Page 13 of On the Run with His Vampire Mate

I turned back to Derek and forced a smile. “Baby steps.” At his raised brows, I amended that to, “I mean, yes. Let’s do it. They can totally catch up with us later.”

Derek’s smile was thinner and tighter than normal. His heartbeat was a little slower than the moment he’d first walked in, but it was still elevated.

Strange. Had he run here or something? He wasn’t breathing hard.

“Sure,” he said, not meeting my eyes. “They can catch up to us later.”

* * *

Not that I’d been on very many dates or anything, so I didn’t have much to compare this one against, but it was pretty bizarre.

First, Derek told me we needed to get off Capitol Hill, which was Seattle’s gay neighborhood. It was also the home of the vampire headquarters and also where Derek lived—just down the street from Bailey’s. When I asked him about it, his reasoning was that we ought to try new things. His heartbeat did a weird flutter when he said that. Definitely not the full truth.

So maybe he had some sort of surprise planned? That was the only explanation.

We walked down the hill to the business district, three streets away from the famous Pike Place Market. There, Derek pulled me into one of the shops on Third Avenue that sold prepaid phones. It wasn’t a guy in a back alley with stolen phones in the various pockets of his trench coat or anything, but it wasn’t not that either. The whole place seemed… shady.

“I need to get a new phone,” Derek explained. “I left my old one on the Metro.”

The Metro was Seattle’s public bus system. I frowned at him, but his heartbeat was perfectly steady and there was no indication that he was lying.

Well, that explained his reaction earlier, when he’d first come into the bar, didn’t it? He was probably nervous about being without a phone.

“I want you to be the first person to have my new number,” he added, smiling at me and causing a rush of warmth to flood through my body. Then he paused and concern flashed across his face. “Are you going to be okay in here?”

The tiny shop only had us and an older man with a receding hairline and keen dark eyes who stood behind the counter. He wore a stained and faded black Nirvana T-shirt that was much too tight across his ample belly. He reeked of cigarettes, fast food, and, much more faintly, cannabis. His blood was sluggishly pumping in his jugular, sure, but it wasn’t remotely appetizing.

Derek, on the other hand, dressed sharply in a pale-blue button-down and black slacks, with his dark hair, intelligent eyes, and generous mouth that was often aiming the most adorable smiles in my direction, was extremely bitable.

Even though he hadn’t showered.

That was weird, actually. Usually, he showered before seeing me. It wasn’t bad, exactly, because he had a really nice scent, one I’d always loved.

But why hadn’t he showered? That wasn’t like him.

“I’ll be fine,” I told him honestly, deciding to ask him about the showering thing later, if I could figure out a tactful way to bring it up. And what I’d said was extremely true regardless, because I had zero interest in the man behind the counter.

“Good,” Derek said, nodding and flashing me another smile that looked more tacked-on than genuine.

Then I watched as Derek purchased a prepaid phone and paid with cash. I noted, for the first time, that he wore a small backpack I’d never seen before.

Strange.

Derek almost never carried a bag, unless he was doing client work in the bar or down in the dungeon with me and he needed to bring his laptop with him.

He did that sometimes—came to hang out with me while he was technically at work but didn’t have any meetings scheduled for the rest of the day. Sometimes I’d read or play on my phone and he’d code on his laptop and we’d hang out together in companionable silence for hours until he finished his work.

But the bag he carried wasn’t big enough for a laptop. It was barely big enough for a tablet.

Maybe that was part of the surprise, too? Because that was the only explanation for his strange behavior, wasn’t it? That he was planning a surprise for our date. That’s why he hadn’t wanted Sadie joining us, why he was leading us away from Capitol Hill, why he was carrying a bag I’d never seen before, why he seemed so very squirrely.

After he purchased the phone and set it up—I noted that he used the first initial “J” and the last name “Smith” during the activation process, which was also odd—he led us down into the underground light-rail station on Pine Street.

The sidewalk and then the light-rail platform weren’t packed or anything, but there were still a lot of people. I could hear their heartbeats.

“Oh,” Derek said, turning and adjusting his bag so that he could open the front pocket. He reached in and grabbed a small package for me. “Wireless earbuds. I got them for you. I was thinking we could listen to some music together. You take one, I’ll take the other.” He paused, his gaze searching mine. “It should help with hearing you-know-what when we’re in public.”

I took the box he handed me—they weren’t just any earbuds but top-of-the-line ones, the expensive kind. Then I met his gaze, feeling moved that he’d been so tuned in to my needs. And that he’d bought me such a nice gift. I’d been wanting a pair for years, but had never been able to afford them. “These cost like two hundred dollars.”