Page 158 of Dawn Caravan
They spentfour nights in Venice, sending texts to everyone who’d been panicking about them and catching up on emails while they enjoyed the solitary quiet of the city at night.
They didn’t video call anyone. They didn’t go out other than to fly over the lagoon at night and enjoy the evening air. They rested and enjoyed the quiet.
Unlike the bustle of daytime Venice, the nighttime city was calm and quiet, a perfect retreat from the intrigue and immortal machinations they’d been juggling for weeks. For the first time in two years, Ben felt refreshed.
He woke most evenings to Tenzin teasing him awake, kissing his neck or running her fingers across his chest.
She was far more tactile than he’d imagined she’d be. Maybe she was making up for lost time. She told him she hadn’t taken a lover in the time they’d been apart, but even before then, it was rare for Tenzin to trust anyone enough to let them touch her, even in a nonsexual way. She was jealous of her personal space and didn’t allow many others to intrude.
They were lying on the mattress Ben had dragged up from the first floor, and Tenzin was intent on tracing the muscles of his abdomen.
“Tenzin?”
She looked up, and her hair brushed the sensitive skin along his hip. Ben shuddered and grew hard again.
Tenzin looked down. “Your appetite is remarkable.”
“I feel like I’m about sixteen again.” It was true. He felt like he was going through puberty for a second time.
“Trust me” —she trailed a finger up his erection— “nothing about you reminds me of a boy.”
“No, if anything, people are going to think I’m the cradle robber.” It was true. To human eyes, Tenzin looked far younger than Ben did. Luckily, most vampires knew that looks were deceiving.
“Cradle robber.” Her dimple peeked out. “That is an amusing idea.”
He pulled her up and she floated over him, coming to rest on his chest.
“Hello.” Ben slid his hands over her shoulders, down her back, and over her bottom before he reversed course and did it all over again.
She melted into him.
“I know you didn’t take another lover,” he said. “But did you have anyone who just hugged you? Chloe? Even Cheng?” Ben didn’t like the pirate, but he did care about Tenzin, and Ben was starting to think she’d been completely touch-starved.
“Chloe forced a few hugs on me, but Cheng and I aren’t currently speaking.”
His hand paused. “Because of me?”
“In a sense. He is not jealous—he knows our relationship was not comparable to what you and I share—but he did not approve.”
“Of what?”
“Of my taking you to my father.”
Ben frowned. “Really?”
“He thought I overstepped the limits of friendship.” She looked up and into his eyes. “He could understand the impulse of the moment, but then I refused to leave you alone.”
So Cheng was offended on Ben’s behalf? That was… oddly honorable of him.
“I will say the following thing was kind of annoying,” he said. “But I have to admit that if you hadn’t followed me, I probably would have been worried about you.”
Ben took a deep breath and tasted the air. He could smell the water in the canal, the scent of wool warmed in the sun, and above everything, Tenzin’s blood.
The constant, comforting scent of her had quickly become the reason he took his next breath. He did not need to fill his lungs, but he did need her. It was a little frightening how much.
Tenzin laid her ear over his heart. “He did not understand what we are.”
“SometimesIdon’t understand what we are.”
