It took Luis nearly a week to work up the nerve to approach Gerome. Every time he heard him outside in the main living area, he hurried to his bedroom door but stopped there. What if Gerome said no?
Then, when the apartment was silent again, he sat on the bed, hoping to hear him enter again. He really wanted to take driving lessons, but he needed someone to drive him to the theory lessons. He needed a bodyguard with him, and he needed Gerome’s agreement to pay for them. That was probably the worst part—the asking about protection and money, but he couldn’t just go on and register, despite his earlier thoughts. He also would need his passport, which Gerome or King Harold still held hostage.
That meant he had to ask. But leaving his room and walking up to Gerome to talk to him... he hadn’t worked up the nerve to do that yet.
They hadn’t talked since the day Sam visited him, and now he wasn’t sure what else to do. Having the guts to break his habits and approach Gerome was much harder than he believed it would be.
He struggled with it every day, and despite his promises to Sam and his intentions, he couldn’t bring himself to go out and talk to Gerome.
When Sam had left, he’d been full of ideas on how he could change their relationship so they would get along better, but somehow, when it came time to do those things, his nerves left him. Months of fear didn’t leave easily, despite the good start a week ago. No matter how good they got along back then, repeating it seemed impossible. Finding the strength was a hard struggle—one Luis had lost in the past several days. But today, he’d change that. He had a goal. He wanted something he looked forward to, and he’d promised Sam to approach Gerome, so it was finally time to follow through on his promise.
Gerome should be home soon. It was after six already, which meant he’d be there any minute now. Today, he’d do it. If Gerome said no, then he’d simply ask again. And again. But he would leave his room talk to Gerome, and then ask about his driver’s license. No backing out anymore. No excuses or delays.
The front door opened twenty minutes later, and Luis took a deep breath. He wanted this to be over with... now.
With his heart beating hard, he quietly opened the bedroom door and peeked out.
Gerome stood in the kitchen, looking into the wine fridge.
Showtime. Luis slowly walked over to the kitchen, every step dragging like a dead weight. “Gerome?” he asked quietly.
Gerome looked up from his search. “Yes? What do you need?”
“I wanted to ask you—I’d really like to take driving lessons, and I wanted to know if I can have... if I can have a bodyguard and if it’d be okay to use the money you gave me to pay for those lessons?”
There, he’d said it.
“Luis...”
Crap, now he’d tell him he couldn’t do it. Fuck. Why had he even bothered? He shouldn’t have. He’d set himself up to fail.
“Come with me, please. I need to talk to you.”
Luis mechanically followed as Gerome led him to the big couch. Gerome took a seat, and keeping a safe distance from him, Luis plopped down as well.
“It’s not okay that you feel you have to ask if you can spend your money for something like a driver’s license. The money is there for you if you want to buy something for yourself. You shouldn’t use your money to pay for things such as driving lessons. I can and will pay for them right away, and I would like you to take the lessons. There is a good driving school not far from here, and I know and trust the owner, so you wouldn’t even need a bodyguard while you’re there.”
Gerome paused, and Luis tried to stop his running thoughts. He wouldn’t need a bodyguard. How heavenly did that sound? He didn’t care much about the money. Technically, all of it was Gerome’s, but being allowed to get his license sounded great. Just great.
He ran a shaky hand through his hair. “Thank you. Can you give me the name of the school so I can make an appointment? I’d like to start as soon as possible if you don’t mind.”
“I can give you the name and will call them myself to tell them who you are. I guess you don’t want me to make the appointments for you, so I’ll call and tell them to expect you. I assume you don’t want to wait months for your first lesson?”
Luis shook his head. “No, I don’t. I’d like to talk to them myself, but if you can do something to shorten the waiting time, that’d be great. Thank you.” Meeting Gerome’s eyes, Luis smiled at him.
“Nothing to thank me for. Would you like to go car shopping when you have your license or after you’ve taken a few lessons?”
“Car shopping? As in buying a car?”
“Yes, car shopping as in buying a car. Once you have your license, you’ll need a car, right? We’d have to work on the bodyguard issue as I don’t know how to handle that one, but I think you should have your own car.”
“Thank you. I can’t thank you enough.”
Gerome smiled, then rubbed a hand over his face. “You shouldn’t even have to ask. But apparently, I always manage to do things wrong. I should have thought about getting you a car and a license sooner.”
