Bad Taste (Part I) // Colby Brock

42 - Tara

          I stared at Colby and Rebecca, since they were both distracted, certain that I would find something. Rebecca was straddling his hips, leaning forward slightly so she could draw in some sort of sketchbook with all of her hair piled on one shoulder — the one closest to the back of the chair, revealing her entire neck to all of us. Occasionally, she would have her lip between her teeth, but every time that happened, she would glance at Colby and stop it — after a few seconds. Simultaneously watching Colby, I saw that he was keeping his breathing slow enough that it wouldn't disturb her workflow as he brushed back her hair on one side. I thought that it was so he could see her neck, but he hadn't taken his eyes away from her face; her eyes whenever he could see them.

I didn't think he knew that we were all still here, just across the room from them. They were both off in their own worlds, but he was utterly lost in his.

I wanted to believe in what I was seeing; the... infatuation in Colby's eyes as he stared at Rebecca. I wanted to believe it but he had been so detached from women in that way for so long that it didn't seem right. And it didn't help that he had actually threatened to kill her — and apparently told her about it.

Could I believe this? Could I look at Colby, my big, bad, ruthless, vampire boss and landlord, and believe that this girl had stolen him in a way that no one else had before? And could I look at Rebecca, my new, bitchy, anger-driven friend, and believe that she had been pulled into him naturally?

The answer was yes, because when I looked at Colby again, I saw something else besides infatuation. It wasn't quite love, but it was so damn close that there was no faking it. Whatever Rebecca had done, she had completely stolen him; swiftly taken his heart in the matter of a mere week.

Something flashed in my mind: images of Jake and I when we first met — how we hadn't been able to stay away from another for long before we started to date. Though, Jake and I, as well as Sam and Kat, Corey and Devyn, Reggie and Cassie, and Xepher and Griffin, were much more than just 'dating'. Jake wasn't my boyfriend, he was my One — the only guy I would ever be attracted to or love or be able to survive with. And it was the same for every other couple.

Rebecca was the female version of Colby, like I was the female version of Jake, if a little bitchier. And with that came the promise of something that I had denied in the beginning and not thought about since: Colby had found his One.

Whether he believed in the legend or not, he had found the girl who he wouldn't be able to live without; the girl who he wouldn't ever be able to hurt; the girl who he would only feed on or sleep with ever again. He had found his person and she had already made it clear that she wasn't going anywhere.

My belief in his bad intentions completely disappeared now, and my faith in their relationship suddenly sky-rocketed. I felt weirdly happy — for both of them, not just for Rebecca. They would drive each other nuts, that was for sure, but it would be a passionate type of crazy.

I felt proud that I had brought them together.