by Mandy Rosko
Ugh, did he have to say it? “Because of Cedric.”
Ben snapped his head to look at him.
Seth faced him and shrugged. “You said you love him.”
Ben hesitated then nodded. “Yeah, I guess that doesn’t change in one night.”
Seth winced. Stab me in the frickin’ heart, why don’t you?
Ben bit his lip and took in a deep breath, his chest expanding as he did so. “I love him, but I’m okay with only just being able to be his friend. I’m not okay with the same for you.”
Seth blinked as his brain processed that.
Ben smiled at him, color touching on his cheeks like a shy adolescent. “I like you, and I want to get to know you better. I don’t really know when this happened, but I’d like to see where it goes.”
Seth’s heart was thudding loudly in his chest as those words registered.
The thumping was in tune with Ben’s. “So, I guess I don’t have to be worried that you’re going to turn me down if you’ve already picked me for your lover.”
Seth hobbled over to where Ben stood and kissed him. His hands reached up to cup his hard jaw then went back into Ben’s hair, gripping him tight as he all but devoured the other man’s mouth.
Ben slid his arms around Seth’s waist and shoulders, crushing him into Ben’s chest. Their towels fell away, leaving them gloriously skin to skin.
Ben was the one to pry them apart. “Baby, I love you.”
Seth kissed him hard again. “Claim me then.”
“Will that work?”
Right. He was human. “Don’t know. Do it anyway.”
“You’re mine. I want no one else but you. You—”
Seth cut him off with another long kiss.
Ben was the one to pull away. “I never said his name.”
“What?”
“I can’t stop thinking about this. I need you to know that I never said Cedric’s name that first time we were together. I don’t make any pretenses about who I’m with, and I’ve never done that with you.”
“You don’t have to explain—”
“Yeah, I do. I just need you to know that I never pretended you were him.”
Even had Ben not told him that, Seth would have understood. It wasn’t right for Seth to expect so much from someone who, at the time, was only a one-night stand.
Despite this knowledge, an uncontrollable happiness consumed him. He felt so much of it that he wouldn’t have been surprised if he started glowing like a sun sprite.
They fumbled their damp bodies back into the bedroom, collapsing together on the bed. Seth allowed himself to be rolled to the side so that Ben could spoon up behind them. It was a position Seth usually didn’t care for, but he loved it now, and this round they leisurely took their time with each other, made easy by the fact that they’d both already had an orgasm not ten minutes ago.
Still, the movements of their bodies on top of the sheets was wonderful, and his blood thrummed with pleasure as he was held tightly and kissed lazily as they made love.
Afterward, Ben offered Seth his vein to drink from, and they both fell into an easy sleep.
Chapter Nineteen
Ben stood tall, chest out and hands behind his back as Cyricus ranted and paced from behind his desk. The man occasionally pointed toward the video footage Wiktor had sent over of Ben teleporting into Wiktor’s mansion with a dark stranger— whose details could not be made out as the video flickered and snowed at the most inopportune moments—and then later leaving with Seth. No point in trying to get a word in. Might as well wait until the old man had to come up for some air.
That in itself took another fifteen minutes, but when he got it out of his system, the color of his face returned to normal.
“I apologize for losing the query, sir. His teleporter friend escaped and took him away when I was driving here. I spent all of last night searching for any trace of them but found nothing. I believe the teleporter has the ability to travel farther than normal, even myself.
With your permission I will track him down.”
“I have not the resources for that,” Cyricus snarled, flopping himself into his chair and grabbing his glass of whatever it was he was drinking that day. “Wiktor is of no use to me anymore as that miserable bastard’s house has fallen apart.”
From what Ben understood, Lord Veturious and his wife were still scrambling to refill their house with servants and guards to replace the hundreds they’d lost. After living so long with having other people do their shopping, cook their meals, clean their house, and even provide their blood for them, they were as helpless as children. Some of the human guards even quit during the riot, unable to take the demands the pair were pouring onto them, promise of immortality be damned.
“Who exactly was this stranger you entered the house with? The video Veturious sent me is absolutely worthless.”
