Life With An English Noble
By: Wizardtho
Chapter 2:
I took another drag from my cigarette, then a sip of my drink, reluctantly starting the tale I never wanted to tell. "It all started in the middle of my junior year of high school. Renee had married Phil, but with his away game schedule, she was becoming depressed and lonely. I could see her practically vibrating with want, because she craved so much to travel with him... yet she stayed because of me. When she first started seeing Phil, she became more active in my life... sort of a best friend instead of me being the mother, as I had been to her since I was 11 and could balance a checkbook. She started taking over the bills again, along with making sure there was food in the house, but I still did the cooking and cleaning. She was flighty, often going from one new idea to the next before you could turn your head. There were many times that I had to stop her from dangerous ideas."
I shook my head, let out a breath, then took another drag off my cigarette before sipping my drink. "Anyway, back to the story. I saw how lonely she would get, even with me there, when Phil would be away. That led me to convincing them that I wanted to uproot my life and move to dreary, rainy Forks, Washington in the middle of my junior year. We were living in Phoenix at the time, so you can guess how drastic the weather change was for me. They didn't move here until a month later, when Phil was offered a major league spot. When I got off the plane, Charlie -my dad- was waiting for me. I had spent 2 weeks every summer with him since I was little. Now I was moving in permanently, with the whole population of Forks and La Push knowing within 24 hours of me calling him to say I was coming. It was hell on earth my first day of school. I hated the attention, the looks, the shiny new toy excitement everyone seemed to have. I used to be a danger magnet... extremely clumsy. I literally would find a way to trip over thin air -on a totally flat surface- on a daily basis."
I chuckled, shaking my head at his endearing smile, then continued, "I noticed them at lunch my first day. They were the untouchables... the beautiful people you could look at but never get close to. The school gossip girl told me all she thought she knew about them during lunch, but it was the bronze-haired Adonis who caught my attention. According to the rumor mill, no one in Forks was good enough for him."
Another laugh, this one more condescending, which garnered a raised eyebrow from him. "I ended up in the same biology class as him right after lunch. He had such a look of hate as the fan blew my hair around, but I couldn't for the life of me figure out what I had done to piss him off. Of course, I was assigned to sit right next to him, at the same lab table. At one point, I even tried to covertly smell my hair, to make sure it didn't stink. If I'd only known what the real reason was. He didn't come back for over a week. At first I was upset and hurt, then I just got pissed. His family would give me looks every day, but never say anything to me. That’s when I decided I would confront him on what the hell his deal was.”
He gave me a small smile to let me know he was still with me, so I said, “Before I got the chance, my danger magnet kicked in. It had been really icy, and I was standing at the back of my truck. One of my classmates had taken a turn too fast, unknowingly hitting a patch of black ice in the process. His van was coming right at me, when I looked up across the parking lot to see Edward with a horror-struck expression. My head whipped around in time to see the van, but before I could react, Edward had me shielded with his body on the ground. See... come to find out, he only saved me because I was his singer. If my blood would have spilled, he would have exposed them all."
Professor Wakefeld's eyes widened in recognition of what I meant, so I nodded with a sad smile. "I was taken to the hospital, where Carlisle tended to me. After that, Edward would talk to me, but say that it was better if we didn't. He was a constant contradiction. It was such a constant back and forth at one point, that I told him his mood swings would end up giving me whiplash. Soon a few of my classmates wanted to go dress shopping in Port Angeles for a dance, so I went with them because they wanted my opinion. I got bored quickly, wanting to go to a book store for a Quileute legends book. Jake, my dad's best friend's son, had told me a scary story/legend about his people being descended from wolves… about how their purpose was to kill cold ones who threatened their land. They were protectors of their people. The funny thing was, the only part that stuck at the time, was the cold one bit."
I got more comfortable in my seat as Professor Wakefeld chuckled slightly, then shuddered at the remembrance of what came next, "So after I left the bookstore, my magnet reared its head again, causing me to get turned around and lose my way. I ended up in a dark abandoned warehouse area, being followed by some really bad characters. Edward saved me before they could rape me, but on the way to let my friends know I was okay, our hands touched. Even with the heat going full blast, his hands were colder than ice. That's when I started putting the pieces together. Through hours of internet research, disobeying the mainstream, and the Quileute legends book, I figured out what they were.”
