared. “I’ll take him tomorrow.”
I laughed. “You’re on your own there. I don’t control him.” We started walking toward the school.
“Shows what you know. I saw the way he watched you yesterday. And how he got annoyed when Brad helped you. Brad noticed, too. He thinks Morik might be a little too old for you, though.”
She had no idea.
“We’re not together. Just friends.”
“Right,” she agreed sarcastically. “You and I both know that Morik would like to be more than just friends.”
Yes, I knew what he wanted, and it still scared me. I didn’t even know what it would mean to be with him. Rather than think about all of that, I changed the subject when we reached my locker.
“Any big plans over winter break?”
“Nope.”
I knew a lot of families usually took the week that we had no school to go on vacation or spend it visiting every relative under the sun. Since neither of those was an option for my family, we typically didn’t do anything, not even a big gift exchange, although we still had a family dinner. I never thought Beatriz’s family might be like mine.
“Really? Nothing?”
“Not this year. At least, not for Brad and me. My parents had a chance to visit with my Dad’s side of the family who live in England. They left last Thursday and won’t be back until next Monday.”
“That’s a long time.”
“Yep. That’s why Brad’s home to keep an eye on things. My parents didn’t want me alone, especially over winter break, which starts this Friday.” She paused for a moment. “Just in case you didn’t know.”
I smirked at her heavy hinting.
“Are you going to make me beg? Seriously, what time are you coming over? Say noon so you can help set up for the final party before my mom and dad come home.”
“It’ll depend on when Morik’s available,” I hedged. “So your parents won’t be home for Christmas?”
“No, but Brad and I are okay with it. We could have gone with them, but I would have missed too much school. Oh, before I forget, what are you doing after school? I thought I’d go to the mall and do some shopping. Want to come with?”
“Morik is picking me up.” Shopping would be fun now that I actually had money, but I wasn’t about to go back on plans I’d already made with Morik.
“Perfect. We can ask him about the party on Friday and shopping tonight at the same time.”
I shook my head in disbelief, and she just flashed me a triumphant grin. I’d thought I’d successfully put off her question about Friday. I should have known better. Beatriz was the little engine that could.
We barely made it to class before the second bell rang.
Morik leaned against his motorcycle while he waited for me, and he didn’t seem too surprised to see Beatriz at my side when I approached him.
“Hello, Beatriz. What can I do for you?”
“We’re having another get together at our house on Friday, and I’d really like for you and Tessa to be there. It’ll be a lot of fun.”
His gaze shifted to me before he answered.
“Tessa and I haven’t yet made plans for Friday.”
She grinned. “Perfect. And since Christmas is this weekend, I asked Tessa to keep me company tonight while I hit the mall to catch some of the last-minute deals. I thought she might have some shopping of her own to do.”
“That sounds like a good idea,” he agreed. “But the mall’s too far for a ride on this.”
“I have a ride for both of us. What time do you need to be home, Tessa?”
That reminded me of my promise to let my mom know who I was with and when I’d be home. Morik guessed my thoughts.
“I’ll let Aunt Danielle know where you are.”
Beatriz and I agreed that she’d have me home by seven. She walked away to find our ride and to give me a minute with Morik.
“Are you sure you’re okay with this?”
“Yes. I’ll see you at seven.” He smiled easily, and his eyes gave nothing away until a car pulled up next to us with Beatriz in the passenger seat. Morik glanced at the driver and nodded. When he looked back at me, I saw tiny slivers of barely discernible orange behind his yellow driving glasses. While he casually reached into his pocket and changed to his sunglasses, I glanced at the car and saw Brad in the driver’s seat.
“Not too late to change your mind,” I said quietly to Morik.
“No. Go. I’ll drop this off for you.” Hidden behind the dark lenses, his eyes gave nothing away when he took my school bag.
Not knowing what else to do, I climbed into the back of the car and waved to Morik as Brad pulled away.
“Glad she could talk you into going. It saves me from having to wait outside of dressing rooms to give opinions,” Brad said.
Beatriz chatted about school, the upcoming party, vacation, and the holiday during the thirty-minute drive and the ten minutes it took to find a place to park.
