Page 19

“It’s a little cute. Admit it.” He taps my knee with the back of his hand and leans forward to get his drink, giving me a quick second to subtly rearrange myself. “Besides, I like being watched.”

He watches me choke on my saliva over the rim of his cup, his smirk just visible. At least I don’t have to feel so guilty about all those solo hours I’ve put into watching his videos, now do I? I reason, but only to myself.

Instead, I shake my head, and shove his thigh playfully. It makes him laugh and the brief contact does something to take the edge off the buzz under my skin.

As if he can sense how overwhelmed I am, he lets me take over the conversation, updating him on all the latest stories I’ve read on Crumbles .

It’s a special kind of torture as we laugh and talk and he jumps in with random stories and bits and pieces. He’s invested in everything I have to say, and it’s almost too much attention. I’ve never felt so interesting as when he’s watching me; it prods my ego into a fresh new life.

By the end of the night, I think I get his exhibitionism thing. Even if it’s not for me. Well, maybe if it’s him watching. I think I could get behind that.

“I better go,” I say reluctantly, pulling out my phone to check the time. It’s getting far too close to dawn for safety. I can feel the fatigue setting in.

“Yeah, it’s about that time. Let me just go settle the bill and I’ll give you a ride.” Kai pats himself down and stands. He’s a bit stiff because we’ve been sitting in the cramped booth for a couple of hours now.

“You don’t have to do that. Here, let me—” I try to stand, but it’s too small a space. That and Kai rests a hand on my shoulder, gently forcing me to sit back down.

“I kind of insist. I invited you, I’m paying.” He looks down at me so intently, my mind flashes to another scenario with him standing over me just like this, only with less clothes and a lot more privacy and I nod dumbly. Satisfied, he pats my shoulder and disappears to pay.

A short walk in the freezing dark of the morning and we’re in his car. If I thought the walk was awkward, our hands brushing together with each step, the car ride is much, much worse.

That nagging question is back. Because even though I started this night about eighty-nine percent sure that this is just a friendly hangout and Kai is just a flirty type of guy, it really, really feels like a date.

Like when he went and opened the car door for me, with this sheepish little smile on his face and a hand on my lower back to guide me in.

So the awkwardness is entirely my fault, and I can’t stop the questions running through my head, which means I give really terrible directions to my place.

“Sorry,” I apologise for my attempts at navigation as we pull up in the front of my apartment complex.

It’s an old, squat, brown building, wedged in between two much taller, newer apartment buildings with coffee shops and twenty-four-hour gyms underneath.

Even though they are all flash and no substance, they really put our scraggly patch of grass to shame.

“I’m still getting used to how to get everywhere. ”

“Not a problem. We got here in the end.” Kai twists in his seat to face me. It’s late enough that even he’s looking tired.

“You don’t have far to drive back to yours do you?”

“You inviting me up, Finn? Let me crash at yours until the sun’s gone?” He winks, biting his lip playfully. “Nah, this time of the morning, it’s a quick run. Nikki and I live close to the club.”

There is a palpable something in the air of the car. I need to get out, my hand is even on the door. But I can’t seem to make myself open it. Kai is looking at me with an expression I can’t quite place.

That something feels a lot like I should lean across the console and kiss him. My eyes drop to his lips and immediately snap up to his eyes like they’ve been burnt. My teeth ache, my lips can almost feel the tingle of the contact.

That something brews and bubbles, the seconds ticking by like we are caught in our own bubble separate from time. I swear Kai is closer, leaning towards me in slow motion.

When his lips finally brush against mine, it’s like I’m watching from outside of my own body. I’m so still, I’m practically a statue as his lips pass over mine, once, then twice.

Thank the Gods I snap out of my shock when he pulls back, mistaking my confusion for hesitation—or worse, rejection.

Lunging forward to close the growing distance between us, I smack my nose into his cheek.

It hurts enough to make my eyes water, and Kai snickers against my mouth.

But then all is forgotten when he gently cups the back of my head, angling it just right to deepen the kiss.

His tongue sweeps inside my mouth and he tastes like chocolate and blood.

It’s the most incredible thing I’ve ever tasted in my life.

With an embarrassing groan I fight against my seatbelt to get closer to him.

There is another chuckle against my lips and then Kai is guiding me back in my seat, manipulating me like putty in his hands.

Pinned between his lips and the headrest I let myself succumb to the kiss. I even let myself become a willing participant, licking his partially extended fangs and bravely letting my hands release their death grip on my seatbelt to wrap around his neck.

I cling to him like it’s life itself. And it might be.

Without the need to breathe there is no need to pull away—I can just sink further and further into him.

He kisses me like he’s fucking me. Confident, sensual.

It heats the blood pumping within me, lust pulsing through my veins straight to my cock.

My teeth are aching, the instinctive need to bite having me trying to nip at his tongue and lips—even if it makes no sense.

It’s my first kiss as a vampire, and I feel like a virgin all over again.

I didn’t think it would make things different.

But it does. Especially when a fang catches on delicate flesh—his or mine, I don’t know.

If it’s me, I’m too far gone to notice. The taste of the fresh blood in our kiss is like gasoline on the fire burning me up.

With a grunt—more of a snarl really—I press harder against him in the kiss, tightening my arms around him almost painfully. I crush against him, needing to devour him, needing more of everything.

Kai’s wanton moans spur me on, his hands groping my hair, my neck, my chest. He’s feverishly touching me everywhere. Stretched across the car console like he is, I can feel the way he’s writhing, desperately seeking the same friction my body is aching for.

Outside of the car, there is a bang and friendly yells as a herd of minotaurs make their way to the gym next door. The intrusion of reality is like ice water on the moment, and I gasp when Kai pulls back from the kiss .

His eyes—heavy lidded and blown out with lust—are transfixed on my mouth. Unconsciously, I lick my lips. They are swollen and sore from the fury of his kiss, and I can taste the blood still smeared there.

“You need to go, like, right now.” Half sitting on the console now, Kai shudders when my tongue darts out again, needing to taste him on me one more time.

I really don’t want to go; my cock is rock hard and I’m terrified that whatever insanity has overtaken Kai tonight will be gone when he comes to his senses tomorrow.

But I can feel the sunrise coming like a specter leering over my shoulder.

There is no way we have time for even a quarter of everything I want to do to him—with him—before dawn.

Greedily, I let my eyes rake over him, capturing the moment in my brain for the rest of my life.

“Yeah.” I nod, my voice shaky and weak. “I guess so.”

It takes me a moment to gather my wits enough to unbuckle and open my door. Even longer still to find the willpower to not invite him up. But my embarrassment over my apartment trumps even the thought of having him in my bed.

Bracing myself against the open door, I lean back in, my legs quivering. “Thanks for tonight, Kai.”

He nods, back in his seat now, hands tight on the steering wheel. “It was fun. We should, uh, do it again?”

He’s still flushed from the kiss. It almost looks like he’s blushing.

“Yeah, definitely. Message me?”

“You can count on it. Sweet dreams, Finn.”

We say our goodbyes, and even though he’s going to be cutting it close to get home in time to be safe, he waits for me to be inside before he drives off .

My apartment feels especially cold and empty as I get ready for bed and slip between the sheets. As I wait for the magic of dawn to take me over, I half dream about hot chocolate drizzled over Kai’s stomach for me to lick it off his bare skin. While he wears nothing but those white crew socks.

Definitely a sweet dream.