“Well, we’d love to get to know you as well, Madison. Any friend of Nate’s is our friend as well.” Cooper’s expression gentled into a more genuine smile. “After all, Nate is an excellent judge of character,” he concluded, subtly pointing at himself.
Maddy couldn’t contain the laugh that startled out of her before they all dug in their food and beverages again.
***
“So let me get this straight,” Nate furrowed his brows in concentration. “This dude here, is a vampire warrior, who is also the head of a secret society of other vampire warriors, which is at war with another secret society of evil beings. They also all have secret powers, and in the middle of all that, the guy tries to help this woman who is caught up in all this, who is half-human half-vampire, but doesn’t know it, and who is also his true mate.”
They were at the bookstore as Nate had promised earlier after their run.
They’d left Liam and Cooper to their own devices after they’d all been done with the food and the chit chat. Maddy remembered herself smiling at Cooper’s threatening “Don’t be a stranger,” and Liam’s rolling of his eyes and shaking of his head. She was smiling a lot these days.
Now, they’d been browsing the shelves of the bookstore for the last hour before her eyes had settled on an old favorite and a few potential new options.
Nothing beat the feel of a bookshop. It was in the smell of new pages, in that sweet, vanilla fragrance that welcomed her every time she went through that door and followed her in her perusal of the covers and the spines, in that sense of endless possibilities that accompanied the hundreds of stories just lying in waiting.
Maddy couldn’t hide the look of awe on her face. At Nate, as much as the bookshop.
“I couldn’t have described it better. No seriously,” she said, eyeing Nate’s skeptical expression. “I basically forget the plot of almost every book I read minutes after I’m done with it.” She turned her attention towards the cover of the book again. “But this was a good one and the first of series. It’s a good place to start if you like something paranormal with romance and action mixed in it,” she continued absentmindedly.
Nate had been remarkably relaxed during their whole stay in the shop. She snuck a few covert glances now and then to make sure he wasn’t bored out of his mind but he seemed to be perfectly at ease. He never rushed her and he actually seemed to scan the different books and genres with an air of mild interest. A green flag in her book.
“Okay, I’ll give it a try then.” Nate’s words didn’t fully register until a few seconds later.
“Oh no, I was just speaking in general. You don’t have to read it if you don’t want to.”
Nate peered into her eyes with a look much more serious than the situation demanded.
“Do I look to you like someone who would do anything unless they actually wanted to?”
“I-I suppose not,” Maddy stuttered.Why was she stuttering?
“Besides,” he went on, an evil look on his face, “I’m curious to see the kind of book that you would like.”
Okay, she had not thought this through. At all. There were quite a few R-rated moments in there she could think of. But you know what? She decided that the best defense was offense.
“Be my guest. I have to warn you though. It might get a little bit too smutty for you there. You might even blush.” She smiled innocently.
Nate’s dark laugh would have tasted like delicious caramel.
“Don’t worry, Madison,” Nate said in a low voice that made her heart skip a beat. “I’m sure I can handle it just fine.”
Maddy’s soft exhale left her suddenly dizzy.
She just bet he could.
They went back to looking around, Maddy unconsciously touching the spines of a few hardcover books, loving the feel of them under her fingers.
“So, why books, Mads?”
Nate’s casual question made her pause her fingers.
That was a very reasonable question, but not one she could answer all that easily.
Maddy took a deep breath and let it out slowly, letting her hand drop.
“Because they never let me feel what loneliness is supposed to feel like,” she said, looking at him simply. Nate’s focus seemed to be solely on her and it was heady, having someone listen to her every word. No interruptions, just because they wanted to.
“I discovered books very early, my strained eyesight can probably attest to that,” she chuckled softly. “They were my everyday companions. My parents read them to me as fairy tales every night, and when I was old enough to read well myself, I picked up everything I found interesting. They were my friends when people disappointed me, they were my refuge when my feelings felt too much, and they were my entertainment, my escape when I wanted to be everywhere while staying at home,” she paused for a moment, smiling to herself. “They were always there because they are just stories waiting to be read and I loved that.”
