Chapter 23
Chapter Twenty-Three
When Cameron’s hands found Thomas’s waist in the water and cautiously snaked around to his lower back, Thomas took that as an invitation. As he fed, he shifted one knee up onto the marble bench, and then the other so that he was straddling Cameron’s hips.
When the man’s large palms slid up his spine and urged him even closer, Thomas rested down on top of him, exhaling a soft moan from the sensual contact of naked and sensitive flesh.
His cock fully aroused and pressed into Cameron’s abdomen.
The delicious feel of Cameron’s muscled and powerful body beneath his as he held Thomas in his arms.
The soothing water flowed around them, and Cameron’s blood tasted of sweet ginger and intoxicating spices.
Thomas fed deeper, the allure of Cameron’s nature calling out to him.
Yearning for him. He felt the unmistakable and yet intangible knot of it inside of Cameron, then coaxed it with his sincerest thoughts and intentions. His conviction, desire and love.
Cameron’s nature slipped from him in an exhilarating rush of heat and enchanting light.
Thomas felt like a magician that had whipped a beautiful handkerchief from inside his breast pocket, but the handkerchief was ablaze with emerald-green fire.
Cameron gasped audibly and tensed as he held Thomas even tighter, as if Thomas were an anchor keeping him from floating and drifting away.
After the initial rush of pleasure and tension, Cameron’s muscles went lax, and he slouched back against the edge of the pool. His broad chest heaved between their bodies and his hands lazily slid down to Thomas’s hips.
Cameron had trusted him. He’d finally said yes to Thomas’s intention and desire. This truth—along with every other wonderful sensation that being with this man offered him—made Thomas dizzy with love and lust. Euphoric with being alive and wrapped around Cameron’s vibrant energy and rugged body.
Thomas lifted from his neck to find Cameron’s eyes half open and alighted in the same vivid color as his aura. Thomas’s eyes glowed in return, staring at his languid, contented expression. His full lips were parted as he took shallow breaths in the silence, his chest still heaving.
Without a word or second thought, Thomas leaned into him, softly brushing their noses as he tilted his head and pressed into Cameron’s mouth.
Thomas kissed him unapologetically, moving his chin and urging Cameron’s mouth to open wider to him.
Wanting and needing to taste more of him. To have and feel more.
Cameron’s breath hitched but his mouth relaxed, then moved with Thomas’s effort.
Cameron’s tongue pushed against and tasted his in return while his hands caressed up the slick stretch of Thomas’s spine to embrace him.
He had been wanting to kiss Cameron for weeks.
There had been so many moments where he’d fought the urge—for fear of crossing a boundary or burdening him with unsolicited affection.
But Thomas kissed him now. He kissed him without holding anything back—possessively gripping his head and shoulders. Wrapped around him like an impious snake. He couldn’t help himself. The sensation was like finally inhaling a deep breath after weeks of damn near suffocating.
Thomas only pulled up from his mouth because he felt the undeniable hardness of Cameron’s cock underneath him in the water.
Cameron’s eyes were still alighted and he was softly panting as he stared up at him.
Thomas lifted slightly and set the fingertips of one hand at the center of Cameron’s chest. Cautiously, he crawled them lower and toward his navel.
“Can I touch you?” he asked quietly, his fingertips tracing lower still. “You are capable of being sexually aroused. Personally, this is a wonderful development.”
Just as Thomas’s hand hovered over its prize in the warm water, Cameron’s palms firmly gripped Thomas’s ass.
Thomas made that unfamiliar and humiliating whoop sound from the shock of it as Cameron stood, picked him up, turned and gently dropped him onto the bench where Cameron himself had just been sitting.
He slipped out of Thomas’s embrace altogether and stepped backward.
The movement and transition had been so quick and smooth that it left Thomas disoriented and blinking. His heart rate tripled in his chest as he stammered, “Cameron—”
“I need a minute. I’m so sorry…” Cameron took a few more steps away, then bent at the knees and submerged himself backward into the water. Thomas watched, mouth agape, as Cameron flipped and literally swam away from him and toward the opposite side of the pool.
Sitting there on the bench, alone, Thomas took an intentional breath. He’d been dialed up to level ten, and then the delicious furnace of a man who had been fueling him had stripped himself away. He rubbed his wet palms against his face and up through his hair to regain his senses from the shock.
