“Here.” Roger strolled across the bathroom’s marble floor and took his own straight razor from the second sink. He faced Zack and swung the blade out. “Let me.”
“Sure you don’t want to use mine?” Zack said nervously.
“The one you just managed to cut yourself with?” Roger leaned against the sink. “I could, but I’ve far more practice with this. When I first started shaving, I had to do it with the small knife I kept in case there was a rope I needed to cut in a hurry. Straight razors—what’s the phrase? Right, they ‘weren’t a thing.’”
“You’reold, got it.” Zack sighed and closed his eyes. “All right. Do it.”
“Don’t purse your lips.” Roger gently tilted Zack’s face so he had a better angle and began to carefully shave his cheek. “You seem in a better mood than last night.”
Zack squirmed. Luckily, Roger felt his tension before he moved and had a chance to move the blade away from his skin. “I let bullshit get to me.”
“Oh?” Roger asked lightly. He glided the blade across Zack’s skin and settled into a rhythm.
“Don’t pretend you didn’t notice,” Zack replied between strokes. “Carver kind of let me know I was being an asshole to him.”
“I did wonder what your problem with him was,” Roger said evenly.
Zack opened his eyes, though from his angle, he could barely meet Roger’s gaze. “I … I know I’m not the kind of guy you usually go for. He is.”
“Is he.” Gingerly, Roger removed more of the shaving cream. “And what do you know about my love life?”
A tense silence closed Zack’s lips. In such an intimate space, hints of Zack’s desires were slipping out past his usual protections. The sensation Roger understood was an attempt to close a door. Zack didn’t want to reveal something.
Which meant heknewsomething, and with Zack, that could be one thing or a million secrets. And he hadn’t said a word about any of them to Roger. Had he written them down? Did Nell and Takashi know whatever Zack had discovered? What did he know anyway? Dmitri’s crass remark about how Roger acted for sexual pleasure reverberated. Did Zack think like that? Why did every intelligent man that Roger adored believe he was a thoughtless sex fiend?
Roger continued shaving Zack’s left jaw and cheek, moving on to the other side, but he had to pause when Zack shifted his weight from one leg to another. That wasn’t a problem, until he did it again less than a second later.
“You know, maybe I can finish the whole shave thing because you’ve got to be getting hungry. You should do something about that,” Zack said.
“This will take me less time than it would you. Though it would be easier if you stop squirming,” Roger replied.
Zack sucked in a breath. “I wouldn’t be squirming if you hadn’t gotten all cold.”
“I ‘got all cold’ because my boyfriend decided he preferred stalking me instead of asking me about my past relationships.”
Zack caught Roger’s wrist and guided his hand—and therefore, the straight razor—away from his face. With a serious voice, he said, “You’re the one who asked me to investigate theGLC so I could be well-informed. It’s not my fault that includes most of your former boyfriends.” He swallowed hard. “And I caught that you just called me your boyfriend, and I want to talk about that. But I’m not in the mood to hear about how I’m a fuckup for doing what you asked.”
Roger put the blade down on the counter and then gripped the edge of the red marble top. “I have never thought you were a fuckup.”
“Then what’s all this?” Zack motioned at Roger’s face. “I thought I’d gotten pretty good at reading you, but this is the second time you’ve pulled out Master Vampire face, and I’m not a fan.”
“This”—Roger pointed at his own face—“is because Iama master vampire in need of a domain, and I’m concerned that the man I’m trusting thinks I’m the fuckup!”
Zack glanced over his shoulder. The door was closed, but when he turned back toward Roger, he whispered, “My life is literally in your hands tonight and every night from here on out. I get to be fucking worried that we don’t have a plan, okay?”
“We had a very basic plan at Nell’s party to deal with Quinn, remember?” Roger snapped. “And how did that go for us?”
“Well, he’s dead, and we’re not, so that’s a win,” Zack replied.
“Yes. But it didn’t happen according to plan, did it? And you were surrounded by a half dozen vampires.”
“It went almost to plan. You got there in time.”
Roger motioned at the living room. “I got there because Carver pointed me in the right direction, and he told Dmitri and Josefina to meet us in the garden.”
“He did?”
“I didn’t know his name at the time, butyes. It was him.” Roger sighed and leaned backside against the counter, resting both his hands on the edge now. “I met him at the donor housewhile you were recovering. I’ve only ever had his blood, Zackery, despite the fact that he wants more and I’m interested.”
