Tears of Life

by Shea Balik

  Then again, at the moment, he could’nt think of one good reason not to do just that. It felt too damn amazing for him to stave back the orgasm that was surging through his veins. Digging his nails deeper into the comforter, he forced it back.

  For as much as he wanted to give into the pleasure, Mingus had no doubt it would be so much better if he could wait. If only it wasn’t so damn hard to hold on.

  That’s when a finger brushed across his pucker. The odd sensation did what he’d feared he wouldn’t be able to do, push the need to come back enough that he could think again, sort of.

  The tip of that finger breached his hole and Mingus pulled in a sharp breath as so many sensations assaulted him at once. First, the burn, it was… intense and not entirely pleasant. Second, a part of Oluf was inside of him. It was only a bit of his finger, but it was more than he’d ever allowed anyone else.

  The moment was surreal as pain and joy mixed together until he couldn’t be sure what was more prevalent. Then Oluf slid another inch inside of him and that burn slowly began to morph into bliss as his muscles began to relax.

  He had to tell Oluf the truth. Had to. But all that came out when he opened his mouth was a long deep moan as his hips pushed down to get more of Oluf inside of him. He had no idea how his body seemed to know what to do, but so long as it kept bringing him pleasure, Mingus wasn’t going to question it.

  “Hey.” Oluf kissed his lips as his finger started to work itself in and out of Mingus’s body. “I’ve got you, my love.”

  My love.

  That was nice. He loved it when Oluf used endearments. They showed Mingus just what the man was feeling at any given moment.

  “I can’t wait to feel all this heat wrapped around my cock,” Oluf said to him and Mingus had to bite his lip to stop from coming from the words alone.

  It was what he wanted too, desperately. But he had to warn Oluf. It was the right thing. Using that bit of pain he’d caused with the bite, Mingus forced himself to say, “I need to tell you something.”

  That finger stilled within his body, as those dark green eyes with their sparkling gold specks stared down at him. Mingus cried out at the loss of sensation. As if understanding exactly what he needed, Oluf started to move his finger once more.

  Instantly relaxing into the touch, Mingus ended up blurting out, “I’m a virgin.”

  Damn if that finger didn’t freeze inside of him again.

  “No,” he cried. “Please don’t stop. I need you so badly but I knew you’d be upset if I didn’t tell you.”

  A kiss was placed against his lips that had Mingus melting against the comforter, especially when he felt Oluf restarting the same sawing motion he’d been doing before. Mingus’s lips opened on a sigh as he was finally getting what he wanted.

  Then a second finger was there, as his channel had opened up for the first. The burn was back but it was less, as the desire building within Mingus grew. As if they had a mind of their own, his hips were moving with those fingers, driving down onto them as they thrust into his body.

  Kisses were placed along his jaw and down his neck. When Oluf got to the juncture at his shoulder, he licked the spot and murmured, “This is where I’m going to claim you.”

  His body went into overdrive, as Mingus had no control left. “Please, Oluf. I need you.”

  But instead of what he wanted, Oluf slid in a third finger. “I need to open you up a little more, my love. I wouldn’t hurt you for anything.”

  Mingus knew that, he did. It was just… “Please,” he begged. “I need to feel you claiming me.”

  Those digits spread out inside of him, giving him enough of a burn to slow down the impending orgasm. It wasn’t much, but at least Mingus felt like he wasn’t going to go out of his mind – yet.

  He continued to beg, promising he was ready, but for far too long Oluf continued to tell him to have patience. So, when those fingers tugged free, Mingus felt so damn empty he nearly screamed with frustration. Then he felt Oluf’s cock press against his ring of muscles and that sound turned into one of need.

  As Oluf pushed in, Mingus was stuck between wanting more and telling him to pull out because the burn was too damn intense. It was as if every bit of Mingus was being filled to the brim and damn, did it hurt.

  That said, with each breath he was struggling to get into his lungs, the more that pain was turning into a hunger so raw, he didn’t think he’d ever be satisfied. Then Oluf was all the way inside of him and Mingus knew he never wanted to live without this feeling.

