Nino swallows, his throat tight from the image of Haruka sitting there in the firelight, waiting for his answer. “You’re not. I promise.”

Haruka finally looks up at him and Nino takes a breath. He’d genuinely forgotten to.

“Nino, I deeply value our relationship. I have never experienced anything like this with another vampire.”

“Me neither,” says Nino, unmoving. Waiting.

Dropping his shoulders, Haruka lifts his head to the ceiling. “I am worried that if we are intimate, our relationship will change and we will lose this… our friendship. I sincerely do not want that to happen.”

Slowly, Nino scoots a few inches down the bed and toward him. “Things will change. But… what if the changes are good? What if our relationship gets even better?”

Haruka shifts his burgundy eyes to slyly meet his gaze. One corner of his mouth quirks up. “You are a romantic.”

“Maybe?” Nino hunches his shoulders. He smoothly moves down the bed until one leg is folded and lightly touching Haruka’s hip, the other hanging off the side of the mattress. “We won’t know unless we try? And we can go slowly.”

Haruka exhales a heavy sigh and folds his arms. Nino sits quietly. Breathing for a long moment and steeling himself as a simple question pushes to the forefront of his psyche. “Haru, do you find me attractive? I mean physically or within your nature… Are you drawn to me?”

He turns, his wine-colored eyes unblinking. “You are exquisite to my nature. In every way.” Haruka looks forward again, as if he’s simply uttered a statement of fact and not something that has knocked the wind out of Nino.

He wants to tell Haruka he feels the same way—that being with him… talking, laughing and researching with him feels like getting a gift on some special occasion. A birthday or a favorite holiday where plans have been made and anticipation bubbles warmly in your heart.

But there are no plans. There are no gifts. It’s just Haruka. He is all there is and nothing more is needed.

He can’t say any of it. He won’t. Haruka hears these things all the time from desperate vampires who want to bond with him. Saying these things will make Nino seem as shallow and needy as the rest of them.

“Nino.”

“Yes?” Nino sits straighter, his eyes focusing on the purebred in front of him. The longer they sit here, the more Nino realizes how much he wants him. Not just as a friend, but as more. To be closer to him, freely touch him and hold him. To comfort Haruka and give of himself. Even more, Nino wants to feed from him and feel his true aura. To fully experience the lovely thing inside of him that he constantly keeps restrained and locked up so tightly.

“I think…” Haruka begins, taking a deep breath. “If you feel that I am acceptable, I would like to try. But you should not feel pressured in any way—”

“Stop.” Nino reaches out, placing his hands on either side of Haruka’s slim face and meeting his eyes. Pure bliss swells in his chest. “You are so much more than ‘acceptable’ to me. And yes, I want to try, too. Let’s just do what feels natural?”

“Natural…” Haruka shifts his eyes to the side, mulling it over. “I like this. Agreed.” He rests his fingertips against Nino’s chest, gently urging him to lie back against the bed. Nino complies, biting his lip in a weak attempt to stifle his overwhelming excitement.

It’s happening. The pounce.

He watches in awe as Haruka moves like a shadowy, wild animal gorgeously lit by firelight. He slowly crawls onto the bed, settling himself at Nino’s side. Nino instinctively relaxes back, fully trusting in whatever is about to happen to him. He needs it. He desperately wants it with this beautiful vampire.

Haruka never takes his alluring burgundy gaze off of him as he sweetly rests his palm against his cheek. Nino closes his eyes from the simple contact, feeling his nature twist and writhe in his belly and lower back.

“It will not hurt,” Haruka says, his voice low and calm. “You know this?”

Nino grins, opening his eyes. “If it’s you, I know it won’t hurt.”

“You should relax. I will feed from you as usual, but gradually, I will pull harder at your skin.” With his fingertip, he draws a line down Nino’s jaw toward the base of his neck. Nino stretches the bottom of his spine against the soft bed, trying to ease the warm shiver there.

“When I feed deeper,” Haruka continues, “you’ll feel a distinct pressure in your abdomen to submit to me, but try not to do so. You should resist me for as long as you can. The release will be more satisfying for you this way.”

Nino laughs, already thinking this might not last very long. “I apologize in advance if I give in too early.”

“It’s okay,” Haruka assures him. “If you do, perhaps we could simply try again another time. Are we ready?”

Stretching his overheated body against the downy comforter, Nino wishes Haruka would shift over and lie on top of him. His groin aches from the thought of his weight and long body pressed against him as he feeds… but he probably shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth.

“I’m ready.”

Haruka leans across his chest, then licks the concave of Nino’s neck—just as he does whenever he feeds. This time, the feeling behind it is different somehow. Intentional. Seductive. Nino closes his eyes, taking in every moment, every second of this experience that he’s been waiting for.

