My Vampire Mate

Compromise

Kiera's POV

It wasn't what I wanted. I regretted it as soon as the words left my mouth, but I couldn't take them back. "You.....you want to break up?" Daren barely whispered. I turned my head away from him. I couldn't look at him when he looked so heart broken. "Kiera." His voice was a little louder now and I knew he was becoming angry with me, both because of what I had said and because I wasn't answering him. "I don't know what I want right now..." And I was being honest. I truly didn't know what I wanted. I felt vulnerable and confused and I didn't like it at all. I walked away from him and walked over to the window, staring out at the city. I wrapped my arms around myself and thought about what my mom and Jade were doing right now. Did they miss me? Were they eating dinner right now? Are they having a veg out day; in just their sweatpants and hoodies while watching movies all day. I felt Daren's hands wrap around my waist and I could feel him breathing against my ear. "Well, I know what I want," he whispered. I could feel myself ready to give into him, but I had to stay strong...for myself.

He turned me around to face him slowly and placed his hands on my cheeks, making me look up into his eyes. He rubbed his thumbs against them and   I could feel another tear fall from my eye and onto my cheek. He leaned in, about to kiss my, but I moved my hands placed them on his chest and averted my eyes from his. He sighed and let go of my cheeks and walked over to the bed. Sitting on it, he put his elbows on his knees and his face in his hands. Regret and sympathy washed over me. Was I being too harsh on him? I know he loves me and I know he made a mistake, but I just can't get the image of him kissing her out of my head: his lips on hers, her hands on his cheeks. A small cry escaped from lips, causing his head to shoot up in my direction, his eyes filled with concern and regret. I covered my mouth with my hand to silence the cry's I knew would come if I didn't. The warm tears were blurring my vision and I could feel them pouring down my cheeks. Daren shot up and wrapped his arms around me tightly, like he never wanted to let me go. He kissed the top of my head and moved his hands up and down my back in a soothing motion. I wrapped my free arm around his waist, reveling in the warmth and comfort he was giving me even though I was undoubtedly upset with him. I didn't now what to do. My head was so messed up right now and all I wanted to do was go to sleep. Daren bent down slightly and picked me up, carrying me to the bed. He laid me down and got on behind me, wrapping his arm around my waist and whispering sweet nothing into my neck as I silently cried myself to sleep.

*****Middle of the night*****

I could hear faint whispering and the sound of drink sloshing against the sides of a bottle or cup. I sat up slightly on my elbows and turned my head towards the window to the right of me and saw Daren sitting in a chair, a bottle of something in his hand. He was talking to himself and I could only assume that alcohol was in the bottle. I slowly and quietly slid out of the bed and walked over to him, placing my hand on his shoulder and causing him to jump in the chair and look up at me. I could see the unshed tears in his eyes and could feel a slight pain in my heart at the sight of him like this. He placed his hand on top of mine, " What is is? Are you okay?" I just nodded my head, my eyes traveling to the bottle in his hand. "You've been drinking." I stated blankly then looked back into his eyes. He stood up, put the bottle down and ran his hands over his face as he said, "Yeah....yeah, I have." I could feel myself becoming angry with him. The last time he drank it caused a break up that neither of us really wanted. Who knows what could happen this time around? "You should go to bed," I said hesitantly. He looked at the wall and I could see more tears forming in his eyes as he just nodded his head. He walked over to the bed and laid down, pulling the blankets over him. I looked at the bottle sitting on the table and picked it before making my way over to the small, grey trash can near the door. As I passed the bed, Daren shot up from the bed and looked straight at me. "What are you doing with that?" he demanded. "Throwing it away." I simply stated, continuing to move towards the trash can. In a flash he was in front of me, causing me to gasps and jump back slightly. "Don't," he said a little too harsh for my liking. "What?" I asked him, appalled that he actually wanted to keep the vile drink. "I said, don't throw it away." I gritted my teeth and calmly put the bottle on the counter where the sink was.

I walked over to our suit cases, since we haven't had time to unpack, and grabbed a heavy coat, my cell phone, and slipped on my boots. I heard him sigh and looked over at him to see he had his head down. "Where are you going Kiera?" I didn't answer him and started walking to the door, determined to get away from his arrogance. He put his hand on my shoulder and gently and stopped me, not that it would have taken him a lot of effort, I was tired and didn't even want to be up right now. I kept my head down until I heard the glass bottle bit the hard plastic of the trash can, shocking me since he looked dead set against me getting rid of the bottle. He put his index finger beneath my chin and lifted my head up to look at him before slowly wiping a tear from my cheek. I hadn't even realized I was crying. "I don't want to fight...," he said lowly, still staring into my eyes. I just nodded my head and he leaned down and placed a light kiss on my lips, and I allowed it. He didn't push for anything more, and I was grateful because we were on shaky grounds and I was in no way ready to be all happy and mushy with him again. Yes, I forgave him. Yes, I still love him, but I'm not sure where we're gonna go from here. He reluctantly pulled away from the kiss and put his forehead to mine. "Can we please stay for the rest of the vacation? We'll completely change the itinerary if you want. Just...please, lets finish this. It'll give us time to work on our relationship without any of your friends or family getting involved and we won't even see my family the rest of the time we're here, like we planned on doing, unless you want to..." he whispered softly then trailed off. I took a deep breath and thought about it for a moment. Maybe he was right about it giving us a chance to work on our relationship without anyone getting in the way, which would be nice. And I mean, he did pay for the entire vacation and we'll probably not be coming back to Iceland for a long while, so we might as well enjoy it while we're here. I slowly nodded my head, rubbing my forehead against his, "Yeah...we can stay." He smiled immediately and kissed my head softly before picking me up and walking us back to the bed. He laid me down and got in beside me before residing to our previous position earlier. "I love you..." he whispered in my ear softly. I smiled to myself slightly and whispered it back before falling asleep.