Page 48 of Be Still My Unbeating Heart

“Oh. No. Like I said, it’s difficult to find the time.”

“Yet you found the time for the occasional horny hookup.”

De Luca met his gaze, his voice gravely as he said, “Needs must.”

For a second, Bastian thought he felt heat in his own cheeks, an excited blush, but it must just be the wind nipping his skin. He liked that look in De Luca’s eyes. The hint of confidence. Of experience.

“Did you cuff them, too?” Bastian asked, using his fingers to trace the shimmering line around his right wrist.

“A lady never tells,” the inspector said.

“Heaven forfend!” Bastian cried. De Luca shook his head at the exclamation, but his mouth twitched in a near-smile.

“What sort of guys do you like?” Bastian asked.

“Quiet ones.”

De Luca’s voice was gruff, but his head tilted. Was he teasing him? Bastian couldn’t help gasping aloud at the thought. Since when did De Luca tease him? Howdarehe tease him, if he wasn’t going to follow through!

“It seems like you have quiet covered,” he said. “Maybe you need some noise.”

He stood and put a hand to his chest, loudly reciting, “But thy eternal summer shall not fade; Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st; Nor shall Death brag thou wander’st in his shade…” He trailed off at De Luca’s bemused stare. “I suppose sonnets aren’t everybody’s cup of tea.”

He caught De Luca looking at his stomach, want etched on his face, and suppressed the urge to ask what was holding him back. Why he didn’t act on his desire. But it was there, however slight, that chink in De Luca’s armor. The one that said De Luca wouldn’t mind letting Bastian in. Just a little.

Perspiration shone on the inspector’s upper lip, and Bastian pictured running his tongue over it. Tasting the salt in his sweat.

“Want me to row for a bit?” Bastian asked, moving forward to take the oars. His hands met De Luca’s, and the inspector tensed, but he didn’t pull away like he had in the street.

“It looks like hot work,” Bastian added. “Or maybe that’s just you, darling.”

“Cheesy,” De Luca said, his voice suddenly low, and Bastian smiled.

“Cheesy and loud, aren’t I just the worst?”

De Luca swallowed, wetting his lips. His breathing had shallowed. His movements had stilled. He seemed both on edge and straining to break free—from what, Bastian wasn’t sure. His own self-imposed rules about fraternizing with a suspect? His fear about what it meant to think a certain way about a vampire?

Bastian couldn’t helpbeinga vampire, though, and you’d think De Luca would understand what it felt like to be judged based on a label. Surely he could like somebody purely for who they were? Bastian frowned with annoyance. He had dealt with plenty of rejection as a human—his hometown had been devoid of out queer people, so he would end up mooning over attractive straight guys, his desire withering on the vine. And “othering” came in so many forms. Some people accepted queerness but still threw around the wordcamplike it was a nail file dipped in poison. Bastian had tried so hard not to care, but still it stung, especially when it mattered to the people he cared about.

“Don’t worry, Inspector,” Bastian said, brushing off his annoyance, trying to understand. “Nobody is out here to see us and think you’re lusting after a vampire.”

De Luca made a low noise, like a grunt, which grew louder, more like a cough, and then he opened his mouth and a blast of sound burst from his throat.

A laugh. A deep, long, resonant laugh that boomed across the surface of the sea.

Bastian jumped. He smiled, shocked and delighted. The sound caused his chest to vibrate. It was a great laugh. It was the firsttime he’d heard it, and it felt special, because De Luca seemed to take pleasure in keeping it under wraps.

Time to take a leap.

“I like the way you look at me,” Bastian said.

“How do I look at you?”

“Like you can’t decide if you want to kiss me or kill me.”

De Luca’s gaze went to Bastian’s lips, then his chest, dropping briefly to his navel and the fine hair that trailed into his waistband before moving back up to his eyes, and Bastian was now certain he wasn’t imagining the desire in his look.

“I haven’t done this sort of thing in a while,” the inspector said.