I didn't fight back when he pulled me closer. To be honest, I felt significantly more at peace when I was close to Jake. Like I knew that everything would be okay as long as I was by his side, no matter what happened. Like we could get through anything together. It was cheesy, but I never wanted him to leave me again. Ew. I hated that I just admitted that to myself.
I smiled at him weakly, shrugging. I hoped he approved of how I handled things. I wanted him to be proud of me. I wanted him to know that holding back on the bloodsucker had been one of the hardest things I had ever done. And I wanted him to know that I had done it for him. Because he wanted me to behave myself. I had a feeling that if we hadn't just had that conversation right before the encounter, I would have gone batshit crazy.
Wow. Jake's anger sort of surprised me though. I wrapped my arms around him tenderly, rubbing his back slowly, my fingers drawing little patterns against his skin. I was thinking, too. It worried me. What was Jake going to do now? He was pissed, that much was obvious, but I didn't want him to do anything. It scared me, it really did.
"Stop it," I said softly, resting my head against his shoulder. I couldn't believe I was about to be the voice of reason here, but apparently our roles had been reversed, "It'll be fine. He was just protecting his own, like we protect ours. Let's not do anything rash, okay? He didn't do anything to hurt me, I'm okay. Let's just leave it at that." I hoped he would hear what I was saying. And listen!