Page 83 of Thirsty
“Yeah,” Charlie said roughly, rubbing his eyes. “Sorry about that—I guess I’m still not fully adjusted to the nocturnal lifestyle.”
“It’s okay,” Lorenzo said. And he was smiling at Charlie so warmly, and the dream was still coursing through Charlie’s veins, so he sat up, pushed the book off Lorenzo’s lap, and kissed him.
Lorenzo laughed into the kiss, though he returned it. “Hello.”
“Hi,” Charlie said, pushing his hands under Lorenzo’s soft shirt.
“What has you in such an amorous mood?” Lorenzo asked.
Charlie pulled back, his mind full of visions of Lorenzo’s teeth sinking into his neck. “Uh, I...I dreamed about you,” he said.
He’d expected Lorenzo to be flattered or excited, but instead his expression dimmed. “What’s wrong?” Charlie asked.
Lorenzo sat up straighter in bed and pushed Charlie away from him—not cruelly, but more like he had something on his mind. “I have to tell you something,” he said.
He looked sick to his stomach. Charlie’s heart skipped a beat. “Okay,” he said, hesitant.
“I mean—you should know this, for your thesis,” Lorenzo rambled, and Charlie tried to ignore the icy flush of guilt that swept over his skin.
Lorenzo sighed and said, “Vampires can...enter humans’ dreams.”
This was not what Charlie had been expecting to hear at all. “Okay,” he said doubtfully. “I— What does that mean?”
“It means...we can travel through the ether and actually...bein your dreams, just as if we were entering a room with you in it,” Lorenzo said. “Except the room is...your mind. Or, your dream.”
Charlie was still confused. “Okay,” he said again.
Lorenzo lifted his eyes to Charlie’s, looking like a kicked dog. “So, when we first ran into each other a few months ago, I—I really wanted you to leave me alone, at first,” he said. “And...I thought maybe if I scared you off...”
It took Charlie a second, but then he remembered—the nightmare of a dark alley that had become something stranger. Tighter. Hotter. “That was you?” he demanded. “In the—like—actuallyyou?”
“Yes,” Lorenzo said miserably. “I’m sorry.”
Charlie clambered off the bed, pacing back and forth. He couldn’t deny that this knowledge felt a bit—well, a bit like being violated. If what Lorenzo was saying was true, that would mean that Lorenzo had beeninsidehis mind. “That’s...what the hell!”
“I know!” Lorenzo said, gazing at him, stricken. “I know.”
Charlie stopped pacing and narrowed his eyes at Lorenzo. “That was a sexy dream.”
Through the haze of guilt and worry, a slight sheepish grin crept onto Lorenzo’s face. “I know.”
Charlie sat heavily in the chair by his desk and opened his laptop, typing furiously. After a moment, Lorenzo asked hesitantly, “What are you doing?”
“Like you said,” Charlie said, in a petulantly flat tone. “Gotta get this all down.”
“Are you,” Lorenzo asked. “Mad?”
Charlie finished writing and glanced at his desktop behind the blank page he’d opened to jot this all down—at a folder full of his finished columns. All at once, any lingering traces of shock or anger seeped away, and he shut his laptop. “No,” he said. “I guess not.”
“I’m really sorry,” Lorenzo said, sitting up on his knees in bed.
Charlie sat down on the bed next to him. “It’s fine,” he said with a sigh. “Thank you for telling me, though.”
Lorenzo bit his lip, and he looked so concerned, so guilty, that Charlie couldn’t help but touch him. He put a palm on his thigh, feeling the tension in Lorenzo’s muscles ease a bit the instant he made contact. “I guess it’s just a...weird...somewhat intrusive way of flirting,” he said.
That sheepishness came back into Lorenzo’s eyes. “You were the one flirting withme,” he said. “I went there to scare you. Your subconscious made it all...sexy.”
Charlie found himself grinning. “Yeah, well, you’re pretty sexy.”
