He sits, never taking his eyes off me. I reach up and gently dab the cloth against his skin to clean it. They’re not bleeding out anymore, but he still has small puncture marks from where I fed and there’s light bruising. I shake my head. If he is a ranked vampire, this should have healed instantly. Also, his skin was soft to bite into, not hard. Biting into another vampire is like biting into an apple—perfectly satisfying, crisp and juicy. Biting into a human is like biting into a jelly-filled donut. Jae’s flesh is all donut.
Nothing makes any fucking sense.
I wipe the blood from his collar bone. “Your blood is that of a ranked vampire. You had no idea?”
“What? No. That doesn’t make any sense—I haven’t lied to you about anything. I’m not trying to deceive you… How would I know what my blood tastes like?”
When he’s clean, I drop my hands in my lap and look at him. “You’ve never drunk blood? Not once?”
“No.”
“You’ve never had the urge to? Even a passing thought?”
“No.”
Now we’re staring at each other, his eyes resolute and mine disbelieving. I sit back and rub my palms against my face, sighing. “God, you make me so fucking nervous. I have no idea what’s going on with you and you’re not helping.”
“What am I supposed to do?” Jae asks, throwing his hands up. “I’ve been me my entire life. I know who I am—and what I am. But suddenly you’re telling me I’m something completely different and I have no evidence of it. I have no tangible reason to start behaving differently or think otherwise.”
His warm eyes are usually playful and teasing. Relaxed. Now they’re stressed. I’m pushing him, I know. He’s right, but I’m right, too. In my silence, he goes on, calmer this time.
“Even if what you say is true, what should I do, Jun? Do you want me to start feeding? Even though I don’t have any desire to do so?”
“You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do.”
“Right. Okay. So?”
I sigh. “So you make me very nervous. You’re an unknown and it makes me uncomfortable.”
When I say this, he sits up. His expression drops—hardens in a way I’m unfamiliar with. “So you’re done with me, then? We’re finished?”
I blink. I don’t like this expression on his face. “Why do you say that? That I’m ‘done’ with you—”
“Because that’s what it is, isn’t it? No use sugar-coating it. I’m a fucking weirdo that makes you uncomfortable, so we’re done.”
He moves to stand up from the couch, but I grab his waist and pull him back down in a soft tumble. While I hold him, I sit straighter and face him. “Please stop. We’re just talking. Can we talk?” I lift my hand and run my fingers into the back of his messy waves. He shifts his gaze from me, but he doesn’t pull away. “I didn’t say you make me uncomfortable. You make me feel very comfortable, Jae. Too comfortable—and that’s what makes me nervous. And ‘unknown’ does not mean ‘weird.’ Please don’t twist my words.”
I lean in slowly and brush my nose against his cheek. “Are you showing me your baggage right now?”
He puffs a laugh from his nose, but he doesn’t smile. “Maybe. Absolutely.”
“I like you,” I finally admit aloud, then kiss his cheek. Even now he smells delicious to me. Intoxicating and sweet. I could bite him again—this human-vampire hybrid. “I would like to continue seeing you, if you still want to see me?”
He finally shifts his head to look directly at me, his expression softened. “Yeah, of course, just—please stop accusing me of misleading you. Because I’m not.”
I lean in to kiss him and he automatically parts his lips. I love that. Like walking up a pathway to someone’s house and they open the door before I’m even there. A warm welcome. I indulge in his spiced, peachy mouth for a moment before I pull away. “Haruka is in Hong Kong until Thursday. I want to talk to him about this—about you—since he tends to be all-knowing with these things. Is that alright with you? We’ll make a plan to see each other next Saturday evening for another sleepover and I can report back to you?”
He nods. “Yeah, okay.” He surprises me when he falls out of my grasp and back onto the couch. Just plops down and rubs his palms to his face. “Christ.”
I stand up and shift his legs onto the couch. When I sit, I make him straddle me with one leg straightened behind me and the other in my lap. I smile. “I didn’t mean to cause you stress. I apologize.”
“Bloody hell.” He takes a breath, still rubbing his palms against his face.
“You must really like me?” I ask, grinning.
He lifts his head and looks up at me, frowning. “Are you taking the mick? Is this amusing to you?”
“No,” I say, literally holding in laughter. “I find you captivating. And delicious. Whoever told you that you tasted bad was an idiot.”
“Thanks…” He sighs and drops his head back, adjusting his spine as I lazily stroke his thigh in my lap. There’s a moment of comfortable pause before he says, “So… am I to always be the bottom when we have sex? Can we talk about this?”
Now, I laugh. “You don’t always have to do anything, Jae.” There’s an awkward pause before Jae lifts his head again.
“Tosser. That sounds like, ‘You can go and sleep with someone else and be on top if you like.’”
We both laugh now. Confession: I’ve had sex in a vast multitude of ways and with many, many people, but I’ve never been the bottom when sleeping with a male. I didn’t think I had a complex about it, but maybe I do. Asao would say it’s because I have serious trust issues… He might be right.
I caress my hand higher up his thigh until I’m sliding my palm against his cock. He moans, breathy, and spreads his thighs a little wider. I love how comfortable he is right now—relaxed and speaking his mind. It’s like all the walls are down and I’m finally getting to the core of him. “Do you think I’m treating you like a keyhole?”
“No. But it would be nice to use my key sometimes. Since I’ve got one.”
I laugh again. This creature. “I’ll think about it,” I say, squeezing him.
Jae groans, but in a kind of chuckle. He’s smiling and writhing underneath my palm. “He’ll think about it. The function and use of my cock are up for deliberation. The jury is out.”
I keep laughing, and all the tension from earlier has melted. I adjust my seating position to face him directly so that I can reach up with my free hand and caress my fingertips against his jawline. “Feisty, delicious man…”
He surprises me when he snaps his head to the side and catches my two fingers in his mouth. He scrunches his nose at me, defiant as he reaches up and holds my wrist so he can suck and lick my fingers.
