Page 64 of Close Quarter
Rhys drew Silas outside into the warm glow of the sun. They strolled up the promenade, forward to the bow, then up a set of stairs to an observation deck. Several empty lounge chairs sat on the teak planks. The wind took some of the heat out of the sunlight. No sunbathers. No readers either.
Good.Rhys pushed Silas against the hull and kissed him, forced his tongue past Silas's lips and invaded that hot mouth. Silas moaned deep in his throat.
How would that moan feel with his cock in Silas's throat? Rhys pressed his erection against Silas's hard-on and framed Silas's face with his hands.
Sex would be fantastic, but that was not what Rhys needed right now. He broke the kiss. "I want you to listen to me."
"You have the entirety of my attention." A husky response.
"I'm going with you tonight."
Silas gripped his shoulders, tried to open space between them. "Rhys."
He leaned into Silas's body, stroked Silas's smooth cheeks with his thumbs. No stubble. Never any stubble. "I'm not asking. I'm telling you."
The furrow in Silas's brow deepened. "Rhys, you'll be safer--"
"Like last night?" Safer, his ass.
Silas sucked in a breath, but the stubborn, arrogant line of his mouth remained. "You'll be safer in the cabin."
In the cabin? The hell with that. He'd be a sitting duck.
A good fuck was easy to get from Silas.
Thoughtful consideration was not. And he of all people should know the vampires.
Rhys shoved himself away from Silas, the pain in his chest sharp and sudden. "Forget it. I guess I'll just give myself to them." He headed for the steps down to the next deck. "Since you don't give a damn." He might have put up with other men treating him like an idiot, but he damn well wouldn't from this one.
Silas must have seen what that creature in the dining room tried to do. Didn't he trust Rhys after all that?
Silas caught him by the arm before he reached the railing. "Rhys, don't. Please!"
Rhys didn't shake free of Silas, just pulled taut against his bruising grip. His heart pulsed in his throat. "Either listen to me or let go, Silas.
Two choices."
Emotional turmoil flowed over and around Rhys, more turbulent than the ocean surface, far greater than Rhys's anger.
Silas.
Letting go wasn't really an option for either of them. "You're not used to being told what to do, are you?" Rhys said.
Silas's grip on his arm loosened, though Silas did not let go of him. "No, I'm not." Rhys barely heard those words over the wind, the slap of waves against the hull.
"I'm not used to ordering anyone." Rhys pried Silas's fingers from his arm but kept ahold of his hand. "But you're being a fucking idiot right now.
And I'm not going to let you get yourself killed."
"I could say the same thing to you." Silas's accent thickened his words, made them sharp.
Sunlight turned Silas's eyes golden. "He'll kill you, Rhys. Or worse. I can't--I won't--let that happen."
The wind lifted those dark curls, fluttered the ends of Silas's bow tie.
Rhys had been wrong. Silas was completely blind when it came to the ancient vampire.
"He?" Rhys placed a hand against Silas's chest, over his heart. It beat faster than his own.
