by Joey W. Hill
Of course, if either vampire ever did try to shred his soul, such an exercise of vampire power wouldn’t be necessary to destroy Gideon. The act of betrayal would be enough. He was in that deep with them at this point.
Maybe he should be letting Daegan into his head, after all. Maybe seeing such thoughts would help his Master trust him. Gideon had that thought right before the floor-dropping thing happened. In that instant, he found himself tumbled end over end into the ocean of the vampire’s mind. He was treading water in all the turbulent, complex layers of what was happening in this moment, but beneath him, accessible, were even greater depths, an infinite abyss of who and what Daegan was. Gideon had a thrilling, startling realization that he could sink down into layer after layer, and perhaps never find his way out.
But it was all his Master, and Daegan and Anwyn had become his guiding light through everything, even their own personal mazes. With that thought, he released any worries about that, letting himself float and get a grasp on his surroundings. On what was happening in Daegan’s head in the here and now.
Uncertainty and fear weren’t terms one applied to Daegan, but they’d stepped into some uncharted territory with this whole scenario in general. The paddle, lube and restraints had called forth even more specific reactions, like spikes in an EKG. As he examined those reactions, Gideon returned to stroking Daegan’s rim. He didn’t work it like a steam engine, roaring toward a destination. He took his time with it, wanting to see if Daegan felt the pleasure building, those crazy feelings that happened when someone was playing with your ass.
Holy fuck, he did. Gideon hadn’t been sure a vampire would have that same kind of reaction, and maybe a vampire who’d been fucked there wouldn’t. However, Daegan was…bemused…feeling a little trepidation. He was always in control, but this required giving that away. And he never gave control away.
I’ve so got you,” Gideon whispered again. A promise, his voice rough. No way he would hide his emotion now. “I got your back. You know I always do.”
The vampire had closed his eyes, his hands clenched in his bonds. “It doesn’t have to be about who’s the strongest in the room,” Gideon continued. His gaze met Anwyn’s, though he could feel her right there in his head, experiencing the extraordinary things he was, things beyond words in Daegan’s mind. “You remember what I said about the first time she took me over? Hell, all I could think was here was this woman, half my weight, whose bones I could break with barely any effort, and yet, something about her, something about her scent and touch, the way she stares straight into my soul, makes me want to be on my knees to her. Give her everything, trust her with everything I am. It scared the ever-living shit out of me, because everything I am is some pretty ugly shit, things I’d never want near something as perfect as her, but it was like I didn’t have a choice. I put it all in her hands, and damn if she didn’t make it all stop hurting.”
Those blue-green eyes glowed, her pink mouth softening. If he’d told her he loved her a million times, he knew it wouldn’t mean as much as those words just had. He turned his attention back to Daegan.
“I know you’re not me. But when you realize there actually is a person out there who can hold onto you when you have to let it all go… I think all of us have to find at least one person like that in our lives to open up parts of ourselves we never knew existed. And you have the miracle of two of them, right here in this room.
“I got you.” He’d say it over and over, often as needed to help balance what he was seeing in the vampire’s mind, emotions whose shape Gideon knew, telling him the reassurance was needed. “As long as you let me stay in your mind like this, I’m going to make sure I get you all the way home. All right?”
A long silence, those colors in his mind shifting, a wealth of emotions and reactions as hard to describe as Heaven and Hell and what drove them. Then Daegan’s head moved against his.
A nod.
Gideon felt the shudder through the damn-near-invincible body, the infinitesimal relaxing of all the muscles, one by one. When he applied a little pressure on his greased fingers, they slid into Daegan’s rectum, into that heated channel. The muscles gripped him as he probed and stroked.
Glorious fucking heaven.
Anwyn showed him Daegan’s reaction from a different angle. His cock had stiffened further, fluid leaking from the tip. It made Gideon salivate, seeing it through her eyes, feeling her body respond accordingly, that three-way spiral that would eventually become a no-coming-back-from-Oz tornado.
