Page 32 of Bullets and Blood (Hunting Hearts #1)

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Nix’s finger’s curled, but he didn’t twist his wrist and break free.

Not even when Lance’s lips brushed over the pulse in his neck.

Lance didn’t bite. It would’ve been easier to hate Lance if he had used his weakness against him.

Instead, Lance kissed lower, working his way to the hollow between Nix’s collarbones.

He lay there letting Lance taste and kiss his skin for a few more heartbeats, growing harder with every heartbeat. This wasn’t how it was supposed to go. “Are you going to lick me to death, Orlan?”

This slow torture was one he’d submit to quite happily, but they didn’t have all night, and if one of Lance’s family members showed up, they were both in a whole lot of painful trouble.

Lance wasn’t supposed to be here.

And he was supposed to be killing Orlans, not kissing this one.

Lance licked the cut on Nix’s jaw and then sucked on it. Nix shuddered even though he didn’t want to like it. It was too much like being bitten.

“Only until you see reason.”

Nix pulled his hand free. “I am being reasonable; you’re being stupid.” He shoved Lance’s head away, but this time, Lance was ready. He slammed Nix’s hand back into the grass, his body pressed hard against him.

Nix’s heart kicked over. This wasn’t a side of Lance he’d seen before, and he liked it.

Liked the wild gleam in his eyes and the fight in his blood.

He flicked Lance off, rolling over to straddle him.

Lance was smiling as if he didn’t realize Nix could rip his throat out and end him.

He was fucking stupid and had a death wish strong enough to match his own.

Lance was perfect.

Nix leaned down. “We were enemies from the day we were born, Orlan. A little sex doesn’t change that.”

Lance’s hand slid under his shirt, leaving a trail of heat over his skin. Then he casually undid the buttons as if they had all the time in the world. “It wasn’t just sex, Nix.”

Nix rolled his eyes. “I had to fill in the two weeks somehow.”

Lance threaded his fingers through Nix’s hair and pulled him down for a kiss. Nix should’ve resisted. At the last moment, he turned his head, sinking his teeth into Lance’s neck, deep and hard. Lance jerked beneath him, grinding against him, groaning in his ear.

Lance should hate him, fear him. Not want to screw him.

Nix pulled away. He didn’t need to feed, but Lance always tasted so good. The wound was raw, designed to hurt not tease. “I hate your blood, Orlan.”

“Then I’ll drain it so you have one less thing to hate. You want this feud to end.”

“It won’t ever end. Your aunt won’t let it. I should’ve known better. There’s only one way out for me. But I can save you.”

Lance undid Nix’s belt and jeans. “I’m not going to kill you.”

It was the easy pattern of behavior. Fuck and forget about the trouble brewing.

Sex was how this trouble had started. He couldn’t resist Lance.

They should’ve fought that first day. Ended it in the car park of the winery.

But the last week and a half had been the best of his life.

“Then you’re no fucking good to me, Orlan. ”

With a twist of Lance’s hips, Nix found himself on his stomach, Lance pinning him to the ground.

He struggled half-heartedly as Lance grabbed his hands and pulled them behind his back.

Then Lance yanked Nix’s shirt down, so it tangled his arms. That was a little harder to get free from, but nothing he couldn’t manage if he wanted.

He didn’t want.

Lance lay over him, one knee wedged up rather close to Nix’s balls. He grabbed a handful of hair, restricting all of Nix’s movements unless he was willing to tear out a clump of his own hair, which at the moment, he wasn’t because he was still having fun. He wanted to know what Lance would do next.

Lance’s breath was warm in his ear. “Say my name.”

He knew what Lance wanted but couldn’t give it to him. “Orlan.”

“We aren’t enemies even though our families are.” Lance bit the lobe of Nix’s ear.

Nix winced and wriggled, squirming to get away but liking the pressure of the teeth on his skin. “I don’t think you know what you’re doing up there, Orlan.”

He expected the bite that time, and his stomach flipped with expectation and dread even though it was only the tiniest nibble on his earlobe.

“Call me, Lance.”

“That can be my safe word since you’ve got me all trussed up.” Two meters away, one of the knives glinted. Further was the edge of the cliff. He wasn’t going back to Melbourne. Nix turned his head a little, feeling the pull in his scalp. “Or are you going to bore me to death, Orlan?”

Annoyance flickered over Lance’s face. It was the use of his surname that burned him, not the goads.

