Ed reached down to grip Sam, his long fingers stroking firm and slow, and then speeding up as he took hold of himself too, and thrust against Sam’s hip.
“Shit… I’m not… gonna last long,” Sam huffed, neck arching as he pressed his head back into Ed’s pillows. He shook amid their desperate, messy rutting, and so did Ed.
Ed started to slow them, lifting Sam’s hips while keeping their cocks aligned. “We won’t get as far as I’d like tonight, but I want a preview of how you’ll moan once we do.”
He brought his fingers to his mouth, but Sam stopped him and brought those fingers to his mouth instead. He sucked them between his lips, and Ed thrust harder against him at the reminder of where those lips had been—and of that sinful pie all those weeks ago. Once the fingers were sopping, Sam released them, and Ed brought them down to tease Sam as promised.
He started a slower, rhythmic rocking with their cocks connected as he penetrated Sam. The first knuckle brought out a whimper, but a wicked twist of the full finger pulled out the moan Ed wanted to hear.
Again, Ed growled. He could admit that part of him wanted to devour every inch of Sam, but focusing on giving pleasure kept him steady.
Sam tempted him so terribly, moaning louder with Ed’s gentle thrusts and grabbing the back of Ed’s neck for another kiss. It was strange to kiss someone with his fangs out when the other person didn’t have fangs of their own. It forced Ed to be careful, helped him keep his nature in check, even as he pulled away to sniff along Sam’s neck and dragged his fangs down the skin. Ed didn’t bite, and Sam didn’t flinch, and it was all so marvelous.
He was getting close, his thrusts increasing, but he wanted to get a second finger in Sam and kept a steady pace until Sam was open enough for that other digit to breach him. They were both moaning then, because they were close, closer, right there—
Sam came first from the twin sensations of their rocking and Ed’s fingers inside him, and Ed followed soon after. They kept rocking into the mess that stained them until their panting slowed and Ed finally pulled his fingers away.
His eyes dimmed and his fangs retreated as he rolled to lie beside Sam in the sticky afterglow.
“Told you… you could do it.” Sam laughed, making Ed chuckle too.
“I’d like to finish that thought sometime.” Opening Sam up and taking him fully.
“Definitely. But for now….” Sam tilted his head to gaze at Ed with a heartfelt smile. “Is all your hunger sated?”
Ed had to admit, “Very.”
Chapter 6
SAM FOUND Ed’s bed unbelievably comfortable. Though that was probably because it was never used.
He woke up at that perfect natural pace of having had a good night’s sleep, with the sun coming in through the curtains. That made him blink more fully alert, because even though the sun was only just rising, Sam wasn’t used to Ed having his curtains parted.
“Oh! Good morning,” Ed’s voice drifted from the dresser. “Is the light bothering you? I thought you might prefer it. I don’t really know much about morning etiquette anymore.”
Sam took in Ed’s figure slowly. He was dressed in one of his less garish cardigans but had on those bunny slippers again, fussing in the drawers for a second set of clothes. He’d let the sun stream in for Sam, and now he was trying to pick out an extra outfit for him, since his was being washed.
Stretching out on the spacious bed, Sam enjoyed the feeling of being very naked still beneath covers. “I can’t think of a better way to wake up. Unless you were in bed with me.”
Smiling back at him with a faint blush, Ed went to the window first to block out the light, and then prowled toward the bed.
“You are seriously sexy, Eddie. Especially in slippers.” Sam winked.
Ed blushed deeper at the tease, toeing off the slippers to kick them aside. “I can undress again, if you like?”
“Mmm….” Sam hummed as Ed crawled up to join him, trapping him against the mattress. “Tempting. I don’t suppose you went ahead and made that pie?”
“That falls under your duties.” Ed scowled at him.
Sam chuckled. “Then you’re going to have to let me up.”
“In a minute,” Ed said softly, leaning down to kiss him.
Even with Ed clothed, it felt so good to have him on top like that while Sam was nude beneath the sheets, teasing his skin with the gentle slide of cotton. Ed’s hands weren’t as tentative as they used to be, sliding down Sam’s body.
