by Xenia Melzer
“Only if you want, mo grah thu. And definitely not for long. If you don’t feel safe, I can stay with you.”
“It’s not about me being safe. It’s just a lot of trust Barion puts into a complete stranger.”
“Hey, man, you’re my brother’s boyfriend. It’s fine. We won’t be gone long enough for you to steal anything.” Barion winked. “What do you like for dessert?”
The almost two weeks Sammy had spent with Dre had taught him to answer this question truthfully, because there was nothing Dre—and probably Barion—couldn’t get him. “I’d like that mousse au chocolat from the little café in Nimes where we went last Sunday. And the tartuffone from that Gelateria in Rome. You know, the one with the forty different flavors?”
Dre kissed him. “Done, mo grah thu. Have fun.” He turned to Barion. “You know the Gelateria, don’t you?”
Barion snorted. “I know all your hunting grounds, big bro. I’ll get the tartuffone. You go to Nimes. Let’s see who’s back first.” He sliced space and time and was gone in an instant.
“Cheater!” Dre roared and followed his brother. Sammy chuckled and shook his head. He had always wished for siblings, fantasizing about how wonderful his relationship with them would be. Seeing Barion and Dre interact was like all those fantasies had come true.
Sammy turned toward the rows and rows of books. This was heaven. He started wandering between the shelves, pulling out books at random, admiring their leather bindings and reveling in the familiar smell only matured books emanated. If there was an order to them, Sammy couldn’t find it. They were roughly in alphabetical order, sometimes apparently using the first letter of the title, then the author’s surname, only to switch to the first name. Occult books were mixed with romance novels, essays with guidebooks about gardening, astrology with cookbooks. Sammy itched to catalog them all and order them in a sensible way, but he withstood temptation. This was Barion’s library and he was only a guest. Before he could get too worked up, Barion returned, shortly followed by Dre. The bickering of the brothers lured Sammy from behind the shelves.
“You’re just a sore loser!” Dre was glaring at Barion, his fangs elongating. He had definitely grown as well. The shirt he was wearing was already ripping at the seams. Barion was not better, his claws digging into the package that Sammy hoped wasn’t holding his tartuffone—or mashed ice cream if the two demons didn’t stop.
“How can I be a loser when I won this round?” Barion was pointing one razor-sharp claw in Dre’s direction.
“You’re a sore loser because you can’t stand to lose and therefore resort to cheating to get your way, just like a toddler.”
Barion sneered. “Toddlers aren’t as good as me!”
“So you admit it! Ha!”
Sammy decided it was time to save his dessert. “Guys, stop! It doesn’t matter who won when you smash the goods. Now calm down, both of you, and let’s go back to the dining room and have our sweets. Please?”
Two pairs of glowing red eyes swung in his direction. If anybody had told Sammy only two weeks before that he would stand in the house of a demon, chiding two of them in order to save his food, he would have laughed his head off. But here he was, giving them his best stern look—which, he feared, wasn’t much—in hopes of calming the beasts.
Dre was the first to relent. “I’m sorry, mo grah thu. I didn’t mean to ruin your dessert. I was provoked.” He shot a nasty glare in Barion’s direction.
“It’s not my fault you’re getting slow in your old age.” Barion huffed but retracted his claws. “Come on. Let’s have dessert.”
They went back to the dining room, the tension slowly leaving the air between the brothers. By the time they all had their sweet treats in front of them, Barion and Dre were joking again. They enjoyed their food in relative silence, only broken by appreciative moans now and then until they were almost done. When there were only a few spoons of ice cream left on Barion’s plate, he looked at them with a determined gleam in his eyes.
“Let’s talk about the huge elephant in the room.”
Dre narrowed his eyes. “What elephant?”
Barion huffed. “Please, brother. Any idiot can see how close you and Sammy are. What I want to know is why haven’t you claimed him yet?” The challenge in Barion’s voice was clear, and if Sammy hadn’t seen the longing in his eyes before, he would have felt threatened. As it was, he understood why Barion was asking so blatantly. Sammy looked at Dre, saw the question in his eyes and nodded. It was okay with him for Dre to talk about it.
