Page 115 of Vampires of Eden

There’s an odd pause where we watch each other. Even the wind stills around us and the leaves on the vines halt in their ethereal dance. I start when Alexander groans and falls backward, letting his shoulders and head hit the ground as he brings his palms to his face.

I fold my arms, frowning. “What now? Why are you lying in the dirt?”

“Because I need a minute,” he says, covering his eyes. “God. Nobody has ever kissed me like that in my entire life—and my fucking eyes keep burning in my head. It feels like they’ve been burning non-stop for weeks and now you’re touching and leaningover me with your hair all tousled around your face and shoulders, calling me ‘Rabbit’ and you smell and taste like black cherries and autumn. I just—I need aminuteDanny, alright?”

Sheepish, grinning, I crawl around to sit and fold my legs at his side. I lift my head and look up toward the sky. Black cherries and autumn, huh? Nice. “You’re overwhelmed.”

“Understatement.”

“Do you have my hair tie?”

Silently, he lifts his hips, reaches into his pocket, then hands me the black elastic band. As I make quick work of tying the mess of my hair in a low ponytail, I notice that his cock is hard and tented in his pants. This pleases me greatly and I bite my bottom lip, but I suppress the urge to point it out because I doubt he’d appreciate it.

“There,” I announce. “One problem solved.”

“It wasn’t a problem.”

“It was. I was too sexy, apparently.”

“You’re always sexy. It’s the way you carry yourself—the set of your shoulders and your manner and speech. Your wit and intelligence. Every moment of every day. It has little to do with your hair. It’s just… who you are.”

I pause, smiling helplessly. “But my hair definitely helps, right?”

“Danny.”

“You think I’m sexy even when I’m sick and pathetic on the couch?”

“Yes.”

“Or when I’m bent over and with my head stuck in a fence?”

“Especially then.”

We both laugh. The moment is so light and airy it feels like we might float away to another world. Maybe, we’re already there? Our own little cosmos where just the two of us and our collective experiences exists. Nothing and no one else matters.

Cautiously, I lift and place my hand atop his as it rests on his stomach. “I have a theory.”

“About?”

“I think you’re uncomfortable because you’re always denying your nature. You keep fighting it. Let it feel, Alexander. Explore and listen to what it wants.”

His eyes open and they’ve returned to their normal brown and golden-flecked hue. Beautiful but blameless. Sincere. “What if it wants you, Danny?”

I breathe, registering the rosy swell in my chest as I meet his gaze. “Then we should explore that together. I’m comfortable with seeing where that road takes us. But what doyouwant?”

He blinks, visibly stunned. “I want to be closer to you. But I don’t want it to be unhealthy. I don’t want to have that awful ‘possessive’ feeling like I had before, you know? That desperate, needy desire. I’m worried that if I let my nature go, it’ll be like that and I can’t do that to you—or to myself.”

“Because that’s how it was with Oliver.”

“Yes.”

“Well, I’m not?—”

“Don’t say it. I know you’re not Oliver. But I’m still me. MaybeI’mthe problem.”

I lean across his body so that I hover over his face as he lies prostrate and with his knees bent. “This situation is different, though, isn’t it? We won’t know until we try.”

A shy smile lights up his face. “We?”