STORY EXCERPT

Cameron arranged the oranges on the basket and put them next to the apples. It was almost time for him to close the store. It had taken him a couple of days and sharing some of the work with his parents for him to recover the sleep hours he’d lost that night. He still remembered his conversation with Marion Mars as if it had happened a few hours ago.

“Are you still open?”

Looking over his shoulder, Cameron stared at Duncan, who stood at the entrance of the empty grocery store. How had he found him? Or was this a coincidence? “I would ask what you’re doing here, but this is a place where people buy what they need. We also welcome people from the city.”

“Are you upset to see me?” Duncan asked, approaching him.

Cameron took a step back. Duncan was tall to the point that Cameron’s forehead barely reached Duncan’s chest. “Should I be? Last time we met, you didn’t stop following me and you told me I piqued your interest. Sorry to tell you this so bluntly, but I don’t like people who are that insistent.”

Duncan shook his head. “I don’t want to upset you. All I want is to get to know you better.”

“Why? I’m just a farmer who doesn’t like the city,” Cameron blurted out. Duncan was a handsome man, and he dressed like a person who lived in the city, put together for everyone else to see, but he was also a vampire that Cameron knew nothing about.

“How do you think two people get to know each other? It’s not by being apart and not speaking. Can’t I find you handsome and my type?” Duncan asked. “I can come here every once in a while. Will you give me the chance to get to know you?”

Cameron looked away and back at Duncan. He couldn’t find a plausible reason to refuse. “Fine, but I’m about to close the store,” he answered.

Without hesitation, Duncan stepped even closer, and Cameron leaned backward. “I want to know you in a way that’s deeper than two friends getting to know each other,” Duncan said. He rested his hand on Cameron’s cheek.

“Now you’re starting to upset me,” Cameron said with a scowl. He moved Duncan’s hand away. “As I said before, I don’t like insistent people.” It wasn’t that he hated how close Duncan had gotten, but the problem became that Duncan stretched his luck.

Duncan raised his hands. “I won’t push it, then. Can I at least help you close the store?”

“Only if you don’t touch me like you’ve known me for years,” Cameron muttered. He took the basket with apples and handed it to Duncan. “These are going to the fridge. They’re perfectly good for consumption tomorrow, and I already washed them.” He took the basket of oranges and led the way.

“You’ll only allow me to touch you like that in a few years? I’m a vampire, so I have time, but I’m not that patient. Needing years to touch a cheek is a pretty long time,” Duncan said as he followed Cameron to the back room of the store.

Cameron shrugged. “It’s not that bad. Maybe it would take less time if you…” He dismissed the comment and opened the fridge. They left the fruits inside in silence, and Cameron got his jacket and keys from the counter.

Duncan followed as Cameron turned the lights off. “It’s good that you’re not rejecting me completely.”

“Push the right buttons and I will,” Cameron said. He stepped outside with Duncan and locked the door. “My first impression of you wasn’t that great.”

“That’s my fault,” Duncan said. “You don’t need to worry. I’m not planning on crossing the line to the point that you hate my guts. I’ll be back soon.”

* * * *

“Incredible,” Cameron said. Over a month had passed, and Duncan still came to the store. He wondered if Duncan ever came during weekdays when only his mother managed it while he stayed at the farm with the cattle. “You seem to have quite a lot of free time to drive here every weekend. It takes a few hours from the center of the city only to come here.”

Duncan shrugged. “I make the effort. If you don’t mind, I have a question for you,” he said, picking up a basket for the fridge as if he’d gotten used to it.

Cameron glanced over his shoulder at Duncan as he went to the back room with a basket of bananas in his hands. “You sound suspicious.”

“Would you like to go out for coffee one of these days? I’ll come and pick you up,” Duncan said.

For a moment, Cameron stopped in his tracks. “Are you asking me on a date?” he asked, and Duncan nodded. Cameron’s heart skipped. “Well, so you know, I have time right now. We recently hired two people to help us at the farm, so we don’t need to wake up as early as we used to.”

Duncan went silent. “Wait, you’re accepting?”

“Are you telling me not to?” Cameron tilted his head, which he had to do to look up at Duncan. He’d long lost the sense of discomfort to have Duncan around. All they did was bicker and make small talk whenever Duncan came to the store, but it was still an effort that Cameron acknowledged.

“Of course not. We can go right now. I’ll buy you dinner,” Duncan said, a smile growing on his lips.

Cameron put his jacket on and checked for his wallet and keys. “Nowhere fancy. I felt a bit out of place when I went to Marion Mars’s art exhibit that one time.”

Duncan waited for Cameron to lock the store. “Deal. I’ll take you somewhere nice, but not too nice,” he said with a chuckle. “I have another question, though. Has enough time gone by that I can now touch your cheek again? You have no idea how much I want to.”

