Chapter 10
We walked back to the cottage in silence. I felt at ease with him rather than awkward, enjoying his steadiness and the way having him next to me felt right, as if I’d missed him at my side all this time. He and I were a lot like the waves and the night around us.
I took my shoes off on the patio and shook out the sand that had collected in them while Auris headed back inside to work his magic with the fireplace.
By the time I closed the sliding glass door behind me, the flames were crackling as they devoured fresh logs. I took my jacket off while Auris headed back to the bedroom to build yet another fire there. I walked along the hallway and watched him from the doorway.
“You enjoy that, don’t you?”
“The fires? Certainly. Do you want me to show you how it’s done?”
I shook my head. “Why if I have an ancient vampire who’ll do it for me?”
He gave me a toothy smile. “Pressuring me into servitude, Ethan? So soon? Most lovers have the decency to wait at least a fortnight.”
“Not me. I have standards.”
He chuckled and turned back to his work. I had the sudden urge to photograph him.
“Hey, did you bring—” I began, but then I spotted my camera bag behind the rest of my luggage on the floor. “Don’t move,” I said as I dug for my camera.
“My sweet, you cannot hold still when making fire. It defies the purpose.”
“Fine, do the purpose thing,” I mumbled, mostly because I had my camera out now and was already lining up the perfect shot.
Auris, all black, and in front of him, red fire growing from the cold stone, was immortalized with a click. With the second and third, I got his face, pale and edged orange in the fire’s light, outlined against the black of his hair and clothing, his black eyes a mirror for the flames.
For the next one, I caught his head half-turned toward me, his eyes enchanting the camera. I took a few of those, then stopped.
“You don’t mind, do you?”
I took one more photo of the smile that built on his face. “With you behind the camera, I don’t.”
I blushed, happy the glow of the fire would hide it. “I think I’ll go and take a hot shower. That okay?”
“Of course.”
I put my camera away and found a set of warmer sweatpants in the luggage.
I’d definitely left those out on my bed at the hotel, meaning Auris had folded everything neatly before packing my stuff.
He’d also seen my not-quite-messy-but-also-not-very-organized hotel room.
It was one of the things my ex had kept bringing up, how I got super messy when I worked.
How I forgot about him. How I cared more about some silly photos than anything else.
I grabbed a sweater and pushed the memories of other people aside, then walked across the hallway.
The shower heated quickly, and the warm water felt good as I stood there, letting it wash over my face and back.
I toweled off and put my sweats on, the lavender-scented air lulling me.
Crawling back under the covers in the now fire-warmed bedroom was very enticing, even though I felt guilty about yet another day during which I hadn’t done the work I had come here to do.
Auris sat on the floor in front of the fireplace in the bedroom, just as I’d left him. The red-orange glow from the flames painted the edges and plateaus of his face in monochromes, and I stared, transfixed once more by the enchanting oddness of his beauty. I got my camera out again.
This time, after the first click, Auris did not allow me to merely watch and fix this moment in pixels of varying brightness. He turned and looked right back, not so much flirting with the camera as with me.
After a good fifteen minutes of this, I put my camera away again. I’d never gotten a hard-on behind the lens before. I hadn’t cared enough to hide the bulge in my pants, not when Auris was posing for me.
When I turned my back to zip the camera bag shut, I realized I no longer had any issues at all recalling the shape of his eyes, the lines of his mouth.
“I think taking photos of you helps me with…helps with that illusion thing you mentioned.”
“I think there’s another reason remembering is becoming easier.”
Behind me, I heard the telltale rustle of fabric. When I turned, I broke into laughter.
“Are you for real?”
Auris had stripped naked and was leaning on the mantel with one hand, the other resting carelessly but calculatedly on his hip. The fire’s glow emphasized his masculine features, especially the shadow the most prominent feature cast on his abdomen.
“Probably not. I am a creature of myth, so you’re probably imagining this, my sweet.”
