Lucius had me, and God, I wanted him. But he leaned in from behind, his breath brushing against my ear, and whispered, "I'm not dragging you into whatever is about to happen to me. My mind is made up. We're over, girl."
He gently pulled my dress back up, and I'd love to say I felt completely devastated or rejected, but honestly, girl, I got lucky. Literally a second later, while I was still fixing my clothes, Sarah walked in. She stood there staring at us, practically demanding an explanation, or at least believing she was entitled to one.
Evangelina arrived right behind her and read the room instantly. Using her charm and sheer beauty to distract her, she said, "Sarah, are you coming? I need you to come to the bathroom with me and help me with my dress."
Sarah's face completely lit up when the queen seductively ran a hand along her neck. Meanwhile, Evangelina shot me a wide-eyed look that screamed, "What the hell?"
I thanked her with a look, and Lucius and I slipped out toward the garden. The lights out there seemed to revolve around the mere presence of Killian and Bruce, who were standing at opposite ends. The detective walked over to me, pointed at his rival, and said, "The night is over for me. I have to leave right away. Those TV polls are a total lie, right? He's not better-looking than me. See you in a few days."
I stopped him and asked, "Aren't you going to say goodbye to Evangelina?"
He replied, "No, gorgeous. She's better off far away from me."
He kissed me, said his goodbyes to the Longfiends, and left. Honestly, girl, all I could think was: "What is wrong with men lately? Why does every single one of them suddenly feel like we shouldn't be near them?"
I walked over to where Killian was standing and said, "If you tell me you're leaving too, my faith in humanity is officially dead."
He took a deep breath, swept his hair to the side, and replied dead serious, "I am never leaving your side, baby girl."
I smiled, screaming internally: "See?! Take notes, everyone! It's not that hard, damn it!"
When Sarah came out of the bathroom with Evangelina, I noticed she was flushed and her lips were swollen. Lucius signaled her, and from a distance, I watched them have a brief argument. The president's daughter clearly wanted to stay, but he was explaining that they absolutely had to leave. In the end, she chose to go with him.
They both gave me a polite, friendly double kiss on the cheek—everything I didn't want from him—and took off. Sarah's last look before getting into the car was directed straight at Evangelina. It was one of those endless, lingering stares that only women give when they've been utterly captivated by someone.
Killian laid down some ground rules. Laughing, he said, "Alright, just the three of us again. I don't know what you're planning, Evangelina, but I am going to make love to this gorgeous creature the second I get her into bed."
She replied, looking at me like a vampire eyeing her next meal, "I plan on doing the exact same thing, if you don't mind."
They are both so tall and beautiful that they look like they were pulled straight out of a novel where I end up devoured by pleasure and their matching fangs. But hey, girl, there have to be worse ways to die.
Mary Garden has two bathrooms, and we all wanted to take a shower, so I used the one in the master bedroom while Killian took the hallway one that connects to the other room.
I hadn't even rinsed the shampoo out of my hair when I saw Evangelina walk in. My nerves flared up as she silently began stripping off her dress.
I asked her, "Didn't it bother you when Bruce just left like that, without saying goodbye? And wait… you and Sarah? She looks totally smitten with you. Tell me everything."
Evangelina stepped under the running water, and her red hair got completely soaked, proving she somehow looks even more incredible like that. I closed my eyes to shut down one of my senses, or I'd be completely lost. She helped me rinse out the soap, massaging my short hair, and replied with irony, "My cousin is just like that. I'll never be able to change him, and I can't help but feel like I'll go years without seeing him again every time he leaves. And… as for the matter of Sarah and me… so you, the naughty girl who almost got caught with Lucius, are asking me about Sarah and me? The nerve of you, Carmilla. I am a lady, and I have no intention of telling you what happened between us. I'll only say that you owe me a better moment. Sarah is pretty, but she's not my type."
Something different was happening under the water. She wouldn't stop staring at me, but she didn't kiss me, nor did she touch my breasts the way she usually does. I'm way too new to all of this, so I couldn't tell if she was waiting for me to make the first move or if she was just exhausted after such a long night.
I got out first and wrapped myself in a towel, leaving the bathrobe for her. In bed, Killian was already on his side, tucked way into the corner, almost at the very edge of the mattress. Like a true gentleman, he pulled back the sheets when he saw me. I started looking around for pajamas, but he said, "No."
