Escaping Solitude by Sara Dobie Bauer

Author:Sara Dobie Bauer [Bauer, Sara Dobie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: NineStar Press, LGBT, bisexual, gay, vampires, polyamorous, sailors
Publisher: NineStar Press, LLC
Published: 2018-12-17T16:00:00+00:00

I TAKE MY sailor to the only public bathhouse in New Orleans, an expensive men-only affair the coven has paid into for years. Much like Edmund, we are a bit of a vain lot.

Earlier, while I spoke to the young man at the front desk, I watched my beloved peer curiously down the white-painted hallway. Then, as soon as he even sensed steam, his entire face lit up. As we were led down the hall, he tapped his hand against mine in silent—and socially appropriate—thanks and hasn’t stopped smiling since.

I’m sitting on the edge of a steaming tub the size of a large room when he surfaces in front of me, black hair wet and dripping in his eyes.

“I’ve found fucking heaven,” he says.

A threesome of towel-wrapped older gentlemen scoffs at his language, but I smile around my cigar. I haven’t smoked a cigar in years.

“This”—he floats up onto his back, naked as the day he was born—“is perfect.”

“The heat feels oddly familiar,” I say.

He laughs that loud, easy giggle of his. The strange melancholy of last night and this morning is gone. “God, this is just like that bloody island, isn’t it? Except no one’s trying to kill me.” He picks his head up. “It’s a bit Grecian, though, isn’t it? I thought New Orleans was supposed to be a modern city.”

“Perhaps we’re showing how modern we are by paying homage to the classics.” I blow pungent smoke toward the ceiling and admire the marble columns and frescos of naked cherubs.

He dunks under and up again before asking, “Aren’t you going to get in?”

“In time.”

He nods to my hand. “I didn’t even know you smoked those things.”

“I haven’t. In a while.”

He smiles knowingly before doing an underwater flip and tumble like a rather large, mad fish. Again, he floats on his back, but this time, looks down at himself. “I am getting fat, aren’t I?”

“I’ve never heard something more ridiculous in my whole life.” I kick my feet back and forth beneath the warm, clear water.

“Is there boxing in New Orleans?”

“Absolutely not.”

His gray eyes shine. “There is. There must be. Modern city and all.”

“You are not boxing.”

“Come on, Andrew. It’s not a bar fight. There are rules. Besides, I’m good.”

“I recall.” I remember catching his fist in the face on the island once. It felt like a hammer to my skull. Add to that the graceful way he moves and his height, and he would be a boxing phenom exemplar. I’m relieved to have a towel across my waist, because the thought of him beating another man to a pulp is oddly arousing. Damn it, I’m beginning to think Edmund doing just about anything would arouse me.

He swims close, but before daring to touch me in public, reaches for the bar of sandalwood soap at my side. He lathers up his hands before attacking his hair. “Are we attending the party tonight?”

I swallow smoke. “If it pleases you.”

“It might indeed.” He ducks his head underwater, and I don’t worry when he’s down there for a while.

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