Karim kissed him again. Any thoughts Luis had about asking about the timer, fled.
At some point, the bathroom light clicked and the bedside lamp came on. Karim was paying more attention than Luis, because he pulled away, breathing hard.
“I know, I know, times up,” Karim grouched.
Luis was floaty from a lack of oxygen, and the sparking way desire was humming inside him. He’d done his share of kissing in high school and college, but it’d never been quite like this. It’d always felt like the precursor, the small talk to the main event.
But Karim hadn’t tried to get his sleep shorts off, hadn’t touched him other than the kisses. There’d been no rushing, no next thing. It felt like Karim just enjoyed the act of kissing him.
Luis had too.A lot.
“Good,” Julien said in approval.
Julien slid into his side of the bed and reached over to card a hand through Karim’s hair. Karim leaned into it, and Julien turned his head, meeting him halfway for a gentle kiss. Luis watched on his back below them.
“Good boy,” Julien said when he parted. Karim’s eyes fluttered shut a moment. Luis thought he heard him take a shaky breath.
Then Julien turned his attention to Luis, bending to drop another kiss on his mouth.
“Now,” Julien said as he sat back up, “time for bed.” He picked up his book and cracked it open.
Karim dropped to Luis’s other side with a groan. Luis could relate.
When both of them could move again, they shuffled around to get under the covers. Karim pulled out his phone to start tapping at it, and Luis worked on willing away his erection.
The tangle of worry he’d had laying here yesterday was gone. Maybe tomorrow he’d find new reasons to doubt their feelings or his own worthiness, but for the moment he couldn’t summon it. Julien’s fingers found his hair and started stroking through it, and Luis closed his eyes.
Maybe his life could change for the better, if he just let it.
Chapter Twenty Five
“So, we kissed,” Luis said on a call with Cassie a day later. He’d gotten up early, before sunset, to have privacy for the phone call. “And I think I’m now sleeping in their bed?”
The screen flailed as Cassie sat up. “What! Details! Who’d you kiss?”
“Uh, both,” Luis’s face was hot. “Turns out they like me.”
“I fucking knew it,” Cassie said with glee. “So, what, are we dating?”
“Uh. We haven’t really… talked about it yet.” Which Luis wasn’t upset about. Julien, in some ways, seemed intent on taking it slow, and Luis was good with that. A lot about his life had just changed dramatically. “But they both seemed… serious.”
Cassie was beaming. “This is awesome. No dates since college, and then you pick up two smoking hot vampire boyfriends in one fell swoop. Unconventional method, but I can’t argue with the results.”
Luis laughed and rubbed his burning face. “Don’t put it like that.”
“Listen, with everything else sucking recently, you deserved a win. And we like them back? Both of them?”
“Yeah,” Luis said. “I know Karim and I have gotten on each other’s nerves a lot, but that’s kind of settled down now. Or it’s different? I don’t know.”
“Enemies to lovers is not a new trope by any means,” Cassie added, “as you’ve reminded me recently.”
Luis huffed a laugh. “Karim and I were never enemies, not like you and Jess.”
“You know what I mean.” Cassie waved a hand to clear the words away. “Wow okay, so we are maybe-dating. Exciting! Now I really need to come down and meet them. Give them the shovel talk. Coffin talk? Stake talk? No, that feels like it’d be offensive. What’s the vampire equivalent? It’s not like they’d find a shovel intimidating.”
Luis groaned. “How about you just don’t. I’m still… wrapping my head around all of this.”
Cassie hummed understandingly. “Anything you want to talk about?”
