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?
His face is halfway swallowed by a large pillow as he opens his eyes. He doesn’t move. Instead, he breathes in. The delectable, smoky and cinnamon-laced scent of Nino pours into him, drowning his senses in the most satisfying way. He rolls onto his belly under the warm comforter and shifts his face directly into the pillow.
Haruka inhales deeply, then exhales a loud, contented groan. He smiles against the puffy material.
Pulling Nino’s aura from his body the previous night… He cannot easily describe it. Simple words are inadequate—useless in painting the exquisite masterpiece that is Nino’s essence. Maybe if he tried in Latin, or arranged a new language entirely? He has pulled Yuna’s aura in the past. Many, many times. But the experience of releasing her aura versus Nino’s? The two events are incomparable.
It was like magic. Fizzy, bright and golden. Champagne inexplicably laced with fire. The energy had rushed from Nino’s body like a spell. It was so pure and filled with deep affection, it was almost cleansing as it warmly caressed and wrapped itself around Haruka’s frame. It had intentionally enclosed him, as if it were seeking his own aura within him—a beautiful entity desperately searching for its long-lost friend.
Haruka’s nature had unexpectedly responded, pounding fiercely within him. He’d needed to stop feeding from Nino to concentrate, otherwise his nature would have unwrapped itself from its imposed knot and rushed from his body.
The bedroom door creaks open and Haruka lifts his head from the pillow. Sensing Nino there, he sits upright. The overcast sun washes the room in cool, filtered lighting. Nino is fully dressed, his coppery waves neatly swept back and his sides freshly tapered. To Haruka, his handsome friend always appears effortlessly stylish and casual. Unassuming, as if he’d innocently stepped off the pages of a men’s lifestyle magazine.
“Good morning,” Haruka says, rubbing his palms down his face.
“Good afternoon.” Nino frowns, pouting.
“What time is it?”
“Twelve forty-five.”
Confused, Haruka scratches the back of his head. His hair is standing straight out instead of lying flat. He can’t imagine how ridiculous he looks. “Why did you not wake me?”
“I tried.” Nino’s eyes widen as he walks into the room and toward his corner desk. “You scared the hell out of me this morning. Your body was ice cold and you wouldn’t budge no matter what I did.”
Haruka laughs as he drops his hands from his meager attempt to quell his hair. “If I expend much energy, sometimes I need to sleep deeply to compensate for the loss of it.”
“I know that now,” Nino says, bending and unplugging his laptop from the wall. “I called Asao because I was worried and he told me. I thought I was going to wake up and have a nice, cozy morning with you—but instead I woke up next to a corpse.”
After feeding deeply from Nino the night before, Haruka thought he might not have needed the recuperation time. Perhaps withholding his aura during the feeding had expended an additional amount of his energy?
“I apologize, Nino. Is it too late for us to establish a more appropriate morning greeting?”
Nino pauses with his laptop and plug wrapped in his arms. He grins, then walks toward him. When he’s at the side of the bed, Haruka lifts his face. Nino bends down and places two swift kisses on his mouth. “Hi.”
“Good afternoon,” Haruka says, feeling the warmth of his affection for Nino glowing all throughout his body. Somehow, and even though they established the intimacy only a few hours earlier, kissing Nino feels completely natural. Like doing something one way when a different way may have been better all along.
Nino stands straight, contented. “I’m grateful you’re not dead.”
“It would take a considerable amount of starvation and trauma for me to truly die. You need not worry.”
“Right.” Nino smirks, walking backward toward the door. “We need to get these intent surveys stuffed and mailed out today. G will be back tomorrow, and he’ll definitely want to drag you all around Milan to introduce you to everyone. Let’s work in his office in the main house, since the formal seal and supplies are down there. Can you meet me after you’re dressed?”
“Of course,” Haruka says, obedient.
“Let Luciano know if you need coffee or anything. I’ll see you downstairs?”
“I will be there shortly.”
Nino closes the door. Haruka stretches his arms up in a yawn. He cannot remember the last time he’s felt so healthy, rested and generally alive.
When Haruka eventually walks into Giovanni’s elegant office in the main house, Nino has organized and laid everything out to accomplish their work for the day: surveys printed on parchment paper, a stack of corresponding envelopes, a wax seal and calligraphy tools to stamp the documents with the Bianchi Clan’s crest.
Nino has been busy this morning—drafting professional letters to introduce themselves and their research objectives. He’s also composed a second page with the agreed-upon survey questions. Fifty letters are already personally addressed to vampire couples across Florence, Milan and Venice. At present, Giovanni has acquired a list of three hundred contacts, and according to Nino, his brother will soon communicate with the purebred leaders of Rome and Sicily.
Throughout the afternoon, they type and address more letters, then stuff and seal envelopes while discussing potential next steps should the surveys yield the desired information. Nino also suggests that they rearrange the older articles of Lore and Lust so that the sections are further classified by each vampire couple’s rank. Haruka isn’t sure if he is willing to commit to this. It sounds like a lot of work. As such, he will inevitably procrastinate.
“I think it’d be much easier to find specific entries if we reorganized it,” Nino proposes. He is sitting at his brother’s desk and typing on his laptop. “Then, maybe you could consider having it reprinted? Maybe even distributed? What if Gael told other vampires and they come after you, too?”