Cameron swam all the way to the opposite end of the pool.
Dipped himself once more, then climbed out and walked back to the end where Thomas was sitting.
It was so odd, Thomas didn’t know what to do but stare at him the entire time.
Cameron was still gloriously naked and soaked, and the firelight created a mesmeric glimmer of gold against his rich brown skin.
When Cameron didn’t stop and kept stalking past Thomas, the latter panicked.
“Where are you going? Are you leaving?”
Cameron grinned and rubbed his neck, but didn’t stop moving, his long legs carrying him toward the showers. “No, I… I just need a minute.”
Thomas nodded anxiously, not wanting to shout after him as he moved away and around the corner. He wanted to talk to him—to know what had happened and if he was upset. But if he needed to be alone, clambering out of the pool and chasing after him was the literal opposite of what Cameron wanted.
He sat back against the wall of the pool and brought his feet up to the bench, bending his knees and wrapping his arms around them. What on Earth had happened?
Cameron had been fine with Thomas holding his hand on many occasions. Even a hug, here and there. Feeding was comfortable now, and Cameron hadn’t even objected to sleeping in the same bed in Antibes.
He’d asked Thomas to pull his aura, so… was there a hard line at anything sexual?
The physical affections they shared were satisfying in their own way, and Thomas was grateful for Cameron’s openness.
But was that all he could ever have? As his love and desire for Cameron grew stronger, could he live with a hard boundary at sex and physical intimacy?
When Thomas had first arrived to the Ashford estate, Cameron had said that in time, Thomas could find a lover. That Cameron would be comfortable with that situation.
Remembering it, Thomas frowned. The idea sounded just as absurd and distasteful now as it did then, but for different reasons. He didn’t want some random hypothetical vampire or anyone else. He wanted Cameron.
After a while, it became clear that Cameron wasn’t returning to the pool, so Thomas climbed out and made his way to the showers.
He didn’t run into Cameron again until he was cleaned, dried and in his complimentary robe.
Thomas walked around the corner to the men’s changing area and found Cameron sat on the bench in front of their lockers, fully dressed and leaning with his elbows on his knees. Looking utterly stressed.
When he glanced over and saw Thomas, he abruptly sat up and smiled weakly. “Hi.”
“Hello…” Thomas said quietly. He walked toward his locker. “Thank you for not returning to the estate and leaving me here.”
“I would never do that. I’m sorry that I… I was overwhelmed and I needed a moment to just… I don’t know.”
“You’ve said as much. I understand.” Thomas opened his locker and reached in to find his underwear and socks. He didn’t know why exactly, but he felt rejected, somehow. He’d poured his love and truth into Cameron, and Cameron had plainly consented and said yes.
But then… Thomas had taken things a step further.
Or at least, tried to. Now that he considered the entirety of the situation, he likely had overwhelmed Cameron.
Thomas himself had been swept up in the moment, but he shouldn’t have assumed that Cameron would have been swept along with him.
Especially given what he knew about the man and his personal preferences.
Thomas was parsing out how to broach the topic when he felt Cameron stand up behind him. He assumed he was probably leaving before Thomas disrobed and would wait for him in the lobby. Thomas turned his head. “Cam—” He froze when Cameron’s palms rested on his hips.
“Will you speak with me for a moment?” Gently, he pulled Thomas into his chest, then wrapped his arms around his waist and middle, firmly embracing him from behind and with his breath caressing Thomas’s ear. “Please sit with me?”
Thomas had been cinched tightly with confusion and embarrassment, but the tension practically melted from his shoulders.
“Yes, of course,” he said, his heart in his throat.
Cameron urged him away from the locker and, to Thomas’s great surprise and pleasure, back into his lap.
He sat sideways and with one of Cameron’s hands clasped in his own so that they could make eye contact.
Cameron’s free arm was wrapped around Thomas’s hips, as if to protect him from falling.
“Thank you for giving me that,” Cameron began quietly, “for releasing my aura and nature. It was… it was wonderful.”
“Was it?” Thomas said doubtfully.
“It was,” Cameron said, looking up at him with doe-like hazel eyes. “I understand what you mean now, about being flipped inside out. But there was more to it… so much more.”
Thomas sighed, deciding to take the bull by the horns. “I apologize for overwhelming you. Obviously, I went too far and should not have suggested—”