by Joy Demorra
Winding his fingers into Vlad’s hair again, Nathan tipped Vlad’s head to expose the line of his throat before asking, “Still doing okay?”
Vlad nodded, swallowing thickly. “Yes.”
“Good boy,” Nathan breathed out, then laughed throatily at the harsh noise of pleasure Vlad made. But it was nothing compared to the yelp that escaped his mouth when Nathan’s fist wrapped around his aching cock, stroking him from root to tip in slow, even pulls. “Oh, you are sensitive,” Nathan crooned as he slid his thumb over the sensitive underside of the tip, making Vlad squirm. “I’m going to get a lot of mileage out of that.”
“Nathan…”
“What, sweetheart?”
“Nathan, please…”
“What do you need?” Nathan halted his ministrations, granting Vlad the reprieve he needed to form a coherent sentence. Almost.
“Can I…” He flexed his fingers against Nathan’s front.
“You can have whatever you want, baby.”
And there was another word for Vlad to add to the growing list of endearments that made him swoon. His fingers fumbled with the buttons of Nathan’s shirt. When he finally got it open—hindered only somewhat by the brace — Vlad sat back on his haunches and admired the view.
“Are you going to do something, or are you just going to stare?” Nathan asked, flexing his shoulders and causing Vlad to have a minor crisis over the pectoral shift that took place.
“Ye Gods, you are massive,” Vlad breathed out. He ran his hands hungrily over Nathan’s biceps and chest and trailed his fingers through the thick hair there. Vlad was not a small man—no one who stood taller than six feet could ever reasonably be thought small. But where Vlad dipped and narrowed at the waist, Nathan remained a solid mass of muscle and fat. A trail of scars mapped out the life of a soldier across his thick torso. Vlad’s gaze was inevitably drawn to the most recent, the livid mark across his left shoulder.
It looked a lot better since the last time he’d seen it, but it still looked angry. It likely always would. “Does it hurt?” he asked quietly.
Nathan shook his head. “Only the normal amount.”
Vlad didn’t correct him. He knew all too well what it was like to live in a body where the absence of pain was the abnormality. After all, he only looked twenty-something; the creaking in his joints told a very different story.
“Either kiss it better or kiss something else,” Nathan prompted. Hooking his hands behind Vlad’s knees, he pulled Vlad up flush against his torso and trapped his still-hard cock between them. “Or I’ll find something else for you to do in my lap.”
“Oh? And what would that be?” Vlad asked, giving an experimental wiggle and extracting groans from both of them. He’d meant to do it playfully, but now that he’d started, he couldn’t stop. “Oh fuck. That feels amazing.”
Nathan cursed hoarsely under him, tightening his grip around Vlad’s thighs and guiding him into a slow, sensuous grind. “You are perfect.” He buried his face against the side of Vlad’s neck and sank his teeth into the tender juncture between shoulder and throat.
Arching with a breathy cry, Vlad clutched at the broad expanse of Nathan’s shoulders. He felt his orgasm starting to build once again; heat flooded through his veins to pool in his groin as the slick head of his cock dragged over Nathan’s abdomen. It was so blissfully easy to be with Nathan that Vlad wanted to laugh. He very nearly wanted to cry from joy.
“Are you going to come for me?” Nathan sounded almost as breathless as Vlad felt.
Vlad nodded, his breath coming out in short, ragged moans.
“Yeah? Do you want it?” Nathan growled into Vlad’s ear. “You want it, you’ve got to work for it. Come on, sweetheart; tell me how much you want it.”
Remembering how much Nathan had liked it when he’d been polite, Vlad moaned, “Yes, please.”
“Please what?” Nathan demanded. He claimed Vlad’s mouth in a searing kiss, sucking away the sounds of his desperate moans. “Please what, sweetheart?”
Later, Nathan would tell him he’d expected Vlad to repeat the phrase ‘I want to come for you’ back, a simple utterance of what he wanted. But Vlad was too far gone inside his own head to make that connection, so he said the first thing to pop into his brain instead, “Please, Sir.”
Nathan gasped; his grip tightened around Vlad’s hips, holding him still. “What?”
