CHAPTER 12 – CURVEBALLS

I own nothing, I just love Twilight – no copyright infringement intended.

To Ally – sorry, I can't reply to your reviews as they're unsigned, but if you sign in next time I will definitely respond. I wouldn't like you to think that I'm ignoring you.

You wouldn't believe how hard it is to dress a fictional character for a night out. Nowforruin and Solar...I wussed out and went with heels in an unknown colour—too much choice! Thanks for the fashion advice...oh, and the grammar and story advice, too! Your comments brightened up my night!

~X~

I was a heavy heart to carry,

My beloved was weighed down,

My arms around his neck,

My fingers laced a crown,

I was a heavy heart to carry,

But he never let me down,

When he held me in his arms,

My feet never touched the ground.

Heavy in Your Arms, Florence and the Machine

~X~

I looked at the reflection in the mirror, and it took a few seconds to register that it was in fact me that I saw staring back. My hair was sleek and straightened. I was wearing makeup and my outfit—and well, my outfit was just perfection.

I'd finally settled on a strapless dress, which was cream-coloured with a hint of coffee. The colour accentuated my copper skin, and the cut highlighted my angled bone structure. I smiled at myself; I actually looked fairly hot for once. I'd never had the resources for retail therapy before, but it was amazing how it could give your self-esteem a temporary boost.

Demetri and I had hit the stores in a big way. I had been allowed to grab a few hours sleep, as that "unfinished business" took longer than I first imagined. He'd then dragged me to a department store and forced me to try on what seemed like a million outfits. To me a dress was a dress, but Demetri disagreed and attempted to educate me on things like cut and accessories.

If I didn't know better, I would swear he was gay.

Now our room looked like there was a yard sale going on; there were clothes, shoes, and bags everywhere. Of course, I'd decided on the very first dress I'd tried on, and now I had the task of digging out the co-ordinating footwear. They had to be in here somewhere...

I smelled a familiar perfume, and then heard the door creak open before Demetri stepped inside.

He paused when he saw me. "You look absolutely ravishing." He walked over and wrapped his arms around my waist. "I've got a good mind to keep you indoors and forgo the socializing tonight."

He moved in for a kiss, which I quickly dodged. "Brush your teeth first; I know where you've been." His deep red eyes were now a bright crimson, which meant he was well fed.

Demetri frowned at my rejection but obediently headed off to the bathroom. I yelled after him, "You might want to start getting ready now. You take forever, and we're going to be fashionably late as it is."

He popped his head out of the door, and in true flamboyant Demetri style he said, "Leah, dear, the party doesn't start until we get there."

I rolled my eyes; this guy was the biggest drama queen I'd ever met. I heard the sound of a toothbrush coming from the other room, and I wandered over to the doorway to observe him.

"I'm ready. I'm not sitting around forever waiting for you."

Demetri smiled as he popped his toothbrush back in the holder. "I could always help you get unready." He leant in and claimed his kiss; he tasted of minty fresh vampire—the combination was weird.

"Bath. Now." My insides were already on alert after the kiss. I escaped back into the bedroom before my heart and hormones could betray me. Demetri was not beyond using his insight into the functioning of my biology, or any other underhand method available, to get me into a compromising position.

I dug through the piles of abandoned outfits, and finally found the heels that went with my dress. I had begun the hunt for the co-ordinating bag when Demetri called me.

"Leah, would you come talk to me while I'm in the bath? It would be nice to have some company."

I hesitated for a second; naked and Demetri were a dangerous combination. I knew enough by now to know that he probably had an ulterior motive, but his voice sounded less clear and confident than usual, as if he had something bad to tell me. For a second, I imagined the worst. My heart pounded, and I steeled myself for a blow before I walked into the room.

"If you think I'm doing your back for you, you're very much mistaken."

Demetri smiled at my snark. "I wouldn't dream of asking you to do so." He looked as if he was about to speak, but then changed his mind and looked irritated. It was obvious to both of us that we both had things going on inside our own heads, but neither of us knew where to begin.

I began to find the silence awkward; it seemed whatever was on his mind, he wasn't about to spit it out. I went first. "You've not dragged me in here to tell me you've slipped up, have you?"

"No, not at all. I stuck to my diet plan."

"Tonight is our last night?" I braced myself for his answer, but he shook his head. "Italy found out that my wolf moment in Central Park made the papers?"

It had been the smallest of comments, and of course, shown that they were entirely clueless as to what had been the cause. The muggers hadn't come forward to enlighten them.

Demetri had explained as we'd read the report that such a slip would not be looked upon kindly by his bosses, and for allowing them to escape he would likely pay for it when he returned. My heart had sunk, because I'd fucked up, and also because it had reminded me that one day he would return to Italy.