Now that Daegan’s channel was oiled up with his fingers, Gideon reluctantly removed them to retrieve the lube. Putting that plastic tip at the opening, he sunk it in deep and gave the tube a healthy squeeze. He’d make sure the guy had a whole mess of the stuff in there, then he’d be greasing up his own cock just as heavy.
As he withdrew the applicator, he replaced it with his fingers again, working inside that tight passage with more sensual purpose. The short chain connecting the cuffs clinked against the hook as Daegan’s hips moved with him, and Gideon couldn’t contain his own reaction.
“Yeah, that’s it. God, you’re tight. I can’t wait to get in there, feel you squeezing my dick with those muscles.” All the strength he felt in Daegan when they sparred, the grip of his hands, his arms, his thighs—Gideon was pretty damn sure his ass was going to be just as impressive.
Another jump in Daegan’s cock, more fluid oozing from the tip. That was the breaking news through Anwyn’s mind, her eyes. She licked her lips, making Gideon bite back a groan.
Christ, at this rate he was going to explode the second he was in Daegan’s ass. That was where that whole third mark recovery rate came in handy. He could get it up again and again until dawn’s light. Still, he’d almost rather go ahead and jack off against him now, so he could make that first time a long, slow hard ride.
He imagined the ropes of his semen lashing Daegan’s lower back and ass, running down the curves as he spurted. He’d collect that cream and then use it to lubricate Daegan and himself further. He’d put him on his hands and knees, stand over him… No, kneel behind him, close…
Shit. Again, his mind shied away from it. Even when he’d fantasized about it, there’d been a hitch at this part, a niggling “off” feeling he’d ignored. But here it was, confronting him up close and personal, no more evading it.
One thing at a time. However he eventually decided to do the grand finale, it was time to take the rope harness off of the vampire. He started at the waist and went in reverse, loosening the diamond pattern, untangling all of it. He removed the loop around Daegan’s throat, so when he was done, the only thing holding him was the rope wrapped around his wrists, attached to the beam so his arms remained raised above his head.
Standing face to face with him now, Gideon traced the impressions the ropes had left between the vampire’s pecs, following the lines along the rib cage and below. Since the vampire had left the mind gate open, Gideon experienced the vampire’s physical and emotional reactions to the contact. It was kind of amazing to feel how your touch felt to someone else. Gideon caressed his chest, and Daegan’s every nerve ending responded to the simple act.
When Daegan fucked him, Gideon didn’t give it much thought. At some subconscious, vague level, he knew Daegan was turned on by contact with him, but he never took it further than that in his own mind. Now he saw Daegan welcomed it, desired it…craved it. Gideon also came mind-to-mind up close with the awe-inspiring discipline Daegan was imposing on himself, suppressing his Dominant instincts. His natural, screaming reaction to all of this stimulus was to pull free, take over. Seeing the strength of that internal battle warring around his single touch, Gideon felt a rather unmanly quiver go through his legs, his lower belly. He considered himself a pretty alpha guy, all said and told, but next to that…fuck.
As the vampire’s gaze flicked up, meeting Gideon’s, he felt like a lion meeting the gaze of a T-Rex. The impact hit him hard below the rib cage. Whatever compelled him to subm
it to Daegan on a normal day tried to sit up and beg for it like a Pavlovian dog. Gideon found himself in his own internal battle, having to hold fast against that tide. Like the idiot he was, he tested it, his hand sliding down to wrap his fingers around Daegan’s cock once more, just to see the fireworks of thoughts, colors, and hard-metal fuck-the-shit-out-of-you rock music happen in the vampire’s mind.
From his side of things, he felt more than a cock stiffening in his hand. He felt how Daegan’s mind reacted to the strength of Gideon’s grip on him. His eyes devoured every defined muscle of Gideon’s upper body, drank in the cock straining beneath his jeans. He’d turn savage if Gideon didn’t strip soon and let him see it.
Since Daegan was still holding his gaze, Gideon learned that the vampire loved the blue of his eyes, the dark mystery of them, all that conflicting blend of brutal loyalty, fierce compassion and a killer’s violence. The way they would intensify with lust or rage, soften with other emotions. The many ways his mouth could distract when he was spewing his sardonic wit. Gideon would have called it being a wiseass, but hey, the vampire had all those centuries of higher education.