“I confronted him, but he expected me to run away screaming. Hindsight's 20/20, right? Anyway, we started seeing each other, and he introduced me to his family. Alice and I were best friends right off the bat, while Esme and Carlisle were like the parents I always wanted but never had. I grew attached... too attached. One night it was going to storm, so they took me to watch them play baseball. Three nomads, hearing the noise, came to investigate. The leader -James- called me a snack, causing Edward to react. That just got James even more interested. He was a sadistic tracker that liked to torture and play with his victims before he drained them."
I took another long sip of my drink, finished the little left of my cigarette, then stubbed it out before continuing. "He thought I was his most exciting game in a long while, since the family stood against him, so the they made a plan. Alice and Jasper ran me south to a hotel near the Phoenix airport. The rest of the family tried making a decoy and tracking James, to dispose of him before he could get to me. He caught on, though, then tracked me to Phoenix. He called my cell, stating he had my mother... that wouldn't hurt her as long as I got away from the Cullens and turned myself over to him. He was at a ballet studio I took lessons at as a kid. I miraculously ditched Alice and Jasper at the airport -not an easy task with an empath and a seer- while we were waiting for the rest of the family to arrive. He didn't have my mother, though... it was just a tape of her frantically calling out for me when I fell during one of the ballet lessons she was taping. He tossed me into the wall of mirrors, fractured a few ribs, stomped on my leg, snapping the bone like a twig, then almost severed my femoral artery before biting my wrist, here..."
I held my wrist out to him, lifting my Quileute white and yellow gold charm cuff out of the way. Professor Wakefeld gasped, looking at me in alarm before I said sadly, "Edward got there just in time to rip him off of me. The burn had started by the time Carlisle reached me. Emmett, Alice and Jasper finished off James as Edward rushed to my side. Edward was determined that I not be changed, even though the process had begun. He sucked out the venom-tainted blood, breaking my heart in the process. I loved him by then... wanted to be with him as equals. He stayed with me at night, and by then, the only times we weren't together, were when he was hunting or going to retrieve his car. His family had become my world, but in the end, that world literally came crashing down around me in broken shards of glass."
I took another long sip of my drink, then sighed. "My summer and the start of senior year were good, then my birthday came around. I begged them to act as if it was just another day, but Alice insisted, stating that they never got to celebrate them anymore. It was a fucking disaster, to say the least. Even though Edward had been conquering his blood lust successfully, even bandaging some of my cuts himself without the slightest change in eye color, one tiny paper cut ended my world. He growled, Jasper snapped his head around, then it all went to hell from there. Edward made it look like he was protecting me from Jasper, who was the newest to the diet, and an empath to boot. I knew the truth, though. Jasper was going for Edward, not me. Edward threw me back -in his possessiveness- into a glass table, full of even more glass plates and drinking glasses. This... this was the birthday present I'll never be able to return."
I showed him the long scar on my inner forearm. "Emmett and the rest got them both out of the house, then Carlisle cleaned out all the glass shards and stitched me up. Days later, Edward asked me to take a walk with him, after not showing up at school all that time. He always told me never to go in the woods alone -that he wasn't the only dangerous creature out there- yet he walked me into those very same woods, then left me standing there... alone. After telling me he was sick of pretending, he didn't want me anymore, that I was just a distraction and not good enough for him... he just took off, leaving me there. I tried to go after him, but wandered too far... couldn't find my way back with the rain. I was lost in the rain for more than 10 hours, until the pack leader of the Quileute wolves found me and brought me home. I didn't know until the next day that that's what he was, though. Jake, the friend I told you about... he got so pissed when I was explaining the vampire-free version of what happened, that he phased for the first time in front of me. Needless to say, they explained it all to me then and there. They took me under their collective wing from that point on."
After taking a few calming breaths, I said, "Two weeks later, I had found the meadow Edward always took me to. I was saying my goodbye, as well as making sure it was all real, when the other male of the three nomads found me. His name was Laurent. He said he was there as a favor to Victoria, the female of the three. When everything first went down with James, Laurent had said he was going to visit the Denali clan to try the veggie lifestyle, but his eyes were bright red when he found me in the meadow. By then they should have been at least tinged orange, since he supposedly went right before Alice and Jasper took me to Phoenix. Anyway, he said it was a good thing he found me instead of Victoria, because he would make it quick. Apparently, she was out for a mate-for-mate vendetta, since the Cullens killed James."
