分节阅读_93

  both fli word
  slipped out. ”but it had the opposite effect,” he ued quickly. ”i
  fought with rosalie, emmett, ahey suggested that now was
  the time… the wht we've ever had. carlisle sided with me, and
  alice.” he grima he said her name. i 't imagine why. ”esme
  told me to do whatever i had to iay.” he shook his head
  ily.
  ”all that day i eavesdropped on the minds of everyone you spoke to,
  shocked that you kept your word. i didn't uand you at all. but i
  k i 't beore ih you. i did my very best to
  stay as far from you as possible. ahe perfume of your skin,
  your breath, your hair… it hit me as hard as the very first day.”
  he met my eyes again, and they were surprisingly tender.
  ”and for all that,” he ued, ”i'd have fared better if i had exposed
  us all at that first moment, than if h no witnesses and
  nothing to stop me — i were to hurt you.”
  i was humao have to ask. ”why?”
  ”isabella.” he pronounced my full hen playfully ruffled
  my hair with his free hand. a shh my body at his casual
  touch. ”bella, i 't live with myself if i ever hurt you. you don't
  know how it's tortured me.” he looked down, ashamed agai
  of you, still, white, ever see you blush scarlet again, to
  flash of intuition in your eyes whehrough my
  prete would be unendurable.” he lifted his glonized
  eyes to mine. ”you are the most important thihe most
  important thing to me ever.”
  my head inning at the rapid dire our versation
  had taken. from the cheerful topipending demise, we were
  suddenly deg ourselves. he waited, ahough i looked down to
  study our haween us, i knew his golden eyes were on me. ”you
  already know how i feel, of course,” i finally said. ”i'm here… which,
  roughly translated, means i would rather die than stay away from you.” i
  frowned. ”i'm an idiot.”
  ”you are an idiot,” he agreed with a laugh. our eyes met, and i laughed,
  too. we laughed together at the idiod sheer impossibility of such a
  moment.
  ”and so the lion fell ihe lamb…” he murmured. i looked away,
  hidihrilled to the word.
  ”id lamb,” i sighed.
  ”what a sick, masochisti.” he stared into the shadowy forest for a
  lo, and i wohoughts had taken him.
  ”why… ?” i began, and the sure how to ue.
  he looked at me and smiled; sunlight glinted off his face, his teeth.
  ”yes?”
  ”tell me why you ran from me before.”
  his smile faded. ”you know why.”
  ”ly what did i d? i'll have to be on my guard,
  you see, so i better start learning what i shouldn't do. this, for
  example” — i stroked the back of his haht.”
  he smiled again. ”you didn't do anything wro was my fault.”
  ”but i want to help, if i ake this harder for you.”
  ”well…” he plated for a moment. ”it was just how close you were.
  most humans instinctively shy away from us, are repelled by our
  alienness… i wasing you to e so d the smell of your
  throat.” he stopped short, looking to see if he'd upset me.
  ”okay, then,” i said flippantly, tryihe suddenly tense
  atmosphere. i tucked my o throat exposure.”
  it worked; he laughed. ” was more the surprise than
  anything else.”
  he raised his free hand aly on the side of my neck. i
  sat very still, the chill of his touatural warning — a warning
  tellierrified. but there was no feeling of fear ihere
  were, however, s…
  ”you see,” he said. ”perfee.”
  my bl, and i wished i could slow it, sensing that this must
  make everything so much more difficult — the thudding of my pulse in my