Chapter 2 #3
I stepped in front of a urinal and did my business before I went to one of the sinks, turned on the water, and washed my hands.
I bent down and splashed water on my face.
Maybe I was in shock and couldn’t process everything that had happened, or maybe what I’d been thinking had happened really hadn’t.
But no, as I rinsed my face with cold water, I knew I wasn’t losing my mind, and I wouldn’t be able to trick myself into believing that.
Behind me, I heard the bathroom door open.
I looked up, and in the mirror I saw Auris, his long hair a perfect, gleaming black, his suit—had he really been wearing a suit in the church?
—also black and perfectly tailored, though I saw traces of dust on it, and on his back, hidden by his hair, just a glimpse of torn fabric.
Yet the knot of his black tie was straight and tidy, as if he’d made sure of that before walking through the door.
“You’re not seriously telling me your vampire illusion mojo is making you wear a tie.” There was a slight echo, the kind so many bathrooms have.
He met my eyes in the mirror. Very slowly, deliberately, he approached me. He brushed my hair back with his hand and wiped some water off my chin.
“I was dressed properly when they caught me earlier in the day. You may not have seen, back in the church. Mirrors can help shatter the illusion, to a degree.” He reached for my hand, ignoring the fact that it was still wet. “You can feel it. Close your eyes. Seeing will distract you.”
I let my eyes fall shut. There was the sound of the running water, but that automatically turned off after a few more seconds, and then it was just his warm hand, placing mine on the knotted fabric at the top of his breastbone.
“That’s a Windsor knot, isn’t it?”
“Yes.”
His breath fluttered over my cheek, and I opened my eyes only to find him maybe a handbreadth away from my face. His eyes were so dark. I didn’t understand how they could be so dark.
He leaned in closer, unblinking. “May I?”
“May you what?”
“Kiss you, Ethan.”
“Why?”
That made him raise his eyebrows and smile at me. “Because I’d really like to kiss you. Is there ever another reason?”
“Sure. Plenty.”
“Well, those are not why I asked.”
The moment stretched, and because of that stupid thing he’d asked before, about what I would change in my life, I was reminded of what I’d promised myself so long ago: that I wouldn’t live with regrets, not if I could avoid them.
“Yes, you may.”
The humor left him, and he turned serious. He leaned in and kissed my jawbone.
“More?” he asked, his lips brushed over my skin, his breath warm and tingling.
“Yeah.” I turned my head slightly, just enough that I wasn’t sure who closed the distance.
Either way, we kissed. It was a soft kiss at first, almost innocent and shy. Then, I don’t know why, but I opened my mouth to him and relaxed, turning just a fraction farther toward him.
He took his time, didn’t rush in. He wrapped his arms around me slowly and steadily, and when our bodies pressed closer, when I deepened the kiss and he did too, a spike of fear shot through me.
He’d been this close to the guy in the church, hadn’t he? That embrace…it had been death.
Auris pulled back, and with my mouth still slack and my cheeks flushed, I looked up at him, at those black eyes I couldn’t read, set in a face that didn’t want to stick in my memory.
“You fear me.”
“I saw what you did. I’d be stupid not to fear you.”
He reached up and caressed the side of my face. “I didn’t want you to see for this exact reason. I’ll swear on anything that I’ll never hurt or harm you, but those are just words. I’ll show you through my deeds, if you’ll let me.”
“Are you saying you don’t want to drink my blood?”
He gave me an unreadable look, but I thought it might have been amusement he didn’t really want to show.
“I do want to. But I won’t. Because you don’t want me to.”
“Would it make me…like you? If you bit me?”
He hesitated for a few seconds before he answered. “No.”
I took in his face slowly, and he let me, waiting patiently. I was pressed against the sink counter. It was a fantasy, a wicked fantasy, and nothing about what was happening felt even remotely real.
I reached out, reached for that annoyingly perfect tie, and pulled.
This time, the kiss was more heated, less restrained.
I wanted something that wasn’t—something I hadn’t had during lockdown or even for a while before that.
I wanted to write it off as revenge against my ex, but that wasn’t it.
I just wanted this—easy, no strings, something wild that wasn’t me, that was just a blip in reality. With someone who was just a fantasy.
I moaned against his mouth as his warm fingers pressed against my back. “More”
“More?”
“Yeah.”
He reached down between my legs. “That much more?”
“Yeah.”
“All right.”
He pulled back slightly while he opened my pants one-handed. I still had a hold of his tie, and I tugged him back toward me and let my eyes fall closed just before he touched my cock.
I’d started to get hard…when he’d walked into the damn bathroom, to be honest. I moaned against his lips when he ran his hand over my damp underwear.
He licked my lips, just a flick of his tongue.
It was erotic, at least to me in that exact moment.
Every hair on my body stood on end and my skin felt too hot.
“More?” he asked again, his voice low, but other than that, sounding unaffected by what was happening.
“Yeah, more. Touch me.”
He pulled my boxers down. He touched me, wrapping his hand around me and using his thumb to stroke my tip as if he were trying his best to squeeze more precum out of me.
It was so good. It felt too good—no. Not too good.
I’d had casual sex a few times. Not a ton, not on the regular, but enough to have a baseline for it.
The other party was usually far more horny than Auris seemed right now, although I couldn’t really tell.
He didn’t seem like he was about to bend me over the sink, that was for sure.
Instead, this felt more like it was all about me, like I got to demand and was then served exactly what I’d ordered.
Really just a fantasy, then. And who knew, maybe he got off on that? Meeting strangers, playing a part for them. I decided I didn’t care when he’d milked me enough to make it so slick that there was no friction when he pumped my erection.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck!” I sighed against him, and he cradled my head with his free hand, those strong fingers pulling me in close. His long black hair was a curtain around us, blocking out the light, hiding the room from me. Hiding me within his touch.
The handjob was good. Better than good. I’d never had one so good, if I was being honest with myself, and as a result, it didn’t last long.
I shot my load into his hand, moaning while he kissed me and nibbled on the corner of my mouth, and the high of the orgasm was blinding.
It made me gasp for air and tremble, made me shiver and yearn, and when I looked and actually saw what was happening around me again, I found his eyes locked on me, his nostrils flaring, and his expression somewhere between rapt and ravenous.
His hand curled against my scalp, but not painfully. Just when I registered it as a gesture of possession, he unwound his fingers and took half a step back. He leaned over to a paper towel dispenser on the wall, pulled a bunch out, and cleaned me up, carefully, tenderly.
“I can do that.” My voice was still crackly and rough around the edges. I had to steady myself against the sinks.
“I know.”
He was undeterred. I wasn’t sure why I didn’t tell him to get out and leave me alone. Sexual afterglow, the brain’s way of mellowing out your thoughts, most likely.
Once he’d wiped his own hands clean and pulled my pants back up, he leaned in again, like he’d done when we’d kissed.
“Come join me outside when you’re ready, Ethan.”
He left, and that was a good thing. I needed to catch my breath, and if at all possible, gather my thoughts as well. They were all over the place while I was trying to understand what had just happened between us.