Chapter Six

Tanya stared at him for a long time. Slowly she extracted her hand from his and stood up, moving to the railing of the deck and gripping it in both hands as she stared out at the forest beyond. "I hardly know you Jesse. How can you talk like this when we don't even know each other?" She turned to face him, searching his gaze for an answer.

Jesse stood up and walked toward her, but stopped a few feet in front of her. "Look, I started completely wrong with you Tanya. I realize that. I came off as a complete jerk, and it's because I have never had a woman challenge me the way you do. From the first second you talked to me, you demanded answers, instead of falling into my arms like most women. I love that about you. You can hold your own, you're independent. I also know you are caring, and sometimes, you are vulnerable. You proved that to me when you told me why you left here in the first place and ended up on a collision course with my own existence. You may not believe in fate, but if things hadn't happened the way they did, we would both be living our separate existences, oblivious to the other. I don't want to go back to that. Do you?"

Tanya listened to his speech, enthralled by the cadence of the foreign accent. She had heard other accents before, including Australian. She couldn't fathom why this one man's was so different from the others. Well she could, but she wasn't sure she was ready to contemplate that yet. One thing she was certain of, whether she wanted to admit it or not, was that she couldn't go back to an existence pretending Jesse didn't exist. She shook her head. "No," she whispered. "I don't think I can. I don't understand why, but being away... I was miserable." When Jesse broke into a grin she held her hand up. "I still don't think it's fate, but I'm willing to keep you around for a little longer," she said teasingly.

Jesse let out a joyous whoop and was across the distance between them before she could even blink. He reached out and gently cupped her face in his hands, sending those electric shocks through them both again. Slowly, as if he were a human boy on his first date, he leaned in and pressed his lips to hers. Both of their eyes flew open and they stared at each other, golden mixing with ruby, as they took in the absolute clarity of how right it felt.

Letting her eyes slip closed, Tanya reached out for his shirt, pulling him back to her. With a low chuckle, Jesse obliged and their lips met once more, this time more forcefully. The kiss was new and familiar all at the same time, and Tanya briefly wondered at how that could be, before giving herself over completely to it. Her tongue lightly traced his lips, and he parted them. Her hands explored the hard planes of his chest and back and arms, while he busied his hands with memorizing every curve of her sides and back. Pulling back slowly, Tanya opened her eyes, her breathing ragged, and watched the rise and fall of Jesse's chest as he tried to get his own breathing under control. "You might be worth keeping around a little longer than I originally thought," she said playfully.

Jesse caressed her cheek lightly with the tips of his fingers, tracing the curve of her face. He reached out and pushed a lock of strawberry blond hair behind her ear. "You're beautiful," he stated simply, as if it were a fact, like her eyes were gold. He smiled when she looked away, as if she'd never heard these types of compliments before. Gently, he turned her face back to his. "Don't look away, it's true. I'm sure millions of guys have told you that over the past thousand years," he said with a smile.

"Of course, but it was different. They thought I was beautiful because that's what being a vampire makes me. Beautiful. But you know all the details of the past. You know my insecurities and my not so pretty traits. How can you still think I'm beautiful, when on the inside, I don't feel that way?"

Jesse grinned and leaned in, kissing her lightly on the lips before pulling away. "Tanya, your feelings don't make you ugly, they make you feel human. Surely you realize that. And everything that a human feels isn't always pretty. But, at least to me, they make you more beautiful. Who wants a perfect woman anyway?" he laughed.

"The same type of person who wants the perfect man?" she countered. She pushed him gently, nudging him out of the way back toward the chairs they had been seated in. Once they were settled, this time together on the loveseat, she looked up at him. "What do you do all alone out there in the woods in Maine?"

Jesse smiled. "I draw. Or I paint. Sometimes I write. The last month though, I drew a lot, and all the pictures ended up being you."

Tanya raised an eyebrow. "You drew me?"

Jesse laughed. "Don't look so shocked, Tanya. I brought some of them with me. I never go anywhere without a bag of art supplies."

Tanya looked doubtfully at him, but he looked very serious. "Would you show me?"

"Sure. I'll be right back," he said, getting up and dashing off.

Tanya knew she didn't have much time to think, he would be right back, but she needed a moment away from him to think clearly. There was definitely something between them, something she didn't really want to explain to herself. She knew she was lying to herself, thinking that it wasn't anything but a fling, but felt that it was okay, considering she wasn't telling the lie to anyone else. But soon they would have to go into the house and face Carmen and Eleazar, and Kate and Garrett would return home eventually as well, and could Tanya lie to them? She didn't think so. Carmen and Eleazar had already proved to be more observant than she would have liked, and that was before Jesse even walked in the door. Kate would spot it immediately. There really was only one option here. The question was, how long would she pretend before she couldn't anymore?

Jesse came back before she had decided on the answer to that question. He sat down next to her again, and opened his bag, pulling out a sketch pad. Opening it carefully he set it on her lap to look through. Jesse watched as she looked through them slowly, as a human would, taking in the perfect renditions of her own face and body in sketch after sketch.

Tanya looked up at him when she was finished. She turned back to the picture he had drawn the night on the beach. "I wasn't even in front of you. I was three thousand miles away, yet this is almost exactly how I looked. How... how did you know?" she asked quietly, raising her eyes to his.

Jesse shrugged. I don't know. I just drew it. I didn't even realize you were in the picture until I was finished drawing it. I looked at it, and I knew then, that I wouldn't be able to drive you from my mind, no matter how many women I saw. I'm surprised, really, that I had even lasted as long as I did before coming here. I probably should have been on my way that night."

Tanya gently closed the book and offered it back to him. She bit her bottom lip thoughtfully, looking at him. "This is very difficult for me to say. I've never said it to another man before. I... want you to stay. I want to get to know you better, and I don't think that now I can let you leave. I needed you to go get your sketches... because I can't think clearly when you are around me." She laughed and it came out sounding nervous. "But I realized I had only been lying to myself in thinking you were someone I could love and leave, so to speak. Carmen and Eleazar already could see that before you even knocked on the door. Kate will spot it in the blink of an eye. I was completely miserable when we came back here. I tried, but I wasn't fooling anyone, especially when I have lived with them for the past couple centuries."

Jesse, for once in his dealings with Tanya, did the smart thing and kept his mouth shut. He didn't want to upset her when she was asking him to stay with her. "I will stay, if that is what you want. But, I didn't bring much for clothes or anything... I may have to go back to get my things."

Tanya frowned. "If it's only clothes, we'll just go shopping."

Jesse suppressed a shudder at the thought. "We'll discuss this a little later?" he asked hopefully.

Tanya was about to reply when they both heard the whine of a sports car coming down the road. "It sounds like Kate's car. Time to meet the fam, Jesse."

Suddenly, for some reason, Jesse wondered if he'd spoken to soon in telling her he'd stay.