Daegan wanted to taste his mouth again, like when Gideon had kissed him before. Now.
Gideon had to draw back. It felt like moving against a planet’s magnetic force. If he closed that distance again, he’d simply surrender to the overwhelming power the vampire had over him. The conqueror would become conquered so fast it would be like a teenager’s first sex, hard, fast and not anywhere as far as he’d intended to take this.
Maybe he couldn’t match Daegan in a lot of ways, but he would prove he was equal to the vampire’s resolve. He had his pride, after all. He’d never backed away from a challenge from Daegan, and he’d meet this one in his own way.
Calmer—somewhat—he reached out and stroked Daegan’s hair at his temple. It was a safer gesture, an almost gentle movement, but the vampire’s eyes kindled as if he’d done something far more provocative. It only took a single spark to set off gunpowder, after all. Gideon leaned in, cognizant that the vampire’s head was no longer restrained by a rope around his neck.
“You want my mouth, then you don’t move yours. Not a twitch.” Gideon forced his voice to harsh command, which made Daegan’s eyes narrow. Yep, the T-Rex was going to munch on the lion like a handful of pretzel thins.
“The bet was for you to fuck me, vampire hunter. Not give me orders.”
Gideon lifted a shoulder. “If you can’t stay still, I get it. Servants get a lot more practice at that kind of thing, so we’re way better at self-control.”
What a joke, given how often Daegan and Anwyn turned him into a mindless, rutting beast that had to be chained because he passed the point of understanding commands, let alone responding to them. Even so, the truth had never stopped Gideon from yanking Daegan’s chain before.
Daegan became as still as the waiting predator Gideon knew he was. He thought it pretty likely Daegan could rip out an assailant’s throat with his fangs alone. He didn’t fear that, but still he came in slow and careful, humming his pleasure as he traced the vampire’s lips with his tongue, enjoying the slight quiver, the taste of them as he played with the seam.
Oh, man. Lust surged in Daegan’s mind. Gideon was surprised that this tested his control even more than the handling of his cock. Who knew male vampires were more like women in that regard, where the slightest erotic touch could turn their crank? Making him hold still while Gideon did nothing but play with his food, so to speak.
He was close enough that Daegan’s cock bumped his hip, and Gideon put his hand over it, holding it firmly against him as if soothing the beast, his thumb sliding over the ridged head, fingers stroking as his other hand slid into Daegan’s hair, holding on, teasing his nape.
“Open up,” he muttered against his mouth. “But you keep staying this still. God, you’re fucking too much.”
He sensed Anwyn’s utter mesmerized stillness behind them. There was some of the same going on in the very center of himself. He licked Daegan’s fangs, and learned all the ways Daegan loved his mouth, even when it was spouting bullshit. Gideon stroked his tongue, explored the vampire’s mouth with lazy thoroughness. As he shifted, he moved so Daegan’s cock was no longer against his hip but solidly aligned with his, separated only by the straining fibers of his jeans. He pinned him harder with his hand, iron bar against iron bar, and Daegan rumbled a feral noise that vibrated against Gideon’s lips. His shoulder muscles knotted.
“You like that, hmm?” Gideon spoke against his flesh with a casualness he didn’t feel. “You don’t know how often I think about this. Just pinning you to the bed and fucking kissing you until you come against me.” He gave him a hard rub. “The bet wasn’t just for me to fuck you, Master. It was to take you, and we both know that’s a hell of a lot more than me sticking my dick in your ass. Else you wouldn’t be holding back so much. Like I said earlier, I can always count on your sense of honor. It’s your Achilles’ heel.”
No it’s not.
He heard that thought loud and clear, even in the maelstrom of everything going on in Daegan’s head. It wasn’t coherent thought, just pure feeling, but he received the missive as if it was tattooed on Daegan’s forehead. Anwyn and Gideon. They were his Achilles’ heel. The vampire would sacrifice his honor, destroy the universe and everything in between for them. For each of them, separate as well as together.
