Vampire Debt - Supernatural Battle (Vampire Towers #2) - Kelly St. Clare Page 0,111
shower, he made no effort to touch me. Clever man.
“You weren’t kidding about the off-balance thing,” I grumbled, a definite bite in my voice.
Adoration. Amusement.
“Don’t laugh at me.” It might have sounded ferocious if my voice hadn’t caught.
“Let me help you,” he said softly, inching closer.
I hiccupped. “I’m n-not a monkey.”
The thrall was over, right?
Why did I feel so out of sorts?
“The sensitivity of your skin is heightened. Most vampires take cold showers. I didn’t think to warn you. This is new to me as well. I apologise.”
I stared at him. “I like hot showers though.”
Fully suited up, Kyros entered the shower and grabbed my body wash. I eyed him warily, knees still hugged to my chest.
He grabbed my arm and lathered the lemon myrtle blend onto my arms. I tensed at the current bouncing between us everywhere he touched. That’s new. The current was a step up from the itch of the third exchange. Not unpleasant. Warm. Almost vibrating. Focusing on anything else when he touched me was difficult.
Shaking my head in a failed attempt to shake my brains back into gear, I fixed my gaze on him. The vampire ignored me, foaming the wash and working up over my shoulders.
“In our culture,” Kyros started in a quiet voice, “the actions of females and males in thrall is not an embarrassment. It is looked upon with great fondness by Vissimo—more so because it is rare for two people to enter such an agreement in this age.”
My body rocked in rhythm to his ministrations and the deep melody of his words. His voice had levels I hadn’t noticed before, a velvety layer over the gravel that soothed and reassured.
My chest tightened. Kyros’s voice was beautiful. The vibrating current between us made me squirm and tense, but the timbre of his voice eased and relaxed.
He continued. “The thrall takes a male to his base animalistic nature. It takes a woman to the root of her character. Why are you embarrassed for my sisters to see that you are caring, assertive, and inventive?”
I didn’t answer immediately. “That’s not what it looks like to me. Those were the actions of someone who decided to dabble in ecstasy followed by cocaine.”
The conversation was becoming too personal. My scars were as rampant as the next person. Talking about the dislike I held for myself in moments like this wasn’t high on my to-do list.
I felt his intense focus.
“You have a glorious heart,” Kyros said, water dripping from strands of his toffee hair, “sharp intelligence, courage, and a husky laugh that echoes in my dreams. Your body drives me to insanity.”
The thing about feeling his emotions? I knew that he meant every word.
I fidgeted, not liking the new territory he was pushing us into. “What happened after we had sex?”
Sex didn’t seem an adequate term to describe the heights he’d taken me to.
“That wasn’t sex,” Kyros said, a growl beneath his voice. “That was perfection.”
Glad to know I met Vissimo standards. Seriously. I was nowhere near as strong or fast. Who knew what those women could do?
“Thank you…” I trailed off awkwardly and instead sent him my emotions of awe and remembered pleasure.
He dropped a kiss on my forehead. “We broke the office. Again.”
“I didn’t break it first time,” I murmured.
“Your phone call with the human triggered it.”
Ricky Pikar had been demoted to the human. “What kind of damage are we talking?”
“The table, inner and outer walls.”
I stopped his hands. “The outer wall?”
The wall protecting us from thin air and a sixty-six-storey high tumble to death? I remembered a cracking sound and moving to the carpet.
Fuck.
Kyros frowned. “Outer walls are inconvenient to fix.”
Me and my petty human death concerns. “Your siblings interrupted us, right?”
His throat worked. “Uh, yes.”
I didn’t want to know. “They separated us?”
I felt his affirmation.
Why was I worried about his siblings? Gasping, I rose to my knees, gripping his shoulders. “Your father.”
The warm water washed away the suds and he circled my hips, hands settling half on my back, half on my ass. “I’ve spoken to my father.”
“And?”
“I was able to convince him of the wisdom of the fourth exchange.”
“He was okay with it?” I wasn’t buying that.
His hands slipped lower and the current between us radiated outward from my belly. My toes curled.
Kyros eyed my closest nipple like a cat eyeing a mouse. “Not even close. He particularly disliked the part where I intended to call for permission but forgot because of the calling of my phallus.”