Page 13 of Hungry for the Vampire

"Fuck, Roman," I gasped, as he sucked on my neck hard, moving down to nuzzle into my shirt and nibble close to my collarbone. "Fuck, yes..."

I finally let my hands start to explore him. I'd been too shocked, too nervous and lost, back on the couch. But now I could touch him, now I could slip my hand inside his shirt and feel the ripples of his abs flex as he moved against me. He was tasting me, dragging his tongue along my neck, and I could hear small moans from him in my ear.

I moved my hand up to his chest, feeling his pecs, my fingers trailing across his hard nipples. Then Roman gasped sharply and pulled back.

"Shit, sorry," I panted. "Did I tickle you?"

"No. No." He stayed pulled back, and I looked at his flushed face, or at least what I could see of it in the gloom. He had sweat on his forehead, looking surprisingly peaked for what had only been a bare minute of fooling around.

"Too much?"

Roman shook his head. He sat up, getting further from me, and I almost lunged after him. God, did I want him really bad or what? He had me worked up in all kinds of ways. But something was wrong.

I sat up too. "What's going on?"

"Jared..." Roman chewed at his lip, aggressively enough that I thought he might make himself bleed. "We shouldn't do this now. You don't know...the truth."

"Then tell me," I said. "You can trust me. I mean it."

And I did mean it. I didn't just want Roman to be into me (although I was really enjoying that). I wanted him to be open with me. I wanted him to feel safe with me, the same way I felt safe with him.

Roman blinked, slowly bringing his eyes to mine. "Do you believe in monsters?"

"Um..." I hesitated. It was such a strange question, so out of the blue. I wanted to be honest with him. "Yeah. Yeah, I think so. Especially after last night, and this morning."

"So maybe you know," Roman continued, "that those wolves are more than wolves."

"More than wolves?" I repeated, and then without thinking about it: "You mean like werewolves?"

A slow nod. I searched his face for the hint of a joke, but there was none. He was being deadly serious, and I felt the weight of that truth in the room with us. I didn't question it. Roman was opening up to me.

"What about you?" I asked him, my heart pounding at the implication. "Are you...a werewolf?"

Roman's lips parted, and his brow furrowed. "I am not."

"Sorry." It was clear he didn't like me even guessing that. "So what is it you want to tell me, Roman?"

"I'm not like them," Roman said slowly, "and I'm not like you. In this country, you would call me a vampire."

Vampire. I thought of the reasons it couldn't be true, and really they just boiled down to one: Vampires weren't supposed to be real. But...

Wolves weren't supposed to act like those ones did. And Roman shouldn't have been able to appear out of nowhere. He shouldn't have been able to stand up to creatures capable of tearing a normal human apart...and he definitely shouldn't have been able to talk to them.

So, really, the evidence of him being something different was kind of...damning.

I didn't balk. I just moved closer, and he watched me warily, unsure how I was taking it.

"Can you show me?" I asked him quietly.

Roman hesitated. I put my hand on his arm.

"I'm not scared of you, Roman," I said. I found his hand, slid my fingers into it. "Don't be scared about me seeing the real you."

"Jared..." Roman closed his eyes for a moment. "For you, I will do this. But please understand. I cannot be like this around you for any...length of time. It is dangerous for us both."

"I trust you," I told him.

Roman smiled his small smile. And then he let his lips part, and he showed me his teeth.