I'd been counting on the clubs.
There was safety in clubs.
The bloodsuckers not being allowed to enter and such.
I had no fucking idea how it worked for hotel rooms. Were they open-season to all vampires since the people staying didn't really own it? Or was there implied residence when you were paid up for the night?
I wasn't sure I wanted to test that.
But I didn't see any other choices.
"Feel better?" I asked when she opened the bathroom door, letting out a cloud of steam, making me wonder if she'd left me any hot water. I wasn't going to bitch since a place to sleep was a place to sleep, but the basement hadn't been much more pleasant for me than it had been for Nova. What can I say? I hailed from a really warm climate.
"Yeah," she admitted with a bashful smile. "Showers fix most things."
"And what showers don't fix, orgasms do. So you're all set," I agreed, giving her ass a little squeeze as I moved past her, going toward the shower.
"What are you doing?" she asked, voice hitching a bit when I stripped off my shirt.
"Showering," I told her as she used one of the guest toothbrushes to clean her teeth.
"I'm still in here," she reminded me.
"Yeah, babe," I said, turning to face her. "I figured you didn't want to venture out to talk to Bat alone."
"Ah, no," she admitted, shaking her head as her eyes squeezed shut for a moment, pushing back the memory.
"But I need a shower too, so you're gonna have to deal with this," I said, waving toward my chest, then working my button and zipper of my pants down.
I didn't imagine the gulp she made as her eyes roamed over me, settling down where my hands were pushing my pants and boxers down.
It wasn't like she hadn't seen my cock.
But I guess there was something about the grand reveal of the whole body.
I got that.
Her breath shook in her chest as she exhaled when I stood there fully naked in front of her.
"Like something you see, babe?" I asked, shooting her a smirk as my cock started to stiffen. "Unfortunately, all you can do is look," I told her, taking a deep breath. "We have to eat, then get out of here," I reminded her as I climbed into the shower, glad to find some hot water left for me.
"Do you think your, ah, president is coming for you?" she asked, spitting her toothpaste out, then looking over her shoulder at me.
This was why the humans invented glass shower stalls.
So you could eye-fuck your partner from inside or out of it.
Except, of course, she wasn't my partner.
I didn't do partners.
Not for longer than a night anyway.
"He's looking for me," I said. "If Seven or Aram are anywhere around, they might send them to check the clubs."
"Seven and Aram?"
"Friends. Biker brothers."
"Oh, right. Are you in trouble?"
"Well, I'm not on anyone's good side," I said, reaching for the bottle of body wash.
Who'd-a thought? Bikers with body wash. They probably only bought it because the name of the scent was Bearglove.
"I'm sorry," she said, shaking her head, looking away.
"Hey, look at me," I demanded, waiting until she did. "You didn't ask me to help. You didn't rope me into it. I chose this. So there's nothing to feel guilty about. Guilt," I scoffed. "Useless human emotion," I told her, watching as her gaze followed my hands as I soaped up my chest, then moved down my stomach, then lower. "Babe?"
"Yeah?" she asked, gaze still on my cock—hard and straining—even though I'd stopped washing it a couple seconds before.
"You answering me or my cock?" I asked. "For the record, I'm fine with either," I told her as her gaze shot up, eyes wide, caught, guilty. "But if you're saying yes to my cock, you need to get out of those clothes and into this shower."
"I don't know what's wrong with me," she admitted on a dry laugh as her hand went up to part her wet hair to one side. "I'm not usually so..."
"Thirsty?" I asked, smirking. "But, yeah, don't waste your fucking energy on guilt, Nova. It's a waste of time. And you humans don't get enough of it to begin with."
"Is it weird?" she asked. "Being immortal? I, ah, I never felt close enough with my master to ask things like that."
"Kinda fucked up that you fucked 'em and fed 'em for years, but never felt close enough to ask a simple question," I said, shaking my head, just standing under the spray that was steadily getting colder just because I didn't want to cut the conversation short. Which, fuck, wasn't like me at all. I barely held full conversations with my club brothers. And I'd known them for ages. It made no sense to want to talk to this near-stranger. But there was no denying it either. "But, I don't know. I haven't known anything different."
"Haven't you ever gotten, you know, attached to anyone? Who aged and died?" she clarified.
"We try not to get attached. Since if we did, people would know shit was up when we don't age like they do. Other shit has been stranger. Like watching you all evolve."
"Like... like from monkeys?" she asked, looking a little horrified, getting a low, deep chuckle out of me.
"Haven't been here that long, no. But technology and shit. Discovering television then computers then cell phones. That shit has been interesting. Everything else about you all, though, it's all the same."
"What do you mean? People have evolved. We're not so... primitive and violent anymore."
"Fuck, babe, if you think that, you're not looking closely enough," I said, shaking my head at her. "You all have been killing for the same shit since the beginning of time. Religion, land, money, and pussy. That's what it all comes down to. Every fucking time. It hasn't gotten less savage, it's just gotten more covert. Wars aren't being fought on your front lawns or town centers anymore, they're being carried out under the cover of night by highly trained militias with more firearms than they could ever need. It's ugly and it's pointless. And you will never stop doing it."
"Wow," she said, shaking her head a bit at my tirade. "I guess that's true."
"After a while, watching people grow up, grow old, and die around you starts to seem a fuckuva lot like watching the seasons change. Sounds fucked, but that's how it is."
"No, I get it. Are you ever getting out?" she asked, giving me a wobbly smile.
"How about you bring me a towel?" I asked, realizing I forgot one. "What? Afraid to get close to me?" I asked, challenging her.
Her chin lifted as she grabbed the towel and moved forward toward me like she didn't feel the electrical current that vibrated the air between us anytime we got close. Especially if one of us was missing clothes.
"Not afraid," she said as I started to towel off. But I didn't miss the breathlessness of her voice as she said it.
"Good. 'Cause you're going to need to be close to me for a long time today. Legs spread on either side of me. Arms tight around me..."
"Okay. You've made your point," she grumbled, turning away from me.