“I may not have fangs, but I can still bite.” His teeth brushed Nix’s earlobe again.

Nix drew in a breath as Lance’s lips left his ear and trailed down his neck. His teeth touched the skin, and Nix bucked, trying to throw him off, but he was stuck. He’d trapped himself again. Lance was poison that he drank every goddamn time because it tasted so good. “You’re an asshole.”

“Yep.” He raked his teeth over Nix’s neck, and his whole body broke out in gooseflesh. But his dick was as hard as rock and pressing into the ground. Lance ground against his ass. “And I’ll stop biting when you say my name.”

“It doesn’t matter what I call you; you’ll still be an Orlan.”

Lance’s blunt teeth pressed into his neck—if they hadn’t been blunt, he’d have been dead. He had no luck tonight. The pressure increased, and Nix groaned and wriggled as though he could worm away. He did want to get away…

“I think you like it,” Lance whispered.

“I think you’re stalling because you don’t know how to fuck, Orlan.” He didn’t like it. There were too many memories associated with being bitten. But he’d used to like it, and his body remembered why it felt good even if his brain baulked.

Lance rolled his hips, his dick pressed against Nix’s ass. Then he bit again, sucking on the skin.

Nix closed his eyes. “I hate you and your damn family, Orlan. Let me up.”

“No. I can do whatever I want when you’re like this.”

Only because Nix was letting him. “Well, all you’re doing is talking.”

Lance tugged Nix’s jeans down, exposing his ass to the cold night air.

His teeth sank into the flesh of one cheek, and Nix squeaked.

He was going to have a hickey on his ass—what was he, sixteen?

Every squirm only made his jeans ride down lower.

He heard Lance’s fly rachet down, and his heart kicked hard against his ribs.

He needed to get his hands free. This wasn’t going as planned. But he had no desire to even try. He could die later; he could spare a few minutes from his busy schedule.

He almost wished it had been a different Orlan who had shown up. One he could kill.

“Are you waiting for backup, Orlan? Is that why you’re stalling?”

“I should’ve gagged you.” Lance nipped and kissed his way over the globe of his ass before his tongue slipped down the crack.

Nix opened his mouth but didn’t know what to say. He hadn’t relinquished control to anyone for years. Hadn’t trusted anyone enough.

Lance moved over him. “I know what you’re trying to do, and it won’t work, Nix. I don’t hate you.” His dick rested against Nix’s crack. “But I have decided I like seeing you all helpless.”

“Just because I’m not fighting doesn’t make me helpless.”

“You don’t hate me.” He heard the smile in Lance’s voice.

Nix closed his eyes. “Orlan, I don’t know how you think this ends?—”

The bite on his neck was hard enough to hurt. Lance rutted against him in a horrible tease. Nix struggled against the fabric of his shirt, his jeans creeping further down his legs, his dick trapped and uncomfortable, but he’d be damned before he gave in.

“Just say my name.”

“Fuck off, Orlan.” Why couldn’t Lance just hate him and make this easy? He gathered the fabric in one hand, slowly working it off his other while Lance did his best to distract him by fingering his hole. If he got free…

He didn’t even want to get free. He wanted to feel Lance inside him. Lance’s dick was hot between his ass cheeks. Nix didn’t know if he should bite his tongue, offer a smart remark, or say his name.

He lifted his hips, and Lance took the invitation, sinking into him.

He gasped, then pressed his fangs to his lip to keep from crying out from the pain. The stretch and burn hurt. It was too rough…but it felt good.

Lance’s fingers tangled in Nix’s hair. “Nothing to say?”

Nix laughed. “That all you got, Orlan?”

Lance sank deeper. The grass tickled his nose, and there was a rock beneath his rib. He was going to come in about two thrusts…but Lance didn’t move. Nix opened his eyes and turned his head to glance up at him.

“Do you want it this way?” Lance’s eyes were wild, consumed with lust.

Nix looked away. “I don’t know. You aren’t doing much, Orlan.”

He shut up as Lance started moving. Each thrust was a stretch and burn that rippled through him.

He tried not to lift his hips and failed, wanting everything Lance would give him.

It only took three thrusts for Nix to come in his briefs, trapped by his own clothes, and he couldn’t stifle the groan or the shudder as pleasure rippled through him.

It had been far too long since he’d trusted anyone. He shouldn’t have trusted Lance at all.

