Page 15 of Across the Sapphire Sea
“I did.” The answer came with no hesitation. “And I’d wager you enjoyed watching.”
“Enjoyedisn’t the word I’d use.”
“No?” Valeri stepped closer. They were no more than a foot apart. “How would you put it?”
“Shocked. Relieved…” Elias let out a sigh and chose to be honest. “Awed.”
Smiling, Valeri reached forward, placing his hand inside the cloak to touch the bare skin of Elias’s waist. With gentle pressure, he pulled. Elias took the cue and closed the gap between them, close enough to bump chests. He gave in to the urge to connect, taking Valeri’s shoulders in his grip.
Valeri smelled of horse and leather, and Elias breathed deep, taking the scent into his nostrils and committing the moment to memory. Beginnings had a way of being tenuous. Elias wanted to pin this one down. Define it. Solve the mystery of the stranger for himself.
“What do you want from me?” Elias whispered.
Valeri’s lips parted. “Everything.”
Eyes wide, Elias dropped his gaze to Valeri’s mouth.
“Ask me what I shall give you in return,” Valeri ordered. The alluring resonance of his voice raised the hairs on Elias’s neck.
“What will you give me in return?”
“Everything.”
That one word held more temptation than all the others that had come before. He needed what Valeri offered.
Elias leaned in to kiss him. A soft press of lips, no more, but the touch sent fire to his groin.
Valeri moved to deepen the kiss, but Elias held back, his restraint a tattered cloth threatening to rip. Any attempt he made to resist would be futile. The demon had saved him from a lifetime of hard labor and suffering. Elias was half in love with him for that alone. He didn’t want to resist, but there was something he had to know first.
Elias searched Valeri’s face. “What are you?”
“What do you think?”
“A demon,” Elias dared to say.
Valeri let out a low rumble of laughter; Elias could feel it in his own chest.
“Not a bad guess, but no, not a demon.”
“Then what?”
“I am a vampire, sweet Elias. Do you know the word?”
Elias froze, air caught in his throat. “I do.”
Valeri’s eyes glistened with interest. “Do I frighten you?”
Elias kissed him again, feather soft, his answer mumbled against Valeri’s lips, dangerously close to those terrifying teeth. “Yes.”
“Yet you do not run.”
“Would running save me?”
“No.”
“Do you drink blood?”
Valeri’s eyes were positively gleaming, acorn brown and intensely scrutinizing. “Yes.”