  Like the amazing man Oluf was, he slowly thrust in and out of Mingus, giving him time to get used to the sensation as kisses were given to his lips, jaw, neck, and shoulder while words of love were showered over him.

  It was… perfection. Not even the sensation of pain from earlier could diminish what it was like to be loved by this man, who worshipped Mingus in ways he hadn’t known were possible.

  Tingling started along the base of his spine as waves of lust coursed through his veins, until he was sure he was soaring to the moon and stars. Then for one brief moment everything stilled. Sharp teeth sank into his flesh. Then like that tidal wave he’d created on his twenty-first birthday, bliss crashed over him, sending him flying, as his release pumped out of him to fill the space between their bodies.

  As he lay there drowning in euphoria, Mingus felt Oluf’s seed filling him up. “I’m yours,” he murmured happily.

  He felt Oluf smile against the skin he’d just bitten. “And I’m yours,” Oluf whispered. “For all eternity.”

  Mingus hummed as peace enveloped him.

  He had no idea what the future would hold when it came to the Veil and the Fae, but none of that mattered, so long as he had this man by his side.

  CHAPTER 16

  “Wow,” Wylie said as he entered the kitchen. “Someone’s in a good mood.”

  Oluf couldn’t begin to tone down the grin that he was sure was taking up his entire face at the moment. “Yes, I am,” he admitted.

  How could he not be? He and Mingus not only had the most amazing sex of Oluf’s life, but he’d claimed the sexy man five days ago. Since then, they’d actually grown so much closer.

  Not only was Mingus extremely affectionate, which Oluf hadn’t ever realized how much he’d craved until it started, but they were able to talk about anything, even when Oluf was busy cooking. Before, it was as if Mingus had thought Oluf too busy for him, but in the last few days, that had changed.

  That was due to both of their behaviors in fairness. If Mingus was feeling a bit left out, he either came over and helped Oluf so they would be working together, instead of one working while the other sat. At the same time, Oluf made sure to do all his prep work on the island so he was facing Mingus during that time. He also did his best to turn toward Mingus whenever he could, so his sexy man didn’t feel as if Oluf wasn’t paying attention.

  “Good,” Wylie said. “Because I have a huge favor and before you say no, I’m not asking you to do it all, but I am asking for your help.”

  In too good a mood to turn down the quirky, yet happy man who had managed to turn Oluf’s friend, Fritjof, from a sarcastic ass much of the time, who did his best to hide his true feelings from his friends, into an actual happy person, Oluf said, “Shoot.”

  “I know this is an odd request since, you know, you all are like a bajillion years old.”

  “Hey.” That good mood he was in was starting to become annoyed. “I’ll have you know we’re not even two millennia yet.”

  Wylie waved his hand at Oluf. “My point exactly. Way too old to do something like thinking about birthdays, but…”

  “First of all, you suck at asking for favors. Insulting the person you’re trying to get to help you by calling him old, isn’t the way to go about it.” It wasn’t his fault he was immortal. Not directly anyway. He hadn’t had a choice about that stupid raid, and no he wasn’t going to mention that he’d heard that bit of news.

  “Second, I’ll have you
know celebrating birthdays wasn’t something we did even as kids. It has no bearing on our age.” Other than to track their age, there really wasn’t a point in having a birthday. It wasn’t like today where people had parties, gifts, and cake.

  Wylie tilted his head and stuck out his bottom lip. “No birthday’s?” he asked, sadly. “Then how did you get presents?”

  Desperate for a change of topic, Oluf said, “How about you tell me the favor you need?” At this point, he’d say yes without even knowing what Wylie wanted if it would get the man to leave.

  Amazing how one short conversation could have him go from feeling great to… well, not depressed, but definitely annoyed. Then again, that was Wylie. So long as he wasn’t talking to Oluf or Mingus, Oluf generally found him funny. But when he was talking to one of them, Oluf usually wanted to wring his neck.

  That might be an exaggeration, but he most assuredly always prayed the man would go away.

