“It . . . makes me look good.”
His hands stopped moving. When he spoke again, Frederick’s voice was so low I almost didn’t hear him. “You do not need cosmetics for that, Cassie.”
All at once, the noise from the party, the slow drip of water from the shower behind me—all of it melted away. There was nothing but Frederick’s tender hands, touching my face so gently I could hardly bear it—and the steady, rapid beat of my heart.
After what might have been a few minutes, or an hour, Frederick dropped the handkerchief onto the counter. I could feel him shift even closer to me, in the small, confined room, until our knees touched.
My eyes stayed closed. My stomach tightened with anticipation and nerves. I suspected that once I opened my eyes again everything between us would change.
I licked my lips without thinking—and registered his sharp intake of breath.
“Are . . . are the smudges gone?” My voice was shaky. I felt moments away from flying apart at the seams.
His hand was steady against my cheek. “Yes. They’re gone.” Frederick was standing so close to me now his words were cool puffs of air on my lips. I shivered, the need for him to move even closer nearly overwhelming. “Open your eyes, Cassie.”
His mouth was on mine before I had a chance to comply, the gentle pressure of his lips stealing the breath from my lungs and pushing out any worries I might have had about whether this was a good idea. His hand slid down to my chin, gently tilting it up a little to give him better access. I was so overwhelmed with sensation that I was helpless to do anything but let him kiss me, and to kiss him back. My hands slid up his broad chest of their own volition, the fabric of his shirt soft beneath my fingers as I clutched at the ends of his collar with both hands.
My touch elicited a quiet moan from the back of his throat that made me dizzy with a spike of searing desire.
“We can’t do this here,” I mumbled against his lips. Mostly because it felt like something I was supposed to say, given that this was Sam’s bathroom and an entire apartment full of people was having a party on the other side of the door.
But I knew, even as I said the words, that we were absolutely going to do this here.
It didn’t seem like Frederick even heard what I’d said. If he did, he certainly wasn’t paying it any mind. His kisses grew bolder, the exquisite pressure of his mouth increasing until I parted my lips for him on a ragged sigh. He tasted like breath mints and the wine he must have pretended to drink earlier this evening. I wanted to lose myself in it—in the way he slid his tongue along mine, coaxing a whimper from my throat; in his strong arms, as they encircled me and pulled me closer. I could feel his sharp, prominent canines against my tongue as I kissed him, something I’d certainly never noticed before when I’d seen him smile. A thrilling flash of heat shot through me, the visceral reminder of who and what he was startling me for only a moment before I lost myself in the kiss again.
“I have not done this in over one hundred years,” he breathed, pulling away. He looked so dazed I didn’t know if he was telling me this or saying it to himself. “Not since the other night.”
He didn’t wait for me to respond, only quickly maneuvered me away from the sink until I felt the bathroom wall pressed firmly against my back. He loomed closer, crowding me, leaning forward against the wall himself until his forearms bracketed my head. His dark eyes were all pupils, blown wide with the same desire I could feel coursing through my bloodstream. His mouth was less than an inch from mine. It took all my self-control not to lean forward right then and capture those plush lips of his in another kiss.
“Cassie,” he breathed. “I—”
Whatever he’d been about to say was interrupted by a series of very loud, insistent raps on the bathroom door.
Frederick jumped back and away from me as if I’d scalded him.
“Anyone in there?” A woman’s pleasant voice cut through the haze of lust like a knife.
Oh no, Frederick mouthed, his eyes wide.
“Just a minute,” I yelled, trying not to laugh at how horrified Frederick looked. “We’re almost done in here.”
“All good!” the woman said, a bit too loudly. “I’ll come back in a few minutes.”
“Why did you say we are almost done in here?” Frederick whispered hoarsely. He looked like he was about to throw up. Could vampires throw up, I wondered? Something to think about later. “There are at least two dozen other people out there. And now, they will all know we were in this very small bathroom together all this time. Alone.”
“So?”
“So?” He stared at me, incredulous. “What will they think, Cassie?”
If Frederick had pearls to clutch, he certainly would be clutching them now. He looked so petrified I had to bite the inside of my cheek to keep from laughing.
“Who cares what they think?”
“Your reputation, Cassie!” He shook his head. “The conclusions they will likely draw!”
I raised an eyebrow at him. “What sort of conclusions? That you were drinking my blood?”
His eyebrows shot up his forehead. “No! That we were . . . that we were . . .”
I slowly crossed the room until I was standing just a few inches away from him. I placed my hands flat on his chest. He made a little pained noise in the back of his throat that only spurred me on. If I had my way, he would be making that noise for me again and again that night.
“That we were what, Frederick?”
He swallowed. I tracked the movement of his Adam’s apple, fighting the sharp urge to trace its shape with my tongue.
“That I was debauching you.”
It was only the deadly serious expression on his face that kept me from laughing out loud.
“They might assume we were making out in here, yeah. But who cares?”
He looked horrified. “Cassie—”
I placed a finger to his lips, silencing him. “Things have changed in the past hundred years. It doesn’t matter what anyone thinks.”
He didn’t seem to believe my assertions that he didn’t need to worry about protecting my virtue or my honor. But when I grabbed his wrist to pull him out of the bathroom, he followed me all the same.
“Let’s say goodbye to Sam and Scott and thank them for inviting us,” I said. “Then let’s go home.”
SIXTEEN
Excerpt from Chapter 17 of Making Love to Humans in the Twenty-First Century: A Definitive Guide for the Modern Vampire (Author Unknown)
If you have read this far, you now understand the full extent to which sexual mores and expectations have changed since the era when everyone simply pretended to wait until marriage to have sexual intercourse. There are certain acts your twenty-first-century human lover will likely expect that may catch you by surprise if you have not engaged in sexual congress in some decades.