“I could get used to this,” Sam said.
“Me too.” Ed settled comfortably atop him and gently stroked the side of his neck. “Though we need to be more careful. I left marks. Faint but still noticeable.”
Sam reached up to feel them too, but they were just two light scratches where Ed had dragged his fangs. They blended right in with where his knife cut had been. “The perils of gardening,” he said, since it was as good an excuse as any.
Ed snickered before kissing him once more, but as they started to deepen the embrace, Sam bucked his hips up into Ed, and the familiar flash of yellow overtook his eyes.
“W-we better focus on baking.” Ed carefully rolled away from Sam. “Your clothes are done, but I thought you might want something new to wear.” He indicated the jeans and blue button-down he’d chosen. They were close enough in size.
“Thanks. I want to jump in the shower quick,” Sam said, snatching his phone from the nightstand, “while you start getting out everything I need to make that pie.” He had a recipe on his phone, but as he brought the device to life, he noticed a few missed messages.
“The Cramers?” Ed asked. “Did they find Fitz’s body?”
“No. They might not even notice he’s missing for a couple days. These are from Mim.” Sam pulled up the messages as Ed peered over his shoulder.
Hope you had a fun night, Romeo, was first.
Followed by, Gerry sure did.
“Urg,” Sam groaned. “Third date rule, apparently.”
“Third date?” Ed questioned, then seemed to seriously consider that. “What does it mean that we technically haven’t had our first?”
“That we both really wanted it,” Sam said, setting his phone aside to pull Ed close again and kiss him soft and slow. “And like you said, we still have to… finish the thought.”
Ed shuddered against him. “I-I’d like that. But we should wait again. To be safe.”
“Are you really that worried?” Sam asked, running his fingers through Ed’s slightly mussed strawberry hair. He didn’t look like a vicious killer, lying in bed beside him.
“When it comes to your safety, I will always put caution first.” Then Ed smiled. “But we can see how things go, as long as we’re careful. Now—” He reached across Sam to grab the phone. “—do we even have everything you need for this pie?”
THEY DID have everything Sam needed—save the rhubarb, planted in the yard, which Ed refused to retrieve since he was already going to be outdoors for longer than he liked today.
“Do you tan that badly?” Sam teased, fresh-smelling and looking very smart in Ed’s clothes when he came back in with the red ripened stalks. “Burn?”
“Implode,” Ed muttered, but when Sam’s eyes widened, he thought better of the joke. “Not really! The redness might become noticeable after too long, but it’ll go away once I’m indoors again. It just hurts.”
After setting the rhubarb in the sink, Sam turned to him with a frown. “I’ll keep an eye on you, make sure you don’t get too baked. We’ll save that for the pie. I wish we didn’t have to go at all, but it’ll help your image.”
“I know. Now, how can I be of service?” Ed looked over the ingredients and supplies they’d set out on the kitchen island.
“Wash and chop the rhubarb?”
That was an easy task given Ed’s speed, and he set to work, already finished with a pile of rhubarb pieces before Sam had even started measuring sugar.
“And yet I do all the chores.” Sam shook his head.
“I pay you. And just because I’m quick or good at something doesn’t mean I enjoy it.” Ed meant for more than just menial tasks, but then, that wasn’t always true, because when it came to killing, especially someone like Fitz, he did enjoy what he was and what he did.
“Sometimes I enjoy it,” he spit out before Sam could go back to baking. “I did enjoy it. Last night. I need to know you understand that.”
A stillness settled over Sam like a wave of reality crashing on his shoulders. He dumped the sugar into the bowl and set the measuring cup aside. “I didn’t only take this job—the original job to steal from you—because I don’t have other prospects or needed the money. I did need the money, but I like being a thief. We said this could be our last job if we made enough to move, start over, but a part of me always planned to return to old habits, at least for the thrill.
“Carrying out a plan, getting one over on someone, especially a bad someone, can be… fun. You’re the first person I felt guilty over.”
