Page 88 of Dawn Caravan
He walkedacross the camp and knocked on her door an hour before dawn. The fire had burned down to embers, and the immortals had retired to their day chambers. The only movement he saw in the blue predawn light was from the scattered figures of the humans on the edges of the encampment and a cat slinking through the long grass.
This time Ben waited for Tenzin to come to the door.
When she opened it, Ben’s body had the exact same reaction it always did, but something in his amnis had settled. The frantic, desperate feeling she’d provoked earlier was gone.
She said nothing. She leaned against the door of the trailer, blocking the entrance.
Ben asked, “Will you come to my caravan tomorrow night so Sadia can say hello to both of us?”
“Of course I will.”
“Okay.” Ben didn’t know what else he wanted to say, he just knew he didn’t want to say goodbye.
Brigid was right.
When you’d been wounded, you held on to the things that gave you light. Even if they weren’t good for you. Even if they hurt.
“I don’t know how tonotbe angry with you,” he said quietly.
“I know.” She opened her mouth. Closed it.
“New Year’s resolutions?”
“I told Chloe I might need to pause them, but I don’t think I have to,” Tenzin said. “At least not with you.” She stared over his shoulder at the horizon. “I told you I would wait.”
“It’s been two years.”
“And?” Her eyes drifted to his. “I have waited longer for things I want.”
Desire twisted in Ben’s belly, and Tenzin smiled.
He couldn’t hide his irritation. “Do you always know when I’m horny?”
“Yes, I always have.”
“Yeah? Well I knew too.” Ben thought about all the times he’d caught her looking at him with pure female appreciation. She loved looking at his body. “Want me to take my shirt off?”
“Yes.” She crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow. “Anytime you would like.”
Fuck. “Well… I’m not going to, because I’m not an exhibitionist.”
“A very damaged bedroom on Penglai Island says otherwise.”
Ben’s fangs dropped. If he could have blushed, he would have. “That wasn’t exhibition.”
“Well, it was not quiet.”
“Tenzin—”
“In fact, several vampires approached me later that night and asked if either of us had been injured.” She narrowed her eyes. “I now realize they were probably trying to embarrass me.”
“I can see that was supereffective.”
“I do not get embarrassed by sex. Every animal in the world mates, Benjamin. I have never understood cultures that try to hide it.”
He raised a hand. “Can we just agree that wrecking entire rooms and parading around naked isn’t something we need to make a habit of doing?”
“If those are parameters you want to set in our relationship, I am comfortable with them.”
