Unrequited (13 page)

As he wound his way through the crowd, the lights of the rides gave the night a surreal glow. He could hear the screams from the Ferris wheel and the cheers rolling out of the game booths. His senses were bombarded and then suddenly, everything became a blur and all he could see was Ashton.

She was standing alone and wearing a summer dress of pinks and greens. Her face was full of delight as she watched some children ride the carousel. Her hair fell long and loose, and her eyes sparkled like emeralds as she turned to face him.

Still smiling, she walked toward Will, took his hand, and led him through the crowd.

“My parents are this way,” she whispered near his ear as they strolled past a sea of blurred faces.

Ashton seemed so changed from the girl he had known just a few years earlier. She had grown in so many ways during her time away. It was sometimes hard to separate which parts of her were real or which parts were a façade she had created for protection. So much of the time she seemed burdened, but tonight she was light and carefree. He could feel it and he could see it in the way she smiled at everything around her. For all of his heartbroken realizations that the old Ashton who'd had some sort of love for him was gone, Will was powerless against this Ashton.

It was as though she had been placed under a spell tonight, and she had brought Will under her magical veil to share in the enchantment. They continued to slowly walk the grounds. Everything about this moment saturated Will's senses. Her hair seemed to flicker with starlight. Her skin was touched by the glow of the moon. Her scent was carried on the wind. But the most enchanting thing of all was the way her hand felt in his.

In the distance, two familiar voices sounded, and Elaine and Frank rushed forward to greet the pair. Ashton quickly dropped Will's hand. The spell was broken, and Will was very aware that the moment they had just shared might never return. His surroundings came back into focus, and he joined his friends for a tour of the exhibit hall.

“Calvin's artwork is over here.” Elaine directed the group toward the far corner of the hall.

“Where is Calvin?” Will asked.

“He is getting ready for the award ceremony. His painting got a blue ribbon, and all the blue ribbon winners go on stage for one to be awarded the Best in Show prize.” With that, Elaine led them back out of the hall and to the grandstands for the ceremony.

As they walked, Will fell back a few steps so he could walk with Ashton. She had been keeping her distance since her parents’ arrival. He knew the elder Wallace’s were always on the lookout for sparks of romance between Ashton and himself, and constant scrutiny made Ashton feel defensive and self-conscious.

“I'm glad you'll be teaching this fall. You'll be a good addition to the staff.” He was trying to put her at ease. Will didn’t want to scare her off by rehashing old arguments or revealing his unchanged feelings. He hoped that by acting as though everything was normal, she would somehow come back to him.

“Thank you. I was offered a position in Alabama, but Mama and Daddy really wanted me back here. I mean, don't get me wrong, I wanted to come back. Given the circumstances, I should spend as much time as I can with them.” She looked wistful for a moment and then suddenly fixed a smile on her face. “Besides, Calvin is in high school, and what better torment than to have your sister as a teacher.”

She smiled even brighter, and then laughed. It was a sound Will had rarely heard, and it was wonderful. Will laughed as well, and for a second a feeling of ease and comfort seemed to grow between the pair.

“Well, no matter your reasons, I'm very glad you're here. I've missed you.” Even as his head told him to stop while he could, his heart couldn’t hold in the words he had been longing to say. Will was about to forge into a topic he'd promised himself moments before to avoid. “I've more than missed you, Ashton. In fact, you should know, my feelings are the same as they were four years ago.”

Ashton tensed beside him and stopped walking. The Wallace’s continued ahead, unaware of the heated discourse that was brewing.

Will stopped too, and in a moment of impulse, grabbed Ashton's hand and pulled her to the Ferris wheel.

“What are you doing?” She sounded indignant, but she didn’t try to leave.

“We need to talk, and it's the only place around here with any sort of privacy.” He bought two tickets, placed Ashton into an empty bucket, and then sat beside her and closed the safety bar.

