Page 46 of Don't Bite the Botanist
Tressa laughed and put the McLaren in park in front of Ray’s FoodPlace, a Fall River Mills staple that carried mostly groceries but also had a deli with ice cream. They’d made a quick stop at the compound for showers, and it was starting to feel like a reset on the day. Her second chance to try again and get him in the right mood to hear the truth.
Or, as Cora would say, it was time for take two.
“Oh, Ethan, my sweet Ethan,” she said, shaking her head. “You’re going to eat those words.”
“And they’ll probably taste better than any ice cream from this place.”
Tressa slapped his shoulder lightly and climbed out of the car. When Ethan didn’t immediately follow, she went around to his side and pulled the door open. Holding out a hand, she asked, “Do you trust me?”
Okay, so there might have been a little more weight to the words than there should be, but if he didn’t have enough faith in her to try the tiny ice cream place tucked in the back of the grocery store, she was really screwed when it came to the whole vamp thing.
Ethan stared at her for a moment, then placed his hand in hers. “With my life.”
A bolt of lightning shot through Tressa at his words. She could only send a prayer to Lilith that he still felt that way in an hour.
“In that case,” she said, tugging him from the car. “Let’s grab some of the best bubblegum ice cream you’ve ever had. Believe me, it’s life changing.”
When she felt Ethan freeze halfway out of the car, she turned around to see him gaping at her, mouth wide open.
Tressa tossed a glance over her shoulder, searching for the cause of his shock, then looked back to him. “Did I say something bad?”
He eyed her curiously, then shook his head as he finally unfolded his large frame from the tiny car. “I guess I’ve never met someone elsewho loved bubblegum ice cream before. Most people think it’s gross.”
Tressa put a hand to her chest in mock surprise. “Seriously? But it’s the best flavor.”
He nodded slowly. “I agree. In fact, uh…” He nudged his glasses up on his nose with his pinkie in quite possibly the most adorably innocent gesture Tressa had ever seen.
She ran her hands over his rounded shoulders, trying to get him to meet her gaze. “What?” she asked.
He finally looked up and caught her eyes. “I was just going to say I always thought you smelled a little like bubblegum.”
If vampire hearts could skip a beat, Tressa’s would be frolicking up and down main street. If only Ethan knew that he smelled like creamy vanilla ice cream to her. Together, they were an exquisite combination.
“Thank you,” she said, smiling. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“You should,” he replied with a lopsided grin. “I don’t like most super-sweet things, but bubblegum flavor is kind of my weakness.”
Tressa’s heart gave up on skipping and did a full on endzone victory dance. It took everything in her not to throw her entire plan out the window and prove to him right there what she was. Nobody who looked at her like that could possibly let something like a tiny pair of fangs come between them.
Shaking her head, she reminded herself that downtown Fall River Mills was probably not the best place for that revelation. The locals already gossiped that her cadre was probably some kind of cult. They respected their privacy because of the money they spent in the town, but if anyone overheard the word vampire, she imagined news vans would be on their doorstep by the evening.
Resisting the urge to say anything, she dragged him back toward the small in-store ice cream parlor that was going to blow Ethan’s mind.
Chapter twenty-six
Ethan
“I think I just died and went to heaven,” Ethan said before taking another long lick off his ice cream cone.
Laughing, Tressa slid into the driver’s seat of the McLaren. “I told you it was amazing.”
“And you were one hundred percent right,” he said, reminding himself to slow down or risk a brain freeze that might taint the otherwise divine experience.
Tressa paused with her cone to her lips and grinned. “So, what do I get for being right?”
Ethan swallowed his bite and dropped into the car. Shifting his attention over to Tressa, he tracked that mischievous gleam in her eyes. “What do you want?” he asked cautiously, trying and failing not to stare at her lips and the tiny bit of ice cream at the corner of her mouth that begged to be licked.
The only thing that held him back was the firm knowledge that combining the sweet creaminess of his favorite desert with the intoxicating taste of Tressa would shatter the last bit of willpower he’d been clinging to for dear life. One taste, and he’d be testing how easy it wasto fuck in a McLennan. Or was it a McLaven? Whatever the name of the fancy car was, he doubted the tiny seats were conducive to all the things he wanted to do to Tressa when he finally got his hands on her.