“Sam,” Ed said, catching his wrist before he could reach for the next ingredient, “stealing and killing people don’t exactly compare.”
“I know. But I enjoyed last night too. It felt… justified. If things had gone differently, and you’d killed Daniel—”
“I would have felt awful,” Ed said, thinking of those children, his wife.
“That’s good enough for me.” Sam smiled and pulled his hand away to go right back to baking. “Preheat the oven?”
This couldn’t last, Ed told himself, trying to make the inevitable blow softer, but every passing moment with Sam made him wonder if it could.
While they waited for the pie to bake, they remained in the kitchen, discussing tactics for the barbecue: keep Ed in the shade or inside whenever possible and mostly just be a charming neighborly presence.
“We can enjoy ourselves,” Sam said. “It doesn’t have to be an act. Let’s have fun.”
“And if someone questions our relationship?” Ed asked.
“I don’t mind being honest if you don’t.”
That was an unfair answer, because it passed back to Ed to define what they were. “Our professional relationship got away from us, and… we’re exploring options?”
“Hoping we’ll eventually move on from hand-stuff to an actual date?”
“S-Sam!” Ed sputtered.
Sam’s smile and gentle chuckle always made the hardest of this seem easy. “I’ll try to avoid saying that part out loud,” he said, scooting closer to Ed to draw him in for a kiss.
That part was getting easier too.
Once the pie was finished and cooled, Ed made sure he had his sunglasses and that he was dressed coolly but in long sleeves, and they used his car to cross the short distance to the neighbors’. It was not an overcast day, and being so close to noon now, the sun was high and painfully hot and glaring. Ed gritted his teeth regardless and painted on a smile.
The Neu-Ryans were the closest house to his, but there were several other homes that could be considered neighbors, and all of them appeared to be in attendance. Along with dozens of children and many police officers.
“Mr. Sam! Mr. Ed!”
Oh, Ed hoped “Mr. Ed” didn’t stick.
Dawn and Joey ran over to greet them, Joey wearing a T. rex shirt and Dawn a sundress with what appeared to be nondescript monsters all over it.
Sam’s hands were occupied with the pie, so each child grabbed one of Ed’s hands to drag him toward the food tables.
“We took good care of your comic, Mr. Ed!” Dawn said.
“No jelly stains or nothin’!” Joey chimed in.
Ed had to laugh. He wasn’t used to having children hanging on him, in the middle of the day, putting so much attention on him. Then he realized that a lot of attention was on him. The neighbors must all realize who he was—or it was just the cops recognizing him as a recent suspect in a murder case.
“Don’t tear his arms off!” Daniel called, hurrying over to save him. “I’m so glad you both came.”
It was the first time Ed had seen Daniel out of a suit. He looked very young and rugged in jeans and a T-shirt, and every bit the family man as he scooped up both kids and hung them over his shoulders, to which they giggled wildly.
Ed understood why Sam was so taken with this family. He didn’t want to see any harm come to them either, especially not because of him.
“Help yourselves to food,” Daniel said, setting the kids down to go running off to join the other children. “Marie has drinks inside. I’m sure she’d love to give you a tour. Which we haven’t had of your place yet!” He patted Ed’s shoulder in jest.
“You haven’t, have you? That makes me feel like a terrible neighbor,” Ed said. “We’ll have to remedy that sometime. Maybe when you bring the kids over for a swim.”
“Marie mentioned that. Are you sure? Let those kids over once, and they’re going to want to move in.” He was clearly enjoying being host, bright and boisterous. “You might recognize some of the other neighbors, but that’s Marie’s dad and her brother over there.” He gestured to a handsome older man and a younger man about college age. “I’m sure some of my family is around too. The rest are coworkers, so sorry that it’s mostly cops.”
He got called the other direction, but before heading off, he motioned for Marie’s brother to come over.
“Mikey! Show Ed and Sam down the food line, will you? And add this to the dessert table.” He passed off Sam’s pie.
