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"Yeah" He smiled crookedly, and then leaned back a little, away froht on my part, my body moved to correct the distance between us I would’ve preferred that I stayed where I was, but my body insisted that I tilt closer to him

"Why do you hate me?" The words came out of my mouth, but I couldn’t believe that I’d asked them

Inside my mind, I screamed Shut up! Shut up! You can’t say that to hied to cut off the blood flow to the part of my brain that controlled my inhibitions If I weren’t careful, I’d very quickly be confessing my innermost secrets to him

"I don’t hate you" He looked embarrassed and lowered his eyes

I had an awful pain at not being able to see into his eyes, but it came with some relief, as I’d be able to think a bit more clearly

"Then why do you act like you do?" I pressed

What the hell was I doing? I was normally an absolute coward, and now at the worst possible ly stunningme He had said he didn’t, but after I shamed and irritated him like this, I’ straight ahead, but he wasn’t really looking at anything His beautiful features stiffened to a painful mask

"You want to hate h" My voice was alht I hadn’t had the strength to speak, but the words kept relentlessly tuain, and he turned to look at h ently, he placed his hand on top of e that I had the day before, but h me and I closed my eyes

Then suddenly, he pulled his hand back, and my eyes flew open His face was a few inches fro in him looked completely ravenous He never wavered or one into a very low snarl

"Go before I do so very bad to you"

- 11 -

"You can do whatever you want to rowled

His voice stung, but it th, I looked away and stood up He still hadn’t moved, but I could see the tendons in his neck and his ar out sharply

It wasn’t until I had started down the stairs, and I had begun to breathe, that I understood why he’d gotten so tense He was using all his ot downstairs, I felt dazed and I was panting There was a very real chance that I had just barely averted danger And the worst part was part of me still wanted to rush back upstairs and let hi as I could still be with hi in the uitars, but I could barely even see them The whole world felt hazy and I couldn’t tell if I was drea or not "Are you okay?"

"You ith Peter?" Jack had stopped playing the game and turned to look atthat made his face harden "Come here" I felt frozen in place, so he commanded more harshly, "Come here"