People bundled against the chill rushed in and out of the mall. The happy melody of a Christmas song drifted from inside when Brad held the door open for us. Garland and lights decorated the main entrance, which opened to the food court. The smells enticed me, and my stomach growled quietly.
“Time to split up. Stick together and meet me back here in two hours.”
Beatriz rolled her eyes at Brad.
“We’re not toddlers.”
“Just stick together, Bea.”
She didn’t need any further prompting. She turned and led me to the first of many department stores.
Shopping with Beatriz was exactly what Brad had said it would be. I stood outside of the dressing room most of the time while she tried on various things. She did have a knack for finding amazing deals. Despite my family’s no purchased gift rule, I bought a new top for my Aunt Grace. And further bending the gift rule, I shopped at a craft store for what I would need to make several pairs of earrings for everyone.
The checkout line moved slowly like every other store we’d visited. While we waited, I watched the flow of people that passed the store’s window. Safe from the cold, they moved slower in the mall. The number of bags some of them carried astounded me.
The checkout line moved forward again, and I turned away from the view.
From the corner of my eye, I thought I caught a glimpse of Brian, but when I looked back, I didn’t see anyone who looked remotely like him. My imagination was playing tricks on me. Probably because I was subconsciously wondering about Clavin. Shouldn’t I have heard something by now, either from Clavin himself or the police? While trying to contact Clavin directly to check in on him was far too risky, calling Brian might work. I decided to give it a few more days.
After checking out, I tiredly followed Beatriz to the food court. Brad waved to us from a table he’d already claimed. A mound of bags took up the chair next to him. Beatriz piled our bags with his then pulled me into the lines for the restaurants lining the food court. First, we hit all the samples. Then, we selected one of the Chinese places. With a pile of food for seven dollars, we headed back to the table and watched the bags so Brad could order.
Brad teased Beatriz while we ate, saying he’d gotten her an amazing gift and wanted to know which of her bags contained his gift. Since I’d been with her, I knew she hadn’t gotten him anything. She ate quickly and then declared she still had twenty minutes to shop before we needed to leave. Since Brad still didn’t want to be stuck standing on the wrong side of a dressing room door, he insisted I go with Beatriz.
With a full stomach and laden with bags, I followed her as she made a beeline for a high-end store. She led me unerringly to the beauty department where she spoke to a sales associate and sniffed cologne samples. I mistakenly looked at a display case, and another sales associate swooped in and started asking me questions about the man I needed to buy for. I thought of Morik, but said I wasn’t interested in anything. My modest budget couldn’t handle this kind of store. Plus, he smelled good just the way he was. But, it did get me thinking about what I should get him.
After Beatriz selected and purchased a bottle of cologne, we met up with Brad again and made our way to the car. The sun had set, and I was exhausted. My energy would never match Beatriz’s when it came to shopping.
While Brad stowed all their purchases in the trunk, I paused by the car to look up at the stars. The light pollution muted their glow, though. Disappointed, I didn’t linger in the cold.
As we pulled from the parking lot, I caught a flash of glowing green but lost it before I could catch a glimpse of Morik. I checked the clock on the dash and frowned. We weren’t running late. I hoped Morik wasn’t watching because I was with Brad.
Brad and Beatriz dropped me off just a few minutes before seven. Morik opened the door for me before I reached it, and I smiled at him even as I wondered how his jumping from place to place worked.
“How was shopping?” Mom asked from her place on the couch. She and the rest of my family all looked marginally relaxed in the living room. It made me wonder if Morik had been waiting with them or by the door. I knew better than to ask, though, given how Mom had previously treated him.
“Shopping was good. I’ll be right back.”
Morik stayed with them as I hid my bags in my room. After I returned, we all watched a movie together. When it was over, Morik discussed the movie’s plot and inaccuracies with Mom. I could see her effort to make and maintain eye contact and knew he still made her nervous. Yet, that they were conversing at all was a marked improvement. I couldn’t believe it’d only been a few days since he showed himself to me.
Tuesday after school, Morik and I arrived home to find Aunt Danielle the sole occupant of the house. She informed us that Gran went to visit the neighbor again. I embraced the novel opportunity of having the house to myself and grabbed the craft bag from my room.