And thank God for that. Thanks to Silus’s planning and the interference of the werewolves who handled security, most of the footage was snowed out, including the scenes of Cedric and Seth in their holding cells, and any shots of either his or Silus’s faces. The shots of Cedric and Seth being brought in didn’t need to be tampered with as they both had their heads covered with those black bags at the time.
“A guard I forced along with me. I had thought he would make a good hostage and tell me the layout of the house if I should have needed it.”
“However did you manage to get the werewolves to break loyalties?” Cyricus asked, a flitter of a smile on his mouth.
Ben shrugged. “I suppose they just needed someone to show them that they didn’t need to live like that. The guard I had captured came with me easily. I don’t think Veturious treated his staff very well.”
It was a load of total watery bullshit, but Cyricus swallowed it with the glee of a fourteen-year-old girl listening to the local gossip.
He barked a small laugh. “Who knew it would be so easy? That’s why I only employ real men.” Cyricus lifted his glass to Ben. “At least then there’s no worries over animal instincts and such nonsense. But, ah, any clue as to where the pack may have gone?”
Ben thought of the two to three hundred werewolves living at Mantua Lake, all under Silus’s command and roof until he could get the guest houses built. Silus must be dabbling in stocks again to be able to do something like that without using up the last of his enormous savings. “No clue, sir. I didn’t get any clues as they all ran out the front doors. Might I ask why?”
“Oh, Wiktor has asked for my help. I cannot provide it as my funds are dried up, but I thought I’d ask.”
“Naturally.”
Cyricus swirled his drink and became quiet.
“Everything all right, sir? Would you have me continue to track the vampire on my own time?” Not that he would, or even needed to, considering Seth was living with him in his tiny apartment, but Cyricus didn’t need to know that, or that Ben was planning on moving out and away from here before he could put two and two together.
The old man shook his head. “No. I’ve decided to put this matter to rest. Cedric is gone, regardless of the actions of some third-party stranger. I only want peace now.”
“Of course, sir.”
“Do you miss him? You were both very close.”
“He’s with me every day, sir,” Ben said.
Cyricus nodded. “Ah, yes. With me as well.”
Ben couldn’t help himself. “How are the extensions coming?”
Cyricus perked up from whatever little depression he’d fallen into.
“Wonderful, wonderful. My new billiards room will be large enough for the theatre by the end of the month.”
Ben’s hands clenched behind his back. When Dacielle and her mother turned Cyricus’s old billiards room into their own personal woman cave, complete with tanning beds, plush, colorful couches with frilly pillows, and every cosmetic known to man, Sheila had basically given Cyricus an allowance to build a new billiards room.
“It was lucky the
wall connecting to Cedric’s old room had none of that wiring and what else have you the carpenters worried over,”
Cyricus said. “All that added space should make everything much more comfortable than my old billiards room.”
The old man was also selling every remaining thing inside Cedric’s room so he could add more money to his funds for a wall projector and giant stereo speakers. Ben was only able to save some of what was inside for Cedric, claiming he wanted them for sentimental reasons and whatever, before Cyricus clamped up and stopped being so generous. Luckily there wasn’t much left in the room that Cedric was attached to, if anything at all.
The point still remained, however, that barely a year after his only son’s death, and Cyricus was knocking down walls and turning Ceddy’s old room into a den for his cigar buddies.
Ben forced a smile onto his face. “That’s good, sir. I’m sure you’ll enjoy it.”
Cyricus grinned. “I’m certain I will.”
Suddenly, Cyricus waved him off. “You may return to your duties. I understand Dacielle and her mother wish to redecorate the lobby and most of the rooms in the guest wing for her young friends. Do try and, very subtly, steer them away from that idea.”
“I will, sir. Thank you.”
Ben left Cyricus to himself and found his lady charges. They were with Cedric’s mother today, and all three of them stood around a polished mahogany table, picking over colorful new pink wallpaper prints for their redecorating project.
Ben vaguely, and quietly, suggested that they might wish to keep some of the old look, and was promptly silenced with a harsh glare from Lady Sheila before they happily returned to their decorating.
With his job done of attempting to get the women to see reason, Ben stood against the wall and began to pick at the dirt beneath his thumbnail.