“I haven’t claimed Sammy yet because we gave ourselves a two-week period to live our dream. At the end of those two weeks, I’m going to give him my bite and hope he’s my mate. But we both agreed we wanted something beautiful to hang on to, should it not be the case.”
Barion made a face. “BS. First of all, if this isn’t a hidden mate-bond humming between you two, I’ll eat my tail. Second—”
“You don’t have a tail,” Dre interrupted matter-of-factly. Barion rolled his eyes at him. He sounded annoyed. “If I had a tail, I’d offer to eat it, but I wouldn’t have to, because you two are definitely mates. And second”—he held up his index finger, claw out to prevent Dre from interrupting again—“even if you aren’t, it doesn’t change the fact of how you feel about each other. Granted, you won’t have an eternity together, but still…” He looked at them so full of longing that Sammy immediately felt bad. “You’re good for each other. Any idiot can see that. Why not enjoy it while it lasts? You said yourself, Dre, that you’ve never felt like this. And you seem to be happy, too, Sammy. Embrace it. It’s more than many of us have.”
“That might be the case, but it’s still our decision, brother, and I’d appreciate it if you stayed out of it. By the way, this is the reason why I hesitated to bring Sammy here.” Dre sounded more exasperated than annoyed, which was probably a good thing. Barion shook his head, his eyes gleaming redder than the rubies on the stag. “Nothing’s ever sure. You know that as well as I do, Dre. The way I see it, you’re cowards, both of you. Stop deceiving yourselves and at least own it!”
Dre’s fangs started sliding down again, which caused Sammy to interfere. “You’re right, Barion. We are afraid. I’ve never loved anybody as much as I love Dre. The mere idea of him not being my forever chills me to the bone. I’m constantly torn between finally finding out and never wanting to know. Don’t you get it? Even if we make it work should I not be his mate, it would never be what it is at the moment, that blissful ignorance, the pure love untainted by the realities of the world. That’s what we’re clinging to. And since we’re both mature adults, we decided to put a limit on it.”
Dre slung his arm around Sammy’s shoulders, pulling him close. Only then did Sammy realize that he was shaking. It felt good to be comforted, to be held like he was the only thing in Dre’s world that mattered. Dre surely was the only thing that mattered to Sammy, especially in this moment.
“I’m sorry, Sammy. I didn’t mean to upset you.” Barion sounded a bit contrite. “It’s just that seeing you two together gives me so much hope for finding my own mate. I understand why you’re hesitant to find out, but from my point of view, you’re wasting the gift Fate has given you. Don’t be afraid. You were made for each other. Even if you should not be Dre’s mate, which I highly doubt, you will find a way and it will be perfect for you two. Staying in this limbo won’t get you anywhere.”
Sammy sighed and snuggled closer to Dre. “It’s okay, Barion. We know that as well.” He twisted his head to look at Dre. “Perhaps we should go home and talk about it?”
Dre nodded. “Seems like a good idea. Thank you, Barion, for the invitation. I’ll give you a call as soon as we know.”
“You’re not angry?” Barion sounded meek.
“No, brother, we’re not angry. I, for my part, am just not sure what to think.” Dre smiled a bit sadly.
Sammy touched Barion’s hand briefly. “It’s the same for me. We’ll talk soon, okay? Especi
ally about the abysmal order you have to your library.” He winked.
Barion huffed in relief, and with a last wave goodbye, Dre brought Sammy back to his kitchen.
Chapter Twelve
“Wow. That was intense.” Sammy turned in Dre’s arms to snuggle his face against Dre’s pecs, something they both enjoyed immensely.
“Yeah, it was. I’m sorry. Barion can be a handful, and he has zero respect for other people’s personal space.”
“Really?” Sammy winked. “I got the impression that he’s the picture of restrained and collected…not meddling at all.”
“Which is why I waited so long to introduce you. If I had done this sooner, you’d have run screaming.” Dre kissed him lovingly.
“I like to think I would have never run from you, Dre. There’s something about you that draws me in. Perhaps I would have made you work for it a bit more, though.” Sammy played with Dre’s fingers while saying this, clearly teasing him.
Sensing Sammy’s inner turmoil, Dre decided it was time to stop with the pussyfooting. “Do you really want to talk about what just happened at Barion’s or are we sticking to the initial plan?”
