My Blood Approves (My Blood Approves #1)(53)

“Fine, I’ll drop it.”

Grudgingly, I opened the car door and got inside. A few seconds later, Jack got in and started the car. I could feel how much he wanted me, the deep hunger brewing painfully inside of him, and the shame at feeling that way. I sat in silence, feeling embarrassed tears sting my eyes.

“Are you crying?” His breath caught in his throat. “Why are you crying?”

“Is there something wrong with me?” I wiped at my eyes.

“What are you talking about?”

“There has to be something wrong with me. Peter can’t even be around me, and you can’t do it either. Is my blood like poison or something?”

“Oh my god, Alice.” He rubbed his temple, laughing emptily. “You have no idea what you’re doing to me.” He looked over at me again and shook his head. “I can’t even take you home. I can’t even-” Then he just turned and jumped out of the car.

“What?” I scrambled out after him, wondering what I had done to drive him away. He stood just outside the car, trying to shake it off. “What did I do?”

“You’re not poison! You’re the opposite of poison!” Jack exhaled, but it was more like he was gasping for air. “I can’t be in that car with you. You did this thing to me and I need to get back down, but you’re so…” He shook his head, unwilling to say it aloud.

“I don’t understand. If you want me so much, then why can’t you just have me?” I felt what he felt, so I wanted what he wanted. It was raw and pure and so intense it was suffocating.

“Alice…” He had his hands on his hips and he let out a shaky breath. “Peter would kill me. He would literally tear me to shreds. He wouldn’t want to, but he would.”

“What? What does Peter have to do with this?”

I thought of Peter, feeling strangely excited by the fact that he would express jealousy over me, and my heart sped up. Jack’s face contorted miserably, and he shook his head.

“You’re thinking of him. You’re fucking thinking of him.” He clenched his fists.

“I’m sorry!” I cried, trying to slow my heart down. Jack looked as if I was actually killing him, and his agony ripped through me. “Can’t you just bite me and make this stop?”

“Alice!” Jack lamented. “He is my brother! And you are his! You belong to Peter, not me!”

“What are you talking about?” While there was something very thrilling about his words, I felt like I had been slapped in the face. “You picked me out for Peter?”

“No, I had no choice in the matter. None of us did.” He looked away from me, but I could see his face breaking. “It’s the blood. Your blood, his blood. They react to each other. It’s why you get all crazy when you think about him. And it drives me crazy because it’s in my blood too.”

Everything that happened with Peter had felt so physical because it was. There was a chemical reaction between us that I couldn’t explain. But then I had started thinking about it, and it was more than Jack could take, so he rushed past me and into the house.

“Mae!” Jack shouted when he got inside. Stupidly, I kept following him. Part of him wanted me to, because so much of him still wanted me. “Mae!”

“What?” Mae rushed into entryway, wrapping a bathrobe tightly around herself. Then she saw his pained expression, and her face went pale. “Jack, you didn’t.”

“Just get her away from me!” Jack snarled, and I saw there were tears in his eyes.

“Just go upstairs,” Mae nodded. “I’ll take care of her.”

“I’m sorry,” I mumbled through my own tears, but Jack was already gone.

“Did he bite you?” Mae rushed over to me, inspecting my neck much the same way Jack had the day before.

“No,” I shook my head fiercely. There was a loud banging upstairs, and Mae looked apprehensively at the ceiling.

“Come on. We need to get you out of here.” She put her arm around me and started ushering me out to the garage.

“You’re wearing a bathrobe.”

“He can’t take much more, love,” Mae whispered. The Jetta was still running, so we got inside of it and pulled out of the garage.

“I’m sorry,” I repeated.

“Oh, love, it’s really not your fault,” Mae smiled reassuringly at me. “Jack should know better, but he’s still so young.” She reached over and stroked my hair. “It’s really not so bad. Honest.”

“I feel what he feels,” I said quietly. “I know how hard that was for him. I felt how much he wanted me, so … I wanted him to, and I was making it harder.”

“You what?” Mae looked at me with a startled expression on her face. “You feel what he feels?”

“Yeah,” I nodded. “Is that okay?”

“It doesn’t matter if it is or not if that’s the way it is,” Mae replied matter-of-factly and looked straight ahead.

“He told me that I’m meant for Peter.”

“I thought he might,” Mae sighed. Then she smiled at me again. “You would’ve found out eventually. We just didn’t want to surprise you with too much new information, especially with Peter being the way he is.”