  “Oh, right,” Wylie said, presumably already forgetting the fact that Oluf had never had a birthday. “Anyway, Fritjof’s birthday is coming up.”

  “How would you know that?” Hell, Oluf sure as hell didn’t, nor did he know his own birthday.

  Wylie grinned. “Because he told me so.”

  Oluf started to glance around the room, sure he was somehow being pranked. It was the only explanation for this conversation. But try as he might, Oluf didn’t see anyone lurking about with a camera in hand recording all this.

  “What are you doing?” Wylie asked when Oluf had made a complete circuit of the room, checking in the pantry and under every surface.

  But instead of answering, Oluf asked a question of his own. “You’re kidding, right? I mean, there’s no way Fritjof knows when his birthday is.”

  Wylie was bobbing his head up and down vigorously, as if he were one of those stupid dolls people put on their dashboards. “Yes, he does. It’s September first, seven hundred and eighty. That makes him,” Wylie pointed his finger at Oluf, “and you too, by the way, one thousand one hundred and thirty-nine years old.”

  Fuck.

  That was something Oluf really didn’t need pointed out to him, like ever.

  “Anyway, I want to throw him a birthday party and I’m hoping you’ll help me to make the cake.” Wylie put out his hand as if to stop Oluf from saying anything. “And I do mean help. I want to be the one to make it but since I’ve never made one, I’m hoping you would be willing to supervise.”

  He really should have known that wasn’t all. “Oh,” Wylie added. “And make the birthday dinner. But that’s all,” he rushed to say. “I swear. You won’t even have to give him a gift.” Wylie this time bobbed his head from side to side, “You know, unless you want to.”

  Oluf glanced at the calendar they kept on the wall. His eyes widened. “Wait a minute.” He glared at Wylie. “The first is tomorrow.”

  Wylie was nodding once more. “Yep. So we should probably get started, huh?”

  Fuck me.

  This day had just gone from fantastic, to hell, all in the matter of minutes.

  “So, what do we do first?” Wylie clapped his hands and headed to the pantry. “Do you have boxes of different cake mixes I can choose from?” Wylie called out from inside the large storage room.

  Oluf nearly choked at the stupid question. “No. I don’t have boxes of cake mix. I don’t do prepared foods. If we’re making a cake its done from scratch or not at all.”

  Wylie sighed. “Fine. But it would probably have been faster if we just used a mix.”

  Not about to fall for Wylie’s act, Oluf crossed his arms over his chest and glared at the man. “You aren’t getting out of doing this that easily.” Then he waggled a finger in Wylie’s direction. “And if you keep trying to shirk your part in this, I’m scrapping the whole thing,” Oluf warned.

  “Fritjof is too damn old to need a birthday. I have no trouble pretending this whole conversation never took place,” he told Wylie.

  That Wylie’s lower lip came out in a pout, didn’t even affect Oluf in the least. It might work on Fritjof, but Oluf wasn’t about to let his day be ruined because Wylie didn’t want to do any work.

  “Fine,” Wylie finally said after he realized Oluf wasn’t going to give in. “But it needs to be lemon.”

  Oluf frowned. “Lemon, but Fritjof hates lemon. In fact…” he searched his memory of all his friends and whereas some of them ate foods flavored with lemon, none of them preferred it. There were a few of the druids that… “This isn’t for Fritjof, is it?”

  There was only one person in this house who absolutely loved lemon. Even in pancakes, which had been weird in Oluf’s view.

  Wylie grinned again. “Caught me. It’s really Kyleigh’s twenty-first birthday. And since it’s such a big day for her, I thought we should do it big.” Then Wylie put his hands behind his back and rocked on the heels of his feet as he asked, “By any chance since it’s really for Kyleigh, I don’t suppose you’d be willing to…”

  “No,” Oluf said firmly. “This is too big a job for one person to do in less than twenty-four hours.”

  “What’s a big job?” Mingus asked as he pushed open the door to the kitchen.

  Wylie, the little shit, was already halfway to the door by the time Mingus got all the way into the room. “Why, would you look at that? Mingus, nice of you to show up,” Wylie said as he was almost to the door.