So I lay down naked next to him and wrapped my arms around him, resting against his massive, perfect chest. I told him, "I need you to clear something up for me. Is it always like this for you guys? I mean, at least tell me this is normal—me being here naked and there being three of us in bed for the second night in a row. Does this always happen with billionaires?"
He smiled and answered, "No. All of this is you. It's happening because of you. I think we talked about this once before. Look, you make me happy, and I know you enjoy it when I make love to you. For everything else, there are no set rules. I'm certainly not going to complain about being in bed with two beautiful women, especially when I'm in love with one of them and get to watch her enjoy herself and lose her mind until she passes out from exhaustion. No one should dictate how you live your intimate life. No one—not even me. You already know I'm going to be the kind of husband who has only one rule: spending my entire life trying to keep you happy."
I smiled. I knew he used the word "husband" entirely on purpose, but it always works. I propped myself up to look at him. His hand traced the scars on my back. I confessed, "I love sex. There's no other way to put it. Just like dancing, it transports me to a place where I am… necessary, indispensable, the very source of life for the entire universe around me. I hope I never change that. I'm not stupid; I know that intensity fades with age, which is why I decided to live in the now, without giving up on what I feel. Carol would be proud. She told me a thousand times: 'Enjoy it. Life gives you no guarantees, so don't stop doing what makes you happy. Live without guilt for what you feel, Carmilla. No guilt for what you feel.'"
I think she was referring to the death of her daughter, Mary, when she said life gives you no guarantees. I once found another photo of my adoptive mother, one she kept hidden because looking at it made her sad. She was very young, holding Mary in her arms. There was a handsome guy next to her. All three of them were laughing. Carol caught me, and far from getting angry, she told me: "That photo is from a time in my life when I had everything. I should have cherished it more. It lasted only a breath… until you came along. But that won't happen to you, don't worry, because you will live whatever you feel to the absolute fullest. You won't hurt anyone by doing that. Do you promise me, Carmilla?"
Killian said, "I can understand that perfectly. Not just because my mother went out for a horse ride and died in an instant, but because of this. Wait, look."
He grabbed his phone and showed me an image of the cosmos. Looking dead serious, he explained, "This is a real photograph captured by the Deep Web telescope. Right here, there are a billion galaxies. Each one has three hundred billion stars—suns just like ours. But this photo represents only 0.0005% of the known universe."
I laughed and said, "You're making my head spin. Where are you going with this?"
He replied, "My point is that if all of them—every single one—disappeared right now, if someone had the power to completely erase them from existence, the universe wouldn't even notice. That's how small and insignificant we truly are. And that insignificance is exactly what should give us the freedom to live our lives and to feel and love in whatever way makes us happy. Believe me, the cosmos isn't going to collapse just because we make love. Not even all the weapons of hatred in the world could scratch it. We aren't important enough to think that what we feel in private needs to be controlled or censored. Never feel guilty for enjoying yourself. You aren't hurting anyone."
I told him, "Yeah, I think Carol meant exactly that. Maybe not the bizarrely astrophysical spin your theory took, but she definitely meant that simple rule: 'As long as you don't cause harm, enjoy yourself.'"
He laughed, admitting, "Yeah, the galaxy bit was unnecessary. 'As long as you don't cause harm, enjoy yourself' is as simple as it gets."
I turned on the TV and put on some music—slow tracks from old decades back when you could still slow dance. Evangelina walked in wearing my bathrobe. She stepped confidently toward the bed where her spot was reserved, pointed at Killian, and said, "You, look the other way."
Then she looked at me. "And you, watch me, because I'm going to strip down for bed."
We both laughed and looked at her for what she truly is: the absolute peak of human evolution, the next step up. She shed the robe, and her tiny waist, which perfectly balances her long torso and marble-sculpted breasts, moved closer to me. She crawled on her knees across the bed, and pointing at her belly button, she said, "I want a kiss right here, and I want you to tell me you love me. That's the only way I'll be able to sleep."
Breathing in the exquisite scent of her skin, I gave it to her—a tender kiss right where she had marked.
"I love you," I said.
She smiled and slipped under the covers. The two of them wrapped their arms around me… and I felt pure peace and love.
Of course, that peace didn't last very long. Not when Evangelina and Killian started kissing my neck. And there I was, thinking: "You sweet, passionate vampires… please… just take me and turn me into one of you."