Nino gasps when Haruka softly bites into his neck. His sleek fangs press deeper into his skin and Nino exhales, instinctively sliding his fingers into the back of his friend’s thick, satiny hair. Haruka pulls. Just as it had before, something innate stirs deeply within Nino’s being. It moves, sending flashes of heat throughout his entire body. It’s telling him to trust and let go—to set his nature free and submit.

Haruka sucks harder at his flesh. The sensation feels so warm and good that a deep groan escapes Nino’s parted lips. He slides one hand from Haruka’s hair, down past his shoulders to rest against his spine.

This thing that Haruka is doing feels primal—sensual. He can’t see it, but Nino can inherently feel him using his mind to pull and gently urge, twist and coax his nature from him. It’s as if Haruka is sweetly enticing a timid thing out of its deep hiding place. The very thing that defines Nino’s vampiric essence.

When Haruka pulls again, the thing inside Nino pulses hot—threatening to release. Nino arches his lower back in another gasp, gripping Haruka’s crisp shirt in his fist. With his eyes burning brightly and his breathing labored, he decides to trust in the sensation overwhelming him. He relaxes his body and allows Haruka to take it from him.

Like wildfire, the warmth and energy of his aura rush from his abdomen and up the length of his spine. It releases from every pore and fiber of Nino’s being. It feels as if his aura and everything within him is being flipped inside out, and he moans from the sublime pleasure and liberation of it. The sensation grips him like an intense, emotional orgasm. Nino has never experienced anything so all consuming—so completely gratifying—in his long life.

He stares in awe as the glow of his golden aura encircles them, tenderly wrapping itself around Haruka. He pulls his mouth from Nino and breathes in sharply, then closes his eyes. The room is filled with dazzling light. Nino’s heart is still racing as he takes in the abundance of sensations.

The light of his aura slowly dissipates, fading like the soft glimmer of a firefly as it burns out. Nino’s irises are still glowing, his body hot and trembling as he watches Haruka. His friend’s eyes are closed, but Nino feels overwhelmed with affection for him. For who he is and for the incredible feeling he’s given him. Smelling his milky-almond, rosy skin and sensing his tightly knotted aura… If Haruka were a lake, Nino would swim in him and submerge himself. Happily drowning in him.

He has given of himself. Nino has wrapped Haruka in all that he is—his very composition as a vampiric entity. Now, Nino’s body yearns for something in return. Anything from this enigmatic purebred lying beside him.

Closing his burning eyes, Nino lifts his chin. He drags his tongue up the edge of Haruka’s jawline. Just to taste him. To have something. His skin is cool and sweet—raindrops on fresh cherries or clean earth and roses. Perfect. Delicious. Haruka opens his scarlet eyes, quietly staring down at him.

Still mindless with pleasure and need, Nino lifts his chin again, this time pressing his mouth into him.

Soft. Haruka’s mouth… It puckers. Naturally. Nino has privately taken note of this across their interactions. His lips aren’t pouty, not thick or full… but the way he holds his mouth and the supple curve of his lips feels like a subtle invitation. Maybe a dare. One that Nino has always adamantly ignored but doesn’t now.

The feel of his mouth on Haruka’s is dizzying, but he opens his eyes and pulls back when he senses him smiling against the kiss. The purebred watches him, his glowing irises seductive in the firelit room. Slowly, Haruka dips and tilts his head, tenderly catching his mouth once more.

Nino parts his lips and caresses Haruka’s bottom lip with the tip of his tongue. He feels Haruka open wider to him, inviting Nino inside to deepen the intimacy and explore in this unchartered territory. He does. Angling his head and slowly dipping into the cool, earthy sweetness of him. His tongue finally slides and twists with Haruka’s. Wet, smooth and satiating. Nino breathes a sigh against the kiss, gripping his fingers in his thick, silky hair.

This is heaven. He has never given heaven much thought. Never questioned whether or not it exists, but this is it. Here, in the warm firelight of this bedroom and kissing Haruka, is absolute paradise.

Just as Nino is beginning to feel hyper aware of the fact that he is fully clothed (and questioning the material’s fundamental purpose), Haruka pulls away from the kiss.

“It is late,” Haruka says quietly, his gaze affectionate. “Should I return to my own room?”

With his fingers still tangled in his hair, Nino smiles, rubbing his fingertips against Haruka’s scalp. “I think you should go get comfortable and then sleep in here with me? If you’re okay with that.”

Haruka nods. “I would like that.”

Twenty-Eight

Haruka wakes up disoriented the following morning. Where is he? What time is it and whose life is he suddenly living?