Sammy sighed deeply. “I want to stick to the initial plan. I really do, but it just doesn’t make sense, does it? Barion’s right. We’re just procrastinating.” He leaned back in Dre’s embrace, meeting his gaze full on. “Let’s grab the devil by the horns and do this?”
“You do know there’s more than one devil and that they don’t necessarily have horns?” Dre lifted one eyebrow. Sammy swatted at his arm.
“Don’t try to distract me—and I didn’t know. But let’s stay focused here.” He shuddered. “What’s going to happen now? How exactly does this work?”
Dre caressed Sammy’s cheek with his knuckles. They had discussed this before, but if his hopefully soon-to-be mate needed to go over it again, Dre wouldn’t deny him. Especially since it helped calm his own nerves as well.
“We’re going to have penetrative sex for the first time. Ideally, I’m going to take you from behind because of the whole knotting thing—and the bite, of course.” Dre gave Sammy what he hoped was a reassuring smile. “When we both reach orgasm and my knot starts to swell, I’m going to bite you here.” Dre ghosted his fingers over the crook of Sammy’s neck, leaving goosebumps in their wake. “While I ingest your blood, my venom is pumped into your system. If you aren’t my mate, you will experience a light drowsiness and the bite will heal just like every other flesh wound you ever got.”
Sammy caught Dre’s fingers in both his hands and looked at him with a suspicious glint in his eyes. “And if I am? Somehow I’m getting the feeling you’re trying to tell me something by not telling me.”
Dre sighed. They really were in tune with each other. Damn! “If you are my mate—which I’m pretty sure of, by the way—the poison will react with your blood and start reshaping your body so you can become my mate. That process is…uncomfortable.”
Sammy raised a brow. “Uncomfortable? Did I miss something?”
Dre winced. “Uhm, I may not have mentioned it before. Very…and painful. I’m sorry.”
“You’re doing a great job selling this to me,” Sammy grumbled. “I mean, seriously, I don’t get it. If I’m not your mate, there aren’t any problems, but if I am, I get tortured? Were all the paranormal romance books I’ve read wrong? I want my money back!”
Dre did his best not to smile at those last words. He had a feeling smiles were counterproductive at the moment. He took the route of downplaying mixed with a reasonable explanation. Sammy’s brain was scientifically wired, after all.
“The pain doesn’t last long, only a few minutes. Afterward it’s bliss. I promise. And the books aren’t wrong per se, just inaccurate and selective in the information they provide. It’s a bit like with pregnancies. If there wasn’t all that talk about how wonderful it is to hold a baby in your arm, no woman would ever get pregnant. And if it weren’t truly wonderful, no woman would get pregnant twice or more often. Just treat this as a form of slightly misconstrued advertising. The rewards are even greater than described, but getting there takes a few sacrifices.”
Sammy stared at him for so long that Dre was half-afraid he would tell him to forget about it all. Then all of a sudden, he started to laugh.
“You’re the worst salesman ever, Dre. Has anybody told you that?”
“Not yet.”
“Rest assured.” Sammy chuckled some more before he turned serious again. “Okay, let’s do this. I’m warning you, though, that if this isn’t as great as you claim it to be, your ass is toast.”
Dre felt a relieved smile tugging at his lips.
“Whatever you say, mo grah thu.”
Sammy took Dre’s hand and led him to his bedroom. They had spent time in there so often during the past week that it no longer felt strange to Sammy. Instead, his heart rate started speeding up and his cock took an interest. It had already learned to expect pleasure from the combination of Dre and the bedroom.
“Do you think we need The Guide to Successful and Satisfying Sex with a Paranormal?” Sammy was so nervous that the idea to have something in written form to cling to was more than a bit appealing. Dre kissed him on the top of his head.
“We can read the chapter about demons again, if you want to, though I dare say we already know it by heart. Wouldn’t you agree?”
Sammy sighed, grabbed Dre’s hands in his own. “You’re right. I’m just so nervous, Dre. This is it.”
