Page 54 of Close Quarter
This time Silas's huff of laughter was light.
His arms unknotted. "You're so damn young.
Beautiful. Like a spring morning."
"What, cold, foggy, and damp?"
Silas shifted on the tub's edge, turned his hand to capture Rhys's fingers. "Warm and occasionally dense. But full of promise."
Rhys took a breath. "You didn't answer my question."
Through the silence that spread out in the bathroom, the click and whirl of the minifridge in the other room seemed all the louder.
Finally Silas spoke. "There are times when I get tired, Rhys. Soul tired. And seeing what had happened to you because I hadn't beenthinking..." He looked up. "Perhaps it might be better if you were free of me."
Rhys crushed Silas's hand in his own. "I don't want to be free of you." If he lost Silas, what would he have? A pile of sycophants in New York, hounding tabloid reporters, and a pack of vampires wanting to eat him. "I'm glad you didn't."
"As am I," Silas said, his voice low. "I may be a wretched excuse for a protector, monstrous in my own way, but I'm better than leaving you with nothing at all."
"You're not a monster. You're not...draining me of life. It's nothing like that at all."
Silas attempted to pull his hand away, but Rhys squeezed tighter.
"I don't want to use you. Even if the results are pleasurable for both of us, it's still"--Silas paused, as if searching for a word --"unconscionable."
Large word. Rhys had a few as well. "I think you've misconstrued the nature of our relationship.
You didn't use me back there." He nodded toward the bedroom. "Other way around, I think."
That produced a faint smile. "Well, there is that."
Rhys relaxed his grip, and they sat for a moment, shoulder to shoulder, hand in hand. If only they could stay like this, together. Quiet. Just enjoying each other. "They're going to come back for me, aren't they? The vampires?"
"Undoubtedly," Silas said. "Anaxandros knows I'm here. And I'm sure he knows you are here as well." He rose and pulled Rhys up. "We should shower, then have dinner. We both need food."
"Then what?" Rhys strode to the shower, turned on the water, and set the temperature. He heard cloth fall behind him--Silas's robe.
"I do what I was sent here to do. Destroy the soulless." Silas placed his hands on Rhys's hips and pushed him into the shower.
That brief touch, the press of Silas from behind when he closed the shower door, coupled with the warm water sliding down his skin, sent heat to his stomach and thickened his cock. He tried to steady his breath, rein in the desire. He was half-surprised he could even get it up after fucking Silas earlier. But then again, the man was a walking wet dream--his wet dream. Rhys turned.
Water slid down Silas's body and dampened his dark hair into curls that framed his long face.
Lips quirked into a half smile beneath a well- healed nose. Silas spoke. "Whatever am I going to do with you?"
"Wrong question," Rhys said. He pushed Silas against the back of the shower, kissed him until he moaned, then slid--very much like the water--down Silas's body. "You should ask what I'm going to do to you." He took Silas's cock into his mouth.
Hands tightened in Rhys's hair. He let Silas control the rhythm, the depth, opening his throat as much as he could. It was enough to hear Silas's groan, those rough bits of Latin that sounded gloriously perverse, even though he didn't understand any of it. It still tightened his balls.
Water cascaded down Rhys's back and tickled his ass. His cock bobbed in time with Silas's fucking.
Too soon, Silas pulled him away. "This is exactly why I can't concentrate. Your damn mouth.
Your hands. Your body." He cupped Rhys's chin and stared down at him. "I should have fucked you on the dinner table last night, just to get it out of my system."
Rhys stroked Silas's thighs. "Wouldn't have worked."
"No?" Silas pulled him up and spun him around. In seconds, Rhys found himself against the shower wall, his hands the only things keeping his forehead from bumping against the tile. Silas spoke hot words into his ear. "Shall we see if it works tonight?"
