A sharp hunger twisted his stomach, but Noah ignored the need. Alice looked even more beautiful in the sunlight, which reflected off her golden hair, making it glow. And today, she shone even more brightly than normal, with a big smile on her face, a laugh on her lips, and a bounce in her step. Some of that, he dared hope, was because of him.
She was born to walk in the sunshine.
The thought stilled him, and Alice shot him an inquiring glance. He shook his head.
The horseback riding facility was a short walk away. They stopped at a food stand along the way and ate easy-to-carry snack food as they walked. Before they got out of the shopping area, Noah spotted a hat shop and stopped. Robert followed him.
“Cindy is going to love this,” Robert said, smiling as they made their purchases. Noah couldn’t help but smile back. The man glowed when he spoke of his soon-to-be bride.
“What’s this?” Cindy asked when they got back.
Noah plopped a western-style straw hat on Alice’s head.
“Your protection from the sun,” Robert said. He placed Cindy’s hat on her head like Noah had done, too, but pushed it down over Cindy’s eyes. She shrieked and smacked him, before they both dissolved into a laughter-filled mini-wrestling match.
Noah’s gaze met Alice’s, and he kissed her softly while Cindy and Robert composed themselves.
“Aww, you guys are so sweet. And look, Alice, yours even has a little feather,” Cindy replied.
Alice grinned and felt along the hat until her fingers hit the feather. “Thank you,” she said, her eyes curiously fixed on him.
Noah shrugged. “Wouldn’t want you to get burned.”
Cindy had arranged a private horseback riding outing for their foursome. It was obvious Alice and Cindy had ridden before, although Noah would be willing to bet that they’d never been regular riders. And just as apparent was Robert’s complete and utter lack of experience.
Blinding, the beach glittered in the sunlight. Noah pushed his sunglasses up on his nose and watched the water hit the sand, the salty smell of the ocean in his lungs. This area of the beach was private, and very few people were around. It was quiet, save the crash of the waves and the chatter of Alice and her sister. The openness felt amazing after being on the cruise ship for so many days, even with the rocky hills lining the beach. The rocks seemed to reach for the ocean, and made the beach feel almost private. He couldn’t remember a time when he’d felt so happy, and simultaneously so unsettled.
Noah suppressed a laugh as Cindy tried to coax Robert into a gait slightly faster than plodding, and Robert gripped the pommel on his saddle until his knuckles turned white. She alternatively cooed at him and made fun of him. And Robert, kind man that he was, didn’t even glare at her. What a man wouldn’t do for his bride. Finally, after nearly an hour and a half, he started to loosen up.
Noah and Alice chatted as they rode, before falling into a comfortable silence. A wave crashed through some of the rock pillars that reached out into the ocean, cascading down like a water fall. Alice screamed and pointed. As they followed their guide, nearly back at the stables, Alice rode ahead.
Beautiful Alice. With a quick flick of her wrist, she released her hair from its clip and let it run down her back as she rode a little ahead of Noah, leaving only the hat to confine her golden locks. Her sun-kissed skin and musical laugh filled his senses.
His chest constricted. She belonged here. In the sunshine. Everything about her was light and bright and free. If anything happened between them long-term, she’d have to give up the sun.
Could he ask that of her?
A wave of dizziness hit him, and he took a haggard breath. Sweat dripped down his skin and hit the saddle. He touched his forehead with his fingertips. Too much sweat.
The landscape rolled around him, moving unnaturally, as if he could actually see the heat like an ocean wave. Shit. Sun poisoning.
He should have drunk more blood before they left the ship. Should have made an excuse. Should have done what he needed to in order to make sure he was safe to be around. But it was so hard to concentrate on his vampire needs around her; she overran his thoughts.
Alice pulled her horse alongside his, and he looked up to see her brows drawn with worry, and a frown on her face. The expression was almost unnatural on her.
“You should be smiling,” he murmured. God, it was hot. But soon—too soon—it would be cold.
“Noah? Are you okay?” she reached out and touched his forehead, then yanked her hand back like he’d burned her. Hell, with sun poisoning setting in, he probably felt like he had a fever to challenge the glowing sand around them.
He swayed a bit in his saddle, and the sand rolled like the waves.
“Oh my God, it’s the sun, isn’t it?”
“Should probably get back to the ship soon,” he said, and the words made the slight pounding in his head grow exponentially. Thudding like a jackhammer, it made his stomach churn.
She reached into a bag attached to her saddle and pulled out a half-empty bottle of water. “Water?”
