Page 29 of Touch in the Night

“Fairly regularly, depending on what the baron’s got going on. He does a lot of outreach work and tries to involve other independents as often as possible.” Jesse glanced at him, confused by his guarded tone, but he didn’t meet his eye. “Say, was Darragh Kelly there?”

“Who?”

Tom focused on his monitor. “Redhead…Irish.”

Jesse blinked. “Uh, yeah, I think so. I didn’t catch everyone’s name. Why?”

“No reason,” Tom said quickly, finally looking over and giving him a disarming smile. “He’s Emory’s lawyer. He’s supposed to be helping me with some legal stuff.”

“A vampire lawyer?”

“Is that so weird?” Tom said with an amused smile.

“Everything about this is weird,” Jesse said, shaking his head as he loaded the system’s base program. “What do you need a lawyer for? Been skimming the baron’s funds?”

He laughed. “Nothing so interesting. Just some property thing with my family. I guess we need to start with these foundation systems, if you’re going to rebuild our firewall?”

Jesse allowed the subject to be changed and buried himself in the task at hand.

It kept him busy enough that he didn’t have a moment to ruminate for the rest of the day. Tom fetched food at intervals and talked to Filip when he came in, grunting and sweeping snow off his black coat, but largely left Jesse to it.

He was so engrossed that the only way he knew that night had fallen was Tom yawning and saying it was time to call it a day.

“We’ll pick it up tomorrow, yeah?”

“Uh, yeah, sure,” Jesse said, swallowing the last bite of the bagel he’d been working at since dinner time and draining his now-cold coffee. He followed Tom up the stairs, suddenly very aware of the heaviness of his limbs.

They hovered in the hall, and Jesse wondered if Tom was hoping he’d ask him in or if it was the other way around, when Tom said goodnight, opened his own door and disappeared inside.

Jesse shook his head and went to his own room.

His few battered sci-fi paperbacks were arranged neatly on the bookshelf. His framed Misfits poster hung on the wall over the desk. All his clothes, newly laundered, were folded away in the drawers or hanging in the wardrobe. He noted with surprise the new pairs of hard-wearing trousers and jeans in his size. There were new trainers in a box on the floor of the wardrobe, a sturdy pair of walking boots next to them—also both in his size.

In another drawer he found a number of the shirts and jumpers, and there was one of the black coats Filip had worn hung on the back of the door.

He wondered if he should be impressed or unnerved—and couldn’t quite settle on either.

He moved to the desk and had to admit that the moving team had done a good job setting up his systems. The extra sockets he’d asked for had been installed already. He itched to boot it all up and have a go with their super-speed internet connection, but if he started web-diving now, he knew he wouldn’t stop until dawn.

Then he noticed the text from Anton.

Hey. How’s it going? Keeping outta trouble?

Once again, he had no idea how to handle the instant and unreasonable annoyance that flared in him, let alone how to reply.

He set his phone aside, stripped and climbed into bed. He lay in its embracing warmth, enjoying the feel of the new sheets against his bare skin. He sighed deep and ran his fingers over the soft quilt. He paused, bit his lip then gave the headboard a tentative pull. It was sturdy. He pulled harder. It didn’t creak or rattle. He imagined being tied to it with someone large and strong bent over him while he lay helpless. In the dark he wasn’t sure what sort of face this man had, but he had a powerful build and strong, capable hands.

Jesse closed his eyes, reached under the covers and grasped his cock. His skin fizzed at the contact. He tugged at the bar through his right nipple with his other hand. The flash of sensation sparked electricity along his nerves. He began to stroke himself, his imaginary lover’s hands in place of his own, teasing pleasure from him, not allowing him to move, to cry out or to come until he commanded it.

He imagined the ghost of sharp teeth grazing over his belly and came. He blinked into the dark. He ran a hand over his abdomen, almost expecting to feel scratches, but the skin was smooth.

He fought the hot flush of shame and went to the en suite to clean himself off before returning to bed and falling into a deep, exhausted sleep.

* * * *

The new equipment started arriving the next day, and Jesse busied himself with its installation. Tom worked at his side, and Jesse was gratified to see the engineer seemed to instinctively know the sort of thing Jesse was doing and was able to work with barely any instruction.

A sense of ease spread over Jesse’s habitual prickly discontent. He wondered at it, wondered why this would happen whilst working for a vampire, of all people.

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