He let out a breath, “Jesus, Isa.”
I nodded, "Yep. The wolves saved me when he was less than half an inch from my throat... but not before he told me that Victoria had already started her revenge. Exactly 2 weeks later, I got the call that Renee and Phil had been killed in a home invasion/murder. Jacob and Charlie -my dad- went with me as moral support... to ID the bodies, as well as deal with the funeral preparations. As soon as we walked into the house, Jacob snatched me back, then pulled me into a hug as cover for telling me a vampire scent was in the house, but not ‘that day’ fresh. That's when I knew Victoria was behind it. He confirmed that it was same scent that had been skirting the borders of Forks and La Push. She hadn't found a way around them, so she went for my mom and Phil, who were unprotected.”
I couldn't even look up at him as I said softly, “Exactly one month later... two months to the day that Edward left me in the woods... my dad was out with some of the hunters in the woods, looking for large bears that had been spotted too close to town. In reality, one of the wolves had been spotted when making his rounds around the woods near Charlie's. They were doing it to protect me, and Charlie ended up leading the search for the 'dangerous bears'. There were too many hunters out for the wolves to effectively keep all of them safe while staying out of sight, causing Charlie to get lost in the scheme of things."
I took a long drink of my glass, trying to rid myself of the lump in my throat. It didn't work as effectively as I hoped, causing it to show in my voice when I continued. "Victoria killed him. It was listed as a brutal animal attack. She evaded the wolves, then one year to the day Edward left me, she made her appearance again. This time she wasn't alone. She had 10 newborn vampires with her, and from the clothing of mine she stole from the house, they all had my scent. With so many vampires near Quileute territory, more of the descendents were phasing... becoming tribe protectors. The wolves won the battle, but they lost a young one in the process. When in wolf form, they're mind-linked, communicating quite effectively in that manner. When a brother wolf is lost to the collective mind, it's like a piece of them is missing... ripped away."
My breath caught in my throat, but I shoved it aside, saying softly, "They mourned Seth's death, wailing in the night, for a week straight. I had been having nightmares since Renee and Phil's deaths, but having four deaths on my hands... I made up my mind that I wouldn't risk anymore. I would not let them lose another brother in the process of trying to save me from the next vampire to suddenly decided I was to be their meal-of-the-day. I locked up the Forks house, made my explanations, then moved here with the promise to keep in touch. I figured bright sunny Jacksonville would be a deterrent for vamps, but low and behold, I have to run into them if they're in the vicinity. I'm sorry about my first reaction to you, by the way. It was your eyes. The shade of gold they were that day reminded me of Carlisle's, and I was already so frustrated, that I couldn't handle it... so I ran."
I curled my feet under me before asking, "What would you like more info on? I know you must have at least a few million questions."
He nodded, smiling slightly, “The whole Cullen coven left you, to deal with it alone, after they let you into their world?”
I nodded, "Yep... yet you'd figure with Alice's visions, she would have seen Charlie being killed, me almost being chomped on by Laurant, or Phil and Renee being killed. Something... anything. She never once tried to warn me, though. Even with the vampire army of Victoria's, she didn't write, call, text, nothing... not even a fuck you."
He shook his head, "Unbelievable. I've never known Carlisle to be so remiss, especially after he takes someone in. He knows the laws as much as anyone, if not more."
I nodded and chuckled cynically, then said dramatically, "Ooh... I know this one. Humans must never know of your existence. If they do, they must immediately be turned and guided or killed." He shook his head at my dramatic recitation, then chuckled, "Yes, Isa. That is the number one rule. It seems you have done quite well in hiding your knowledge of the supernatural. I never would have suspected you knew."
Just then the weight of everything settled in, causing tears to sting my eyes. I went to swipe at the traitorous drops, but his cool hand stopped me, gently tracing his thumb under my eyes. My eyes met his, as he whispered, “Please don't cry, Sweetheart.”
I closed my eyes and could feel a pleasant warm tingle run down my spine... until he removed his hand, causing a loss of contact. I took his hand, laid it gently against my cheek, then instantly I felt the tingle again. When I opened my eyes, he was looking at me questioningly. I shook my head, letting his hand go in the process, "It's nothing. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done tha..."
He stopped my babbling with two fingers pressed lightly to my lips, making the pleasant tingle come back, "Hey, none of that. Now tell me the real reason... please?"
