Page 119 of Bent Out of Shade
Laurent turned off the tap and sat down with a splash, steam curling off him. My entry was far more gradual with a lot of yelping and turning on the cold water to splash on parts of me until I immersed myself with a sigh and settled back against my man.
He wrapped his arms around me, nuzzling my neck.
I tilted my head to give him better access, glancing up through the cedar slats of the gazebo roof above us. “I wish we could see more stars here in the city.”
“I slept out in the Sahara once,” he said.
“You did?”
“Yes.” He stiffened. “It was with Delphine,” he mumbled.
I patted his hand. “You can talk about her.”
“But this is the second time in less than an hour that I’ve been naked with you and speaking of her.”
“Yeah, we’ll work on your timing.” When he laughed, I told him to carry on.
“It was in Morocco. We’d ridden camels into the desert.”
I used my toe to nudge the cold water tap on for a moment. “Only you would sound grumpy about camels.”
“They’re not fun to ride, but the desert is incredible.” He played with my hair. “It was this endless sea of rippling dunes and so humbling. All these tiny grains of sand amounted to something so much more majestic and timeless than us. Tents had been set up, but what was the point of sleeping inside them? No.”
I chuckled at his definitive stance on the matter, and he tugged on a lock.
“We dragged our bedrolls out.” His voice turned pensive. “I remember thinking that I’d never known silence until that moment.”
“And the stars?”
He dragged his fingers through the water. “When I was little, Tatiana used to give me small canvases to paint on. She didn’t care if I used my fingers or a brush or even if it looked like anything, she just wanted me to create.” The smile in his voice was evident. “My favorite thing to do was to splatter paint on them. That’s what the sky looked like. A million white droplets spattered against the night, so huge and close that I swear I could have reached out and smeared one.”
“Did you shift?”
“Oui.” It came out as a dreamy sigh. “I ran through the sand for hours. Terrified the stupid camels.” He chuckled.
My back rested against his chest and his legs were over top of mine, both of us content to laze in the water to the play of candlelight and darkness.
He poked me in the back. “Would number seven work in a tub?”
That’s when Zev poked his head up from behind the high fence. “Where is your daughter?”
First lovemaking while officially in this relationship and a vampire shows up to blow away the afterglow.
Laurent covered my breasts with his arms. “Get the fuck out.”
“Technically,” Zev said, “I’m not in. I can’t see anything personal, nor do I want to.”
I shrank lower under the waterline. “Are you hovering above the ground?”
“Sadie,” he repeated. “Our deal. Now. She’s not answering her phone.”
“Because you use an unlisted number and she’s probably asleep.”
“Turn around,” Laurent snarled. “Or should I just call the Lonestars?”
“Do you want a matching scar to remember me by?” Zev said.
Laurent shot to his feet, splashing water over the sides of the tub and sputtering out several candles. “Try it.”
