Page 25 of Illuminated

“Fine, do the purpose thing,” I mumbled, mostly because I had my camera out and was adjusting the settings.

Auris, all black, and in front of him, red fire growing from the cold stone, was immortalized with a click. With the second and third, I got his face, pale and orange in the fire’s light, against the black of his hair and clothing, black eyes reflecting the flames.

For the next one, I caught his head half-turned to me, his eyes enchanting the camera. I took a few of those, then stopped.

“You don’t mind, do you?” I asked.

I took one more photo of the smile that built on his face. “With you behind the camera, I don’t.”

I blushed, happy the orange fire would hide it. “I think I’ll go and take a hot shower. That okay?”

“Of course.”

I put my camera away again and found my sweatpants in the luggage. I definitely had left those out on my bed at the hotel, meaning Auris had folded up everything nicely before getting my stuff, but he’d also seen my not quite messy but also not very organized hotel room. It was one of the things my ex had kept bringing up, how I got super messy when I worked.

I grabbed a sweater and pushed the memories of other people aside, then walked across the hallway.

The shower heated quickly, and the warm water felt good as I stood there, letting it wash over my face and back. I toweled off and put my sweats on, the lavender-scented air comforting. Crawling back under the covers in the now fire-warmed bedroom sounded very enticing, even though I felt a little guilty about yet another day during which I hadn’t done the work I had come here for.

Auris sat on the floor in front of the fireplace in the bedroom, just like I had left him. The red-orange glow from the noisy flames painted the edges and plateaus of his face in monochromes, and I stared, transfixed once more by the captivating oddness of his beauty, before getting out my camera again.

This time, after the first click, Auris did not allow me to merely watch and fix this moment in pixels of varying brightness. He turned, and looked right back, not so much flirting with the camera as with me.

After a good fifteen minutes of this, I put my camera away again. I’d never gotten a hard-on behind the lens before. I hadn’t cared enough to hide the bulge in my pants, not when Auris was posing for me. Or just sitting there.

When I turned my back to zip the camera bag shut, I realized I no longer had any issues at all recalling the shape of his eyes, the lines of his mouth.

“I think taking photos of you helps me with… helps with that illusion thing you mentioned.”

“There might be another reason remembering is becoming easier,” Auris said, and behind me, I heard the telltale rustling of fabric.

When I turned, I broke out in laughter.

“Are you for real?”

Auris had stripped naked and was leaning on the mantel with one hand, the other carelessly but calculatedly on his hip. The fire’s glow underlined his manly features, especially the shadow the most prominent feature cast on his abdomen.

“Probably not. Vampires aren’t real, so you’re just imagining this, Ethan.”

“I should go to bed and get some sleep if I’m hallucinating,” I said.

“That would be best.”

“Then I’ll do that.”

I hesitated, but in the end, I couldn’t resist the temptation of his eyes following me, so I slid my sweatpants down, making sure to go slow when I revealed my ass, then just dropped them and stepped out of them. I heard heavy breathing from the fireplace.

Stripping had never been a part time job for me, which was why there was no finesse in me taking off the sweater. And since that was all there was, I lifted the sheets and slid in under them.

“It’s pretty cold, all alone in such a big bed,” I said.

Before the last word was fully out of my mouth, the sheets were lifted on my other side, and Auris slid in behind me.

He wrapped his arms around me, spooned me. That wasn’t enough for me, and after unsubtly pushing my ass out, I heard his amused huff.

“Shouldn’t you be asleep?”

“If you want me asleep, don’t pose naked in front of the fireplace.”

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