“Please,” Vlad repeated as he squirmed against the hands preventing his escape—not that he wanted to free himself from this unimaginable pleasure. But what couldn’t be stopped was the nonsense tumbling out of his mouth. “Please,” he begged again, clasping his hands behind his back. “Please, I can be good—”
And then there was a hand at the back of his head, pulling him in and crushing him against a kiss which sought only to devour him. He moaned with both relief and need. Sucking on the tongue that pushed into his mouth, Vlad thought for a moment he could taste the tang of copper, but the thought was gone in an instant, chased away by the hard twist of Nathan’s fist around the head of Vlad’s cock.
“Say it again.”
“I can—”
“No.” The hand stilled, and Vlad cursed breathlessly. “The other thing.”
Vlad floundered for a moment; his brain skittered around trying to remember what he’d said, before recollection lanced through him like sunlight. Laughter caught in his throat, hysteria bubbling over in his chest like champagne climbing the insides of a shaken bottle. Apparently, Nathan wasn’t the only one able to find magic words. He smiled crookedly, not bothering to hide his fangs. “Please, Sir.”
Vlad watched the flush bloom over Nathan’s face; his eyes fluttered closed in a paradigm of pure bliss. When he opened them again, his pupils were blown wide with hunger, yellow rings evident amidst the blue.
“Again, say it again.”
Widening his eyes in a mockery of coyness, Vlad bit his lip. “Say what?”
“You know what.”
Vlad thought about it. “Make me.”
His entire body lit up like a firework when Nathan’s open palm connected with his backside; he gasped in shock mixed with desire. He was still reeling from the knowledge that he’d just been spanked and enjoyed it when Nathan did it again. Vlad let out an embarrassing yelp even as his cock twitched.
“Say it again,” Nathan demanded, squeezing Vlad in a viselike grip that straddled the border between pleasure and pain. It was bliss, sheer sweet agonizing bliss.
“Please, Sir.” Vlad bucked desperately into the tight circle of Nathan’s fist. “Please, please, please—”
“Good boy. That’s it, sweetheart. Tell me what you need.”
“C-close…”
“Already?” Nathan chuckled, and Vlad felt a fresh wave of embarrassment and arousal wash over him, making his cock throb in Nathan’s hand. “Do you want to come?”
Vlad shook his head, confused. He wanted to come, but at the same time he didn’t because it would mean this moment would be over, and he never wanted it to be over.
“No?” Nathan asked as he stroked Vlad off with long, even pulls. “Are you sure? I bet you look perfect when you come.”
The word ‘perfect’ flipped a switch in his mind, changing it. Nodding frantically Vlad’s entire body strained against the inevitable heat threatening to consume him from the inside out. “Please don’t make me come on my own.”
It was little more than a pitiful whine, but it had the desired effect. Nathan stilled, a low, guttural growl escaping his chest as he let go of Vlad and scrabbled to free himself of the confines of his trousers. His manhood was impressively thick and large, just like the rest of him. Vlad let out a desperate noise of desire, salivating at the sight. The sound tapered out into a whimper when Nathan enveloped them both in one giant hand, stroking hard and fast.
“That’s it, sweetheart,” Nathan crooned low and sweet into Vlad’s ear. He pressed sharp biting kisses to Vlad’s neck as the vampire fell apart in his lap. “That’s i
t, let me hear you. So good for me, you’re so good for me…”
Vlad’s orgasm crashed over him, sweeping him away into a maelstrom of sensation. It was so heady, so intense, he barely registered his back arching uncontrollably as he spilled over the top of Nathan’s fist with a high, reedy whine. Almost as if Vlad’s keen of pleasure was the catalyst, Nathan followed Vlad with a guttural groan that was probably one of the most beautiful things he’d ever heard. A secondary wave of satisfaction rolled over him at the knowledge that he’d done that. As much as Nathan had talked him over the edge, he’d done that. Vlad had never felt so wonderful. And now they got to bask in the afterglow. Panting raggedly, they leaned against each other, luxuriating in the other’s presence.
It was… nice.
And then Nathan laughed, a full body shiver working its way out of him. “Fuck.” He grinned, a bright goofy grin that made Vlad’s chest light up like sunlight. “You are perfect.”
