Page 74 of Thomas
“Forgive me,” Cameron said eventually. “I’ve wrestled you to the ground like a goddamn animal. I’ll need to get used to this… the scent of you.”
Thomas shook his head and opened his glowing eyes. “You can do this to me anytime you like. Really. It doesn’t matter where we are—in the middle of a party, at the farmer’s market. Whenever the urge strikes, you have my utmost consent.”
Cameron chuckled, then pushed up to his knees. He held out a hand to help Thomas sit upright. Thomas didn’t want them to move, but he accepted anyway and willed his eyes to burn out.
“I woke up this morning and this new scent was floating throughout the estate,” Cameron explained, resting on his knees beside him. “It was so bewildering and strange and…enticing. I had no idea what to make of it, and I thought I was losing my mind. Irrefutably, it is you.”
Wanting to distract himself from his blatant arousal that he could do absolutely nothing about, Thomas tugged at the hem of his sweater, then brushed the sleeves. “Maybe my releasing your aura last night did something to your vampiric senses? Opened you up, somehow?”
“Could be…”
Thomas glanced up. Cameron was still staring at him with that awe-stricken look, as if he was lost in a daydream. It made Thomas feel lightheaded and slightly self-conscious. “What do I smell like?” he asked, wanting to break the tension.
“You smell clean.”
“That is a relief.”
“Like freshly laundered linen, or perhaps a winter morning.”
“That could very well be whatever detergent Lennon uses to wash my clothes.”
“And sweet,” Cameron added, not taking the bait and remaining serious. “Subtly sweet and nutty, like… almond blossoms.”
Thomas didn’t have anything clever to say to that. He sat there under the weight of Cameron’s intense gaze, feeling like his eyes might spark again at any moment. Feeling like he might spontaneously combust.
“How did it know?” Cameron said in a soft, bewildered voice. The question wasn’t posed to Thomas, he knew. More like speculative musings. “When I saw you five years ago, how did it know that you would be like this? How did my nature comprehend, butIdidn’t? That you would be so complex and lovely. That you would be patient, persevering, intelligent and truly… a beautiful soul.”
Thomas’s eyes did alight then. He sat perfectly still. It was as if he’d been stripped raw in the glow of pale sunlight. As if his heart, nature and every aspect of his being were laid bare beneath Cameron’s pensive gaze.
“Thomas?” Cameron said, unblinking.
“Yes?”
“I think I… I am in love with you. I love you and I’m overwhelmingly grateful that you’re here with me, despite everything. Is that terribly awkward for me to admit to you?”
Thomas blinked, and a pool of tears he hadn’t even noticed were gathering in his glowing eyes spilled over. He shook his head. “No, Cameron.” His voice cracked. His breathing hitched as he swallowed. “It isn’t awkward at all.”
Cameron lifted a palm and held his face. He leaned closer. “Then, why are you crying?”
“Because I’m happy,” he said, wrapping his fingers around Cameron’s wrist. “I’m relieved.”
For the first time and of his own instigation, Cameron tilted and kissed Thomas slowly. It wasn’t like the explosion of ravenous passion the night before at the baths, nor the quirky, inquisitive affair just a few moments earlier. This was delicateand earnest, like something lovingly curated specifically for Thomas to express Cameron’s blossoming affections.
This time, when Cameron pulled away, his eyes were glowing emerald. He sighed. “This feeling toward you has always been inside of me, but it registered as a… deep empathy. Maybe even concern or sincere intrigue? After you released my aura, it’s as if the mystery of it has become clear—or perhaps my lens was augmented.”
“Feelings grow and change over time,” Thomas reasoned, basking in the tenderness of Cameron’s hand cupping his head. His thick fingers threaded into the back of Thomas’s hair. “You didn’t know me five years ago when you saw me, and to be frank, I was a much different man then. Some remnants of that vampire must remain within me, though.”
That he’d left such a strong impression on Cameron five years ago and still the sensation not only carried on today, but had developed further and into love, was comforting. It meant that notallof him had been ravaged and distorted from the imprisonment. That at least fundamentally, somewhere inside himself, he might still be the vampire he once knew.
“Is this how it felt with Dawn?”
Thomas blinked at that, but took a moment to consider carefully. “No. It wasn’t like this. Not at all.”
“In what way? May I ask?” Cameron sat back on his knees and dropped his hands to his lap, rapt with attention.
Rubbing a hand through his hair, Thomas smiled to himself, chagrined. “I wasn’t nearly as desperate with Dawn.”
Cameron frowned. “You are not desperate.”