  “What are you talking about?” Mingus asked. “You said you needed to meet me in the kitchen when I got out of the shower.”

  Wylie was already pushing the door open and sneaking through it when he called back, “Now you that you have that second person, just like you wanted, I think I’ll be going.” They could hardly hear the end as Wylie must have raced as far as he could from the kitchen.

  Mingus sighed. “What did he ask you to do this time?”

  To be honest, if he was going to have to bake and decorate a large enough cake for everyone in the house, as well as plan and prepare a meal, Oluf would much rather have Mingus by his side than Wylie. Which is probably the only reason he didn’t bitch when he told Mingus the plans.

  “In fairness,” Mingus said as he went to the pantry and took down his favorite apron from the hook. “If anyone needs something to celebrate, it’s Kyleigh.”

  It was hard not to smile at the apron Mingus wore whenever he helped. ‘Today’s menu: Take it or Leave it.’

  That summed up Mingus when it came to the others daring to complain about what they’d cooked. The last time Arne tried to say there wasn’t enough bacon, Mingus took the platter that was still half-full and dumped it into the garbage.

  Oluf wasn’t exactly thrilled to see the food go to waste, but the look on Arne’s face had been priceless. It was a mix between tears and horror as he stared at the beloved food in the garbage pail. And when it looked like he might just try to pick some off the top that hadn’t touched anything else, Mingus had scraped the eggs Oluf had burned as he’d stared in shock at what his lover had done.

  Needless to say, Arne never complained about the food anymore. No one did.

  “What are we starting with first?” Mingus asked him.

  “The cake,” Oluf told him. “Since Kyleigh’s favorite flavor is lemon, we’re probably going to need more from the garden.”

  Mingus nodded and grabbed a large bowl. “I can do that. Do you know how many?”

  Oluf glanced in the refrigerator at what they currently had. “Probably another ten just to be safe.”

  While Mingus went out to the garden, Oluf got to work getting the dry ingredients from the pantry as well as his baking recipe book that he’d created over the years. He generally kept baking and cooking separate in order for everything to be more manageable, but even then, his baking book was over three hundred pages of various dishes.

  Thankfully, he did make sure to put them in sections. Turning to cakes, he flipped to the lemon cake he’d made for one of the druids that had been staying with them about fifty years
ago. He’d updated it when he’d discovered Kyleigh loved lemon, but he hadn’t had a chance to try it out yet.

  “You know,” Mingus said as he came back with a full bowl as Oluf had finished mixing his dry ingredients together and was now working on the wet. “Kyleigh came back from her first session with that Rowan person you found, practically glowing as she sang the woman’s praises.”

  He had to admit, they’d lucked out finding another druid who was a counselor. “Yeah, they seemed to really get along. Do you know when her second appointment is?” Oluf started the mixer after he and Mingus had zested several lemons into the mixture.

  It would take at least four recipes to make enough so he decided to double the batter and make two, since he didn’t have the equipment to mix all four at once. It would save them some time, but it would still take time to bake that many cakes, cool them, put them together, ice them, and then decorate.

  “Ulf and Cullen just left with her for her second appointment,” Mingus said as he started to prepare the cake pans with oil and flour, so the cake wouldn’t stick to the sides when it was baked. “I think Rowan suggested twice a week for now.”

  “If it helps, I’d take her every day.” Oluf always hated how sad Kyleigh seemed. Not that he liked her behavior, either.

  “Me, too,” Mingus said as he put the pans down for Oluf to pour the batter into. “I just wished I’d been nicer to her in the beginning.”

  Oluf turned off the mixer and put his arms around the man who owned his heart. “You couldn’t have known she was hurting that badly.” It wasn’t much comfort, but there really wasn’t anything he could say that would change the past. “All we can do is to move forward.”

  He hoped this party might show Kyleigh just how loved she really was.

  “I love you,” Oluf said, needing Mingus to hear the words from him again.

  Mingus squeezed him and said, “I love you too, Oluf.”