81
At eight am my bedroom door opened and I groaned slightly as the curtains were pulled away from the windows to let in the sunlight.
“Shit Link it’s too early,” I said as I covered my eyes with my arm.
“It’s time to get up,” Megan said as I removed my arm and turned my head to look at her.
“What the fuck Megan,” I said as I realized I had only kept my briefs on last night to sleep in.
“Get up,” she said sternly, “or you don’t get coffee before we leave.”
“Geez okay,” I said as I stood up.
It was almost spring but chilly enough to still wear long sleeves with a light jacket. This was the first time Megan had seen me half naked but I wasn’t shy and I could feel her looking at me. I had a lot of tattoos on my arms and back and I was walking around in front of her in just my underwear.
“Are you going to watch me shower?” I asked her as I walked in to the bathroom.
“Boundaries Ryder!” she said loudly as she walked towards the bedroom door.
“You’re the one that sought me out!” I replied loudly as I heard the door close and I laughed to myself.
I showered quickly and got dressed. I found Megan in the living room with her notebook as I finally made an appearance. She turned to look at me blushing slightly before continuing writing something down.
“This is really sad you know,” she said to me.
“What?” I asked her looking around.
“I can’t believe you live like this! Especially as a Sire, you have an image to uphold,” she said to me.
“That’s why you’re here remember,” I said and she smiled.
“You need help,” she said and I laughed.
“Lead the way Miss Greer, today you are in total control,” I said.
“I love it when a man gives control over to me,” she said and I blinked as I looked at her in shock.
“I didn’t mean that!” she said loudly as she blushed while I laughed like a maniac.
We drove to Aurora since it was bigger than Princeton and Megan gave me a look when I stopped at the diner where she liked to do her assignments.
“I’m hungry,” I said as we climbed out of my truck.
“And I take it you don’t have food at home,” she said and I smiled guiltily.
“I have coffee,” I said as she shook her head.
“Grocery shopping added to the list,” she said as we walked inside and I headed for the booth at the back.
“You’re like my new best friend now,” I said as she laughed.
We ordered food and coffee and I sat watching her as she compiled a whole grocery list in her notebook. Every now and then she would glance to the side and she blushed again slightly when she realized I was staring at her.
“Don’t you two make a cute couple.” I sighed loudly as I recognized the voice and Megan’s eyes shot upwards.
“Hi Leana,” I said as she slid into the booth next to me. Without thinking I moved up closer to Megan to get away from her.
“What do you want?” Megan asked her pointedly, “we’re busy.” Our food arrived and Leana ordered a milkshake.
“Busy with?” she asked sweetly.
“Megan’s decorating our new house,” I said and put my arm around Megan’s shoulder.
Megan’s mouth opened and closed again as she looked at me in shock. Leana had basically choked on her own saliva as she stared at us.
“Your new house?” she asked.
“Yeah over in Princeton,” I said as Megan still looked like she was having a heart attack.
“Didn’t you just start that part time job at Princeton High School?” Leana asked her.
“Well now the secret’s out,” I said and kissed Megan on her cheek before focusing on my food.
“Oh wow look at the time, I need to run,” Leana said as she practically fell out of the booth and ran out of the diner.
“Ow!” I said as Megan started hitting me on my shoulder.
“What the hell was that about?” she asked me.
“You’re my friend right, friends protect each other and that thing was about to come sit on my lap,” I said defensively.
“She’s going to tell everyone that we’re a couple now!” she said.
“So? It’s just rumours, besides I don’t even live here anymore,” I said to her.
“Exactly!” she said.
“Are you really working in Princeton?” I asked her.
“Yes, I’m commuting there every day,” she said.
“That’s just stupid driving from Aurora every day,” I said to her.
“It’ll have to do for now, it’s only half day so the salary isn’t all that great,” she said.
“You should just move in with me,” I said as I looked at her.
“Are you insane? Can you imagine the rumours!” she said.
“You wouldn’t have to pay rent and there are plenty of bedrooms, you can even have your own floor,” I said to her.
“No ways!” she said to me.
