Page 95

“Ah.” Luc smiled, all sharp teeth. “Tu veux que je t’appelle ma fleur, petit?”

Ohhh fuck. He was doing it again. The pretty French words. That was majorly cheating. Jamie’s cock shot up to half-mast immediately.

Luc smirked at him. “You liked it when I spoke French last night as well, I recall.”

Jamie couldn’t help himself. He swayed forward, wanting to touch and be touched.

Needing it. But Luc took a step back. Jamie scrubbed a hand over his face, doing his best to hold in a little half scream.

So fucking frustrating . And he knew he wasn’t the only one affected.

Jamie didn’t miss the bulge in the vampire’s jeans.

You couldn’t. That thing was a behemoth.

But Luc seemed determined to keep his hands to himself this morning. “Get dressed, flower,” he ordered. “I’ll be waiting.”

Jamie turned to head into his room, muttering to himself about stubborn vampires. At least Luc wasn’t going anywhere. Not yet. That would have to be good enough.

For now.

The bell on the door chimed above them as they entered the brightly lit building, the air-conditioning a sudden shock to the system after the outdoor heat of the afternoon.

Jamie sent a little wave to the woman behind the counter.

Anna, he was pretty sure her name was. She’d helped him out a few times before, always with good recommendations.

Luc let out a weary sigh behind him. “What is this place?”

Jamie turned his head to smile at him, his grin widening at the grumpy look on Luc’s face. “My favorite used bookstore.”

Luc raised a brow at him. “ This is your important errand?”

Jamie laughed, steering them in the direction of the science fiction. He started rifling through the spines. “Books are essential to my overall well-being. You should know that if we’re going to be eternally bound.”

Luc gave a little growl from behind him. “That’s not something to joke about.”

Hm. His vampire sounded pretty pissed. “Then tell me what you meant by it,” Jamie requested. How was Jamie supposed to know what he was or wasn’t allowed to joke about if he didn’t know what the hell was going on?

But Luc stayed silent. Fine by Jamie. He started browsing in earnest, amused by how Luc moved subtly closer every time Jamie strayed too near any of the other customers.

Jealous, monster?

To test it, Jamie sidled closer to a cute guy a little further down the aisle, shooting the dude a little wink for good measure.

There was a grunt from behind him, and then Luc was looming over him (how did he loom like that, when they were almost the same height?), his body between Jamie and the bookstore cutie.

A shiver ran through Jamie as Luc leaned in, his breath hot against Jamie’s ear. “I told you not to toy with me, flower. I wouldn’t rile up the monster like that, if I were you. Not if you don’t want a bloodbath in this sorry excuse for a bookstore.”

Jamie just grinned at him, meeting those black eyes without an ounce of fear. “Don’t worry, monster. I only have eyes for you. I just want you to stick a little closer is all.”

He wasn’t even teasing. Or at least, not just teasing. Luc was so careful to keep space between them, to keep his distance. Jamie did want him closer. Needed him closer. And if he had to toy around a bit to get what he wanted, so be it.

Luc growled then. Like, for real. A low, rumbly, honest-to-goodness growl.

Jamie had the sense—he didn’t know how he knew it; he just did—that it was coming from the monster within more than Luc himself.

A challenge or an acquiescence? Either way, Luc seemed to relax afterward, his posture softening as he leaned against the bookshelf, placing a little more space between them.

But not too much this time. “Carry on, then, foolish flower,” he murmured, waving a hand at the book in front of him in invitation.

Jamie felt the vampire’s eyes on him as he browsed, watching him in that intense way he had, like he was clocking Jamie’s every move and expression, filing it all away for later.

After a while, Luc spoke again. “I could buy you books, you know. New books.”

Jamie shot him a grin from his place on the floor, where he was organizing his stack of finds. “ I can buy me new books. But I like doing it this way sometimes. It’s like a treasure hunt.”

Luc made a noncommittal noise, eyeing his pile of books skeptically.

Jamie flipped through one of them, a science fiction bestseller he’d been wanting to get his hands on for months. “You’re a bit of a snob, aren’t you?” he asked casually.

Luc barked a short laugh, smirking down at him before crouching low so they were eye to eye.

He ran a finger down the back of one of the books, and Jamie shivered as if it was his own spine being touched so delicately.

“I just want you to know,” Luc crooned, stroking the book.

“I could buy you anything you want. A fine house. Fine clothes. Pretty baubles to decorate yourself with.”

Jamie cocked his head, licking his lips. “Are you trying to seduce me with your riches? Don’t you know I’m already a sure thing?”

Luc’s finger stopped its movement, the vampire seemingly taken aback by his own actions. “Habit, I suppose.”

“You make it a habit of seducing people?” Jamie didn’t like that at all, actually. He hadn’t been lying the night before in his teasing—thinking of the number of people Luc had probably been with over his impressive life span made him insanely jealous.