The ride began to slowly turn, and Will knew it was now or never.

“What happened, Ashton? What happened to coming back and giving me a chance? Where did that promise go? I've tried to give you time and space, but it's been four years. You should know by now what you want.” Will knew he sounded desperate and demanding, but he didn’t care. He hadn't imagined that night, nor had he imagined the kiss they shared.

“Will, I was a different person then. I don't know. I was so confused. I'm still confused about you. But you have to believe, when I said those things, I meant them. I really thought after college I would come back and things would fall into a happy routine. Something happened along the way, something I didn’t expect.” Her voice trailed off.

“Did you meet someone?” he asked, and she slowly nodded her head.

“How? I thought you believed, as I believe, that relationships with humans are impossible.” Before she could even muster a reply, he realized the full truth.“It isn't a human, is it? You met another one, didn’t you?” Again she nodded her head.

“So, this other presence I told you about, it's him isn't it? He’s the one who has taken away the possibility of you and me.” Will couldn’t even look at Ashton, because he already knew what her response would be. “What is it about this other man that makes him easier to love? Tell me, Ashton, tell me why it's been so hard for you to let me in, but so easy to accept someone else?”

“I'm sorry, Will. We found each other at school. It was all so unexpected. He's so different. He's been through so much more than either of us. I can't explain it. When I'm away from him, I wonder if my feelings for him are even real. But when he and I are together there’s just something about him I'm drawn to. It's like I can't even control it. It's like it’s fate. I'm so sorry, Will. I wish it could be different, I really do, but there is just something about him I can't seem to escape.” She looked at him, and he was dismayed to see pity in her eyes. She pitied him. It was more than he could bear.

So it was settled. She had found someone, someone she could actually spend an eternity with…and that someone wasn't Will. As the ride continued to rotate, Will got the feeling they weren't alone. He looked to the other buckets and then to the ground. That's when he saw him. There was a black-eyed man staring up at them, and if Will wasn't mistaken, he was smiling.

***

Griffin watched as they turned again into the sky. He'd heard every word of their conversation. His age and skill gave him the ability to hear anyone within his sight. This Will character was hardly one to worry about. He'd discovered as much when he first started observing him some weeks earlier. By all appearances, you couldn’t even tell the guy was a vampire. His life seemed so…vanilla.

Still, he had known Ashton harbored feelings for the small-town teacher, so he had to be dealt with. But now it seemed Ashton had done all the work for him. The moment she admitted her attraction to Griffin, he could sense Will's feeling of defeat. This was going to be easier than he thought. Now the only task was getting Ashton to fully commit to him. Even with her attraction, she was reluctant to let him get too close.

This was the night to change all of that. Tonight he would make his presence known and start the process of truly courting Ashton's affections. With Will out of the way, he only had to deal with her and her family. He knew enough of Ashton to know that without her family's support, he didn’t have a chance of winning her.

The ride finally slowed to a stop, and Ashton's bucket was the first to unload. Slowly, Griffin walked round to her line of sight and waited for her to see him. After a moment, she looked away from the simpering school teacher and turned to face him.

“Griffin?” Her eyes lit up and she quickly walked toward him but stopped several feet short. She turned to look back at the teacher. Griffin could sense she was in the midst of an internal struggle, but assumed it was merely that she didn’t want to hurt Will's feelings any more than she already had.

He spoke her name out loud, and as expected, she couldn’t deny his call. Turning away from Will, she walked the final few steps to Griffin and accepted his offered embrace.

“You're here! I had thought you might be, but I wasn't prepared to believe it until I actually saw you.” As she went into his arms, Griffin kissed the top of her head and brushed his hand over her silky hair. All the while, he watched Will, and had to stifle a laugh as the teacher turned and walked away.

“What sort of man gives up so easily?” he mumbled.

“What did you say?” Ashton lifted her head to look into Griffin's face.