“So you said.” Vlad smiled hazily, his words slurring together drunkenly. He wanted to burrow further into his lover’s embrace. He tried to wrap his arms around Nathan’s neck, but his limbs felt too heavy, so he settled for nudging his forehead against Nathan’s instead.
The werewolf made a soft sound of surprise, returning the gesture. “Doing okay?” he asked softly.
Vlad nodded, trying to clear his thoughts. His head felt too light on his shoulders, and there was a pleasant warmth thrumming through his veins—like hovering on the verge of a dream. He kept waiting for the moment when the shame would come. But all he felt was peace.
He shivered suddenly; a gust of icy wind from the open balcony door ghosted over his shoulders. He curled inward, pressing up against the solidly reassuring warmth of Nathan’s chest. “Cold,” he complained.
Nathan soothed warm hands over his back. “Well, we can’t be having that. Come on, sweetheart, let’s get you cleaned up.”
A short while later, Vlad found himself wrapped up in bed, cuddled against Nathan’s side. His limbs still felt pleasantly heavy, but his head no longer felt full of clouds. “There you are,” Nathan murmured, sounding impossibly fond as he carded gentle fingers through Vlad’s hair. “Doing all right?”
“Mhm,” Vlad hummed, nuzzling closer to Nathan’s chest. “Fuzzy.”
“Me, or your head?”
Vlad snorted as he trailed his fingers through Nathan’s chest hair. “Both.” After a while he said, “Thank you. That was…”
“Everything you hoped it would be?”
Vlad let out another soft huff. “No. Much better.” Which was true, he realized. Nothing had ever felt so good.
“High praise,” Nathan murmured, all warm contentment and lazy smile. He turned onto his side and pulled Vlad close against his front. “Though if you want to give it another go sometime, I’m game. I’m sure we could find room for improvement.”
Vlad smiled shyly, a ridiculous bloom of happiness igniting in his chest. He knew what he and Nathan had wouldn’t last forever; nothing good in Vlad’s unlife ever did. But he’d take what he could for now. “Yes,” he murmured as he snuggled in close to the warmth Nathan offered. “I think that would be agreeable.”
CHAPTER TWENTY NINE
“Is that a tattoo?” Nathan asked as he traced the outline of a smudged mark beneath Vlad’s skin along the length of his spine.
“Used to be.” Vlad twitched away from the ticklish touch and rolled onto his back in a gloriously disheveled sprawl against the headboard. They’d gone for a second round after their first frantic coupling, taking their time and getting thoroughly messy in the process.
“You look wrecked,” Nathan informed him smugly.
Vlad huffed with silent laughter and pushed sweat-damp hair out of his eyes. “I wonder why.” He gave Nathan a haughty stare that would have been much more effective if he didn’t look so well satiated. “Wouldn’t have anything to do with the werewolf in my bed, would it?”
“Could be,” Nathan agreed noncommittally as he inched closer to Vlad to rest his head on his abdomen. He felt the vampire stiffen, then relax, as slender fingers threaded lazily through Nathan’s hair. He’d already gleaned from their earlier conversation that Vlad wasn’t used to casual affection. It made Nathan’s heart ache in a way that made him want to scoop the vampire up and cuddle him against his chest forever. But he suspected Vlad might object. He’d gotten squirmy during aftercare, and as much as Nathan wanted to shower him with affection, he also didn’t want to overwhelm him.
“I used to have an earring too,” Vlad commented, reaching up to feel one earlobe followed by the other. He finally settled on the right ear. “I think it was this one.”
Nathan squinted at him, trying to imagine the vampire with a piece of shiny tacked to his ear. He rather liked the mental image. “Why did you take it out?”
Vlad shrugged and leaned against the mountain of pillows. “Fell out of fashion. Along with the ruff and codpiece. Mercifully.”
Nathan snorted and nuzzled his face against Vlad’s belly, absently adjusting his listening aid when it dug into his ear. The vampire was surprisingly compact under all his silks—lean rather than thin. But there was still a lovely layer of squish for him to snuggle against. “I can’t imagine you like that.”
“Good.” Vlad shuddered. “It was not a good look.”
Nathan smiled at the derision dripping from his tone. “I dunno,” Nathan said, trailing gentle fingers over the sensitive skin of Vlad’s flanks. “I’m sure you made it work to your advantage.”
