Chapter 15
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
PARIS
Inever expected fluffy dressing gowns.
We sat together on the sofa before the fire, our clothes hung up and drying in the bathroom, wrapped in the mega-soft, black gowns.
Ah, this was the life.
“How is the tea?” Silvanus asked.
“Good, thanks,” I answered, taking a sip.
After discussing Aidan, the strange moonlight thing, and the vision I’d experienced, tea and flames were a welcome relief.
“I’m glad,” he said.
The vamp got the tea to milk ratio bang on the coin. Considering he only consumed blood, it was one super impressive feat.
Just like his body…
I winced at my thought. We weren’t going there. After we’d fucked, we’d climbed back up the hill without saying a word until Silvanus offered up the dressing gowns. We’d then showered separately, sitting at opposite ends of the sofa to talk business.
Yeah, my body hummed from the experience, more than ready for a second round of sex in this cozy house. But no. We really needed to put all the pins in this. Leave it outside, put it down to another moment of horny madness, even if I did feel leagues better inside and out.
“How’s your arm?” I asked.
“Much better, thank you.” He showed me his normal-looking limb.
What a hardcore guy to shove his arm in a mage shield thingy like that.
Hal…
Hal is possessed.
“I’m glad,” I bit out, not going down the Hal road.
I couldn’t handle it right now.
I wrapped both hands around the mug, my feet resting on the coffee table.
I felt unusually relaxed, considering what’d gone done between me and Silvanus.
I mean, getting to the shagging had been, well, scary.
I thought we’d reached the end of our messed-up relationship.
But look at us now, back to a weird place with zero unease. At least from my end.
I wasn’t sure where this left us now. The goal posts were constantly shifting, piling on confusion for good measure. Solid lines needed to be drawn to establish a better way of occupying the same space.
Whatever. Why couldn’t I just enjoy this moment for now? Wasn’t it better than screaming at each other?
At least the weather seemed to be easing out there, the storm not as ferocious anymore.
Silvanus got to his feet, moving to stand beside the fire. He turned his gaze to the kitchen window. “It will be sunrise in a few hours.”
I nodded, examining his profile.
He really was handsome, built from a wet dream. Once again, he appeared more mortal, more vulnerable. It might have been the fluffy messiness of his usually slick hair, or the dressing gown, but yeah. I wanted to give him a hug.
Damn. Guilt jabbed at me again. “Silvanus, I—”
“If you’re about to apologize, don’t. What’s done is done. I have no reason to be angry with you.”
“But you do. I’m your enemy, remember?”
His lips twitched, hinting at a smile. “Do enemies always behave like this?”
Good point. “I guess not.”
“Then we aren’t enemies,” he added. “Although I’m unsure what that means.”
“Agreed.” I sipped more tea.
He folded his arms, keeping those scarlet peepers on the window. “I behaved irrationally. You owe me nothing. We’ve lived our lives on either side of the divide, steeped in hate, having our own senses of right and wrong. When you learned of the attack, you wanted me dead. You still might.”
There went the twinge in my heart again. “I don’t want you dead.”
He offered up a ghost of a smile before continuing. “Aidan has broken everything.” He shook his head. “Let’s not go over that again. All I want to say is I think we should define what we are. It would be better for us moving forward.”
I took my feet off the coffee table, sitting forward. “Absolutely. We can’t keep going off on each other and then getting off with each other, right?”
Slowly, he turned to face me and dropped his hands, revealing a wider gap in the top of his dressing gown. It’d crept open, a decent exposure of his flesh on display.
“It doesn’t serve us well.” Why did he have to make his sentence sound so sexual?
I averted my hungry eyes, focusing on my tea. “We have to ignore it.”
Straight away, I knew it wouldn’t be healthy. But what did it mean that I was attracted to the vampire king? That I wanted some sort of fuckbuddy relationship with him to replace the one I’d had with Hal?
And why was I starting to care about his safety?
Thinking of Hal got me shaking, every hair on my body stirring.
“I don’t get it,” I seethed, putting my mug on the table. “He came to get me but left me to die?” I hunched forward, head between my legs. “What bullshit. He doesn’t care about me. He’s using me as an excuse and…and…”
Oh, man. I couldn’t handle this.
Numbness time was officially over, the real world was crashing down on my head.
I got to my feet, hopping from foot to foot, shaking my hands. “Fuck.”
“Breathe, Paris.”
“I’m breathing. I’m breathing. I’m breathing.”
Hal as Aidan, or Aidan as Hal. Whatever. The moment Silvanus told me, confirming what I’d already guessed, dread formed an iron ball in my belly. But I’d been ignoring it with tea, afterglow, and stupidity. That dread finally swelled, taking up more space now.
As it should. Because we were facing a lot of hell in our futures, and we had to be ready.
Fortifying myself with steel, I folded my arms. “We have to remember who we’re up against. Focus on him, focus on the truth. Clear our minds of bullshit.” I straightened my spine. “Whatever we’ve been feeling, we snuff it out. Distractions will get us killed.”
He watched me, staying silent.
Don’t look at me like you want to fuck on this coffee table! “Don’t you think?”
Damn dick twitched again.
“I do,” he agreed. “We’ve been too caught up in nonsense.”
It hurt to hear him say that, even though I’d just said something similar.
“We must concentrate on the bigger picture,” he added.
I nodded, using my thighs to squish my rising boner. Because I was better than this shit. So much better. Okay, I’d lost my head. Who doesn’t from time to time? But there would be no more melodrama for me.
My body could ache all it wanted for more of his touch. Tough shit. We were so done with that.
I headed for the stairs, not feeling as sure as I should be. “I’ll check the clothes.”
“We need to go back to the palace now.”
I paused, hand on the curved banister. “Do you think that’s a good idea?”
“I’m not leaving you alone,” he rebutted. “It’s too dangerous.”
Close proximity would only worsen the blue balls.
That’s what masturbating is for.
Internally rolling my eyes, I reluctantly agreed. “It’s going to be complicated, though. I’ll be vampire enemy number one right in the heart of the nest.”
He cocked his head. “You are under my protection.”
Not reassuring, but whatever.
I got two steps up the staircase when my body froze.
“Sing, precious one,” Caer’s voice echoed in my head.
Finally!
My mouth opened, the first words of the song ‘Melody of Little Maple’ pouring from my throat.
“Paris?”
I sat down as white petals fell around me, the house fading, a new vision taking over.