Caius stands over me, at the foot of my bed, his hand reaching towards my ankle where his fingers stray and stroke the delicate skin there. I writhe on the bed beneath him, moaning as he climbs over the rail of the bed and lands on the end, crawling his way to the space between my thighs. He kneels above me, an evil glint in his eye, as he smiles, running his hand gently along my inner thigh. "Caius." I reach to stroke the blond locks on his head, but it's too far; he bends his neck to kiss my forehead, as he unbuttons his crisp shirt.
The smooth white skin of his chest is revealed as his shirt falls off his shoulders. I long to kiss them, feel the firmness of his skin but I can't move; he has tied my wrists to the bed. He leans, presses his chest to mine, our lips touch for a split second, and I groan against his full mouth. His lips stretch into a smile. "Alex."
"Alex!" Caius' irritated snarl wakes me, and I jump onto my feet while my eyes are still closed, squinting in the harsh sun. The heat bears down and I shield my eyes with my hand, staring across at Caius who stands hands on his hips, glaring, his forehead furrowed, in front of the makeshift cover he's made with one of the plane's parachutes we'd picked up while walking.
"What the fuck?" I rub my eyes angrily, my dream still fresh in my mind as I can clearly picture Caius' sculpted body hovering above mine in my bed. God. Ugh.
He remains where he is, picking up the nylon from the parachute and scrunching it into as small a rolled ball as he can manage, packing it into the rucksack we'd come across before we stopped to rest. Well, I stopped to rest. Caius blundered off in another direction in search of Aro. I imagine given his return that his search was in vain. Caius spins to face me, eyes blazing. "I said a fifteen minute rest, while I head east to look for my brother." He glares at his expensive watch. "It's been an hour!" He throws the rucksack heavily at my stomach which I catch without difficulty, but my mouth is dry and I have an oncoming headache and no aspirin.
He stalks off once more without me, and I stumble over the uneven stretches of sand, struggling to keep up with him, hearing him mutter in presumably Italian, his suit around his ankles gathering sand. 'Lazy bastard, you dozing in the sun while Caius was hard at work.' Richard drawls angrily at the back of my mind, I swat him away. 'Lazzzzzy.' Sandee agrees softly, though she sounds as tired as I feel.
"Look, Caius." I catch up with him, shouldering the rucksack, as I stomp along. "If you'd been back in fifteen minutes I would have woken up on time, so really you should be mad at yourself." I pause to get my breath and swig from the now nearly empty water bottle which has turned warm from the sun. Caius has begun to glare angrily but I continue. "And I'm sure you'll be delighted to hear I had a fucking sex dream about you. It was perverse and weird and well, I'm still recovering, so if you don't mind, fuck off and give me some slack, I'm the only human survivor of a plane crash and Aro is missing."
I inhale deeply. "Not to mention my thigh wound and I'm sweating. I'm dehydrated and my shirt is sticking to my back." I almost trail off at the strange, thoughtful look Caius is sporting as he stares at the sand. "So overall, I'm sleep deprived and in a bad way, cut me some slack and let's just go in silence until we find Aro." I step ahead of him, hearing Richard's dark chuckle and Sandee's giggle in the back of my skull. I ignore the both of them. At least Carl hasn't shown up; that'd really be the cherry on the cake.
I'm so many meters in front of Caius when he speaks. "You had an intimate dream about me." It isn't a question, I hear an amused almost smile in his voice. I glance over my shoulder once. He doesn't seem surprised. "It's hardly a shock." He resumes his pace and we continue over the uneven plains of sand. If I've landed in the middle of the damn Rub' al Khali desert, I'll scream. I can't see anything for miles apart from sand and a dark grey plume of smoke that rises in the distance from the wreckage of the plane.
"I did taste your blood after all." He prattles on, unaware of my thoughts swirling around. "You're saying because you tasted my blood, I'm having inappropriate dreams about you." I stop to take in what that means and how Caius' face may flash through my mind the next time Aro tries anything moderately sexual. Brilliant. "Well that's fucking great." Caius lets out a snort at my words. My head snaps back to glare at him. "It hardly affects you." He admits when I press him for answer. "It's not as if it interferes with your sexual activity." He pauses. "Which as I understand is non-existent."
He pushes past me and keeps walking. "Hurry up." He calls over his shoulder, pointing to the sun, which by the way is having no effect on him. His skin however glimmers. 'Wow, he doesn't know about what happened in the hotel between you and Aro.' Richard sounds genuinely surprised and I'm inclined to agree. Apparently Caius knows everything about his brother. Even if Aro is practically allergic to technology, I thought he still found ways to keep Caius updated, even here in Greece.
Maybe he wanted to keep it between us.
I think I'd die if creepy Marcus ever found out about our sexual antics. The memory of it brings a short lived smile to my face, even if just for a moment. I brighten and fasten my pace to walk alongside Caius. "Actually." I pipe up, suppressing a smile. "Aro and I are sexually active with one another, as of....." I trail off to think about it. "A night or two ago." I decide. It sounds about right, on holiday you tend not to keep track of the days. I feel Caius stiffen a moment, then he relaxes. He regains his composure almost immediately. "How interesting. And such a progressive leap in your relationship." His voice is calm, not sarcastic for once. I almost snort again. "Is this praise? Not that this is any of your business. Aro isn't obliged to tell all."
In the distance, I spot more dark grey smoke, and my heart sinks, more plane wreckage, I bet. Though, I squint. No, it can't be.
"Aro is not obliged at all." Caius hasn't noticed and keeps talking, staring at his feet as he trails along at his usual speed. "Though he and I are brothers, and well, I have no need to explain to you."
"Caius." A roof, several roofs, some smoke from a chimney.
"Despite you thinking everything is about you, Aro does have other loyalties you know."
"Caius, look." A pathway, a gate, people milling about some sort of market.
He sighs. "Before he met you, he was attending parties, reading more often, socializing, now, well, he rarely leaves or takes guests."
I spin around. "Caius!" He blinks, surprised. "Stop your whining and get over here." I turn and point. "We've reached a town."