"Huh," Caius let out, "I see. You’re trying to explain why he spoke against me at the Council Meeting."

Roxanne opened her mouth, but Caius spoke before she could.

"But why?" He asked, "If there really was an offense committed, and I’m not sure there is, seeing as I care very little what Lorton had to say about plans he knows nothing about, should he not be explaining himself and not you doing it for him?"

"Well, it’s just..." Roxanne started, standing on her feet now and putting the tips of her beautiful fingers together in what looked like nervous energy.

"If, as you said, you have ended what you two shared, he should be his own person. Why are you here trying to speak for him? Especially when I’ve not indicated that I’m upset," Caius said.

Roxanne paused, and the nervous look on her face gave way to an incredulous one.

"No indication?" She said as though Caius had just told a bald-faced lie, "You haven’t said a word to me in days, even while we’ve been cooped up in a carriage together."

"Alright, someone needs to tell me what it is about that Carriage that is so unlikable. For a vehicle meant mostly for transportation, it’s actually very roomy," Caius said in an exasperated tone.

"Don’t change the subject," Roxanne said. "This is not about the carriage."

"Yeah," Caius said, "It’s about me ignoring you, right?"

"So you admit it!" Roxanne said with an accusatory finger pointed at his chest.

Caius looked from her hand to her face.

"I admit that you’re deluded," he said. "I’ve been ignoring everyone. It’s a side-effect of having too much on your mind and needing to keep your mind and eyes on the road."

"Oh, please," Roxanne said, "You can manage all that and still say a word or two to me."

"And what would I say?" Caius asked with a shrug.

"I don’t know," Roxanne said, frustrated, "But anything is better than letting me stew in the awkwardness."

"If you felt awkward, it was all your fault because it’s all in your head," Caius said. "I put Lorton out of my mind right after the meeting."

"Really?" Roxanne asked, and the sheepish look was back on her face.

"Of course. You think it’s the first time I’ve sensed him disagree with me? You think I can’t tell he would love to openly glare at me if only the vow weren’t binding him to serve me?

I know he hates me. I just accepted that it’s expected that he would.

I slept with his wife—"

"I’m not his wife," Roxanne said now, but her voice was low and not all that defiant.

"—the least I could do is allow him to be angry about it," Caius continued, as if there had been no interruption.

"Oh," Roxanne said now, "That generous of you."

"Not really," Caius said, "At best, it was me not bothering to extend how shitty I had treated him already. Not that I mind treating him badly— I’ve never been fond of him."

Caius walked over to his door now and touched the doorknob.

"And if that’s all, I’d like to get some sleep now. Long drive ahead."

Roxanne looked at him with her eyes narrowed, and then she pointed her finger at him in accusation again, as she had just confirmed something.

"There it is," she said, "I’ve felt it from you since then. I felt it when you seemed reluctant to bring me along; You’re angry."

Caius sighed.

"I’m not angry."

"Yes, you are," Roxanne said and walked over to him. "I can tell. It’s why I came here. To explain to you that Lorton had no reason to act that way toward you since I had ended things with him beforehand."

Caius laughed now.

"I think the fact that you ended things with him is exactly the reason he had to act that way. Surely, you know that. You’ve lived for centuries, after all."

"I suppose I haven’t had a lot of experience with this," Roxanne said slowly and then insisted, "But you were angry that day."

"I was tired," Caius admitted, and his hand dropped from the doorknob as he turned to face Roxanne fully,

"I couldn’t care less about Lorton. But the last thing I wanted was to be questioned right then, when I was hurrying out for a mission and had to gather followers whom I couldn’t even tell where we were headed.

I also didn’t like that Lorton, by clearly objecting to you coming with me, insinuated that this was at all a leisure journey. As though I was that incapable of controlling myself that I needed to bring along lovers."

As impossible as it might seem, seeing what kind of person/vampire he was, pleasure had been the last thing on Caius’s list of priorities when he was marshaling the small group to bring with him.

He genuinely only wanted capable combatants for support when he felt he would inevitably need it. And while Lorton hadn’t actually said it in plain words, it couldn’t have been clearer why he was objecting to Caius taking any members of the Council with him: He was actually objecting to Caius taking one particular member—Roxanne—and tried to make it less obvious with a generalization.

"Oh," Roxanne said then, "But you still chose me to come along..."

"Familiarity," Caius said, "I’d rather have people who have already fought by my side with me."

"Reasonable, reasonable," Roxanne said in a tone like she hadn’t actually heard what Caius said because her mind was wandering,

"So he was wrong then? You weren’t bringing Lovers with you?"

"Yes. Proven by the fact that I have Hugo, Kyre, and Nadine with me as well. You’re here to offer me support and defend me against threats I otherwise can’t face myself."

Roxanne nodded, and again, she seemed distracted.

"I can see how they would put a dampener on things. All of us in the carriage... no privacy.

But we have privacy here in this room..." Roxanne said, then with a sultry smile on her lips.

She had a hand on Caius’s side now and stepped even closer to him.

Caius laughed. He would have to be really stupid not to see where her words and actions were leading. He placed a hand on her shoulder to keep her away.

"We don’t have the time," he said.

"How so?" Roxanne asked, and, displaying her superior Vampiric Evolution, she moved closer still, and Caius’s arm had to bend at the crook of his elbow to accommodate her.

"Roxanne," Caius said.

"No, no," Roxanne said in a breathy voice and stepped closer still, "You were going to spend the night sleeping anyway, why not sleep with me?"

The insinuation could not have been clearer.

Caius chuckled.

"Just go back to your room," he said, "Get some sleep..."

He reached for the doorknob again, but Roxanne grabbed his hand and placed it on her hip. She kept moving it until it was on the arch of her ass. The material of her gown was so flimsy that Caius could feel the texture of her skin very clearly underneath.

Roxanne had closed the little bit of distance that had remained between their bodies. Her breasts pressed against his chest as she rose on her tiptoes to get her face closer to his. She raised her head, her red lips slightly parted, and her gleaming human teeth just behind them.

Roxanne was no longer holding Caius’s hand to her ass, but he kept it there. He flexed his fingers a few times to get a good feel of the ample asset while looking down at the seductive face turned up at him.

’Ah, screw it!’

With that, he connected their lips. Their kiss was instantly passionate, and Roxanne threw herself even harder against Caius. With one hand still on her ass, Caius raised his other hand to her back, gripping so hard that his human nails dug well past her gown and into her skin.

Roxanne groaned with pleasure at the feeling. And then she growled, the sound coming from deep in her chest as she wrapped her arms around Caius’s neck.

Caius pushed away from the door, turning around to press Roxanne against it. At the feel of the door on her back, Roxanne leaped, wrapping both her legs around Caius’s waist and securing her grip with her Eighth Circle strength.

The hand Caius had placed on her back worked its way down and soon joined the other on her ass. With both hands, Caius took an even stronger grip, pulling Roxanne’s lower half closer toward him.

With a deep moan that was muffled by their passionate kiss, Roxanne roamed her tongue all over the inside of Caius’s mouth, interlocking her fingers in the locks of his hair, and using them to pull his face even harder against hers.

She took very few breaths, and whenever she did, they were deep, as if she wished to suck every bit of Caius’s scent into herself; all the while, she began to rub her warm center against his growing bulge.