“Just think about it, who else is going to look after me? Aren’t friends supposed to look out for each other?” I asked her and she started laughing.
We finished breakfast at the diner and then I let Megan take the reins. She dragged me to a dozen different shops and I left everything in her hands. She had walked through the whole house making notes on what I needed to fill it.
“You have to choose,” Megan said to me as we stood in one store.
“You have great taste, just pick what you want to,” I said to her as we looked at the televisions.
“It’s your house Ryder, you have to at least like the stuff in your house,” she argued.
“So far I’ve liked everything you’ve chosen,” I said to her and she threw her hands up in the air as she walked over to the salesman.
She chose a huge flat screen for the living room, a slightly smaller one for my bedroom and one for Link’s bedroom and then she chose other televisions for the guest bedrooms. She had picked out linen, towels, curtains, and I had just watched as she matched everything perfectly.
It was six pm by the time we walked out of the last store and she had opted to have everything delivered to the house in the next few days. Some of the smaller stuff like the kitchenware and appliances was on the back of my truck.
I had seen Leana a few times and it was clear that she was attempting to follow us and I only smiled because I knew she would spread that rumor as Megan showed me stuff and I nodded in approval as she shopped for me.
“I think I owe you dinner now,” I said to her as I drove back to Princeton. Her car was still at my house and I was starving as we drove back. I had no idea shopping could be so exhausting but then again I’d never done this before, only groceries and even that was irritating.
“This was fun, you really don’t owe me dinner,” she said with an easy smile on her face.
“I really do, I couldn’t have done this without you and thanks to you Link will stop bitching about the empty house,” I said to her.
“Okay fine, you twisted my rubber arm,” she said and I smiled in victory.
“What are you craving?” I asked her.
“Burgers,” she said without thinking.
I drove to a burger joint in Princeton and we found a booth that had just been vacated. The place was packed and I saw a few lair members that I had met and they greeted me heartily. I had told everyone to call me Ryder until everything was official.
“You seem really popular here,” she said as we sat down.
“They liked that I killed their previous Sire,” I said to her.
“You what?” she asked me.
“How do you think I became Sire here?” I asked her as I laughed slightly.
“I guess I thought … okay fine I didn’t think about it actually,” she said to me.
“He was a bad guy, tried to kill the Elders while we were there for a meeting. He was taxing his members seventy-five percent of their income,” I told her.
“That’s insane!” she said loudly.
“Right! I’m still going through all the books of the lair’s businesses and so on, but eventually I’ll get ahead and rectify things,” I said.
“I believe you would, you’re a good person and there’s nothing wrong with asking for help every now and then. You should get people to help you, people to work in the house too,” she said to me.
“You’d actually make a very good Drakaina you know that,” I said.
“I’m not so sure about that role but thank you for the vote of confidence,” she said with a shy smile.
We spent two more hours in that diner drinking beer and talking about our lives, our futures, our past, our families. We laughed a lot and I had to admit it was nice spending time with her, I never thought that I would but Megan had changed from the nerdy quiet girl in high school to a very self-assured young woman.
“We should leave, it looks like they want to close,” Megan said as she downed half of her beer.
“It is kind of late,” I said as I stood up and went to pay our bill.
Megan joined me at the counter and she hooked her arm into mine as we walked outside to my truck. I could tell she wasn’t used to drinking as she swayed a little and I opened the passenger door for her. I helped her into the truck and then buckled her in safely as she started laughing at me for some reason.
She fell asleep with her head on my shoulder five minutes after we left the diner. I parked the truck near the front door and unbuckled her safety belt. I grabbed a hold of her and picked her up, she shifted slightly to get more comfortable but she didn’t wake up once so I took her inside and put her down on my bed.
I lay awake next to her for the next hour, I had changed into sweatpants because she would really freak out if she woke up next to me and I was only in my underwear. I fell asleep with a smile on my face as she moved closer to me and put her arm over my stomach.
“Now this is nice,” Abeloth murmured in my head.
Log in with Google Account
Chapters
Favorite
Settings