I took another drag from my cigarette, then a sip of my drink, reluctantly starting the tale I never wanted to tell. "It all started in the middle of my junior year of high school. Renee had married Phil, but with his away game schedule, she was becoming depressed and lonely. I could see her practically vibrating with want, because she craved so much to travel with him... yet she stayed because of me. When she first started seeing Phil, she became more active in my life... sort of a best friend instead of me being the mother, as I had been to her since I was 11 and could balance a checkbook. She started taking over the bills again, along with making sure there was food in the house, but I still did the cooking and cleaning. She was flighty, often going from one new idea to the next before you could turn your head. There were many times that I had to stop her from dangerous ideas."
I shook my head, let out a breath, then took another drag off my cigarette before sipping my drink. "Anyway, back to the story. I saw how lonely she would get, even with me there, when Phil would be away. That led me to convincing them that I wanted to uproot my life and move to dreary, rainy Forks, Washington in the middle of my junior year. We were living in Phoenix at the time, so you can guess how drastic the weather change was for me. They didn't move here until a month later, when Phil was offered a major league spot. When I got off the plane, Charlie -my dad- was waiting for me. I had spent 2 weeks every summer with him since I was little. Now I was moving in permanently, with the whole population of Forks and La Push knowing within 24 hours of me calling him to say I was coming. It was hell on earth my first day of school. I hated the attention, the looks, the shiny new toy excitement everyone seemed to have. I used to be a danger magnet... extremely clumsy. I literally would find a way to trip over thin air -on a totally flat surface- on a daily basis."
I chuckled, shaking my head at his endearing smile, then continued, "I noticed them at lunch my first day. They were the untouchables... the beautiful people you could look at but never get close to. The school gossip girl told me all she thought she knew about them during lunch, but it was the bronze-haired Adonis who caught my attention. According to the rumor mill, no one in Forks was good enough for him."
Another laugh, this one more condescending, which garnered a raised eyebrow from him. "I ended up in the same biology class as him right after lunch. He had such a look of hate as the fan blew my hair around, but I couldn't for the life of me figure out what I had done to piss him off. Of course, I was assigned to sit right next to him, at the same lab table. At one point, I even tried to covertly smell my hair, to make sure it didn't stink. If I'd only known what the real reason was. He didn't come back for over a week. At first I was upset and hurt, then I just got pissed. His family would give me looks every day, but never say anything to me. That’s when I decided I would confront him on what the hell his deal was.”
He gave me a small smile to let me know he was still with me, so I said, “Before I got the chance, my danger magnet kicked in. It had been really icy, and I was standing at the back of my truck. One of my classmates had taken a turn too fast, unknowingly hitting a patch of black ice in the process. His van was coming right at me, when I looked up across the parking lot to see Edward with a horror-struck expression. My head whipped around in time to see the van, but before I could react, Edward had me shielded with his body on the ground. See... come to find out, he only saved me because I was his singer. If my blood would have spilled, he would have exposed them all."
Professor Wakefeld's eyes widened in recognition of what I meant, so I nodded with a sad smile. "I was taken to the hospital, where Carlisle tended to me. After that, Edward would talk to me, but say that it was better if we didn't. He was a constant contradiction. It was such a constant back and forth at one point, that I told him his mood swings would end up giving me whiplash. Soon a few of my classmates wanted to go dress shopping in Port Angeles for a dance, so I went with them because they wanted my opinion. I got bored quickly, wanting to go to a book store for a Quileute legends book. Jake, my dad's best friend's son, had told me a scary story/legend about his people being descended from wolves… about how their purpose was to kill cold ones who threatened their land. They were protectors of their people. The funny thing was, the only part that stuck at the time, was the cold one bit."
I got more comfortable in my seat as Professor Wakefeld chuckled slightly, then shuddered at the remembrance of what came next, "So after I left the bookstore, my magnet reared its head again, causing me to get turned around and lose my way. I ended up in a dark abandoned warehouse area, being followed by some really bad characters. Edward saved me before they could rape me, but on the way to let my friends know I was okay, our hands touched. Even with the heat going full blast, his hands were colder than ice. That's when I started putting the pieces together. Through hours of internet research, disobeying the mainstream, and the Quileute legends book, I figured out what they were.”
