MY VAMPIRE LANDLORD

Play With Fire

Elena

If shame could kill, I’d be a beautiful corpse buried under these sheets.

I groaned again and sank deeper into my blanket , clutching my pillow like it could protect me from the sheer embarrassment of this morning. I mean, who wakes up to their landlord sitting beside them after having a rated-R dream about said landlord?

Oh, right. Me. The queen of chaos.

I stared at the ceiling, willing the mortification to leave my body. Nope. Still here. Still tingling in all the worst and best places. Thanks, dream-Silas. Thanks, real-Silas for being an actual demon sent to torment me.

I had to face him. Eventually.

I dragged myself out of bed, showered, and put on the most boring clothes I could find in my closet. baggy sweater, leggings, and a messy bun.

If I looked like a soggy potato, maybe he’d forget my dream noises and go back to pretending I was a houseplant.

Walking down the hallway felt like walking toward my own funeral. A walk of shame

My bare feet barely made a sound , but my heart was pounding loud enough to wake up the dead.

The kitchen was too quiet.And there he was. The man himself who humiliated me early in the morning.

Silas.

Standing by the stove, in black slacks and a fitted black shirt, sleeves rolled up to his elbows like he belonged in a fantasy Pinterest board titled “Hot Dangerous Men Who Cook.”

He didn’t look at me. Just flipped a pancake like it hadn’t just gotten real weird between us. Like he didn't catch me having a wet dream about him.

“I made breakfast,” he said coolly.

I paused. “Is it poisoned?”

“If I wanted you dead, Elena,” he said, without looking up, “you’d be dead. It's simple”.

Charming.

I sat at the counter, watching him. He moved with too much grace. Like a predator playing domestic.

He finally set a plate in front of me. Fluffy pancakes, perfectly stacked, with strawberries on the side.

I blinked. “You cooked these?”

“I cook when I’m angry.”

I bit into one. They were divine. I hated him even more for it. Hot man who knows how to cook.

Perfect!

“Are you… angry at me?” I asked between bites.

He leaned against the counter, arms crossed. “You broke a rule. You disrespected my space.”

“I didn’t disrespect it,” I argued. “I just… got a little drunk and forgot time existed.”

His brow twitched. “You smell like vodka.”

I rolled my eyes. “ It's what happens at the club. People go there to get drunk, not to sing church songs.”

Silas stepped closer, slowly, like I was a challenge he was considering conquering.

“You want chaos, Elena?” he said, voice low. “You want to dance with fire?”

I swallowed hard. “Depends. Is the fire as hot as you think you are?”

He chuckled. Dark and dangerous.

Then he leaned in, just enough that I felt the heat radiating off him. “I don’t play with fire, Elena. I am the fire and you do not want to mess with me. Trust me!”

My breath hitched. “Is this your idea of flirting? Because it’s working and I kind of hate that.”

He pulled back, lips curving into that infuriating smirk. “Eat your breakfast before I regret not letting you starve.”

And just like that, the heat dissolved into smoke. He was way too good at changing the s****l tension to humiliation.

Damn him!

I ate the rest of my food in silence, trying not to glance at him too often. But God!, he was hard to ignore. Everything about Silas was designed to draw attention .

The sharp jaw, the dark hair, the impossible posture that screamed royalty or villainy or both.

After breakfast, I retreated to the library. I needed silence. Sanity. A non-Silas environment.

The library was massive, filled with old books that smelled divine. I curled up in a velvet armchair, hoping the day would pass without more emotional whiplash.

Of course, that was too much to ask.

He showed up an hour later.

“Do you always follow people around?” I asked.

“This is my home,” he said. “You’re the one intruding on my peace.”

I scowled. “I’m literally just sitting here reading.”

His eyes flicked to the book. “You’re holding it upside down.”

I looked down.

Damn it!.

I flipped it with a huff. “Maybe I’m distracted.”

