Tangle (BWWM)

Chapter 8 - Date Night

A/N: Hullo, hullo, hullo! I know, I know, it's been two weeks! I'm sorry. So recently, I flew home for the summer, and I was looking for a job and stuff. So, it took me a while to settle back in and get back into the groove of writing. But yeah, here I am! Thank you so much for your patience, and I hope you enjoy this chapter! :D

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It was all going well. Too well if you'd ask Vincent. It had to have been a fluke... It was all a dream, his mind screamed. No way in Heaven did he deserve Gabrielle's hand. He felt like God himself would come down and tell him that he was unworthy of love... Unworthy of Gabrielle.

Or maybe he was just being dramatic.

Whichever it was, the anxiety that he felt in the pit of his stomach left him uneasy.

Vincent wanted nothing more than to fall into Gabrielle for everything he knew her to be. He wanted to know her inside and out, and he wanted her to know him the same way. But something niggled at him... No... It was no minor niggling. It was a thorn. A massive thorn in his side. He was ashamed of his past.

A woman like Gabrielle, delicate, fair, and good... A good woman like Gabrielle Thompson would be corrupted by a man like him. He carried TOO MUCH damned baggage, he'd made too many enemies in his lifetime. Vincent himself had a history of corrupting the women he loved...

Mariela, his first love and another vampire, was betrothed when he lost his innocence to her. They'd known each other since childhood, and were both eighteen when they had sex.

Kakra, a woman he met not too long after he moved to London who, along with her twin brother, Atsu, were ancient Egyptian oracles worshipped as gods by the pharos and their subjects. She had been in a relationship with a werewolf named Elias, who in the beginning was Vincent's sworn enemy. She had ignored and resisted him for decades. She was nothing more than his best friend for a long time. But then somehow, she ended up falling into him.

And then there was her... Camille. She was tenacious, an American fire-cracker. Their meeting was just as tumultuous as their relationship. During his relationship with Camille was when he and Kakra slept together, resulting in them both stepping out on their respective relationships. It happened more than once, but for some reason, Camille forgave him every single time. After two years together, they were engaged to be married. However, as fate would have it, their marriage would never come. Vincent had too many enemies for that to happen.

It was never his destiny to marry anyone other than the woman who was foretold.

Vincent gripped the short, old-fashioned glass tumbler at the top, fingering the rim. The honey colored liquid was nearly finished, so he reached for the covered decanter to replenish his glass of whiskey. While taking the "initial" sip, he wondered what Gabrielle would think about his nightly drinking habits. Fortunately, he was a vampire, lest he would be worse for wear. It would take a God-awful amount of the devil's water to affect him too negatively. Either way, he would ask Gabrielle her opinion on the matter and act accordingly.

Gabrielle...

His thoughts always led back to her. Happy to have met her, happy to have won her attention, fantasize about their future together, imagine their first time, how amazing it would be, and then the doubt came back. Why would she want him? He was a murderer, a thief, a cheater, a womanizer, and so much more. A sinner in every sense. There could be two outcomes from their getting together: she would learn of his past, refuse to accept it, and leave him or he would corrupt her like the rest...

It was a vicious cycle, really.

He glanced in the direction of the door of the study when it clicked open, allowing Jacques entrance. "Hey," he called.