He’d never seen Karim shirtless. Now, he couldn’t look away as the clothing came off. Karim was all dark skin and muscle, thick curls of dark hair across his chest. He was fit, but the kind that wasn’t rigidly defined, he looked like he just worked with his body.
Karim didn’t have Julien’s statuesque beauty, but he was still dangerously nice to look at. Rougher and masculine, the kind of man that if he were in the thumbnail of a certain sort of video, Luis would’ve clicked on it.
He caught Luis looking, and smirked. “You coming?”
“Yup,” Luis said, looking away as his face flushed. At least with just the moonlight above, no one could see his blush.
Karim started down toward the water, and Luis rushed to pull off his shirt and follow.
“Have fun,” Julien said as he cracked his book to read. Luis paused a second to take him in. Julien had worn a white sheer robe coverup tied at the waist, and it now draped elegantly around him in the chair like he’d been professionally posed.
Luis cleared his throat and forced himself to turn away.
The first crash of cold water around his ankles helped clear his head. Luis yelped.
“Don’t be a baby,” Karim said ahead of him.
“Hey, quick question–” Luis said as he stepped further into the water. Fuck, it was still early spring. This would’ve been a better idea for mid-summer. “Are vampires better insulated against cold than humans?”
“Our body temperature is lower than a human’s,” Karim said, “So I guess.”
“So, what you’re saying is that this doesn’t feel as cold for you as it is for me,” Luis said.
Karim turned, catching on. He looked amused, and something light and fluttery rippled through Luis’s belly.
“It’s not that cold,” Karim said with a grin.
“I didn’t consider how much colder it’d be at night,” Luis rubbed his arms. He had goosebumps all over. “Burr.”
“You’ll get used to it,” Karim said and kept walking into the surf.
“Says the vampire,” Luis shot back.
The ocean was gentle, which was the one good thing as Luis shivered his way deeper. The waves were small rolling hills that only broke at the shoreline. The water was wine dark, and glimmering in the moonlight. It really was beautiful.
When they were chest deep, Karim stopped.
Luis couldn’t stop shivering. He’d never been night swimming in the Gulf, and now he understood why–it was fuckingcold.
Luis turned to look back at shore longingly. He could see the paleness of Julien’s robe glowing even from this distance.
“You’re still shivering?” Karim said behind him. He’d waded closer when Luis wasn’t looking, and Luis jumped.
“Yes, idiot, it’s cold!” Luis hissed, splashing Karim for good measure.
The vampire grabbed his hand as he did so, and laced their fingers together. The palm of his hand was surprisingly warm.
“How’re you so warm if you’re cooler than humans?”
Karim shrugged. “You’re colder right now. And vampires have less temperature variance. Takes a lot more external force to change our body temp.”
Luis huffed, but didn’t try to get his hand back. That one point of warmth was nice.
Out here, Karim blended in with the dark water. Where Julien glowed, Karim was all shadows. At least until the moonlight caught his eyes or he smiled.
They bobbed in the gentle waves, and it took a moment before he realized Karim was pulling him in closer.
“I’m sorry I’ve been so… grumpy this week,” Luis said.