“Yes, this is it. And you know what, mo grah thu? I’m no longer afraid. Because this”—he made a gesture that included the entire bedroom—“is us. Barion was right. No matter what happens after my bite, you and I are about to share the most intimate thing between two beings, and there’s nobody I’d rather be with at this moment, not even my true mate should you not be it. And that says it all.”
Sammy looked into Dre’s glowing red eyes, saw the honesty and love in them and felt something inside him unravel, like the world’s biggest ball of yarn that had finally decided to set his heart free from its wooly clutches. His heart was beating only for Dre, not only at this moment but since they had first met. He smiled. “You’re right. There’s nothing to fear. Just us. And I’ve been dying to have you inside me.” He blushed at his own boldness. Dre’s deep chuckle didn’t help at all.
“Come here, mo grah thu. Let me take your clothes off.”
Obediently, Sammy kept still while Dre started undressing him. He took his time, got rid of one item of clothing after the other, as if sensing the wild waters of passion that lay before them and wanting to enjoy the calmness of the river they were currently traveling. Sammy was content letting Dre set the pace, relying on his lover’s experience. The idea of Dre with other partners still wasn’t a welcome one, but if they had both been virgins, this would have been either awkward as hell—no pun intended—or very short or both. As it was, he followed Dre’s lead, stepped out of his trousers and underwear when Dre tugged them down his legs and made no attempt to hide his body once he was completely naked. In the beginning, Sammy had been incredibly shy around Dre, whose gorgeous body was every gay man’s dream come true. With patience and a good dose of humor, Dre had coaxed him out of his shell and now Sammy was content admiring Dre while he stripped off his own clothes.
When they were both naked, his demon lover gently guided him toward the bed. Once Sammy was on his back under the canopy of pin lights, Dre turned toward the nightstand, rummaging around until he found what he had been looking for. With a triumphant growl, Dre held up the huge bottle of lube they had bought in a sex shop in Amsterdam, as well as the deep red silicone butt plug that had been waiting for them in a specialized shop in Vienna. Sammy felt his cheeks becoming as red as the plug when he thought back to that trip. All he had wanted was a taste of the original Sacher cake, but a short stroll through the inner city had led them to this tiny hole-in-the-wall with only one small window in which a gorgeous leather jacket with silver studs
had been displayed.
A kiss on his navel brought him back to the here and now. Dre’s hot breath was ghosting over his tummy, doing strange things to Sammy’s ability to form coherent thoughts. He let his fingers glide over the silver tattoos on Dre’s chest and arms, enjoying the slight shiver he got as a reaction.
“Sammy…so good.” Dre was pressing his entire body against him, his enormous erection hot on Sammy’s already-oversensitive skin. The hard length also reminded Sammy why the plug was necessary. As The Guide to Successful and Satisfying Sex with a Paranormal stated—
Being with a demon is always an intense experience, not comparable with any other creature, paranormal or other. A demon’s penis is an impressive tool only the bravest and most masochistic take on without preparation. For those of our readers who wish to enjoy the encounter, let us stress how important preparation is. Make sure to have enough lube ready. You’re going to need it. We also recommend the use of little helpers, such as plugs, beads or smaller dildos to prepare for the main thing.
When they had first read this paragraph together, Sammy had died of embarrassment, only to be reminded in the following make-out session how very true the words were. Even half hard, Dre’s cock was a monster that would be the envy of every locker room, should Dre ever decide to go into sports. Fully erect, it made Sammy’s mouth water and his pulse quicken in fear at the same time. Dre slid their bodies together for a few more moments before he sat up and maneuvered Sammy’s legs out from under his own to spread them over his massive thighs. Sammy was now completely exposed to Dre’s gaze, the cool air in his bedroom an interesting contrast to the hot skin of his demon lover.
Dre was massaging his thighs, slowly coming closer to Sammy’s groin and waiting cock. Sammy was already rock-hard, leaking a small puddle of pre-cum on his belly. He had no idea how he was supposed to hold back until Dre entered him—and if he even wanted that.
“Dre,” he whimpered.
“Shh-h, mo grah thu, it’s fine. We have the entire night. All the time in the world.” Dre winked while he let the claw of his index finger slide out and scrape over Sammy’s cock, just hard enough to elicit a light sting. Sammy moaned, and his hips bucked up without him having any control over it.
