Page 80 of The Vanishing
“Iknow. I won’t do it again.”
“Tell him he’s doing a good job—he’ll really appreciate that from you.”
“Ido… sometimes. It was just a bad moment.”
“Right. Listen.With all the stress and drama lately, we need a vacation. Nino and Haru have the right idea. I’m taking you to Tanzania.”
The light in Giovanni’s hazel-green eyes flickers. An innocent smile spreads across his face. “Yeah?”
“Yeah. Maybe we can adjust our schedules and go this December? We’ll call it a honeymoon for our bonding. Or we can wait until after our official wedding in spring next year?”
“The sooner the better.” He grins. “God, I cannot fucking wait. Avacation.” His eyes shift straight ahead and Cellina follows his gaze. A small woman with caramel-colored skin and lustrous black hair is walking toward their table. They both stand in greeting. Cellina reaches out to shake her hand, thrilled as she introduces herself.
Armeena Khan is the successful owner of a contemporary art gallery in Madrid. She’s visiting Milan for the weekend but joining them for dinner at Giovanni’s personal request. If anyone can give insight with regard to owning a thriving art gallery in a major metropolis, it is this woman.
Thirty-Seven
Nino blinks his eyes open—the heat of the morning sun streams in through the window, warming his face. He turns his head against the pillow, looking at the view beyond the glass. The sky is a bright, pristine shade of blue, and the rugged mountains surrounding the cabin stand majestic and vast.
He takes a deep breath to suck in the clean air. Haruka must have opened the window when he got out of bed, because the room is filled with the scent of summery forests all around them—green earth and sunshine.
“Today,” Nino says to himself. “We have to talk about this…”
The universe keeps showing him something. Multiple times now, and even here in Trentino. Instead of taking the bull by the horns, Nino is still falling back into his childish way of thinking.
If Haru doesn’t say anything… then maybe I should mind my own business? Maybe he’ll talk about it when he’s ready?
But Nino knows better. They’ve been bonded more than a year, and he’s learned many things about his mate. One of which is his surprising reluctance to tell Nino what he wants. With simple things, there’s no issue. Coffee or tea. Shower or a bath (or both). Easy. In matters of diplomacy, too, or in circumstances where his authority is needed, Haruka is easily outspoken—eloquent in his expression. Masterful and confident.
When it comes to his deeper desires, the quiet things he enjoys, hopes for, prefers or holds close to his heart… he’s like a sealed armoire. Nino understands some things because of his own intentional deductions—paying close attention to Haruka’s actions, his responses, his inner emotions, or taking note of the things he doesn’t say.
Today marks a week in Trentino together. One more week left. For the most part, they’ve isolated themselves in natural, splendid bliss. Yesterday, Nino took Haruka into the charming town of Andalo. The vampire population is small there, with no official purebred leader, which means no formalized meetings or rigid expectations. It’s perfect.
When they went into a coffee shop, Nino sat at a table and watched his mate in awe as Haruka stood in line. A young third-gen male stood behind him with whom Nino assumed to be his son. The father struggled to keep the little vampire from reaching out and grabbing at Haruka’s legs, so the father picked him up. In that moment, Nino recalled Junichi’s insight about vampire children being sensitive to Haruka’s old blood.
Haruka had looked over his shoulder at the boy and father. He nodded at first, polite in recognizing the unrest of the child. Soon, they were chatting. As the child continued to reach and twist in his father’s grasp, Haruka lifted his arms and smiled. The little male jumped into his embrace as his father apologized. Haruka held the boy and rocked him, both of them content as he continued his conversation with the father.
The entire scene had struck Nino yet again—just as it had with Sora’s children before. Each time, it feels as if a heavy curtain has been unexpectedly drawn back on a play he thought he knew by heart and he’s witnessing a secret exchange—a meaningful but hidden act that he’d never fathomed.
When Haruka returned to the table, the curtain had fallen back into place. The production he knew and loved was moving forward as usual, the secret thing he’d witnessed like a phantom within his imagination.
Nino sits upright in the bed and rolls his shoulders before throwing his legs over the edge of the mattress. When he brought up the topic of kids the first time, he did it the wrong way. He knows Haruka dislikes reminiscing about his former mate, but Nino couldn’t bring himself to ask therightquestion. He’d been too uncertain of his own thoughts on the topic.
He stands from the bed and walks toward the door, comfortable in his nakedness. He moves straight through the cozy cabin and outside to the front porch. It’s still early morning and the rays of the sun beat down, showering everything in crisp golden light.
Shielding his eyes with his palm, he looks out over the lake: clear and glittering like flecks of silver as it mirrors the surrounding mountains and trees. Just off to the side and near the shoreline, he sees his mate floating on his back in the aqua-tinged water.
Nino bounds off the porch and runs toward Haruka. When his feet hit the edge of the lake, the water sparkles and splashes loud in the vastness. It’s already warm out and the cool wetness is refreshing against his skin.
Just before he dives in, Haruka pulls himself upright. Nino glides underneath the glassy surface, propelling forward with his arms and blowing out bubbles through his nose. His instincts guide him toward the goal and soon he breaks the surface once more and swims freestyle to close the remaining distance. He lifts his head from the water as he approaches. Haruka is watching him, peaceful.
“Good morn—”
The moment he’s within reach, Nino thrusts his body out of the water, then places his palms on Haruka’s shoulders to drive him beneath the surface. When they’re both underwater, Nino wraps his long legs around Haruka’s waist. He embraces his shoulders, dragging his mate down even deeper.
The warmth of their shared aura flares out, surrounding them. Haruka drags them both back up toward the glimmering sunlight. When they surface, he gasps in a deep breath and shakes the water from his head. “What thehellare you doing?”
“Playing.” Nino grins, smoothing wet hair back with one hand as he keeps himself wrapped tight against his husband. “This is what they do in movies—”