“I confronted him, but he expected me to run away screaming. Hindsight's 20/20, right? Anyway, we started seeing each other, and he introduced me to his family. Alice and I were best friends right off the bat, while Esme and Carlisle were like the parents I always wanted but never had. I grew attached... too attached. One night it was going to storm, so they took me to watch them play baseball. Three nomads, hearing the noise, came to investigate. The leader -James- called me a snack, causing Edward to react. That just got James even more interested. He was a sadistic tracker that liked to torture and play with his victims before he drained them."
I took another long sip of my drink, finished the little left of my cigarette, then stubbed it out before continuing. "He thought I was his most exciting game in a long while, since the family stood against him, so the they made a plan. Alice and Jasper ran me south to a hotel near the Phoenix airport. The rest of the family tried making a decoy and tracking James, to dispose of him before he could get to me. He caught on, though, then tracked me to Phoenix. He called my cell, stating he had my mother... that wouldn't hurt her as long as I got away from the Cullens and turned myself over to him. He was at a ballet studio I took lessons at as a kid. I miraculously ditched Alice and Jasper at the airport -not an easy task with an empath and a seer- while we were waiting for the rest of the family to arrive. He didn't have my mother, though... it was just a tape of her frantically calling out for me when I fell during one of the ballet lessons she was taping. He tossed me into the wall of mirrors, fractured a few ribs, stomped on my leg, snapping the bone like a twig, then almost severed my femoral artery before biting my wrist, here..."
I held my wrist out to him, lifting my Quileute white and yellow gold charm cuff out of the way. Professor Wakefeld gasped, looking at me in alarm before I said sadly, "Edward got there just in time to rip him off of me. The burn had started by the time Carlisle reached me. Emmett, Alice and Jasper finished off James as Edward rushed to my side. Edward was determined that I not be changed, even though the process had begun. He sucked out the venom-tainted blood, breaking my heart in the process. I loved him by then... wanted to be with him as equals. He stayed with me at night, and by then, the only times we weren't together, were when he was hunting or going to retrieve his car. His family had become my world, but in the end, that world literally came crashing down around me in broken shards of glass."
I took another long sip of my drink, then sighed. "My summer and the start of senior year were good, then my birthday came around. I begged them to act as if it was just another day, but Alice insisted, stating that they never got to celebrate them anymore. It was a fucking disaster, to say the least. Even though Edward had been conquering his blood lust successfully, even bandaging some of my cuts himself without the slightest change in eye color, one tiny paper cut ended my world. He growled, Jasper snapped his head around, then it all went to hell from there. Edward made it look like he was protecting me from Jasper, who was the newest to the diet, and an empath to boot. I knew the truth, though. Jasper was going for Edward, not me. Edward threw me back -in his possessiveness- into a glass table, full of even more glass plates and drinking glasses. This... this was the birthday present I'll never be able to return."
I showed him the long scar on my inner forearm. "Emmett and the rest got them both out of the house, then Carlisle cleaned out all the glass shards and stitched me up. Days later, Edward asked me to take a walk with him, after not showing up at school all that time. He always told me never to go in the woods alone -that he wasn't the only dangerous creature out there- yet he walked me into those very same woods, then left me standing there... alone. After telling me he was sick of pretending, he didn't want me anymore, that I was just a distraction and not good enough for him... he just took off, leaving me there. I tried to go after him, but wandered too far... couldn't find my way back with the rain. I was lost in the rain for more than 10 hours, until the pack leader of the Quileute wolves found me and brought me home. I didn't know until the next day that that's what he was, though. Jake, the friend I told you about... he got so pissed when I was explaining the vampire-free version of what happened, that he phased for the first time in front of me. Needless to say, they explained it all to me then and there. They took me under their collective wing from that point on."
After taking a few calming breaths, I said, "Two weeks later, I had found the meadow Edward always took me to. I was saying my goodbye, as well as making sure it was all real, when the other male of the three nomads found me. His name was Laurent. He said he was there as a favor to Victoria, the female of the three. When everything first went down with James, Laurent had said he was going to visit the Denali clan to try the veggie lifestyle, but his eyes were bright red when he found me in the meadow. By then they should have been at least tinged orange, since he supposedly went right before Alice and Jasper took me to Phoenix. Anyway, he said it was a good thing he found me instead of Victoria, because he would make it quick. Apparently, she was out for a mate-for-mate vendetta, since the Cullens killed James."