“Ah. In that case, I should go to bed and get some sleep if I’m hallucinating.”
“Yes, the bed would be best.”
“Then I’ll do that.”
I hesitated, but in the end, I couldn’t resist the temptation of his eyes following me, so I slid my sweatpants down, making sure to go slow as I revealed my ass. I dropped them and stepped out of them, hearing heavy breathing from the fireplace.
I’d photographed models in varying stages of undress, trying to charm and tease as they went. I’d never done it, had no experience. There was no finesse in the way I took off my sweater. It left me naked. Like that, I climbed under the covers.
He still stood unmoving, and I met his dark eyes. “It’s pretty cold, all alone in such a big bed.”
Before the last word was fully out of my mouth, he’d crossed the distance and slid in on my other side.
He wrapped his arms around me, spooning me. That wasn’t enough for me, and after unsubtly pushing my ass out, I heard his amused huff.
“Shouldn’t you be asleep?”
“If you want me to sleep, don’t pose naked in front of the fireplace.”
“Ethan, the way you photographed me, you enjoy me doing that.”
“Yeah. Right now, I’d enjoy you touching me.”
I rubbed against him once more, but Auris was already complying with my horny demands. He ran his fingertips up and down my abdomen, drifting lower each time to stroke me with featherlight touches that made me hungry for more.
I did what I could to reach behind me, but the angle was awkward, and he had his hip pressed against me already, his cock rubbing between my cheeks.
Him stroking and teasing me made my hole quiver.
I thought I wouldn’t mind spending some time prepping my ass tonight.
Another one of the ex’s complaints had been that I wasn’t giving enough in that department, and that only getting access to my ass once a week wasn’t fair in an exclusive relationship.
He hadn’t wanted to hear that not everyone was a fan of regular anal sex.
Either way, I was a fan of it today, and I was about to broach the subject of where Auris kept the lube when he started stroking my slick cockhead.
That chased all the words right out of my mouth.
“You look blissful,” Auris said, leaning over me.
I turned to receive a sloppy kiss from him, then gasped when he fisted my erection, using only my own precum for the job.
He was back behind me and positioning himself, and before I knew it, his cock was between my thighs, and he moaned low as he started rocking his hips back and forth.
Well, that worked too, and I squeezed my thighs closed to make it as enjoyable for him as possible, delighted by how well he was jacking me while getting off himself.
“Feels so good,” I mumbled into the pillow, letting my hand rest on the arm he was stroking me with.
“It feels amazing, my sweet. You feel amazing.” Auris’s voice was breathy and thin.
I buried my face in the pillow and rocked my hips back to meet his next thrust.
He gasped. “Yesss.” Then his movements changed.
The slow strokes became faster, the even thrusts grew urgent. He had me coming in short order, the heat of it lighting up my spine and making me moan before I spasmed and screamed. I only barely heard his responding groan when my muscles clenched up and my thighs pressed even tighter.
He came between my legs, making a sticky, satisfying, blissful mess there. It ran down my thighs as he stroked me for another few seconds, then just held me, his fingers wet with my cum.
“Dirty sheets. Poor Gloria,” I said after a while.
“Gloria is a matchmaker by nature. She’ll be delighted next time she does laundry.”
“Geez, who says that? Please give the woman a nice Christmas bonus or something.”
Auris chuckled and kissed my shoulder. “As you wish. She really will be delighted though. Did you hear her suggest I ‘put a ring on it’ when she was cooking your dinner earlier?”
I looked back at him. “You’re making that up.”
“I’m not. I’m glad she still knows how to keep her voice down for human hearing.”
My cheeks heated, and I pressed closer to him. “Still. Bonus.”
“I promise, my sweet. Do you want to sleep now?”
“Depends. Can we stay like this until I fall asleep?”
The fire crackled and he didn’t immediately reply. “There’s nothing I’d love more.”
Auris holding me close was the last thing I remembered of the day.