Read Online Notturno by Z.A. Maxfield - Free Book Online

you and will continue to be until I hold you in my arms again and love you until you give me the sweet cries I crave. I will wait for you, and the color and warmth that only you can bring to me, as long as my life allows it.
    ^\
    48 Z.A. Maxfield
    Adin sipped his drink with shaking hands. Still fully dark, the
    night sky held so few stars that it wasn’t hard to believe that
    what little sky Adin could see from his hotel was blank, as the
    young Niccolo imagined, because of Auselmo’s despair. Adin
    closed the journal. It was four in the morning, not yet dawn,
    and he was exhausted and ashamed. Had he made light of this?
    Had he really trivialized the man and his journal, calling it porn?
    He threw his reading glasses down on the desk, put the
    manuscript back into its protective housing, and restored it to
    the room safe. He grabbed his key card, intending to go for
    coffee somewhere, anywhere, where that manuscript wasn’t
    making him think things, feel things, he’d never contemplated before.
    Donte, he thought as he closed his hotel door behind him.
    Donte, forgive me… It was so easy to look at those drawings and make assumptions about the artist and the book. Now that he
    knew…now that he’d read even a little piece of it, he didn’t
    want to fight anymore. He wished he’d never seen the damn thing.
    He punched the elevator Down button, and when the doors
    opened, Donte was there, inside, still in his suit, looking as fresh as if he’d been on ice for the night.
    “Donte?” Disbelief and not a little fear limned Adin’s face.
    “Adin.” Donte wore a small and slightly bemused smile.
    “Did you know you could call to me?”
    “What, me?”
    “Yes, apparently…only with you…it works both ways.”
    “Why should that be?”
    “I don’t know. But I was called here to this place by you.”
    “I thought about you. I thought your name.” Adin got into
    the elevator. “You’re not playing some kind of twisted vampire
    game?”
    “Not at the moment, no,” Donte murmured dryly.
    “Although I reserve the right, if I should choose to do just
    that.”
    “I see.” Adin paused. “Fair enough.”
    NOTTURNO 49
    “What were you thinking, caro, that brought me here?” The
    elevator slowed down considerably, and Adin had the sensation
    of hovering above L.A. in a clear glass Christmas ball.
    Adin chewed his lip. “You didn’t eat last night when we
    were out.”
    “No, I didn’t,” said Donte.
    “Have you…since then?”
    Donte raised his eyebrows.
    “How often do you need—”
    “Often, if I don’t want to take too much from someone…
    What are you really asking me?”
    “I—” Adin stepped closer to Donte in one easy move,
    kicking his legs apart and sliding between them. He put one arm
    around Donte’s waist along his spine, and one on his neck,
    pressing Donte’s beautiful face into the junction of his own
    neck and shoulder. “Here,” Adin whispered into Donte’s ear.
    “Take what you need.”
    Donte froze. “Why are you doing this?”
    “Donte.” Adin pulled him in.
    “No, I need to understand why you would offer yourself to
    me.”
    “I’m sorry,” Adin said into the skin on the side of Donte’s
    face. “I didn’t understand. I decided to read a little of…”
    Donte stiffened. “So…you decide to offer your neck to a
    hungry vampire out of pity? How does the race survive?” Donte put his forehead against Adin’s.
    “Not pity.”
    “What then, caro? What, if not pity?”
    “Regret? Compassion? I don’t know, Donte. I just wanted
    to—” Adin pursed his lips. “I want to. Take it or leave it. Your food’s getting cold.”
    Donte laughed. “Of course I’ll take it. Don’t be afraid, più
    amato.” Donte’s hands wound around Adin and clutched at his
    ass cheeks as he lifted him up. Adin wound his legs around the
    50 Z.A. Maxfield
    man’s waist, and Donte struck. Adin felt both searing pain and
    pleasure deep within his skin. There it was again, the