Reckless Abandon - The Secrets of Avelina Chronicles 2

18: Knox

It was late on when Knox woke again in Violet's bed. They had gone out and spent the morning together, before coming back to the apartment where he caught up on a few extra hours sleep. Violet had gone to work, claiming that she'd been too ill in the morning to make it, but felt better. Her boss must have believed her because she hadn't got back yet. As he looked at the clock, he saw it was five thirty and instead of waking up naturally, he was woken by the familiar buzz of his pager going off. With a sigh he reached out to the bedside table where he'd discarded it a few hours ago and saw that he was being paged by the morgue. With a frown, he switched the pager off and lay back down, contemplating whether he should phone Collin's and see what was going on and why he was being bothered on his day off.

"It's just me." Violet's voice called through barely above a whisper. Two minutes later she walked into the bedroom, kicking her shoes off as she stalled at the end of the bed. Knox was awake.

"A long day?" He asked, but before answering, she smiled and sat on the edge of the bed beside him.

"Hmm, and the last. I took your, shall we call it advice?, and I quit." She explained, intriguing him. Knox lifted himself to lean on his elbows, curious about her decision to take his advice. Quitting her job was a big step and so, he rewarded her for being so brave and decisive, with a lingering kiss of appreciation.

"I got paged, but don't worry, I'm not going anywhere until midnight when my shift starts." He promised. He couldn't explain what it did to him, to see that with the news, her eyes sparkled just a little bit more and her smile got a little bit bigger. She didn't say how happy she was to hear it because she wasn't sure she could trust her voice. Instead she got up and walked across to the en-suite bathroom just opposite the bed.

"I need to get changed. Why don't you take the time to call Collin's and see what's wrong?" Violet suggested. When she glanced back at him, he looked to agree with her. She turned back to the bathroom door and removed her suit jacket before stepping into the room, discarding it on the dressing chair next to her. Before she had heard a single movement, she heard Knox's voice. But it wasn't far away anymore, it was right behind her. Turning round, she saw that he was now standing right in front of her and he hadn't made a sound other than to speak.

"Fine. Have a shower, get changed and I'll call Collin's. I'll make you something to eat." He offered gently.

"What are you going to eat?" She wondered, without thinking.

Knox couldn't help but laugh at the purely natural way she had asked, knowing that he couldn't eat anything she had in her apartment. Yet, it almost sounded as if she was on the verge of offering herself up as dinner, just so that he would have something to eat. But he wasn't going to start that. He knew vampires who had fed from people they loved. It might have been all right for a while, but eventually the vampire lost the person they loved because of it. Either they got fed up and left or they died from overfeeding.

"You're extremely tasty darling, but I'll grab something on my way to work." Knox smiled, kissing her forehead. He was about to urge her to get her shower so he couldn't be distracted by her any longer, when she made the most curious request. He had planned on getting her behind that bathroom door where he couldn't look at her anymore, so that he could find her kitchen and see what he could rustle up from it. But when she asked him something, that seemed to have been on her mind for a while, he couldn't help but smile.

"Maybe you could stop by your apartment and pack a few things? You could leave them here, just in case you ever stay over again?" The words were out of her mouth before she had really thought them through. The instant she realized what they were and how they sounded, she wished she could take them back. To Violet, she sounded like a desperate school girl with a crush. To Knox, she was just utterly adorable.