Chapter 5
When we got to the car, I felt the weight of too many hours spent awake, even for me. I just wanted to get back to my hotel room and collapse.
I deflated the moment I sank back into the passenger seat. Auris started the car and turned the heat on high, then did what felt like a very neat three-point turn.
“Where are you staying?” he asked as he slowly drove out of the forest.
“Cromere. The Three Roses.”
“That’s a nice hotel. But how about you spend the night at my place? Well, one of my places, at any rate. You’re tired, and it’s closer.”
I was about to open my mouth to protest, but then he reached over and brushed my cheek with his knuckles. The small contact felt like the first sunlight after a long winter.
“Sure.”
“Good.”
We sped down the dark, lonely road while I struggled to keep my eyes from falling closed.
I had dozed on and off, so catching the sign that told me this was Brightam as I blinked and stretched my legs was pure chance.
I moved in my seat, trying to sit up straighter. “Do you own property everywhere? Or just in the area?”
“Here and there. It accumulates, but I do own several places around Cromere. I told you, I’ve been here for a long time. On top of that, even when I left for a few years, I always returned. Here we are.”
He pulled up in front of one of the cottages that were usually rented out to tourists in most of the seaside towns I’d seen over the past few days. The place was neat and pretty, but that also made it unassuming in a neat and pretty touristy seaside village; it looked just like any other cottage.
Once more, Auris was faster than me. He opened my door, holding it for me as I sluggishly got out.
This time, I grabbed my bag. I had learned to keep a few essentials in there—a toothbrush, a tiny tube of toothpaste, soap, and spare socks and underwear.
I’d worked long hours away from home before the pandemic, and nothing taught you preparedness like a night spent working with a full day of work ahead and no shower in sight.
Auris pulled a keyring from his pocket, quickly flicked to the correct key, and opened the door.
When he switched on the bright light inside, it blinded me for a moment.
My eyes probably looked red and puffy, not to mention I’d been hiking through the woods.
If I hadn’t been so tired, I would have cared that my tee smelled of sweat and cold weather.
The decor in the cottage surprised me. Just another surprise to add to my list. The wood paneling on the ceiling was white, as were all the shelves, many of them inbuilt.
A massive U-shaped light gray couch surrounded the fireplace, with the side facing the windows shorter than the other side of the U.
The windows offered up what was probably a stunning ocean view in the daytime.
I had expected something more antique, something darker, gloomier, with a rocking chair maybe, not this.
“Come on, the bedroom is through here.” Auris led me down a hallway that continued the color and design scheme of straight angles and grays and whites. It was that blend of Scandinavian and Japanese minimal design, the name of which escaped my tired mind.
There was another fireplace in the bedroom, with a thick charcoal gray carpet right in front of it. The bed was made, the cream-colored comforter inviting me to fall into it. I definitely needed a shower first though.
I looked around while Auris pulled the curtains shut over another set of beach-facing windows.
“Where’s your bathroom? I think I need a shower before I collapse.”
He turned. “Of course. Just across the hall. You should find everything you need there.”
I walked out of the bedroom to the door opposite.
The bathroom was white and spotless. Gray towels were neatly piled on a shelf by the door, along with a selection of soap and shower gel, shampoo and conditioner.
This might not have been a place rented out to tourists, but it certainly felt like that, like a hotel room almost. Perhaps Auris did rent it out when he…
wasn’t being chased by priests. Maybe, if I could muster the courage, I’d ask him about it.
I set out two towels, took some lavender-scented shampoo and soap, stepped into the shower, and let the hot water run over my exhausted body, welcoming the way it soothed my muscles.
I washed the woods out of my hair and soaped up my skin to rinse away the remnants of the day.
The hot water steamed up the mirror and made my reflection look like a ghost when I was done.
I was relieved that I didn’t have to use the survival kit in my bag, apart from the underwear.
There were toothbrushes wrapped in cardboard, unused, tiny tubes of toothpaste, a shiny new comb, and a hairbrush that looked new as well.
I wrapped one towel around my waist, scrunched the water out of my hair with the other, then let the damp waves run down to my shoulders.
Was I supposed to be embarrassed now, naked apart from the towel?
Or did the fact that I was staying in a vampire’s house—a vampire who had given me two of my top ten sexual experiences in just one night—allow me to abandon modesty?
I wasn’t sure, but I decided I was too tired to care, and also a lot of life-altering stuff had happened.
I was not getting back into my filthy clothes.
When I stepped back into the bedroom on my bare feet, Auris had taken off his jacket and vest. He had rolled up his shirtsleeves and was sitting on the carpet in front of the fireplace, his legs crossed at the ankles.
In the fireplace, flames were licking at the air, and the room was warm with the fire’s heat.
Auris turned and looked at me with his dark eyes. The way he did it made me feel desired.
“You should get into bed, Ethan. Seeing you like this tempts me to take you again.” He said it in a matter-of-fact way, despite the words themselves, and I could feel the color rising to my cheeks.
“R-really?”
He cocked his head. “Yes. Do not encourage me to ask for your permission. That look on your face gives you away.”
I opened my mouth to argue, but he was right. Lockdown had been long, but even before that, I might not have said no to someone so…enticing. But then…his looks shouldn’t be enough. I’d always liked looking at people, but there was a difference between that and acting on it.
Yet Auris, a vampire, made me want to act. To act out. It would take only a flick of my finger to make the towel fall to the floor.
I opened my mouth, not sure what I would say, what I would ask of him. “Ah…”
His dark eyes hardened, his brows drawing together. “Get into bed. You are tired. Your day was long and full of things that should scare you.”
He was right. He was reasonable.
I hesitated a moment longer; long enough to see an expression pass over his face that made my heart skip a beat. I headed to the large bed then, dropped my towel on the foot bench, and crept under the covers.
Auris had gone back to staring into the flames, but he made no attempt to leave the room. I didn’t care. Or maybe I did. Maybe him not moving was a relief.
“Good night,” I said.
“Good night, Ethan. Sleep well.”
The crackling flames and soft sheets welcomed me. I was asleep within minutes.