Luis stared at Gerome. “No, you don’t do everything wrong. Why do you think that?”
“What? Why do I think that? Well, because I screw up whatever I do. Because you hate me, and will do so forever. And you ask why I feel like I do everything wrong?”
“But you don’t do everything wrong. I mean, how were you supposed to know that I wanted to learn to drive? And, just for the record, I don’t hate you.” Luis stopped speaking. He didn’t like Gerome very much, but the burning hate had lessened over the last several weeks.
“You don’t? But you have every right to do so.” Gerome’s gaze met his again.
“No, I don’t. I might have every right, but so do you, and you’re going out of your way to make sure I get everything I could possibly want when you could also ignore me or discipline me for not behaving like a mate is supposed to. So, no, I don’t hate you.”
“Thank you.” Gerome reached over and covered Luis’ hand with his. “I don’t know how I deserve it, but thank you.”
Luis smiled weakly. “I’m not sure you deserve me, but I guess we’re stuck with each other, right? So thank you for being so patient with me.”
“It’s nothing. Really.”
Gerome’s hand still covered Luis’, and their eyes met again. What else could he say? He’d already thanked Gerome, and they both were civil to each other. His fear had been for naught, and he’d worried for nothing all week. “So... will you call the driving school tomorrow?”
Gerome pulled his hand back and rested it in his lap. “Yes, I’ll give them a call and let you know so that you can set up your hours. I’ll ask them when you can sign up so that I or someone else can drive you there.”
“Thank you. I’ll leave you alone now.” Luis smiled again, then got up. Time to get out of Gerome’s hair.
“Wait. Would you... would you like to have dinner with me? We could order out, or cook, or have my father’s cook whip up something.” Gerome’s hesitant voice stopped Luis.
He turned around to look at Gerome. “You want to have dinner with me?”
“That’s what I just asked. I’m sorry if I overstepped my boundaries, I merely figured—never mind.” Gerome started to get up, his eyes downcast.
“No, wait. I just wasn’t sure you really meant what I heard.”
“Yes, I did. Does that mean you want to?”
“Yeah, why not? We can cook something, can’t we? I’m not in the mood for ordering takeout, and to ask your father’s chef to make us something... no, I don’t want that.”
“Your choice. I rarely cook, but my kitchen should be well stocked. What do you want?” Gerome smiled a bit.
“Umm, I have no idea. Let’s look and see what you have in the fridge and then we can decide.” Did he just agree to cook with Gerome? Did he hit his head, or did someone slip drugs into his drink? Wait... he didn’t have a drink. That meant either he was on the way to becoming crazy, or he was about to cook dinner with Gerome. Damn. Well, at least, he kept his promise to Sam. If this didn’t mean he was spending time with Gerome and getting to know him, then what did?
“That sounds like a plan. I always make sure I have everything I could possibly need, but I have no idea what exactly is in there.”
Gerome stood up and then Luis allowed him to go first into the spacious kitchen.
Following Gerome, Luis asked, “Don’t you enjoy shopping for food and thinking about what you could cook while looking for fresh vegetables at the market?”
“No, why? When I’m in the mood for something to eat, I look in the fridge, though I usually order takeout or have my father’s chef whip something up.”
“But why? You don’t have to eat, right? Why do you bother eating food if you don’t need to?” That didn’t really make sense.
“I like it. It makes me feel good. I enjoy a good meal. It’s as simple as that.”
Luis, trying to figure out the logic behind that, frowned for a second. So Gerome enjoyed a good meal. But why bother when he didn’t need food? Another thought popped into his mind. “Just how do you feed, by the way? You have to drink blood, right? How do you do that? I mean, do you go hunting at night?”
Gerome chuckled. “You’ve watched too many movies. I use banked blood. If I drink from a human, it’s a highly pleasurable experience, sometimes even more so when combined with sex. I didn’t think you’d appreciate it if I fed from someone else, and I won’t ask you to allow me to feed on you. In a mating, it’s normally a given that the dominant mate feeds from the submissive one, and the submissives feed on animals, servants, or stored blood if they need blood. But I would never ask you to do it.”
“That’s good. I don’t think I could do that.”
“I figured as much.”
Time for a subject change. Now. “To come back to your eating habits. There are many great markets here in Munich, and yet you don’t take the time to go shopping?” He knew the switch in the conversation was a transparent one, but he didn’t want to think about the drinking blood part anymore.
