Page 49 of Resurrection
“The cherries would be a good touch to that, a bit of red tartness inside?” Gabe said, a brow raised as he stood near the door to the basement. He opened the door, “Coming?”
Seiran sucked in air, trying to calm his anxiety and racing mind. They didn’t have to be anything. Sharing blood would be important to keeping Gabe sane, but they didn’t have to be what they were. If they’d really been anything at all. Did he want that? He didn’t know what the fuck he wanted in that moment.
“Maybe we can get this over with?’” Gabe teased.
Chapter 17
He headed down the stairs, and Seiran trailed behind slowly, closing and locking the door behind him. He didn’t need his kids running around in Gabe’s space. Not that they ever visited the basement when they had an entire wing to themselves. His mother’s over-the-top choice for the house had seemed stupid at the time, but years later, filled with teenagers and almost teenagers, there was never enough space.
“It wasn’t like a sex party or anything,” Seiran said as they entered into the living space below. There were still boxes everywhere, though a few things appeared to have been opened and rifled through. The bed was made instead of covered in a dust cloth. The room cluttered, but not as lifeless as the storage space it had been.
“No,” Gabe said with a light laugh. “It’s more like meeting all your buddies out for drinks.”
“Except the drink is people,” Seiran said from his spot near the stairs. He didn’t think he’d be able to negotiate for someone to feed Gabe. Wasn’t sex and blood the same thing to a vampire? He thought he was grown-up enough to handle it, but had to admit to himself that some things were just ingrained. Gabe wasn’t really his, hadn’t ever been. What right did he have to demand?
Gabe paused to look back at him. “Sex does not equal blood. Or vice versa. I suspect that was my doing? That you think that way?”
“I am under the understanding that being bitten hurts without it?”
Gabe nodded, looking thoughtful. “My fault. I’ll work on that.” He took off his shirt, and it was so much like a striptease, even though Seiran knew it wasn’t meant to be, that his mouth watered. The body wasn’t all that different. He didn’t have the same super defined muscle that Seiran could remember, but none of the tone had really been lost. Gabe looked healthy, but without endless abs and the superhero arms that Seiran knew had been fantasies generated by media stereotypes rather than memories. There was a familiar scar on his chest, beneath one pectoral muscle. Seiran knew it was from being stabbed with a spear, but not all the details of it.
He couldn’t peel his gaze away as Gabe kicked off his shoes, and his hands went to the button of his pants, unhooking them, and shoving them down to reveal royal blue undies that encased an incredible ass, and outlined his cock, which was partially hard. He was far too pretty. Seiran hugged himself, trying to tell himself it was okay to react, his body did what it did. He didn’t have to actually play out any fantasies, even if his cock was hard as a rock and begging to be touched. And what an unusual feeling to have after so long. He’d rarely found anyone at all appealing. But right this minute, his body was on fire.
It had to be exhaustion. Yeah, that was it. It had been a long day. Lots of terrible things. He was tired. Inhibitions lowered due to weariness. Sure.
Gabe headed into the bathroom and turned on the water, but he didn’t shut the door. After a moment steam began to fill the room, fogging up the mirror. Seiran tried to look away when Gabe shed the last bit of clothes, but that ass was amazing. Stuff of legends and memories he hadn’t been sure were real.
“You can join me,” Gabe offered as he stepped under the spray of water in the giant walk-in shower. It wasn’t as big of a bathroom as the one Seiran had, but still a stone inlay of wide-open space to bask in the heat of the multiple shower heads.
“Maybe we should do this another time?” Seiran said softly, though didn’t move from his spot clinging to the wall beside the stairs. It gave him a view of too much, and he should have walked away, but his head swam with a thousand scenarios. “You really didn’t sex up any of thecibos?”
“No,” Gabe said. He washed under the spray another minute, before rinsing off. He shut off the water and reached for a towel. “Since they weren’t mine, that would have been rude. And not allcibosare into that. Some just want college money.”
Seiran did not watch him painstakingly dry every inch of his body. He didn’t. Well, he did, and barely breathed the entire time. Where was the air? Did this room feel claustrophobic all of a sudden?
Gabe wrapped the towel around his waist and looked up. Green gaze finding Seiran, and it wasn’t a condemning stare, or even a teasing one, instead it was filled with heat. Seiran pressed himself to the wall to keep from trembling. He shouldn’t still feel this way after all these years. The pain, being abandoned, those last few days, weeks even, of Gabe unraveling, cruel comments, and the complete shutdown of everything they had been.
Gabe crossed the room, not adding clothes or anything as he made his way to Seiran. Not stalking exactly, but Seiran still felt a vague sense of unease. Wariness.I am vampire, be afraid.
He didn’t stop until he stood close enough to touch, so close in fact, that Seiran could feel the warmth and moisture from the shower lingering on his skin. The scent of him clean and fresh.
Gabe touched Seiran’s face, his palm warm, fingertips soft as they seemed to trace his cheek and the side of his lips. “Over with, you said?” Gabe asked.
“I mean, it seems important that we…” Seiran trailed off, not sure what to do. Those green eyes, intense, and bringing back so many memories. He wasn’t sure whether to run away or throw himself into Gabe’s arms. “I’m not a kid anymore,” he said.
“No,” Gabe agreed. “I’m grateful for that.” He leaned in close, his lips only inches from Seiran’s, the warmth of his body heating Seiran. “Remember that first kiss?” Gabe asked. “When you asked me, who kisses like that?”
Seiran sucked in a deep breath, but smelled and tasted only Gabe. Did he remember? Maybe it hadn’t all been a lie or an act.
“You remember?”
“Do you?” Gabe wanted to know. His hand went to Seiran’s throat, his thumb still caressing Seiran’s lower lip, though they were so close, all Seiran could see was Gabe’s eyes, his head tilted a little as though ready to kiss him. He didn’t think he’d say no in that moment. Despite the danger. Gabe could hurt him. In a thousand ways. The hand on his throat indicated that with subtle strength.
“Yes,” Seiran admitted. “No one kissed like you did.”
“Do,” Gabe corrected and captured Seiran’s lips with his own.
It was a few seconds of floundering. Seiran unsure what to do, sink into the warmth or fight. But Gabe pressed him into the wall, the heat of his body, relaxing as well as stimulating. And Seiran let himself fall into the kiss. Devouring is a word he’d thought for a long time described Gabe’s kisses. And that was true enough. But the dance of exploration, Gabe’s tongue in his mouth, exploring, wasn’t brutal, though it wasn’t delicate either. It was a duel of their tongues, and reminded Seiran of things he’d long forgotten.