He let out a breath, “Jesus, Isa.”
I nodded, "Yep. The wolves saved me when he was less than half an inch from my throat... but not before he told me that Victoria had already started her revenge. Exactly 2 weeks later, I got the call that Renee and Phil had been killed in a home invasion/murder. Jacob and Charlie -my dad- went with me as moral support... to ID the bodies, as well as deal with the funeral preparations. As soon as we walked into the house, Jacob snatched me back, then pulled me into a hug as cover for telling me a vampire scent was in the house, but not ‘that day’ fresh. That's when I knew Victoria was behind it. He confirmed that it was same scent that had been skirting the borders of Forks and La Push. She hadn't found a way around them, so she went for my mom and Phil, who were unprotected.”
I couldn't even look up at him as I said softly, “Exactly one month later... two months to the day that Edward left me in the woods... my dad was out with some of the hunters in the woods, looking for large bears that had been spotted too close to town. In reality, one of the wolves had been spotted when making his rounds around the woods near Charlie's. They were doing it to protect me, and Charlie ended up leading the search for the 'dangerous bears'. There were too many hunters out for the wolves to effectively keep all of them safe while staying out of sight, causing Charlie to get lost in the scheme of things."
I took a long drink of my glass, trying to rid myself of the lump in my throat. It didn't work as effectively as I hoped, causing it to show in my voice when I continued. "Victoria killed him. It was listed as a brutal animal attack. She evaded the wolves, then one year to the day Edward left me, she made her appearance again. This time she wasn't alone. She had 10 newborn vampires with her, and from the clothing of mine she stole from the house, they all had my scent. With so many vampires near Quileute territory, more of the descendents were phasing... becoming tribe protectors. The wolves won the battle, but they lost a young one in the process. When in wolf form, they're mind-linked, communicating quite effectively in that manner. When a brother wolf is lost to the collective mind, it's like a piece of them is missing... ripped away."
My breath caught in my throat, but I shoved it aside, saying softly, "They mourned Seth's death, wailing in the night, for a week straight. I had been having nightmares since Renee and Phil's deaths, but having four deaths on my hands... I made up my mind that I wouldn't risk anymore. I would not let them lose another brother in the process of trying to save me from the next vampire to suddenly decided I was to be their meal-of-the-day. I locked up the Forks house, made my explanations, then moved here with the promise to keep in touch. I figured bright sunny Jacksonville would be a deterrent for vamps, but low and behold, I have to run into them if they're in the vicinity. I'm sorry about my first reaction to you, by the way. It was your eyes. The shade of gold they were that day reminded me of Carlisle's, and I was already so frustrated, that I couldn't handle it... so I ran."
I curled my feet under me before asking, "What would you like more info on? I know you must have at least a few million questions."
He nodded, smiling slightly, “The whole Cullen coven left you, to deal with it alone, after they let you into their world?”
I nodded, "Yep... yet you'd figure with Alice's visions, she would have seen Charlie being killed, me almost being chomped on by Laurant, or Phil and Renee being killed. Something... anything. She never once tried to warn me, though. Even with the vampire army of Victoria's, she didn't write, call, text, nothing... not even a fuck you."
He shook his head, "Unbelievable. I've never known Carlisle to be so remiss, especially after he takes someone in. He knows the laws as much as anyone, if not more."
I nodded and chuckled cynically, then said dramatically, "Ooh... I know this one. Humans must never know of your existence. If they do, they must immediately be turned and guided or killed." He shook his head at my dramatic recitation, then chuckled, "Yes, Isa. That is the number one rule. It seems you have done quite well in hiding your knowledge of the supernatural. I never would have suspected you knew."
Just then the weight of everything settled in, causing tears to sting my eyes. I went to swipe at the traitorous drops, but his cool hand stopped me, gently tracing his thumb under my eyes. My eyes met his, as he whispered, “Please don't cry, Sweetheart.”
I closed my eyes and could feel a pleasant warm tingle run down my spine... until he removed his hand, causing a loss of contact. I took his hand, laid it gently against my cheek, then instantly I felt the tingle again. When I opened my eyes, he was looking at me questioningly. I shook my head, letting his hand go in the process, "It's nothing. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done tha..."
He stopped my babbling with two fingers pressed lightly to my lips, making the pleasant tingle come back, "Hey, none of that. Now tell me the real reason... please?"