After swearing Aunt Danielle to secrecy, I used the kitchen table to spread out the materials I planned to use to make the earrings. Morik helped me separate everything until the crystals rested in groups on the wood surface and glittered in the afternoon light. I eyed them critically and tried to decide how I wanted the finished product to look. Not too long or wide. Not too much crystal.
I created two smaller piles and began to arrange them in a pattern, using metal beads to break up the crystal. Morik leaned in and caught my hand with his left one. Then, he reached under our joined hands and rearranged the existing piles.
After his story about the shell combs, I wasn’t surprised when his arrangement looked amazing. Although his attention remained on the crystals, I became more aware of his hand still wrapped around mine.
I turned to thank him and withdraw my hand, but the words died in my throat.
Scant inches separated us. The shifting silver pools of his gaze swirled with green and brown, a mesmerizing display. Yet, it was the sight of his lips, as he gave a self-satisfied smile, that captivated me to the point I couldn’t look away.
While I’d wondered about kissing before, I’d never seriously considered it. I’d always thought it was associated with choosing. However, if what Morik said was true, kissing wasn’t choosing. My heart and mind had to agree on the choice.
There were no glimpses of my future with Morik to sway my heart, but maybe a kiss would help. All I needed to do was lean in.
Just lean in, Tessa.
Noting my long stare, he pulled his gaze from the beads to look at me.
A blush ignited my cheeks, and I quickly focused on the table while mentally scolding myself for not having the guts to steal a kiss. Maybe it would have been great. My stomach might have even done that crazy flip thing it did, like when we were on the motorcycle and I’d touched his skin. At the thought, my stomach did the funny little flip again, and my cheeks heated further.
I needed to stop thinking about kissing and touching. However, it was hard to do when he still held my hand. I tried to draw my hand away, but he didn’t release it. Instead, he slowly pulled it closer.
Knowing my face glowed bright red, I hesitantly met his gaze. In just those few moments, his eyes had undergone a drastic change. The silver was completely absent, engulfed by a black void. The now black irises set against the brown-yellow of his sclera sent a shiver trailing down my spine. He looked intimidating like that.
“Never fear me,” he whispered, noting the shiver. He leaned in, touched his forehead to mine, and closed his eyes. “Tell me. Please. What were you thinking just now when you were looking at me?”
I closed my eyes as well, trying to hide from my embarrassment and his question. Despite the quiet of the room, I was certain we had Aunt Danielle’s undivided attention.
“Can we talk about this later?” I begged in a whisper as I opened my eyes to glance quickly at Aunt Danielle. As I’d suspected, she sat in her chair and watched us with unabashed amusement.
Morik caught my look and pulled back from me. Still holding my hand, he addressed Aunt Danielle.
“We’ll be back in a moment. She is safe.”
One moment, we sat in my kitchen at the table; the next, we stood in an unfamiliar living room. The abrupt change left me slightly dizzy. Morik wrapped an arm around me to steady me.
“Now tell me,” he said in a coaxing voice.
“What just happened? Where are we?” I looked around the room. Large and open, it connected to a kitchen on one side and an open stairway on the other. Everything looked neat and new.
“My home. I apologize for bringing you here without asking. I thought you didn’t want to speak in front of your aunt.”
His voice, usually deep and smooth, now had a roughness to it. Almost a growl. I focused on his eyes. They remained black, but the ochre from his sclera seemed to be blending with it.
I wasn’t sure how to interpret the new color combination. Past interactions left me with the impression that brown meant he was happy, or at least content, while orange and red were angry or upset colors. Was ochre then the middle ground between the two color groups? What the heck did that mean? He was neutral?
“Are you mad at me?” I asked hesitantly. I wasn’t afraid of him even when his eyes unnerved me a little, but I didn’t like the idea of him being mad at me either.
“No, Tessa. You are frustrating me.” He let go only to gently cup my head in his large hands. “Stop stalling, and tell me what was going through this precious head of yours.”
“I wasn’t stalling,” I said before I could stop myself. More ochre pooled into his black irises. “Okay, okay.”
