Dead Before Dawn: The Vampire Curse

Chapter 13 - Mental Protections

Max, when allowed, could be a very touchy feely person. He loved to give hugs and receive them, and once someone had given him permission to invade their personal space, he tended to do it a lot. His recent experiences had evidently made the instinct worse, as Gian was finding out.

Cal called a little after eight, by which time Max and Gian had gone for round two and showered. Of course Max invited his sister over to his room for breakfast. It was after he let her in and went to sit down next to Gian on the couch that he realised he was probably sitting too close. He was all but in Gian's lap.

Not that Gian seemed to mind.

It wasn't a development that Max had any intention of hiding from his sister. After the debacle of the previous day he had definitely learned his lesson. However, it didn't look as if he needed to explain anything at all.

"You two have been busy I see," Cal said and raised her eyebrow at Max. "I was beginning to wonder when you would get your heads out your asses."

Max smiled, and tried not to be too embarrassed that his sister could read him like a book.

"It sometimes takes the male of the species longer to figure out such things," Gian said.

"Now that I already knew," Cal replied and grinned. "So what's on offer for breakfast."

"Where did we leave the menu last night?" Max asked, looking around.

He hadn't really been paying a great deal of attention to things like menu placement the previous evening.

"I think you're sitting on it," Cal said.

Max looked down to the side, and there was indeed a leather folder propped up against the back of the couch. He hadn't even noticed it. The fact Gian was letting him lean against his side had had much more of his focus.

"Oh," he said, and Cal had the gall to laugh at him.

* * *

Just after lunch Gian had to leave to do some interviews. Darius had rearranged schedules where possible, but there was still a movie to promote, so Gian had places to be and people to see. As soon as Gian was gone, Max knew Cal wanted to talk. Since they had done a lot of talking about the whole vampire situation already, he was pretty sure he knew what it was about.

"You and Gian," Cal said, after Max came back from saying goodbye, "are you sure."

"Totally."

Cal gave him a very appraising look and he let her.

"You've been pining for him almost since the moment you met him," she said eventually, "but you never acted. Why now?"

"Some things seem far more important now than they did before," he replied. "I used to see Gian and think of all the complications there would be. Now they seem very small in comparison to having him."

"So you thought this through?"

Max smiled to himself and shook his head.

"No, can't say I did that. It was all a bit of an accident actually."

"An accident?"

Cal's eyebrow was raised again, a sure sign she was sceptical.

"I wasn't thinking and I kissed him," Max told her. "Then I apologised and he confessed he'd been thinking about doing the same thing and all my mental objections felt so tiny compared to what I was being offered."

"And I'm guessing the sex was mind blowing because you haven't stopped smiling every time you look at him all day."

It was Max's turn to roll his eyes.