Page 3 of Overexposed

“Mmh. This is just me making sure you are properly spent and tired out and can sleep off the time difference, once you are under the covers. If you want that, Ethan.”

He added the last after a pause that had me sober some, read meaning into it, question what that meaning truly was.

“I’m sorry,” I started, and then, because of jetlag or something else, I blabbered on. “These last three weeks. I… Time passed so quickly. I didn’t even think. We didn’t do anything, did we? Just that once before we left. And I’m sorry about that. I like you, and I am thankful --”

“Ethan. Are you apologizing?”

I shrugged. “I… You took care of me.” I swallowed, hard. “My ex used to say I never put out.”

Auris’s eyes narrowed. “That makes me want to encounter your ex in a dark, dark alley to scare them with my heartfelt opinion. But. This conversation is unnecessary. I do not expect you to spread your legs for me when I am horny. There is no exchange rate for love and care. I care for you and love you because I cherish and respect you, and my desire is to accept, joyfully, what you are willing and eager to share with me. Over the past three weeks, my sweet, you shared your pain. I accept that. Joyfully.”

I breathed in, breathed out. And realized that this impossible, improbable reaction wasn’t maybe as impossible or improbable as I’d thought after all. If prophecy meant anything, then perhaps it meant what Auris had said in so many prettier words.

“You accept me. All of me. Just the way I am, and the way I feel.” I giggled.

Auris’s eyebrows rose. “Yes. You only giggle when you are nervous or really shocked or scared. Is everything all right?”

“It’s better. You are better. I don’t know why, but you are, aren’t you?”

He sighed. “My sweet, you have been up for too long.”

I shook my head, then kissed his chin. “Nope. I had a light bulb moment. And I’m really, really happy. Head in the clouds happy.”

“Head in the clouds where the air is too thin?”

“Pretty much.” I kissed his chin again. “You wanted to show me the bedroom.”

“Right this way, my sweet.”

His candied voice teased goose bumps down my skin, and his tongue on my throat made me shiver. Auris pulled me with him to the bedroom. We ambled through rooms, past tongue-in-cheek comic art framed in gold, past a wall decked out with a tapestry of mirrors, each no larger than a saucer, all gold framed. I lost most of my clothes on the way there, got out of the rest of them before he lowered me onto the bed. Auris, too, was no longer wearing black. All the black, it seemed, had seeped from him into the walls, the headboard, the silky carpet against the parquet floor.

The milky golden duvet surprised me -- or would have if the pale marble fireplace hadn’t made me smile.

Auris lifted his head from my neck and followed my line of sight, his eyes shimmering in the honey light of the afternoon. “You want me to light it for you now?”

“No. You do your meditative fire lighting now, I’ll really fall asleep. Take care of me first.”

“Your wish, my command,” he said and offered me another kiss. “I want you, Ethan. Oh, how I want you,” he said after a while of this, and before I could respond, he smothered the words with his lips on mine all over again, pushed me against the soft duvet, savoring exploration now shifting to desire. It wasn’t just his tongue that explored, his hands did as well. He knew exactly where to touch me, how to stroke me so my back would arch against his waiting body, how to make me tremble and want for him to be close, closer.

“I want you. I want you, too,” I said when he had moved to caress my collarbones with his tongue and lips. He looked at me, held my face in his hands and brushed his thumb along my jaw before kissing me again. And this was not just a kiss of desire, although it had the flavor of desire. This was a kiss of love and promise. I wanted it to last, and last forever. When our lips parted, I said, “I love you.”

The look on his face reminded me of something fragile, ephemeral. Perhaps he’d doubted my words, the first time outside his cottage just a few days ago. He didn’t look like he doubted them now.

Auris said nothing back. He didn’t have to. He took us in hand together, adding his own spit.

I loved his touch, his body on top of me, but what truly tipped me over the edge, what made me come and collapse into an exhausted, boneless heap, were his eyes on me, cool but overfull with emotion. I stared back at him, sharing the moment with him. He came too, almost at the same time as I did, the mess between us glorious.

“I think I could sleep for a day now,” I said after his breathing came more evenly. “Can you lie on top of me for a little while?”

He looked at me. “For a while. But move under the covers.”

I let him do most of the moving, which he did. The sheets smelled like detergent and sunshine. They fell over both of us when he settled his weight on me, and I smiled.

I fell asleep like that, but woke once, the weight on top of me gone but a fire crackling somewhere nearby. I had learned to associate fire with my vampire, and the sound made me feel safe, so I went right back to sleep.

* * *

The first morning, or first afternoon, according to my phone, had me feel like an event photographer who’d also covered the after party. I was very much determined not to let jetlag bring me down. I located my suitcase to find fresh clothes. Not hard, because Auris had put it right in the room. Next, I located the bathroom, which was through an obvious door in the bedroom.

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