His stomach surged anew at the thought and he shook his head, grimacing.
“We’re going back to the ship,” Alice called to her sister, and he winced at her volume.
Cindy waved. She and Robert had managed to get a good distance away. He hoped they thought he and Alice were going back for lustful reasons. If they thought it was his weakness to the sun…he hated to look weak.
Wordlessly, Alice led their horses back to the stable and dropped them with a groomsman. Noah dismounted, feeling sick, but not yet too dizzy to stand on his own. He shivered as the ground beneath his feet shifted. The horse stared at him, eyes wide. Did it sense a predator? Could it see him?
Alice touched his shoulder and he started, then glanced at the horse. It calmly ate a bit of grass off the ground, waiting to be unsaddled and fed.
He could make it. There was no other option. Instead of heading for the road to walk, Alice asked one of the workers to call them a taxi. Then she sat him on a bench facing the road. It was out of direct sunlight, better but still straining. She sat next to him, and her scent filled his lungs. She smelled so damn good. Did she know how she smelled?
He leaned over and nuzzled her hair. The throbbing of her pulse, just under her skin, rang in his ears. He took a deep breath, his mouth hovering a hairsbreadth from her skin. And his fangs lengthened in his mouth.
Just a taste. One little taste of her. To see if the sweetness he’d accidentally tasted the night before was real.
Alice stilled, her body suddenly stiff. “Noah?”
So good. Like apples. She would taste like apples.
Chapter Eight
“Noah,” she said, voice stronger than before. Almost commanding. He growled. No one could keep him from his prey. No one denied him. No one commanded him. Least of all a tiny human like Alice.
Alice.
Noah shoved himself away from her and off of the bench, swaying a bit on his feet.
She jumped up, too, and he took a step back. “I’m fine,” he said, holding a hand out to stave her off. Alice stopped in her tracks, keeping the distance between them.
“Are you sure you’re all right?”
Was he? Even now, he wanted her. Wanted to sink his teeth into the vein that pulsed in her neck. Wanted to sate his taste for her blood.
Mine.
“I’m fine,” he snapped. “I’m just nauseous. I didn’t want to get sick on you.”
Her face softened and a tiny grin emerged. “Well, I appreciate that.”
The cab ride flew by, and Noah kept his window down the whole time, his head on the doorframe. He needed the fresh air. She smelled too good, and her scent filled the small cab. When they arrived at the cruise ship, he managed to pull cash out of his wallet to pay, ignoring Alice’s protests.
She didn’t try to touch him again, but she hovered nearby until they reached the room. His head pounded and throwing up on her was becoming a real possibility. He’d have to go in the bathroom. Turn on the water.
But after she opened the door, Alice didn’t follow him in. “I’m going to go see if they have something for your headache.”
He nodded gratefully. It would be easier to drink, knowing she wasn’t only a wall away.
She disappeared down the hall, and the door shut behind her. Noah made his way into the bathroom, and reached for the conditioner bottle. He sucked greedily at it, feeling more than a little like a degenerate alcoholic seeking his next fix. After another couple of swigs for good measure, and with normalcy fast returning to him, he swung the bottle back and forth between his thumb and index finger. Its lightness told him everything he needed to know. He’d have to hunt at some point before this trip was over. Hunt, or risk losing control around the most tempting woman he’d ever been around. He couldn’t risk hurting her.
Hunting it would be.
After replacing the conditioner bottle, he sat down heavily on the bed and ran his hands over his hair. The afternoon was vague in his mind, but he remembered her scent, the feel of her soft hair on his face. God, he’d almost bitten her. Almost tasted her blood.
The thought made his fangs lengthen painfully in his mouth. He took a few deep, slow breaths. In and out. In and out.
A weight settled on his chest and it refused to move. His control had almost slipped. He could have hurt her. Disgust washed over him. What kind of vampire was he? Some infant who had just been turned? No. He had two centuries of practice. Two centuries during which he’d never lost control. And now, when it mattered the most, he’d failed.
Somewhere in his mind he knew that even if he had bitten her, he would have regained control fairly quickly after ingesting some of her blood. Just enough to counteract the effects of the sun poisoning. Her life was never really in danger, but any chance their shared future certainly had been.
That realization didn’t lessen the guilt weighing him down. That kind of experience would have not only blown any chance for them to have a future together, it might well have scarred her mentally.
And the likelihood that she would have even been willing to listen to his explanation after that? Zero. Shit. He’d come so close to blowing it.