Page 113 of Vampires of Eden

“Right. That’s what we’re fixing. The shoots need to be thinner so that air can circulate and nourish the vine. If it’s toodense like this over here, the quality of the fruit will suffer from the lack of circulation.”

“How do we know how much to cut away?” he asks.

Stepping up closer to the vine, I crouch down. “We want something like three-to-six shoots per linear foot of cordon.”

He squats beside me, matching my position. “What’s cordon again?”

“The thick part of the vine, here.” I hunch down to look deeper into the cluster of shoots. “We’re looking for stronger shoots that will produce a plethora of fruit.”

“A ‘plethora’?” he snorts.

“Yes. Do you not know what that word means?”

“I know what it means, I’ve just never heard anyone casually say it.”

I shrug, still digging under the foliage and looking for examples of weak shoots to show him. “It’s just a word.”

“It’s a weird word. Are you an academic? Are we writing a research paper?”

“Whatever, alright? Are you paying attention?” I turn my head to look at him, but something grabs hold of my bun. “Ahshit.”

“Are you okay?”

Reaching, I feel blindly to try and figure out where exactly my hair is caught. This is what I get for being lazy and not braiding it back. “Yeah, just… give me a second.” Carefully, I rest down on my knees while trying to follow the taut strands into the leaves, but I can’t figure it out. What the hell? I didn’t think I was leaning that far into the vine.

“Do you need help?” Alexander asks. “I can try to see where it’s caught.”

Dropping my arms, I sigh because this is utterly ridiculous. “Yes, please. Thanks.” He moves closer, then both of his hands are in the vine and working at my hair. I stare down at the ground, trying not to be annoyed with myself and the situation. “Is it that bad?” I ask after several seconds of him fumbling around. Theglittery rush of his energy and scent radiates against my skin from his closeness.

“Well,” he says, a little too seriously. “There’s a plethora of hair tangled in the wire of the trellis. You might even say there’s a surfeit of strands caught within there.”

“Funny,” I snark.

He snickers. “Is… it okay if I loosen your hair band? I think I can get it untangled faster that way.”

“Yeah, go ahead. Fuck me. Do you think we’ll need scissors?”

“No, just give me a second. I’m usually pretty good at this kind of thing.”

“Untangling hair from trellis wire?”

“Untangling knots in general.”

The full weight of my hair comes tumbling down around my cheeks as I remain awkwardly hunched over and halfway stuck in the umbrella of vine shoots and leaves. Within about a minute, the tension between the spot on my scalp and where the hair is pulling eases.

“There,” Alexander says. “You’re free.”

Disoriented, I sit upright. My hair is swept forward, inverted like a mop. Sighing, I rake it back with both hands, smoothing the absolute chaos of it in my fingers.

“Well, that was stupid.” I glance over at Alexander on his knees beside me and his eyes are alighted. I grin. “Me being caught in this trellis turns you on?”

“Don’t,” he says, turning his head away and smiling. “Just ignore me, please.”

“Ignoring you is impossible. And besides, you saved me. My hair is all I have left, you know? There’s nothing else going on here anymore. It’s my secret weapon.”

Still avoiding my gaze, he shakes his head. “You’re wrong. You have so much going on, Danny. You have everything.”

An intoxicating warmth floods my chest and trickles down to my stomach and groin, agitating the persistent itch and pull inside of me. The subtle electricity of my nature caresses up myspine and I can’t take it anymore. He cannot keep doing this to me.