Luc’s brow furrowed. “I used to. Often. And well. But it’s been a long time since I’ve trusted the monster within enough to attempt it. Too long.”

Jamie filed away that bit of information. “Is that why you’re afraid to touch me?”

“Am I?” Luc asked mildly, though the heat in his eyes was a contrast to his tone. “Are you so sure I want to touch you?”

Jamie leaned in closer. “You do. You’re dying to. Go ahead. I don’t mind.”

But Luc stood in one quick motion, placing distance between them once again.

Jamie really hated that.

He paid for his books at the counter, greeting Anna warmly as she rang him up.

She smiled at his selection—he’d gone for a number of space odysseys today—then gasped as she caught sight of who was lurking behind him. “Whoa.”

Jamie turned his head to look at his vampire. He’d kind of forgotten how freaky Luc’s eyes might look to other people. Jamie was so used to them now.

“Vampire cosplay,” Jamie offered up, shooting Luc a teasing grin before turning back to Anna. “He’s practicing for Halloween.”

“Oh.” The cashier gave a little laugh of relief as she started packing his books into a bag cheerily. “Very cool. With a little fake blood dripping down your chin? That would look amazing.”

“I’ll get right on that,” Luc said flatly.

They went out to lunch afterward, Luc watching him eat with the same intensity as that morning. When Jamie called him out on it, he shrugged, seemingly unembarrassed. “You’re very…vibrant,” he supplied. “In everything you do. I like to watch.”

That little tidbit had Jamie grinning like a madman for the rest of lunch.

Walking downtown afterward, Luc sneered at everyone who passed them by. Subtly, sure, but definitely sneered.

“You don’t like people much, do you?” Jamie asked, popping a piece of gum into his mouth.

“I don’t like these people. Sweaty. Unrefined.”

“It is over a hundred degrees out right now.”

“Unfair to blame the heat. I should take you to Europe. Italy, perhaps. People there know how to handle the elements with style.” Luc sighed almost wistfully.

“Such fond memories of that place.” He shot Jamie an assessing glance, the corners of his mouth tilting up. “I’d like to dress you in linen.”

“Excuse me?”

Luc nodded. “A linen suit. Cream-colored, I think. You could keep the wild hair. It would look lovely, the juxtaposition.”

Jamie laughed in delight. Oh, fuck yeah. The vampire could put as much distance as he wanted between them, but he clearly had it just as bad as Jamie. Dressing him in linen?

Please.

“You fuck me, you can dress me however you like,” Jamie taunted.

Luc’s nostrils flared at the offer. “Desperate,” he accused.

“For you? Always.”

Luc gestured in the direction they were heading, once again resisting Jamie’s bait. “Where are you taking me?”

“My mom’s house,” Jamie explained. “I want you to meet her. My sister too. Oh, and my stepdad. The whole crew should be home, I think.” He kept going for almost a block before he realized Luc had stopped behind him. He turned back, shooting Luc a questioning glance.

“You wish for me to meet your family.” Luc said the words slowly, as if speaking a foreign language.

“Yes.”

“Like this?” Luc gestured to his face. His eyes. His fangs.

Jamie cocked his head. “Do you come any other way?”

At Luc’s silence, Jamie nodded. “Then yes. We can tell them it’s a cosplay. Or just your version of freaky self-expression. They won’t judge.”

At Luc’s skeptical look, he blew out a breath. “Listen, monster. No one’s out there looking for vampires to be real. That’s not gonna be anyone’s first assumption about your eyes or even your teeth. People will make up excuses in their minds, just to keep their own sense of reality intact.”

“You really don’t care,” Luc mused, wonder in his voice.

“How you look?” Jamie asked.

“What I am.”

Jamie shrugged. “No, I really don’t.”

“You don’t think I’m…damned?”

Was that what was getting Luc’s goat? Questions of morality? Or did he mean, like, literally? Did Jamie’s vampire believe in hell or something?

Jamie put his hands on his hips, his bag of books thumping against his thigh with the gesture.

“Well, that’s a heavy fucking question for three in the goddamn afternoon.

But what, because you drink human blood?

” He shook his head emphatically. “I don’t really believe in damnation, monster.

Not for just being what you are. You can’t help that. ”

“And for the things I’ve done?” Luc asked.

Jamie cocked his head. “You’d have to let me get to know you for me to have any real inkling about what you’ve done. You gonna let me in like that?”

Luc stood there for a long time without answering, eyeing Jamie like he was some kind of unfathomable mystery of the cosmos. Finally, he lifted a hand, waving at the street ahead. “Lead the way.”

Weird moment aside, Jamie grinned to himself the whole way to his mom’s house. Finally—Jamie refused to acknowledge that “finally” might be an overstatement when they’d only met less than forty-eight hours before—they were getting somewhere. Some progress was being made.

But when he opened the door to his mom’s, looking behind him to gesture Luc inside, the vampire was gone.

And Jamie was alone.