“Nothing, I'm just glad to see you. Now, why don't you introduce me to your family? They are here, aren't they?” He kept Ashton close to his side as they walked through the festival crowd.

***

Ashton could scarcely believe what was happening. Griffin was in Belle Ridge. He was walking beside her and holding her. It was all so dreamlike. One moment she had been sitting with Will, wondering if she had been hasty in turning him down, and the next she was with Griffin, and all thoughts of Will were put to the side. That's how it always was when she was with Griffin; she felt consumed by him. Sometimes she felt like she would drown in his presence. More than once she had made the decision to ask him to stay away from her, but on each occasion she ended up tossing her plan aside and falling more and more under his charm.

She was still in shock when they found her parents. Frank and Elaine seemed shocked as well, to say the least, when Ashton appeared with a tall stranger at her side. She'd been nervous at first, but her parents were polite and welcoming, though more than a little concerned that Will had suddenly disappeared.

After several minutes of conversation, Griffin whisked her away to the fun house. She'd always hated this particular carnival attraction. The confusion and altered reality created by the maze of mirrors always made her nervous, but with Griffin she would try again. As they walked by the mirrors and through the slanting passageways, she felt like Alice falling down the rabbit hole. Nothing seemed in her control anymore.

They reached a point in the maze where everything became dark. She ran in different directions, but everywhere she went was a dead end. Ashton couldn’t get her bearings and wildly reached out and called for Griffin. Finally she found him. His arms gathered her close and there for the first time, in the fun house, he captured her mouth with his. His kiss was strong and made her feel like she was sinking. She clung to him, afraid to let go, afraid she would fall into a black hole and never return. Griffin ended the kiss and gruffly spoke the word “mine” before kissing her once more. There was something in the moment that made her feel branded, as though Griffin was placing his mark on her for all the world to see.

As they emerged from the fun house, the carnival was still going on around them, but Ashton was only aware of Griffin. She could still feel his kiss on her lips. She could hear him in her head, even though the words were unclear. Like a spirit, he possessed her, and she wasn't sure if she should be pleased or afraid.

Chapter Seventeen

Will left the fair without saying goodbye to anyone. Such impolite behavior wasn't like him, but he needed to get away and assess his thoughts. The entire scene between Ashton and Griffin was something Will wished he had never witnessed. He couldn’t even describe the pain he felt at seeing the woman he loved in another man's arms. Still, there was something else bothering him.

Griffin was a stranger to Will, that was certain, but there was also something very familiar about him. In the few moments before he left, Will was struck by the sensation that Griffin was far more connected to Ashton than initially believed. If he was a betting man, he would wager their meeting at school was far from accidental.

Determined to be honorable, Will wanted to leave Ashton's love life to her. Nevertheless, he would die before he let something happen to her. Like it or not, he was going to get close to Griffin and discover his true intentions. Will loved Ashton, even if she should choose another, and he was going to make sure the man she chose truly deserved her.

Another feeling was bothering Will as he made his way home. The feeling of unease he had felt, the feeling he assumed was Griffin's arrival in town, was still there. As crazy as it seemed, he suspected another vampire was out there, still unseen. Will was more than a little alarmed at the thought of vampires converging on Belle Ridge.

He hoped the night's events had just thrown him off, and he would wake up tomorrow without this new and disarming feeling.

***

Griffin led Ashton away from the fair after bidding goodnight to her family. He knew he had her spellbound and planned to take advantage of it. Until now, their relationship had been rather platonic. Griffin had purposely played the part of the impeccable gentleman, and never made any advances toward Ashton that might scare her away. They had never spent any time alone, even on their rare outings at the university. He had rented a house a little ways outside of the Belle Ridge city limits, far from the lights and noise. It was the perfect place to set his plans into motion. The kiss in the funhouse was the first step in getting her completely away from the teacher. Now the house would be an important part of the rest of his strategy. It would be the perfect place to begin seducing Ashton into joining him forever.