"Not that I know of," Demetri replied. For a second, his smile dropped. He corrected his mask, but not before I had noticed. I wondered what was going on in that vampire brain of his.

"Then what?"

He smiled wider. "Nothing. Is it really so unbelievable that I might actually want to have a conversation with you while I'm in the bath?"

"Well, yeah it is. You naked generally means you'll try your hardest to get me in the same state, or at the very least get inside my pants. Naked and conversation are not a combination I associate with you."

"How very rude of me. It's a wonder you put up with it." I noticed a strangely intense look about his eyes. I couldn't understand why, as he'd just fed. "For the record, I like you in your clothes, too. You look wonderful tonight."

"What is this? Reverse psychology?"

"No, Leah, it's called a compliment."

"Oh, right." I turned off the snarkiness and eyed him quietly. I was sure he was hiding something.

Demetri also observed me in silence; I began to feel uncomfortable. I stood up, unfastened my zip and allowed my dress to fall to the floor. Demetri sat in the bath with a look of pleasant shock on his face, until I removed my thong. "Leah?"

"You're making me feel weird just sitting, staring at me, so I thought I'd give you something to stare at." I carefully folded my dress and placed it over the toilet seat. "If this gets wet, you die."

We could always rely on sex to diffuse an awkward moment.

Demetri's strange mood dissipated, and he positively beamed as I stepped into the bath, positioning my legs on either side of him. My heart started pounding as I tangled my fingers in his hair, and then kissed his cold lips. His wet hands grabbed my buttocks and brought me closer to the vicinity of his groin.

"You are quite simply the sexiest creature I have ever laid hands on, Leah Clearwater. Sei la mia anima gemella."

"You're not so bad yourself, Demetri." I ran my hands down his slick chest and deepened the kiss; his hands found my chest and toyed with my nipples. I searched in the water for his erection, and then ran my hands up and down his length, causing Demetri to moan into my mouth.

I lifted myself, and moved into a position where I could slide myself onto him. As I impaled myself on his hardness, he buried his face between my breasts and groaned my name. I slid back up and down tentatively; the position was awkward and the water an issue, but the angle and the atmosphere was intense—I did not want to lose it.

If the moment was broken, there was a chance we might have to talk about what was going on.

Demetri met my gaze with the strangest of expressions frozen in place; he said nothing more than "Leah" or "la lupa". He used his free hands between my legs to devastating effect, and I tumbled over the edge with a whimper.

When I reopened my eyes, he was staring again, and it was really starting to freak me out. Once I regained the power of speech I responded the only way I could—with a snark.

"You should take a picture. It lasts longer."

Demetri smiled. "Voglio passare il resto della mia vita con te. But now—round two."

I guessed neither of us was very good at saying what we were really thinking, but when it came to passing on the signals coming from our hormones, we were regular chatterboxes.

~X~

By the time we were both dressed again, we were extremely late, and my hair wasn't as sleek the second time around.

We snuck into the premiere after party without issue, as we certainly looked the part. I had the unusual looks and expensive outfit that helped me pass for a model, and Demetri...well, Demetri rocked a suit.

He looked like a young James Bond, now that his red eyes were hidden behind brown contacts. I told him he would have looked more like Daniel Craig if they had been blue, but Demetri told me that blue contacts would only turn his eyes purple, which would look a little bizarre.

I felt out of place, but I defied anyone to challenge the fact that Demetri looked like he belonged here, in classy surroundings, looking like some kind of actor or rich playboy. Still, we stayed on the fringe of the party and avoided getting too close to the other invited guests. We weren't quite human, but we did a good impression of it from a distance.

My vampire looked at me with artificial brown eyes, and he gave me a smile. My inner core softened instantly, but I hid it with outer hardness and gave attitude that any supermodel would have been proud of. I was sure I wasn't fooling Demetri.

He plied me with drink, so much so that his ploy was obvious, but I made sure I drank as little as possible. After the last time I'd allowed alcohol to loosen my lips, I had become extremely wary of its powers to loosen inhibitions. I couldn't afford to allow another slip like that, and I feared exposing myself to rejection one more time.

Various couples paired up on the dance floor. Slow dancing—great. Just what love sick werewolves need to help them forget their romantic problems.

Demetri caught me looking and completely misinterpreted me. "Do you want to dance, Leah?"

"No, thanks," I replied. "You'll only use it as an excuse to get your hands on me." I wasn't sure I managed to hide the hurt in my eyes as well as I wanted to. He only wanted to get his hands on me; I wanted so much more.

"Please, Leah." He pouted—I was always a sucker for the pout.

"No funny business, Demetri. I'm not allowing you to paw me in public."

