Silence stretched between them for so long, Alice thought she might have made the suggestion too late.
“Why are you watching every penny?” Bast finally asked.
“No.” She smiled but fought back her embarrassment. Of all the things for him to have overheard, figured it would have been that. “I meant you should talk about you. You do the talking. Not me.”
He didn’t seem to like that idea. “Turn here.”
Great. So neither of them would be doing any talking. Suited her just fine.
The neighborhood he’d guided her to was straight out of a magazine. One minute they were cruising a road full of businesses and retail shops, and the next they’d entered a virtual millionaire’s row. Streetlamps lit the road, precisely placed in between tall oak trees and other trees she couldn’t name. Even in the dark she noticed that not one of the houses had a blade of grass out of place. The sculpted topiaries must have been the envy of gardeners everywhere. Spotlights illuminated hand-tended gardens and expensive statues. Unlike in her old neighborhood, where cars were parked on cinderblocks in driveways, here the few vehicles she did see were parked in large circular drives behind scalloped fences. No chained Rottweilers or bulldogs barking their fool heads off. No burglar bars.
Alice lifted her foot from the gas, bringing the luxury sports vehicle to a more respectable crawl. “Where are we going?”
“Sixth house on the left.”
Her heart sped up as she pulled into the drive he’d indicated. The car paused at the closed gate, and she was just about to turn to him when the gate slowly began to open. Some sort of sensor, perhaps? Nice.
Bast’s house was down a cobbled drive, set far away from the street. The two-story home was surrounded by manicured bushes, the red bricks highlighted by decorative lighting. What she could see of the molding guaranteed someone had an eye for detail. Every one of the double-paned windows had a spotlight shining against its panes. The bushes beneath each of them had been trimmed to ankle high. Definitely someone taking precautions with safety there.
He reached for a button on the rearview mirror then pushed it. The door to an attached three-car garage lifted slowly, and Alice pointed the Ferrari into it. Two additional cars, one a late-model Benz, the other some foreign number she didn’t recognize, already waited inside.
Turning off the engine once parked, she felt assaulted by the sudden silence.
Bast didn’t wait for her to ask what next?—the words poised on her lips—before exiting the vehicle. Nor did he bother to wait for her when he entered the house through a side door, his gait unsteady.
Ingrate.
So, she could sit here and wait for an invitation not likely to be extended. She could walk back down the drive then find her way back to a homeless shelter, assuming any would have an open bed left. Or, she could just follow him in and see what happened next, satisfying her raging curiosity. Maybe even wrangle a meal out of her host, since the doughnut had gone the way of the wind a while ago. Hell, she didn’t remember when she’d even lost it. Bast might consider a financial donation and if he didn’t, maybe she could find one worth borrowing until she could pay him back.
She sighed.
Yeah. Like this would be a tough decision to make.
* * *
Bast couldn’t remember the last time he’d felt like this. Correction. He’d never felt like this. Like something the dog threw up.
His stomach ached. A gnawing, crawling pang that started at the center and then radiated outward. From there it traveled at a snail’s pace, covering his torso, then limbs. Like a creeper vine, except on the inside.
And the hunger?
Christ, every time he came to his senses, all he could focus on was that thick, sweet scent of human. His ears tuned in to the slow knocks of her heart. Each time it sped up, he had to chew on the inside of his cheek to keep from lunging after her.
He’d never been this out of control in his life. Not once in almost four hundred years.
Bringing her here was such a bad idea. The thought of letting her go, even worse. He needed sex and to be fed but was getting neither, and planned on acting like it didn’t matter.
Bast snorted. Who the fuck did he think he was kidding?