The door was locked, but Cameron didn’t turn around. He wasn’t sure he could. As much as he wanted to avoid it, his heart pounded. “I guess it’s fine. It’s only the cheek, after all.” He still couldn’t turn around. Duncan put his hands on his shoulders and did it for him, excruciatingly slowly, as if asking for permission.

“I’m only going to touch your cheek,” Duncan said, his voice deeper than usual. He tilted Cameron’s chin up with his finger, leaning down, and pecked Cameron’s cheek with his lips.

As he pulled away, Cameron couldn’t do anything else but stare. Duncan let out a seductive growl under his breath before he came back and pressed a kiss to Cameron’s lips instead.

ADULT EXCERPT

They walked into Duncan’s bedroom. “Looks simpler than I thought. No coffin or anything of the sort,” Cameron said.

“Really?” Duncan asked, taken by surprise by Cameron’s vampire joke. He laughed and slid his hand through Cameron’s hair. Duncan closed his fist slowly and pulled down a tad. He licked his upper lip when Cameron’s mouth fell open. “I want to devour you whole.”

Cameron looked away and back at Duncan. Had he walked into the vampire’s den? “Don’t you have work tomorrow morning?”

Duncan dipped his head and kissed Cameron hard. He picked Cameron up, groping his ass while at it, and carried Cameron to his bed. “I don’t need sleep right now.”

Cameron bit his bottom lip to avoid making any sounds. He jolted when Duncan slid his hand under his shirt. Duncan roamed his hand up Cameron’s stomach and back down his side, until he stopped on his hip. He brushed his thumb over the hem of Cameron’s sleepwear pants several times.

“I’m craving to take these off,” Duncan said under his breath, his voice dripping with pure lust. He kissed Cameron’s lips a few times before he looked into his eyes.

It was hot under Duncan’s touch, and he breathed in Duncan’s musky cologne. He gazed into Duncan’s vivid green eyes. “What are you expecting to happen if I let you take them off?” Cameron asked.

His heart skipped when Duncan’s vampire fangs grew out, and Duncan slid his tongue over one of them, as if ready to get a delicious meal. Cameron couldn’t help but like how much Duncan desired him. The vampire already made the effort of driving for hours every weekend, even if he had a busy life, and he’d told Cameron about himself.

Duncan moved his hand to the front, then switched his attention back to Cameron, and waited. Cameron remained quiet, looking at him. Duncan tugged the hem down slightly and looked at him again. As he gazed at Cameron, he slowly pulled at Cameron’s pants, underwear included.

One side of Cameron wanted to laugh. A sloth was quicker than Duncan at this point. He enjoyed the fact that Duncan made the effort of caring and was serious about him, even if he’d been bold about his actions. “Duncan, you can do whatever you want, okay?” he said, finally getting those words out of his system.

“I think you shouldn’t want me to do whatever I want,” Duncan said. “Vampires aren’t much different from humans when it comes to sex, but we are when powers are involved, and it’s not as if I can turn them off for you, because I wasn’t born a vampire. I’m being careful for a reason. If you tell me that…”

“Are you going to hurt me?” Cameron asked, and Duncan shook his head. “Then it’s fine.”

Duncan held Cameron’s sides and moved him farther up the bed. He yanked Cameron’s pants off entirely. For a moment, he stopped, gazing at Cameron disheveled and exposed to him. Cameron was hard, and his breathing quickened. “How can you be so attractive?” Duncan asked.

Cameron braced himself when Duncan pounced onto him. Duncan nibbled on his neck while he wrapped his hand around Cameron’s shaft and stroked vigorously. Cameron sucked in a breath, his toes curling, and he gripped Duncan’s black shirt. “Don’t say that,” Cameron whispered.

Duncan moved his other hand and slid two of his fingers past Cameron’s lips and into his mouth. He then replaced his soaked fingers with his lips and circled Cameron’s hole with the tip of one of his fingers. Cameron got drunk on him again, and he didn’t want him to stop.

“Can I still do whatever I want?” Duncan asked as he took a condom from the nightstand drawer. He opened it and put it on through his open zipper. Cameron nodded in a daze. “Don’t hesitate to tell me anything.” Duncan leaned closer and moved his finger into Cameron’s hole, causing him to moan. Duncan thrust in and out, until it no longer made Cameron uncomfortable, and added another finger.

Breathing hard, Cameron threw his head backward. Duncan was a tall and strong man. His fingers weren’t necessarily thin, and they reached his prostate with ease. “Move on,” he said without much thought. He swallowed dry when Duncan removed his pants. Duncan came down and kissed him as he guided the tip of his cock into his hole. Cameron held his breath for a moment and tried to relax as the burning sensation mixed with pleasure.