Lance groaned and slammed into him a couple more times. His hips jerked as he came, spilling inside of Nix. His breathing was hard as he lay over Nix, squishing his arms and making the rock bite him harder. Nix wasn’t going to move first. They could lay there forever and that would be fine.

He lost feeling in his fingers, but Lance’s breath on his cheek and his heartbeat against his back was so much like music that he didn’t want to break the moment.

“You’re the asshole in this relationship,” Lance murmured in his ear before drawing away.

Nix winced as Lance pulled out. “You aren’t making this any easier. Just do your damn job and then get on a plane for somewhere else before they ruin you.”

“You ruined me.” Lance flipped Nix over and sat over his legs. “You made me love you.”

“I’m sorry.” And he meant it.

“Are you? Do you really give a damn?”

“Of course I fucking do.” Nix struggled to sit up, his hands still trapped and his fingers filled with pins and needles as the circulation returned. “I’m trying to save your life.”

“By ending yours.”

“Mine has been for sale from the day I was born. There’s been murder waiting for me from the day I was turned and dragged into this bloody war.

I’ve played this game reluctantly, and I’ve lost. And I’m glad I got to play with you.

Now let me at least give you a chance so your aunt doesn’t kill you.

” He swallowed. “I love you, Lance. I don’t want to be your end. ”

He shouldn’t have started.

Lance pulled the shirt up his arms and used the collar to draw him close for a kiss that tasted of blood. Nix put his arms around him, not wanting to let go.

“Did I hurt you?”

Yes, but not as much is to come . “No. But I thought you didn’t top.”

Lance looked away. “If I do, I like to…restrain my partner.”

The corner of Nix’s lips flicked into a smile. “I can work with that.”

“It scares me. I don’t want to be rough, but I enjoy it.” He bit his lip and refused to look at Nix.

Nix lifted Lance’s chin. “You’re a vampire that need for violence is in your blood. You must learn to live with that. I’d have stopped you if I was worried. If I wasn’t enjoying it. You’d have stopped if you really thought you were hurting me.”

“Would I?”

“I wouldn’t have trusted you if I thought otherwise. You should’ve told me ten days ago. We could’ve had more fun.”

“You wouldn’t let me hug you ten days ago.”

“True…” The world had shifted and yet stayed the same in so many ways. Falling in love when his life was falling apart was a cruel jest, but that’s the way it had always been for him. The wrong person at the wrong time. Lance was no different.

Lance sighed. “I shouldn’t have bitten you.”

“It was nice. I used to like it.” Lance’s heartbeat in his ear was still quick. “Maybe I still like it with the right person.” It would be different if Lance had fangs. He wasn’t ready for that.

“I didn’t think you’d let me do…that.”

“Let you what?” Nix lifted an eyebrow. Did Lance know he hadn’t been trying to get free?

Lance shrugged. “Doesn’t matter.”

“Are you okay?”

Lance drew in a breath. “No. I’m never going to be okay again.”

Nix pushed him back to check the bite wound he’d made, but it wasn’t bleeding. “Where are you hurt?”

Had he broken one of Lance’s ribs? He’d pulled all his punches. He could’ve killed Lance several times, but he’d wanted Lance to get angry enough to use a weapon. Instead, Lance had turned the lust on him. The one weapon that leaves no visible scars.

Lance dropped his gaze and shook his head. “I know you’re right. About everything. About my family.” He licked his split lip. “Even if I take you in, I’m not safe. I don’t trust them, and they don’t trust me. Maybe they were hoping you’d kill me and solve their problem.”

“If you’d attacked me after work that first day, I would’ve without a second thought.”

“If I was better at my job, I would’ve done exactly that. But I’d spent so long hunting you, I wanted to see who you were…and you weren’t the same as you are on paper.”

“Far more disappointing in the flesh.”

Lance gave a short laugh and shook his head. “Do you really love me or is that a ploy?”

Nix cupped Lance’s face. “I love you. But that won’t save us.”

“I know. I want that shit-hole winery so you could try to convince me wine is better than beer.”

“You’d sneak cheap beer into the fridge.”

“I would.” Lance smiled. “But I’d have learned how to fix things up and run a business, and it would’ve worked. We would’ve worked.”

Nix kissed him again so he didn’t have to listen to his dreams burn to ash like a dead vampire in the sun. “You’re unblooded. Offer yourself to the Reids. They might turn you and protect you.”

“What about you?”

His throat was thick. “All I can bring them is trouble.”