Mike was a nice young man, easygoing and friendly, as was his father, Joe, where little Joey had gotten his name. Ed and Sam were soon caught up in the din of it all, the bustle of meeting people whose names and faces Ed would probably forget. A simple smile from him, however, seemed to go a long way toward banishing the suspicious and curious glances from neighbors and cops alike.
“Stupid question I should have asked before,” Sam whispered as they went shuffling down the buffet line, “but you can eat, right? You just don’t need to?”
“Yes. It tastes fine. I just don’t crave it and it isn’t sustaining.” Ed took small amounts to fill his plate since he’d only be picking at it for appearances.
The excuse of his “condition” made it easy to head inside rather than get herded to the tables. Sam reached to take his hand, a mostly unconscious act, Ed thought, but the brush of his thumb along Ed’s wrist that had been sitting in the sun for too long made him hiss.
Sam frowned and tugged Ed more gently the rest of the way inside, stopping in the entryway to run the cooler backside of his hand along Ed’s reddened skin.
“It’s okay. Watch,” Ed said, pulling his arm away and holding it in the shadows. The redness vanished after only a few seconds.
Sun exposure aside, Ed didn’t feel strange being surrounded by so many people trying to get to know him, not with Sam beside him. As long as he didn’t stay too much in the sun, everything would be fine.
EVERYTHING SEEMED to be going fine—until they met up with Marie in the kitchen and she introduced them to one of her coworkers.
“The mysterious Ed Simons in the big house down the street,” Linda said, a charming woman, but with a bit more reporter shining in her eyes. “Marie talks about you all the time, but I feel like I know so little. Tell us about life before Riverside. What brought you here?”
Sam felt like an idiot for not preparing Ed for those kinds of questions, but that’s when the smooth liar reappeared from centuries of experience.
“I’ve lived abroad most of my life,” Ed said with a small shrug. “I’ve been in Europe for the past several years, but I missed the States and settled on Riverside mostly because of the house. I was a grand staircase away from choosing Long Beach, but the house here had more of what I wanted.”
He was good at this. It was just Sam who tripped him up.
“And how did you two meet?” Linda asked.
“I work for Ed,” Sam said. “I’m his assistant.”
“I’m sorry, I thought you
were a couple.”
“Oh, uhh….”
“Well….”
“I knew it!” Marie exclaimed, and then immediately reeled herself back in. “Sorry, I’m being a totally shameless busybody of a neighbor, but I kept thinking there had to be something between you two.”
Even if they hadn’t just confirmed it with their rambling, Ed’s blush said plenty.
“Robbing the cradle, huh?” Linda nudged Ed playfully.
“Linda! They aren’t that far apart in age,” Marie said, rushing on to add, “not that it matters.”
“You must think me a terrible predator,” Ed said with a bashful duck of his head, which would have made Sam laugh if he didn’t know Ed was being genuine, “seducing my employee.”
“Not at all!” the women practically spoke over each other.
“And well they shouldn’t,” Sam said. “The seducing was all me. Mostly for a raise.”
Ed scoffed, but Sam laughed, which prompted the ladies to join him.
“Relax,” Sam assuaged Ed with a chaste kiss to his cheek, “I wouldn’t tease if you weren’t such an easy mark.”
“Aw, you two are the cutest,” Marie said, sharing an adoring look with Linda. “Now I get why you were sequestering yourself in that house. You had a love story to play out. I’m just glad we finally got you into the sunshine, Ed. Only it doesn’t bother you too much, does it?”
Ed had the sunglasses hooked into his shirt. “I just need to balance my time indoors.”
“I don’t think I caught what you do for work,” Linda returned to grilling him.
“I’m mostly a collector. I’ve been a curator for museums in the past and acquired items for other collectors. I thought I’d take a break, though, inventory my own possessions, which Sam has been helping with, and figure out what to do next.”
“Any hobbies?” Marie asked.
“He’s a pretty great photographer,” Sam said.
“Really? We’re always looking for freelancers at Channel Five.”
Their Dark Reflections Page 12
