My Vampire Bromance

Chapter 31: Phillip Please!

"Alright, we're here!" I parked Thomas's car next to mine. "You sobered up yet?" Looking at Thomas's blurry-eyed expression, I could tell he was on the tail end of his wine coma. I guess when you don't eat solid food, you get drunk really fast.

Thomas waved a hand dismissively, "I might need thirty more minutes." Should I leave him in the parking garage by himself? Even if he was a rampaging vampire, it seemed a dick move. But my life was on the line. I turned off the ignition and made to open the driver's side door. "Where are you going?" Thomas grasped my elbow, stopping me from continuing out the car.

"Uh, home," I glared at him.

"You're not going to stay till I sober up?" I made a face. "Please stay. It's dangerous here at night. What if I get murdered?"

"I hardly doubt that'll be a problem for you," I tugged at him, but his grip hardened.

"Stay...please...just until I sober up enough to drive home." Thomas grazed my face again with the hand that wasn't holding my arm in a death grip. I looked around the vehicle nervously, searching for something to use as a weapon against him. He seemed to notice. "Are you really not interested in me that way?"

I was going to tell him the truth, that I had someone, but it seemed like a bad idea. "I'm just not ready to be intimate...with anyone," I leaned against the car seat, resigned to my fate. Victor would save me if anything went down, right? I looked in the rearview mirror and spotted the little black cat I had come to know so well licking its paw against a support beam. Thank god! Where the hell had he been all this time? Magenta eyes locked with mine. He nodded his head and then turned around, now grooming his leg. I rolled my eyes. Exactly why do you think I need privacy right now?!

At that moment, Thomas leaned over me, again blocking me with his body. "Are you sure about that?" his eyes shifted between blue and gold– his skin glowed slightly. I blinked. Great, now I'm imagining things. "You want to...give it a go? Possibly?"

Oh, hell no! My heart began to pound, the thumping in my chest inescapable. Thomas would hear its thundering; it'd rile him up, make him more excited. Make me more likely than not to die. I swallowed, "I don't think now's the right time." I threw up a hand to push him away from me, but he crawled on top me, legs on either side of my body. I closed my eyes, "Look, when you wake up tomorrow morning, or night, or whatever time it is that you decide to, you know, be alive..."

Thomas started, leaning back against the steering wheel, "What do you mean 'decide to be alive?'"

I bit my lip, "You know, wake up. It's a figure of speech."

He relaxed, but it didn't change what I was seeing or feeling. The air was intoxicating, hard to breathe. Hunger mixed with sexual frustration, wanting and desire, and at the tail end of it all– restraint. His eyes flickered gold again, like the sun setting on the ocean. I braced myself. "Oh, I see," he said.

Still sitting on top of me, he laughed, then leaned down, "You're a funny guy. Smart too. I like the way you look when you're reading." Thomas stroked the top of my head. I was aware of the brush of his dark blonde hair against my face as he leaned down again. He might have stood a chance if he hadn't been a vampire. Well, that was untrue; Victor had managed to wriggle his way into my life. And I loved Victor, was falling in love with him. So why the hell did the universe take this time to make this one want me?

I raised my eyebrow at him, "You like the way I look...when I read?"

Thomas raised his shoulders, looking almost boyish above me, "Yeah. You're super cute." His eyes scoured the expanse of my face, down my chest, to my neck, to lower things. They traveled back up again. He bit his lip, and then I saw them, tiny, sharp-pointed eyeteeth. "From the first time I saw you in the library, I wondered what it would be like to kiss you," he let out a small chuckle, "to interrupt your reading and press my lips against yours."

"Mmhm." Jeez, did this guy have a fetish for people reading books or something? I swallowed hard.

"I want to," he searched my eyes. " Phillip, can I kiss you?"

What an odd thing for a murderer to ask! One knee up, and I'd be free. "Um, you know. I really am not ready to kiss anyone."

Thomas shook his head, "I'm not either. I'm not asking to make out with you. I just want to kiss you....Phillip. Can I kiss you?" He looked like every bit a young college boy, a college boy with a raging hard-on for another.

I winced, "I'm really not..." but Thomas didn't wait for my complete response. He planted one on me, cupping my face in both of his hands as he did so. His mouth was full and soft, tender. And if I was in the throes of passion, I wouldn't have felt the sliding of fangs coming down from an unknown place inside his mouth. He was careful– too careful not to bite me.

Pulling my bottom lip between his teeth, he made a soft moan. He continued to kiss me, and I remained still, feeling him grind against me– moaning that slowly began to turn into growls of frustration. Finally, he pulled away, "Sorry..." his eyes were glassy.

"Are you done?" I realized too late that it was the wrong thing to say. "Seriously, are you done?" Thomas frowned, looking distraught; he moved off me.

"Sorry I..."

"I told you no!" I opened the door. "You should learn what that means!" I slammed the car door, looking for the little cat now waiting for me in the back of my car.

"Phillip!" Thomas nearly fell out of the car. "Phillip, please! Just listen to me!"

I opened my car door, locked it, and started the engine.

"Phillip!" he banged on the window, "Phillip, please don't go! I'm sorry, let me explain!"

"Explain what?"

Thomas's eyes opened wide, "I..." He sucked in his lower lip, "I..."

I put the car in reverse, "Whatever, man!"

"Phillip, please!" the car gear shift rammed into park by itself. I looked up at him. "Please, let me explain."

I didn't wait for an explanation. Rattled, I shifted the car into reverse again. This time it stayed there. I began to back out as fast as possible and shifted the car into drive when he caught the door again.

"Phillip, please! Don't leave! I'm sorry! Let's just talk, okay?"

I scoffed, "No! You can't possibly have anything of value to say!" He gulped. "By the way, the next time someone tells you no, listen to them!" The car squealed as I took off.

Ten minutes later, Victor appeared in the passenger seat beside me, "That was not how it was supposed to go."

I turned to him, still wiping my mouth with the back of my plaid shirt, "How was it supposed to go, Victor? Please, enlighten me?"

He leaned back, "Let's just say I didn't imagine he would kiss you."

"What do you mean?" I wailed on my car horn as someone cut me off.

Victor tsked, then put his hand on my shoulder. "It seems our killer has a soft spot." I turned to look at him, anger and frustration flooding through me.

"I'm sorry, Victor. He kissed me. I couldn't...."

"You can't control the actions or feelings of other people, Phillip Kosier. In the meantime, I think you upset him enough that he will not be sloppy again for a while."

"Why do you say that?" I said, staring at the blackened road ahead of me. The green traffic lights glowed on the wet streets.

"Because if there is anything a vampire fears more than being found out, it's losing the affection of the person that they love."

I scoffed, "Thomas doesn't love me."

Victor sighed, "Oh, how I wish that were true."

"He doesn't! He's a murderous asshole! He can't love! Besides, he doesn't even know me!" I made a left turn onto the freeway.

"I'm afraid that you are wrong about everything, except one," Victor's hand squeezed my knee while I tried to keep myself from screaming.