Then the vampire underscored the power of that thought by putting simple words to it.
I honored the bet because there is very little I wouldn’t do for you, Gideon.
Daegan had never said the girly thing he’d finally compelled Gideon to say that once. I love you. But he didn’t need to do so, did he? Those words weren’t what love was about.
And in that realization, Gideon resolved the problem that presented itself every time he imagined Daegan on hands and knees. It was as obvious as the bond between them. That honor, driven by love, drove everything else. And he would never want his Master on hands and knees before him.
Even though he still fully intended to have what he’d been promised.
Releasing Daegan, he dragged the stool over once more, stepped up on it and began to loosen the ropes holding the vampire’s arms up. He pressed his chest right up against Daegan’s face, his hips against his abdomen. His hand jerked on the knot as Daegan’s mouth found his flesh, fang scoring a nipple.
“Hey. Behave,” he grunted, but there was a laugh in his own breathless response as he reached down and tugged the vampire’s hair, hard. Then he’d loosened the hold of the ropes from the beam, and stepped back to the ground, holding Daegan’s bound wrists by that connecting knot in between.
Pulling his knife from his pocket again, he cut off most of the fall, leaving just a short tether attached to it, about four feet. Now all his Master bore were those ropes on his wrists, the rest of him gloriously naked, his hair falling over dangerously glinting eyes, cock at a full state of readiness again.
“We’re going to our bedroom,” Gideon said in a voice that sounded thick to his own ears. “That’s where I want to do this.”
Daegan’s gaze slid down his body with the same possessive heat it always held. That hadn’t changed, not once through this, Gideon realized. He’d had that fleeting thought at the beginning, hadn’t he? All this was possible perversely because of Daegan and Anwyn’s ownership of him, Daegan’s ownership of them both, a double layer of security that had given Gideon’s emotions the courage to reach for every level of his and Daegan’s relationship. To take, not just to fuck.
There’d been times he’d wondered about his brother Jacob’s odd give and take with his Mistress, Lady Lyssa. She so obviously always held the reins, and yet she didn’t, too. Gideon had resigned himself to never figuring it out totally, because it wasn’t a brain thing. It was something beyond rational thought. Just like this.
“Perhaps I could help you with that first.” Daegan’s attention was on Gideon’s aching cock, in a
state way past the doctor’s warning about a sustained erection, but that, too, was different for third marked servants. Not dangerous, but no less painful.
The vampire’s attention lifted to his face. “Do you not want my mouth there, vampire hunter? Let me take your seed down my throat, give you room to become hard again and enjoy the terms of our wager fully.”
“You’re in my head,” Gideon accused. Daegan shook his head.
“It is what I would do. What I would want if I was that hard before I fucked you. Sliding into your ass is a pleasure of the gods, Gideon. It is something I never rush.” His lips twisted. “You might goad me to the point I waste no time on entry, but once there, I stay a good long time.”
Such memories were hazed in red velvet in Daegan’s mind, an arena-sized screen that scrolled right into Gideon’s head, the times Daegan had taken him rough and hard. But, as he said, once there, he could bang him into weak-kneed, barely-able-to-walk, full submission.
He thought of Daegan dropping to one knee, opening Gideon’s jeans and taking him deep throat. Daegan had sucked Gideon off before, but always from a Dominant position. Gideon beneath him, or turned upside down on a frame of some kind. If he was straddling Daegan’s face, it was because the vampire’s hands were clasped like manacles on his thighs as Gideon knelt before his Mistress, serving her pussy with his lips and tongue.
This part didn’t hit the same wall in his mind as the hands and knees thing did, particularly when he saw Daegan lick his lips, and he again felt the vampire’s dark wish to see Gideon’s cock, unencumbered by clothes. Daegan wanted to take hold of it and shove Gideon over into climax, bring forth that response with his mouth. Since Daegan had initiated it, Gideon was all too aware if he capitulated that he was handing the reins back. But only a bit. Daegan had recognized Gideon’s dilemma and there was a searing sweet pleasure to this that had a different flavor and tone.