“I don’t have the time for that. And because I technically don’t need to eat, I feel stupid wasting time buying food. That’s all.”
Luis turned the words around in his mind and tried to figure out exactly what Gerome meant. But no matter which way he looked at them, they didn’t make sense. Gerome ate because he liked it, but he didn’t go shopping because he didn’t need to eat.
“Sorry, but you don’t really make much sense, you know,” he finally said to Gerome’s back because the man currently stared into the fridge.
He turned around with a head of cauliflower in his hand. “Any idea what to do with this?” He held up the vegetable.
Luis nodded. “Yeah, I think so.”
“Good.” Gerome laid it on the kitchen counter. “Let me try to explain this a bit better to you. I like food, but it’s a luxury, not a necessity. I eat because I enjoy it, but I don’t want to go to the lengths of actually shopping for it.”
“It’s still not very logical, but I think I know what you mean. Would it be okay for me to go shopping to a market?” Asking Gerome didn’t sit too well with him, but he couldn’t simply vanish, and he needed someone to go with him.
“If you want, I can come with you. If not, I can find you a bodyguard.”
“That would be great. Both ways. Although it’s probably time I get a bodyguard anyway, even though I don’t like the idea.”
“I’ll see what I can do. I can look for someone who’ll stay hidden so that you don’t feel like you’re under constant surveillance and always be reminded that you have a bodyguard.”
“It changes nothing about the fact that I won’t be able to take a step without protection, right?” Luis didn’t want to hear the words, even though he knew they were coming.
Gerome’s expression showed how much he regretted what Luis already knew. “I’m sorry. But yes, you won’t be able to go out without protection. I’ve already told you how valuable you are. It’s too dangerous.”
Luis nodded. “I know. I just don’t like it.”
“I know. Believe me when I say I don’t like having to assign bodyguards to you, but there isn’t any other way. I understand why you hate it. I probably would as well, but I can’t help it.” He paused and held up the cauliflower. “Should I put it on the stove?”
“What? No. You need to put it in salt water first to remove the little insects in there. I don’t want to eat them.” Luis shuddered. Hadn’t Gerome ever cooked cauliflower?
“I never did that.” Gerome’s expression bordered on funny, and Luis chuckled.
“I figured. Cut it into smaller bits and put it in cold salt water, please. What are we eating with it? Pasta?”
Gerome pulled out a knife and started cutting up the vegetable while he said, “Yeah, sounds good. Is this the right way?”
Luis looked at the cauliflower. “You don’t have to gut it, you know? You might be more vampire than I am, but that doesn’t mean you have to butcher the poor thing.”
“You didn’t just go there, did you?” Gerome paused, knife in hand and an indignant expression on his face.
“I did. You’re torturing a poor, innocent vegetable simply because you’re a badass vampire. That’s just not right. It didn’t hurt you at all.” Luis had a hard time keeping his face straight, but he managed—barely.
Gerome stared at Luis for a couple of seconds and then started laughing. Luis couldn’t stop himself from chuckling along with him.
“Sorry. I never cooked it, okay?”
“You didn’t have to say that out loud, you know?” he answered, ribbing Gerome some more.
“Show me?” Gerome held up the knife.
“Of course. Let me save the poor thing.” Luis reached for the knife, his fingers touching Gerome’s briefly. He quickly pulled back and turned to the counter again. Touching wasn’t in the books yet. Talking and laughing with Gerome was okay on some level—touching not so much.
He hastily showed Gerome how to divide the cauliflower into its florets, then left him to do the rest alone while he searched for two pots in which to boil the cauliflower and the pasta.
The rest of the cooking and dinner were uneventful. Without mistreating any more vegetables, Gerome did what Luis told him to.
They shared some small talk, but no serious topic came up again. If they weren’t already mated, Luis might have enjoyed hanging out with Gerome. It was okay the way things were right now, though. But he didn’t want more. At least, it was much better than he’d imagined it could be. He still would have preferred not to be there, even though Gerome seemed much easier to be around this time.
With the dishes done and the kitchen clean again, they finally said their goodnights, and Luis went back to his room. The evening hadn’t been bad at all. Gerome wasn’t a bad guy, just as Sam had said. And he would get his driver’s license and a car. Even though he needed a bodyguard, it was finally a big step to some independence.