Ian glanced down as Jesse’s neck, then reached out to rub his thumb over the now-healed skin. “I didn’t expect it to be so intense.”
Taking his hand, Jesse held it and placed both on his chest. “Everything’s changed, Ian, and I don’t mean just physically.” He shifted their joined hands a little until they were over his heart. “Some things we don’t feel at all anymore, but others we feel a lot more strongly.”
“Like emotions?” Ian scrunched up his face. Not that he’d struggled to talk about his feelings before, but it had never been one of his favourite things to do.
Jesse laughed softly. “Yes, like emotions. The book I’m reading—” He gestured across the room. “—has a whole chapter on vampire fixation. How we have a tendency to get attached to things, people, very quickly and on a deeper level than you’d expect after such a short time span.” His smile faded a little. “It’s why I broke things off with you when I did.”
Ian couldn’t help the surge of satisfaction Jesse’s words gave him. “You were fixated on me?”
Rolling his eyes, Jesse nodded. “I was headed that way.”
“And now?” Ian couldn’t resist asking.
“Now I’m totally gone.” Jesse touched the side of his neck where Ian had bitten him, a soft smile on his lips, and Ian felt a pull deep inside him.
“Good.” Ian closed the distance between them and kissed him. With their fangs safely away now, they took their time, the tease of Jesse’s tongue along his lower lip driving Ian crazy. If he concentrated hard enough, he could almost convince himself that nothing else mattered, only this.
Only them.
The sound of Jesse’s phone alarm signalling the setting of the sun shattered their happy bubble, and Ian sighed, resting his forehead against Jesse’s. “Fuck.”
“Hey.” Jesse wrapped his arms around Ian’s back, fingers stroking up and down his spine. “It’s going to be okay.”
“Is it?” Despite it being the only option open to them, Ian was coming to realise he hated this plan. It felt like he was putting everyone he cared about in danger. “You can’t promise that.”
“No, I can’t.” He kissed Ian again, lingering a moment before pulling back. “But we have no choice. People are gonna find out, Ian. Better to tell them first than have them discover it for themselves and jump to all the wrong conclusions.” He huffed out a bitter laugh. “Or probably the right ones, in my case, but—”
“Stop.” Ian gripped his jaw and forced Jesse to meet his gaze. “I was already dead. You didn’t kill me.”
“But would you have wanted this?”
“I can’t answer that.” Ian was pretty sure he would’ve said no fucking way if you’d asked him a week ago. But then he didn’t want to die either. “Now, though? Now I can honestly say, I’m glad you changed me, accident or no. I’m happy to be here. Happy to be with you.”
Jesse searched his face, and Ian hoped he saw the truth in his eyes, because he meant every word. The longer they spent together, the more it solidified inside him. Maybe it was this fixation that Jesse had mentioned, but Ian didn’t give a fuck either way. It was done now, and Jesse was his.
They belonged together, and if they had to carry out this plan to be that way, then he’d just have to suck it up.
It didn’t mean he had to like it, though.
“What if Cate refuses to talk to you alone?” Ian had given her countless—unwanted and unappreciated—lectures about being careful at work. Of course Cate could handle herself, but she also rarely came out from behind the relative safety of the bar. For this to work, Jesse needed to get her alone.
“I can be very persuasive,” Jesse said, and Ian’s mind immediately flashed back to Peter saying something very similar.
“You’re not going to mess with her mind, are you?” He wanted this to work, but not like that.
“No.” Jesse shook his head. “I can’t really do that sort of thing, and I wouldn’t even if I could.” He shrugged a shoulder. “I meant I can be charming.”
Ian laughed, relieved. “That’s true.”
“And she already knows me a little. Hopefully that’ll be enough to get her to trust me.”
Ian had his doubts, but he kept them to himself. “Hopefully.”
They lapsed into silence, Ian caught up in thoughts of what lay in store for them that evening. He got to sit in Jesse’s room, with Lys as his babysitter, and wait. He’d never been very good at sticking to the sidelines while someone else took all the risks.
It was going to kill him.
And he wasn’t prepared for it when Jesse tapped him on the shoulder. “I need to get ready.” He gestured over to the en suite. “Can’t leave here smelling so strongly of sex. And I need to feed again.”
