Page 62 of Thomas
A rosy flush spread along Thomas’s high cheek bones. He straightened his posture. “Yes, Cameron, I understand that, but you’re always alone, correct? You’ve never been nudewith me.”
Understanding struck Cameron like a lightning bolt. Thomas standing across from him, elegant and long-legged in his smart jumper and trousers. But what about Thomas without all of that? Naked and wet from a bath and with his hair disheveled.
The heat behind Cameron’s eyes came on so quickly that it startled him, and he had no idea what to do with it.
“Ah, there,” Thomas said, a little smile gracing his lips. “He is enlightened.”
“I am…sosorry?—”
“You needn’t be.”
Cameron unfolded his arms and lifted a palm to the back of his neck, massaging.What the hell?This was happening to him increasingly and without warning, and it was disconcerting to say the least. He closed his eyes. All he could do was wait it out.
“Cameron…” He heard Thomas moving around the desk and toward him. His eyes sprang open as Thomas stood over him. “Please don’t be ashamed of this.”
“I am not accosting you.”
“I know you aren’t.”
“But this”—Cameron gestured toward his eyes—“makes me feel as if I am! Like some perverted creature?—”
“No,please, I…” Thomas lifted his hands so that his palms hovered on either side of Cameron’s face. “May I?”
“May you what?” Cameron asked nervously.
“Just…” Thomas’s cool palms rested against his skin, gently cupping his face. Slowly, Thomas’s eyes brightened to their silver-blue luster. “I don’t want you to be ashamed of this or feel perverted, because it’snatural, Cameron. It’s beautiful and it… it gratifies me deeply. I’m very, very pleased that you respond to me this way.” He swallowed and took a breath. “I love it.”
“You do?” Cameron said, feeling the warmth and effervescence of his nature shifting and climbing up his spine. He felt as if he were falling into a trance while staring into Thomas’s eyes. A soothing and curious rapture sweeping across his being.
“I do,” Thomas said quietly, brushing his thumb over the soft swell of Cameron’s bottom lip. “Close your eyes for me, please?”
Cameron did as he was told, letting his lids flutter closed.
“Take a few deep breaths,” Thomas instructed. “To control the burn behind your eyes, breathe slowly and think about pinching out the firelight from a match. Or maybe snuffing out the tip of a cigar.”
Obediently, Cameron breathed and imagined this while the feel of Thomas’s palms against his face soothed him. It only took a moment. Soon, the burn behind his irises dissolved. When he opened his eyes, Thomas’s were heather again and he was smiling.
“Are you alright?” he asked.
“I’m alright. Thank you.” Cameron lowered his head and Thomas dropped his hands to his sides. “Thomas, if you want to go to the bathhouse, I’ll go. You don’t need to hesitate in asking me.”
Thomas sighed. “I don’t want you to go just because I’ve asked you and you think it’s your duty to oblige me. I want you to do it becauseyouwant to—do you understand the difference? Not as a favor for me and secretly a burden for you. If we go, I want you to desire it of your own accord.”
Cameron stilled, considering for a moment. He lifted his chin and met Thomas’s eyes. “Are you scolding me again?—”
“I am not!”
Cameron smiled. “I want to go, Thomas. I desire itbecauseit’s with you. Is that unacceptable?”
Thomas paused. He folded his lips and looked uncharacteristically timid, only for a moment. “No,” he said, cutting his eyes away from Cameron’s face. “That’s… perfectly fine.”
It took a ferry, a plane ride and two trains to reach the small town of Antibes, which was nestled along the Mediterranean coast in the south of France. The entire journey, Thomas reminded Cameron of an excited puppy that had been let out of its kennel for the very first time.
The man had never left Eden before, let alone been on an airplane. Cameron had known that some Eden vampires’ lives were like this—totally closed off from the outside world on their little vampire island. But knowing one personally and witnessing his introduction to the world at large was astounding.
As Cameron had predicted, Sulee had known someone who knew someone who knew someone else that was still in contact with Lady Dawn Elizabeth Pruitt. After receiving a number of vicious threats from Lord Charles Blakeley over the alleged “attempted abduction and gross manipulation” of his eldest son, Dawn and her family had fled to France.
Sulee had procured an address, and Thomas had hastily written to her, asking if she was well and if they could meet. The response had come just as swiftly, and within two weeks, the visit had been arranged.