He walked over, circling me like a damn vulture. “You dreamt of me again, didn’t you?”

“No,” I lied.

He stopped behind me, leaned down his mouth by my ear. “Liar.”

Did he have some kind of magical powers like reading other people's minds? How the hell did he know I was thinking about him?

A shiver ran down my spine. “Get away from me.”

“I’m not touching you.”

“That’s the problem,” I whispered, hating how my voice trembled. We've only known each other for just a week and he already has such a hold on me.

He was silent for a moment, and then…

His fingers brushed a strand of hair off my shoulder. Feather-light. Barely there.

I froze.

“You’re dangerous, Elena,” he said, voice a growl. “And danger calls to danger.”

Then he was gone.

Like mist. Like a ghost. Like a fever dream.

And I was left gripping the book like my life depends on it, my body on fire.

This wasn’t just an attraction. This wasn’t even lust. It was a slow descent into something wicked and beautiful and doomed.

And I was already falling.

I decided to go back to the kitchen and find something cold to drink to make me cool down because I was going to blow up with the way I was fuming inside.

But as usual, luck is never on my side.

I was hoping to be by myself but of course Silas was there too reading a newspaper like we weren't in 2025.

Ugh!

"You should control your thoughts, Elena," he said finally, folding the paper.

I nearly spat out my coffee. "Excuse me?"

He gave me a look. A calm ,cold unbothered look. "They echo."

"My thoughts echo? What do you mean?"

He stood, slow and graceful, and moved toward the sink. "When they're that loud, yes."

I stared at him. "You’re saying you can hear what I’m thinking? What kind of logic is that?”

He smirked. That damn smirk. "Only when you’re practically screaming inside your head."

Oh, I was so going to kill him.

"You—you can’t just spy on someone’s mind like that!"

"I didn’t need to. It's an involuntary action. It's not like I want to hear your horny thoughts every time ."

I stood too, crossing my arms. "Do you always make a habit of humiliating people first thing in the morning, or am I just special?"

He looked amused again. "You are special. You’re the only one who moaned my name in her sleep."

I wanted to die. No, correction,I wanted him to die.

"Silas," I growled.

He raised an eyebrow. "Yes, Elena?"

Oh, he was enjoying this. The smug bastard.

"You’re a menace. A rude, arrogant, smug menace."

He stepped closer. Way too close. "And yet... you're still here."

I blinked up at him,my heart hammering.

"You want to be here," he said, voice low. "Even if you pretend you don’t."

I hated that he was right.

But before I could say anything stupid or smart, depending on the angle the doorbell rang.

Phew!saved by the bell.

I bolted to the front door like it owed me money.

It was Lexi. Thank God!

Her eyes widened when she saw me. "You look like you’ve seen a ghost."

"Not a ghost," I muttered. "Just a smug bastard ."

She blinked. "Your landlord?"

I nodded and yanked her inside. "I need air or tequila."

Lexi laughed. "Girl, what did he do now?"

I glanced over my shoulder. Silas had disappeared again, probably into whatever tunnel he slept in.

"He caught me dreaming about him," I said, dragging her toward the patio. "And commented on it. Like a play-by-play analysis. Who even does that?"

Lexi gaped. " You had a wet dream about your landlord? ELENA??"

" What? Don't judge me. Have you seen him? He looks majestic all the time”.

Lexi nodded " well,I agree with you on that”

We sat outside. The sun was too bright. The breeze was too gentle. Everything was too peaceful for the chaos inside my head.

"You know," Lexi said, sipping from the iced tea she’d stolen from the fridge, "You might be in trouble."

I gave her a look. "Gee, you think?"

"No. I mean, real trouble. Like the kind where you catch actual feelings for your landlord”

I laughed. "Please. I don’t catch feelings, I catch viruses but not this."

But deep down?

I wasn’t so sure anymore.

Because every time I looked at Silas, I didn’t see just the cold, grumpy landlord anymore.

He was something more.