"Spoilsport, but okay." Demetri took my hand and led me onto the floor, putting a chaste hand on my waist, while the other tangled white fingers with my copper. I looked at him suspiciously, waiting for the hand on my waist to drop to my ass, but it never happened.

"I can be a gentleman when I want to be. Don't worry; I will be the perfect dance partner in public. I'm a regular Fred Astaire, don't you know?"

"Really? Actually, I can imagine that. You are very light on your feet; guess you've had plenty of time to practice."

"Exactly, and once upon a time it was the only way to get close to a lady in polite society. Not that I've ever been a member of polite society, of course." Demetri winked at me. "Besides, they say that how a man dances is a reflection of how good he is in bed. Would you agree?"

"I don't know, maybe." I looked away. "You're not this civilized behind closed doors."

"Is that a good thing or a bad thing, Leah?" He looked at me with serious brown eyes. Seeing him with coloured contacts made me uneasy, so I looked away again.

"You're fishing for compliments; you know fine well you're good in bed...and the bath."

"That's not what I meant, but it will do." He smiled, but it wasn't convincing. I wondered if the contacts were irritating him. "I know I'm not the easiest vampire to hang around with, but you do enjoy spending time with me, don't you? And I'm not talking about sex before you jump down my throat."

My eyes snapped back to his, and I looked at him, puzzled. "Of course I do. Do you think I'd be here waltzing with you if I hated your guts?"

"Oh, this isn't waltzing. If you want waltzing, I can give you waltzing."

I impolitely declined, in my own unique style. Demetri chuckled at my one-figured gesture.

"I know you find me completely sexually irresistible, that goes without saying, but do you genuinely like me? I know I can be manipulative and arrogant—"

"You got that right."

"And that I have some rather negative personality traits—"

"Like the whole 'I vant to drink your blood' thing."

"There is that, too. I like you, Leah, but this is different to anything I'm used to, and I'm trying to figure out what it is, and why it feels so different. Leah, do you like me?"

"Yeah, Demetri, I like you—too much. Stop going all emo on me; you're reminding me of some other vampires I know."

He looked at me, and I stared back nervously. Once bitten, twice shy; I subconsciously expected some new kind of rejection after admitting that I did like him—which was understatement of the year—but instead, he slowly brought his mouth down to mine, briefly and gently, before pulling back.

His eyes twinkled—obviously whatever paranoia he'd been suffering from had passed, and his supreme self-confidence had returned. I opened my mouth to speak, but he silenced me with another brief kiss. "Silence is golden sometimes, Leah. Although, I believe I could get you to tell me anything at this moment in time."

"I doubt it—" I managed to say before he attempted to silence me again. For a second, I thought he was going to get all deep on me, but now he was just being his usual cocky, blood-sucking self.

"Oh, I think I could." Demetri pulled me closer and whispered in my ear, "The question is...what do I make you say? I seem to remember the other night you were so impressed with my sexual prowess that you shouted—"

"Don't even go there, Demetri," I cut him off, feeling awkward and uncomfortable at the direction the conversation was turning.

"Don't be embarrassed, Leah." The unsure look returned again. This vamp was blowing hot and cold on me, and I had no idea what mood he would be on next. Just when I thought I had this vampire all figured out, he'd gone and thrown me one hell of a curveball.

I snorted and tried to pull away, but he held me steady in his stone grip. "Do you think if I tried very, very hard I could get you to say that again?"

This time he did not have to keep me quiet with a kiss. I said nothing and scowled while my brain processed his motives.

"Have you forgotten? Should I remind you?" He ground his groin against me to alert me to the fact he was already more than willing to demonstrate. "Or was it just the sex you loved, not me?" The needy look returned to his eyes.

My mouth opened to speak before my brain had time to engage, but I was saved from disaster by an unexpected presence.

"Demetri, darling!" It was a female voice, and heavily accented; French, I guessed. "What an unpleasant surprise! It has been such a long time." Her sickly sweet scent filled my nostrils. Vampire.

Both Demetri and I whipped around to find a stick-thin brunette in a particularly revealing, bright red dress. Her face was extraordinarily beautiful, but twisted in a cruel smile. Black-gloved hands were poised on her hips, as brown eyes with grey circles looked me up and down.

Her nose wrinkled in disgust. "Bestiality—is nothing beneath you these days?"

TRANSLATIONS

Sei la mia anima gemella. – You're my soulmate.

Voglio passare il resto della mia vita con te. – I want to spend the rest of my life with you.

If you want an idea of how I picture the French vamp to look, check out Megan Fox at the Jonah Hex premiere. Incidentally, the dress Leah is wearing is the same one as Julia Jones wore at the Jonah Hex premiere—what a coincidence!