“There was a lot of black velvet,” Vlad admitted as he gently swatted Nathan’s hands away. “Black velvet with as little ruff as I could get away with. And absolutely no poulaines.”
Accepting that Vlad didn’t want to be touched right then, Nathan rolled over to give him a little distance. “I’m almost afraid to ask.”
Vlad snorted. “It’s a shoe.”
“Ooh.” Nathan turned his face to the other side so he could look up more comfortably at his lover. Lover: the thought was more satisfying than coming twice in one night. “Are those the pointy shoes in all the old paintings?”
“Yes. The long ones with the toes curled up.”
“Well, you know what they say about men with big shoes,” Nathan teased, waggling his eyebrows suggestively.
“Yes,” Vlad replied dryly. “They require a lot of padding.”
Nathan snorted. He screwed his eyes half shut and tried to imagine Vlad in anything other than his trim suits and immaculate neckties. “What kind of earring was it?”
“Pearl.” Vlad tugged at his earlobe again. “Had a ruby one too, but I lost it in a game of cards.” He frowned slightly, his gaze turning inward. “Or was that the sapphire… I’m sure the box is around here. Somewhere.”
Nathan glanced around the room. It wasn’t exactly a mess, but it was a lot like the back room of a museum where a devoted curator couldn’t bear to throw anything away. “So, gone forever then?”
Vlad snorted and poked Nathan lightly on the back. “My room is not that bad.”
“Hmm,” Nathan hummed fondly. He bopped the vampire on the nose. “My little magpie.”
Vlad snipped playfully at him with his fangs. “It was a prayer.”
“What was?” Nathan asked, long since used to Vlad’s manner of talking in non-linear segues.
“The tattoo on my back.”
“Oh?” He lifted his head slightly to watch Vlad’s expression when he sensed the sudden shift in his body language. “What kind of prayer?”
Vlad’s frown deepened, and then he shrugged, seeming to shake off whatever mood had been tugging at his thoughts. “I don’t remember. Can’t have been important, though.” He smiled wryly, the glint of his fangs evident. “I only branded myself with it for life. Though in fairness, I probably thought my life would be much shorter.”
“Fortunately, not the case.” Nathan leaned up on his right elbow to claim a kiss from Vlad’s smiling mouth. “Or I wouldn’t be able
to do this.”
Returning the kiss, Vlad allowed himself to be dragged flat against the mattress and enveloped in a proper cuddle. After a while he asked, “How are we going to do this?”
“Do what?” Nathan twined his fingers lazily with Vlad’s as the vampire fidgeted.
“This, us.” Vlad returned the squeeze of his hand. “How are we going to go about this?”
“Do we need to do anything?”
“Well, we need to be careful about who finds out, for one thing—”
“Do we?”
Vlad arched an eyebrow at him. “So, I suppose you, the son of the Wolf Lord, are going to go home for Yule and tell your parents you’ve met a nice vampire boy you’d like them to meet?”
Nathan opened his mouth to protest, but the words died on the tip of his tongue. While his mother might merely pretend it wasn’t happening, he realized, his father would go absolutely lunar. He couldn’t even imagine how the rest of the pack would react…
“Yes, I thought so,” Vlad said dryly. He smiled a particularly pointy smile and trailed tantalizing fingers through Nathan’s chest hair. “Don’t worry. It’s not the first time I’ve been someone’s dirty little secret.”
Nathan growled, at both the touch and the words. “I think we’ve already established you’re not little,” he replied; his cock twitched in response to the semi-hard one he could feel pressing against his thigh as Vlad slid on top of him with a sultry smile. Apparently, there were some benefits to eternal youth. “I should have known you’d be insatiable.”
“Says you,” Vlad countered with a pointed wriggle.
Nathan grunted and wrapped his arms around the vampire’s slender torso to hold him in place. “Behave,” he warned.
As he’d expected, Vlad did the exact opposite, turning wide, dark eyes up toward him, his lip caught between his fangs. It was alarming, how quickly he’d discerned Nathan’s exact weak spots. Or perhaps that was just the way Vlad was when he wanted something, bratty and coy all at once. Gods, he’s perfect…
