Page 45 of By the Pint

Casey laughed.He’s joking. He’s not joking.

“Nothing.” I motioned a hand between us. “No kissing. No pinning me to the volcano and eye-fucking me. No BJs. No sex.” No emotions. No feelings. “And try really hard not to think about me in any of those situations. At least outside of your suite.”

“You were the one telling me about your masturbatory habits.”

I coughed into my fist. “Because I’m a dick, and an idiot, and a stupid, stupid man. I won’t anymore.” I’d really,reallytry not to. “So, nothing can happen between us, okay?”

“Okay,” he replied, but internally he said,Why, though?

“Because …” I paused. Might as well tell him the truth. “I’m not the kind of person that can go into something with half my heart. I go all in. Or I don’t bother. And if we fool around, it will end up meaning more to me than it will to you.”

Casey swallowed loud enough for me to hear. Inside my head I said,La la la la, blocking out any involuntary reactive thoughts he may have had.

“I … would want to keep you,” I said. “And I can handle falling in love with a human. It’s fine, I accept that you only live for eighty years. But you don’t have eighty years. You have eight weeks, or whatever, depending on how quickly you can tap into my mind.” I pulled my cloak tighter around myself. How was I, a vampire, suddenly cold? “I just … As fun as it would be to spend our time here doing the no pants dance”—an involuntary chuckle left his lips—“I can’t—I don’t think I …”

He cast his eyes over my face, letting his gaze rest on my mouth for a couple of seconds longer than anywhere else. His mind was suspiciously quiet as he nodded.

“So,” I said, in as bright a voice as I could muster. “Do you want to start your first lesson now?”

14.

Casey

“Yesterday, you only had on a t-shirt. You were cold. I forget sometimes humans get cold. But you didn’t say anything, and you didn’t think it either. Why was that?” Dima said, draped lazily on the lip of the volcano.

Above us the sky was crisp and inky black. Despite the garish lights from the golf course, the stars twinkled so brightly they looked like an optical illusion poster.

“I wasn’t that cold,” I replied, but my breath clouded a little in front of my face, and Dima stole the real answer from my thoughts.

“Right, I get it now. Being cold is a weakness. You didn’t want me to see your weaknesses.”

I shrugged. Had nothing to counter with.

“Being cold is part of being human.” Dima’s eyes rolled up to the star strewn sky, and he gave a subtle shake of his head. The dismissive gesture was so foreign on him, I didn’teven realise until he started talking again. “Being human is not a weakness.”

“Says the immortal.”

In an instant, he straightened his posture, trained his blood-red eyes onto mine, and his fangs slowly unsheathed themselves. Gone was any hint of a smile. Any sign of the Dima I thought I knew. Now, before me, was a predator. Like when the playful puppy finally snapped and started growling. A thrill ran down my spine, and—Fuck, I was getting a chub.

“Oh, for gods’ sake,” Dima said, obviously hearing my thoughts. He slumped back against the fibreglass wall. His eyes softened.

“Didn’t quite go as you expected?” I needled. I didn’t need to read his thoughts to understand what he was trying to achieve. “Thought you’d go all,”—I held my hands up like paws and hissed—“scary vampire dude on me. Show me what kind of monster you really are deep down. You’ve seen inside my mind. You know my fantasies. Don’t threaten me with a good time.”

God damn this man,he said in his head.

I couldn’t fight my smile. “You’re the one who instigated this no drilling for oil rule, then you go and use my desires against me.”

Original Dima was back, the fluffy, grinning puppy. “Touché. Though I never let myself far enough into your mind to see all your sexual fantasies.”

“You didn’t?” I would have definitely looked at his.

“I try not to violate people if I can help it.”

“You’re a better man than me.” Not thinking about Dima in any sexual capacity was probably going to be the hardest thing I’d ever had to do.

He pretended he didn’t hear my last thought. “When you’ve been undead for six hundred and twenty years, other people’s fantasies get a bit boring.”

I didn’t know whether vampires could blush, but his ghostly pale cheeks seemed a little pinker.

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