Page 54 of Just the Pool Boy at Vampire Mansion

Those words cut to the heart of me. He had no idea how much I’d needed to hear them. I’d known it, suspected it, maybe. Theo wasn’t Davis. They were nothing alike, at all, but I’d been burned so badly my heart was ash, and I’d been carrying it around in an urn. Hearing him say he wasn’t going to put me in danger, that he wasn’t that guy, lifted a weight off my shoulders. I could put that urn down now. I didn’t need to be guarded around Theo, like I’d been around everyone for the last few years.

Did he truly have no interest in using me?

What would he use me for? I was nothing to him. Just the pool boy. He didn’t even much like the pool.

Theo’s sultry gaze softened. He leaned over and nudged my shoulder with his, and when he spoke, all the sass had gone, and he was just Theo, not pretending for anyone. “Whatever you want,” he said softly. “You wanna grab a table and chat, I’m up for that. You wanna get wasted, I’ll make it happen. Drink, drugs.” His eyebrows bounced. “Think of me as your party fairy.” He swept a hand through the air dramatically. “Making Owen’s dark little wishes come true.”

“Dark little wishes?” I snorted a laugh. His nights out were probably wild and salacious. Two things I did not know how to be. But I didn’t want to be boring for him, and sitting at a table and talking all night seemed pretty boring.

Around us, the club hummed with life and laughter, music and conversation. A lot of people, noise, distractions . . . None of it was malicious, but it just felt like a lot.

After watching me take in the scene, Theo said softly, “You need a little time to adapt, that’s okay.”

I did need that, and I nodded. “Yeah. Thanks.”

“Alright.” He hooked his arm with mine, the sudden contact briefly short-circuiting my thoughts, and steered me toward a table at the quieter end of the club. He was a very touchy-feely person. It didn’t mean anything.

“You don’t mind sitting out for a while?” I asked, after we’d taken our seats and put our drinks on the table with its single flower in a tiny vase.

He leaned back, relaxing, all liquid masculinity poured into a velvet chair. “I like it. People want a lot from me when I’m out. I can’t ever turn it off. You’re not like that. Don’t think I’ve ever just sat and people-watched before.”

“So, what you’re saying is I’m boring.”

He snorted. “Exactly. But in a way I am here for.”

“You like my boring?”

“Yeah, I like your boring, Owen. I asked you out, didn’t I.”

We fell quiet after that, relaxed, easy, smiling, drinking our fancy drinks. “You know, I think you’re secretly a good guy,” I told him. “But you hide it to blend in with your family.”

His right eyebrow twitched. “You have no idea how hard it is to be yourself when everyone around you treats you like someone else, like someone they think you should be. After a while, you start believing them.”

“You live for them?”

His smile faltered. “Every day.”

That had to be exhausting. “Can’t you leave? Start a new life somewhere? Your own life.”

“Can’t escape my blood.” He shrugged. “Is that what you did?”

“Huh?” I’d been sipping my drink when he asked, and had to put it down.

“Start a new life here?”

He’d caught that. Although it hadn’t been hard to figure out from my non-answers. “Trying to.”

“And I’m making things difficult for you?”

“Yeah, a little,” I admitted.

His face fell and all the laughter faded from his eyes.

“But we’re not talking about that tonight,” I quickly added. “Tonight we’re having fun, right?” I picked up my drink again and downed the rest in one potent gulp.

“Damn right,” Theo agreed, throwing back his own drink too, and then slamming the empty glass down.

“Let’s do this.”