He had to deal with watching them gush over fake flowers and heart pillows for the next several hours until his shift ended, and by then, Ben had his cool shades forcibly removed and replaced with star sunglasses with sparkled frames, and had a pink boa thrown around his neck with promises of serious consequences should he remove them.
He was lucky to get out of there just as Dacielle broke out her glittery nail polish.
Ben wasn’t that kind of gay man.
The second he teleported off the property and was in his home parking lot, he ripped the ugly-ass things from his face and neck.
He didn’t throw them away. There was a nice pack of matches in a drawer in his room, and he was going to have himself a fire and dance over the ashes of this shit tonight.
He took the elevator up and let himself into his apartment. Seth was at the stove in the kitchenette, stirring something that smelled so good in a wok with a plastic spatula. Immediately Ben’s blood pressure went down a couple of notches.
Seth’s eyes turned up to him as he entered. He smiled, opened his mouth as if to say something, then looked down at the getup still in Ben’s hands.
“Having a costume party or something?”
“Nope.” Ben tossed the boa and glasses onto the floor and went to him, pulled him away from the stove, and kissed him long and deep.
Seth allowed himself to melt into it, putting his free hand into Ben’s hair as he returned the kiss.
When they pulled away they still didn’t separate. “Have a rough day?”
“Ugh.” Ben let his forehead fall into the crook of Seth’s shoulder.
The feel of his lover’s fingers stroking through his hair in easy, soothing motions took away a lot of his stress.
“The old man buy it?” Seth asked, pulling him back into their world that still had some problems that needed tweaking.
“A little too easily,” Ben admitted. His eyes began to wander, attempting to get a look at what they’d be eating for dinner without removing himself from his comfortable spot.
“So, we’re keeping the apartment?” Seth asked.
It smelled kind of like honey-garlic something or other tossed in rice and smoked peppers. Seth, as it happened, was not only an amazing cook, but he enjoyed doing it, giving Ben that much more to look forward to when coming home. It was a good thing because Ben was more of a microwave it and see what happens kind of guy.
“Uh, yeah, least until the lease runs out so he won’t wonder why I’m moving out of town right after all this happened.”
“I’m fine with staying put for a little while,” Seth said, his breath warm and enticing against Ben’s ear.
Ben squeezed him a little.
He’d have to be. It was hard for a vampire to get around in the daytime, and there was still the chance that someone from Wiktor’s house, a human guard, or even a former guest who had seen Seth before, would see him again and recognize him. Staying hidden, never leaving this apartment unless Ben was teleporting them somewhere remote, like Silus and Cedric’s house, or the cemetery to visit his brother—and Ben knew that last one would be a regular trip Seth would be wanting to take, as the occasional depressed moments for his lost brother still hit him—was the only way to keep him safe until they could leave.
Ben would still work for Cyricus and put up with the damn women since he had no trouble teleporting into the property, but it was still a whole lot to be asking of Seth.
Ben’s apartment was so damned tiny. If he had to stay in here all day every day for the next several months, he’d go totally insane.
Ben kissed him again. “Thanks for sticking it out with me. ’Till we can go, that is.”
Seth twirled the spatula in his fingers before he tossed it into the wok. He grabbed it by the handle and put it on a different burner before turning the stove off.
“Supper’s ready, but we have a couple minutes to let it cool.”
Ben’s blood got to pumping as Seth sauntered passed him, purposely sliding his back and ass across Ben’s chest and crotch in order to pass.
The little shit. The kitchenette wasn’t that small.
“Coming?” Seth asked.
“Yeah.” Ben grinned and followed his lover to their temporary bedroom. He’d get his revenge on Seth in there. Food, and burning those hideous things he’d brought home with him, could wait.
THE END
RIZZOROSKO.COM
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mandy Rosko lives and works in Ottawa, Ontario, is a romance junkie, a lousy web designer, and is working hard to improve the craft of creating an actual plot.
You can visit her website for some free reads at rizzorosko.com You know you want to ;)
Also by Mandy Rosko
Siren Classic: Mate of the Wolf
Siren Classic: Sequel to Mate of the Wolf: The Wolf’s Pack
Siren Classic ManLove: Night and Day
Siren Classic: Eclipse
Available at
BOOKSTRAND.COM
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