My face, which had cooled slightly during my confusion, flared scarlet again. Four days wasn’t enough time to really know someone I realized as panic started to rise inside me. Why had I even thought about kissing? Because I’d made up my mind to think of him as my choice. As my choice, wouldn’t it be natural to wonder? I took a deep breath and closed my eyes, not wanting to see how my next words would affect the color swirling in his irises.
“I was wondering what kissing would be like. With you.”
For a moment, nothing happened. His warm hands remained cupped along my jaw, touching just below my ear and curving around the back of my neck. It made me feel small. While I waited, his fingers twitched slightly before stilling again.
When I opened my eyes, I was surprised to see him locked in place. Pure black once again claimed his irises. He looked slightly shocked, and I had a horrible sinking feeling I’d misunderstood the whole situation.
“Morik, it’s no big deal. I’m not asking you to kiss me. I was just—”
He slowly moved his thumb over my bottom lip, silencing me. His gaze followed his thumb’s back and forth movements.
“There are rules.” His voice had dropped an octave, rumbling in his chest. “Because my abilities put humans at a disadvantage, nature created a few basic laws I can’t break unless through an agreement.”
“Like a deal?”
“Yes. A part of a deal. One of the rules is that I can’t interact with humans unless they call on me. The deal with Belinda’s father gave me a loophole to get around that rule in some circumstances. Another rule is that I can’t touch humans. The original deal allows me to speak with you, to protect you, but not to touch you.” He removed his hands. “But, our deal and your touch now allow me to.” He ran his fingers through his hair then continued. “The rules are meant to protect you from my kind. To negate the natural advantages I might have.”
I wasn’t sure I followed his line of thinking and was afraid to ask the real question on my mind, which was whether he wanted to kiss me or not.
“So, if I want a kiss, I need to make a deal with you?” It’d be like forcing him to kiss me. I didn’t want that.
“No. You only need to kiss me first.”
“Oh.” All the color that had flooded my face moments earlier drained. I’d have to initiate the kiss. My first kiss. What if I messed up?
He stood there, watching me expectantly.
Instead of doing the crazy little flip that got me into this mess, my stomach hatched an army of ninja-kicking butterflies. I didn’t know what to do.
“I think I need to sit down.”
Morik scooped me into his arms and moved to a large leather chair. Instead of setting me down, he sat with me on his lap. The butterflies didn’t stop kicking.
“It’s okay,” he whispered and rubbed my back soothingly. “Kissing isn’t part of the agreement, Tessa. I never thought it would be.”
That killed every butterfly in my stomach. Did that mean he didn’t expect me to kiss him but would like it if I did, or that he didn’t want to kiss me and just told me how to kiss him because I had been curious? Having depleted my store of courage for the day, I didn’t ask for clarification. I was too worried the answer would be the latter.
We sat quietly for a few moments. Slowly, my heart rate returned to normal.
“Would you like to see my home?” he asked.
Relief flooded me. If he was willing to drop the subject, so was I.
He led me through his house, which from the view out the window appeared to be in a suburb. Each room, spaciously built and tastefully decorated in light colors with vivid accents, drew my attention. With a total of three bedrooms and three baths, the house felt empty with only him living there. It lacked pictures or any other personal items to show he had a past. Everything was pretty, but nothing felt lived in.
The open kitchen with its large breakfast bar was made for entertaining. He had a television in the living room, and he mentioned several gaming consoles that he stored elsewhere.
“How did you get all of this? Deals?”
“No. The internet allows me to obtain what I want without actually interacting with humans. Another loophole in nature’s rule.”
At the end of the tour, Morik took me home just in time to clean up the jewelry in progress before everyone returned. He stayed for dinner and another movie. While I sat beside him, my mind continued to dwell on my newest problem.
When I’d had my brilliant thought to help prod my heart along, I’d never dreamed I’d need to be the one to make the first move. What if he wasn’t interested in me like that? Not only would I be mortified if I tried kissing him and he freaked out, but I also doubted I’d be able to choose with my heart after that.
Before he left, I asked for his help to put me to sleep; I wouldn’t be able to turn off my thoughts on my own.
One thought stayed with me as I drifted off with the low murmur of his voice teasing my ears.
If I didn’t want to end up like Aunt Danielle, I needed to figure out a way to choose Morik.
