His gaze snaps back to me, a question in his eyes.
‘He told me,’ I say gently, and he nods.
‘Of course he did.’ He pulls in another deep breath, raw and ragged. ‘But yes. I was leaving, just wanted to get the hell out of there. He followed me down the stairs and told me she was better off with him than me, right there in my own house.’ A muscle flexes in his jaw. ‘I saw red. Pulled him out of the house by his hair and threw the first punch.’ He huffs a laugh, but there’s no humour to it. ‘It wasn’t my finest hour.’
I nod. ‘He told me you got arrested.’
‘We both did,’ he says, with a shrug. ‘Disorderly conduct. We were fighting like animals in the street.’ His not-quite-smile turns into a wince. ‘We both ended up at A&E with police guards.’
‘You split his eyebrow,’ I say, remembering Dean’s scar, and Bram nods, shame pulling at his expression.
‘And broke his nose,’ he says quietly. One hand goes to his opposite shoulder. ‘He fractured my collarbone.’
My eyes widen. Dean left that part out. ‘How?’
‘Stamped on it.’
‘Jesus,’ I mutter.
A small smile plays on Bram’s lips. ‘He didn’t tell you that bit.’
I shake my head, and he breathes out a husk of a laugh. ‘Not surprised. Anyway, we were both released after being cautioned, and if I’d had my way I would never have seen or heard from either of them ever again. But of course he’s always there, dragging up my ghosts. I moved back to Whitby permanently; he followed. I opened a vampire-themed bar; he did too.’ He huffs. ‘I’d be flattered by it if he weren’t such a pain in my arse.’
I nod, thinking back to the scene from earlier– the difference in the way the two men reacted. ‘He was goading you tonight.’
Bram leans back against the rough brick of the alleyway wall. ‘He does it all the time. I normally don’t fall for it anymore, but…’
‘But me,’ I say quietly, the realisation hitting me all at once.
He turns to me, one hand cupping my jaw. ‘No one’s got under my skin since Jess. I found out after we broke up that Dean wasn’t the only man she’d cheated on me with. She’d also been jumping into bed with her arsehole of a boss.’ His mouth twitches into an almost-smile. ‘Yourboss, as it happens.’
My stomach drops to my feet. ‘Jon?’
This time he laughs, but there’s no humour to it. ‘What are the chances? Anyway, after that, I kept the women I met at arm’s length to avoid getting hurt again, which was working a treat.’ His fingers gently trace the shape of my chin. ‘And then you showed up.’
‘I did.’ My voice is almost a whisper, and it makes him smile.
‘I never stood a chance,’ he says in that low rumble of his, and when he kisses me this time it’s like a promise, quiet and reverent. Like a vow he’s making– a piece of himself he’s giving to me. I almost feel something shift inmy chest as I kiss him back– something irrevocable, a change in the very fibre of me.
And it’s then that I know.
Whatever we are– whatever he is– there’s something in us which is the same. Something which makes uswork, no matter what. Whatever happens after this weekend, I know I’ll keep coming back to this moment. To this feeling.
The feeling of being chosen.
The feeling of being enough.
Bram kisses me until I feel boneless. Until I’m not sure where I end and he begins. Until the chill of the night air sneaks its fingers into the gap beneath my jumper and I shiver.
That makes him draw back, his brows knitting into a frown. ‘You’re cold.’
I nod. ‘Let’s go home,’ I say, and nothing feels more right.
We head back to the annexe, my heart alive and my hand in his, and as I catch the scent of something that reminds me of Jon’s aftershave, I can’t help but think how funny it is, the way things work out.
I thought that I was in love with Jon. That he was good.
The same way I thought that the naked tattooed rogue I ran into on my first night here was bad.