As she stared back into Vincent's coppery-red eyes, Eve felt her heart race. Time seemed to have stood still between the two. She wondered if she had imagined what he said. He hovered in front of her as if waiting for his words to sink.
She wasn't naive to not understand what he meant, but she stared at him with doubt instead of welcoming his words.
"You wound me... looking at me with distrusting eyes, little girl," one corner of Vincent's lips subtly curled. He picked up a piece of her golden blonde hair resting on her back, feeling the length and placing it in front of her shoulder.
The action was delicate, and it had Eve's heart skip another beat while neither of them looked away from the other.
"I don't think anyone can change their feelings in such a short time. Especially someone who rejected me firmly," Eve breathed the words.
The look in Vincent's eyes softened and he said, "You are right. These feelings that you have evoked, they are something I am not familiar with. Because there were feelings that was built over the time for you, where we spent time with each other, and some apart."
"What made you change your mind?" Eve asked him cautiously, and Vincent held her chin, caressing her jawline with his thumb.
Vincent moved closer than they already stood, his face descending near hers where he whispered against her lips, "I have been looking for you like a madman, tearing the place down to find you. What makes you think I would do it for someone I care less if they are alive or dead?"
Eve's lips trembled, her eyes lowered on his parted lips. Now that he was here, her heart betrayed her and skipped for him, the hurt she had felt last week hadn't disappeared. She was scared to take a step forward, and the pureblooded vampire saw it.
Vincent didn't lie when he said that he had looked for her everywhere, without sleep, but the same couldn't be said about his thirst for blood, mixed with the frustration of not finding Eve. He had sunk his fangs in people more than he usually did, drinking until he was satisfied. The woman didn't know how she made him feel. Right now, she looked at him with a guarded expression.
"I didn't catch you before, but I promise that when you let yourself fall this time, I will be there to catch you," Vincent promised her, and his fingers caressed her jaw before settling on one side of her neck.
Wanting to poke Vincent the way he often did to her, Eve decided to ask him, "What if my feelings have been occupied by someone else?" It took less than a second for her to notice annoyance enter his eyes before they darkened.
He moved his face against the side of her face such that his lips were next to her ear and whispered, "My Eve, if I were you I would refrain from making up things that are untrue. Your heart gives away to how you feel about me. Even if they were true, let us hope you don't have a name unless you hate to see the person not live."
Vincent pulled his lips away from next to her ear and met her gaze again. There was a controlled temper that Eve knew if she went to touch it, it would burn her.
When someone knocked on the door, Eve turned to look at it and heard Lady Paloma's voice, "Eve dear?"
Eve used her hands to push Vincent's chest and said, "You should go now. I am going to open the door."
"We aren't done talking, nor have you started packing," Vincent stated.
"I am not going anywhere but staying here in Berkshire," Eve replied to him in a low voice. After what happened, she couldn't go back to Meadow or anywhere near it.
Watching her walk away from him, Vincent said, "Don't ignore me, Eve."
Lady Paloma, who stood on the other side of the locked door, waited for Eve to respond or open the door.
Vincent's eyes narrowed in slight agitation and not liking Eve ignoring him. Before Eve's hand could reach for the doorknob and turn, he caught hold of her hand and turned her around. Pushing her against the door, he pressed both her hands on either side of her head against the surface of the door. A piece of her hair had come to hover in front of her face, resting diagonally from one side and its end falling above her lips.
"Eve? Are you alright? I heard some sound against the wall in my room," Lady Paloma questioned, as seconds had passed and the young woman hadn't answered her.
"Ah, yes, Lady Paloma. I was checking something on the wall," Eve answered the woman before glaring at Vincent and whispered to him, "I need to open the door," her eyes widened, knowing it was only a door that separated them and the woman behind the wooden piece.
"That can wait. Where were we? Yes, about you and me," Vincent asked her as if they had all-time in the world.
"On the wall?" Lady Paloma asked, confused.
Eve couldn't concentrate on Vincent's words or the woman behind the door as she could feel his hands holding her wrists firmly and leaned forward, bringing his handsome face in front of hers.
"I am not going back to Meadow with you," Eve said in a low voice.
"You don't have to stay there long. Just a week. After that you will stay in Skellington, where you will never be out of my sight," Vincent blew the air on Eve's lips, for the piece of her hair to move away from her lips. This raised goosebumps on her skin and blood rushed up her neck, coming to settle on her cheeks. He said,
"We can do this as long as you want, but you and I both know what's going to happen. If chase is what you seek, I shall give it to you, my beloved little girl. But trust my words, you will burn more than me."
