Page 54 of Love Bleeds
Chapter Nineteen
Luke and Crimson settled on the couch in the living room to watch the movie. Three movies actually, as Luke had explained, but Crimson doubted they would get through all of them tonight. In part, he agreed that they should be doing something more important, but still, he didn’t feel like he was wasting his time.
Not when this movie obviously meant so much to Luke.
He didn't say that, not in so many words, but he kept shooting quick glances at Crimson whenever anything noteworthy happened on screen, as if to gauge his reaction. Crimson tried to laugh and smile and look shocked in all the right places, but in truth, only half his attention was onStar Wars.
The other half of him was trying to figure out if he could move closer to Luke on the couch or if he was sitting too close already. He had his arm on the back of the couch, not touching Luke, but almost. He wondered what Luke would do if he dropped it.
Not that he would actually do that.
Now that he knew what the nature of their relationship had actually been before he'd been turned, he needed to reign in his urge to touch the mortal. Even if it wasn't easy. If Luke wasn't into men, that was just a fact that he had to live with.
Luke had implied that even if he wasn't into men, he might be into Damian...
It was a sentiment that gave Crimson hope, but he tried not to give it too much weight. He'd meant what he'd said to Luke earlier. Even if he had been Damian once, there was no doubt that his time as vampire had changed him. How could it not have?
With a shudder, he remembered his most recent nightmare.
With that kind of thing on his conscience, how could he be the man Luke needed him to be?
When he snapped out of his thoughts he noticed that Luke was looking at him again. The characters on screen were firing blasters, but Crimson wasn’t sure what the conflict was.
"The main character has the same name as you," he said, to distract from the fact that he'd been somewhere else with his thoughts.
Luke rewarded him with a smile bright enough to light up the dark corners of Crimson's mind. "That was the first thing you said when I first told you my name. 'Oh, like inStar Wars!'" Luke mimicked what must have been a much younger version of Damian.
"I really loved this movie, huh?"
"It was your favorite. Both our favorite."
At least that explained why Luke was so obsessed with it. He needed Crimson tobeDamian so badly. Crimson could only imagine what it must be like. To sit right next to someone andstillmiss them.
Crimson focused his attention back on the screen with a renewed sense of determination.
He needed to focus on this movie, and he needed to love it.
But then, a few more minutes into the movie, Luke shifted on the couch. He leaned forward to drink from a glass of water, and then, when he leaned back again, he was suddenly an inch closer to Crimson.
Crimson tried not to read anything into it.
It must have been coincidence rather than anything Luke had done intentionally.
Only then it happened again, ten minutes later.
Should he move aside to give Luke more room?
It might have been the decent thing to do, considering that Luke was more than a little confused about his feelings, but Crimson couldn't get himself to increase the distance between them. It had already taken all his willpower to deny Luke earlier, when he'd asked for a kiss. He was a vampire, not super-human.
Luke was sitting close enough now that Crimson could smell his hair if he tilted his head to the side a little bit.
God, he wanted to drop his arm. Rest it on Luke's shoulder and pull him even closer. Cup his chin and kiss him. A real kiss this time, with both of them aware of what they were doing.
He swallowed, and willed himself to remain still, even as his eyes darted to the line of Luke’s neck and his teeth itched.
No touching, no biting, he reminded himself.
Which didn’t keep him from wondering what Luke’s blood might taste like, warm on his tongue.
