Page 61 of Be Still My Unbeating Heart

“Has this town treated you very badly?” he asked.

“No.”

“It’s not easy trying to live up to a memory. People shouldn’t expect you to be your father.”

“They don’t. In their eyes, I have already failed a thousand times.”

Bastian took his hand.

“They must not know you at all.”

“I suppose they don’t.”

Bastian wanted to pull De Luca to him, but then De Luca reached down and brushed the hair out of Bastian’s face. Affectionate rather than suggestive.

“Just lie here for a while,” De Luca said. “I think you need it.”

“No, I—” Bastian tried to sit up, but now that dark had descended, he suddenly felt like a Champagne bubble after it had popped.

“Yes,” he said, easing back down, “maybe I’ll just lie down for a moment.”

He found De Luca’s hand. “Stay with me? Tell me more things about your deep, sexual fascination with vampires.”

“Well, I don’t know much about that.”

Bastian smiled. “Oh, so it’s just with me, then?”

De Luca laughed, flustered, and just shook his head in amusement.

“Fine, then. How about a song? Janet Jackson? Sing me a lullaby, darling.”

“Another time,tesoro mio.”

“That’s nice. What does it mean?”

“It means you should sleep.”

A yowl sounded somewhere, and Bastian saw that the bedroom door was shut. Whitby was trapped in the hall.

“You should probably let her in,” he said. “She can make quite a racket for a creature so small.”

“Sì.”

Warmth bloomed on the back of Bastian’s hand, and he realized De Luca had kissed him there. Before he could react, De Luca crossed the room and opened the door, and a black shape bounded onto the bed beside him.

“De Luca, it’s best you go,” Whitby said. “You’re getting him all excited and he needs rest.”

“Sì,signorina.”

Bastian was already floating off on a cloud. The darkness closed around him, and the last thing he saw before he fell asleep was Whitby pawing at the mattress, making biscuits against the sheet.

—

Bastian stirred, his head lifting from the pillow.

The bedroom was dark and quiet, the blinds still drawn. Whitby snored at the foot of the bed, but De Luca was nowhere to be seen. For a moment, he was confused as to why he was in a bed, but then he remembered De Luca helping him into the sheets, De Luca flirting with him, De Luca pressing his lips against Bastian’s skin.

Bastian eased himself up, grateful that the dizziness hadsubsided. He felt a little sturdier than before, though his skin still hummed with the afterburn of the sun. He heard a distant voice. It was low and gruff, coming from another room in the apartment. De Luca?