Page 20

Chapter 19

G ordon had tried concentrating on the manhwa, but Adler was reasonably good at staring, and Maxim had been right. Adler had been making eyes at Gordon ever since Gordon had arrived at the station. And if he thought he was being subtle about it, he was wrong.

But Gordon made a point of at least skimming through the story, even if he had a hard time focusing. He kept looking up from the page, and every time he did, Adler’s eyes seemed to have grown hungrier.

Yet the werewolf didn’t say a word, didn’t even so much as move a muscle except to sip his virgin cocktail. He really is just watching. Or it’s a game of stares, and I’m losing. Or we are both winning.

Gordon got to the last page, closed the book, put it on the table in front of him and folded his hands over it. “I think,” he said, “that I would like to go home now.”

Adler’s smile widened. “Then I’ll take you home, sweetheart.”

As soon as the door to Gordon’s apartment fell shut behind them, Gordon felt Adler’s hands on him, wrapping around him, drawing him closer until the wolf was close enough to kiss Gordon’s neck.

Gordon moaned and rubbed against Adler.

“You like that, sweetheart?” Adler asked.

“Yes.”

“You want it?” Adler’s breath ghosted over Gordon’s neck.

“I do. You?”

Deep laughter rumbled through Adler’s chest. “I want all of it. All of you. Or all that you’re willing to share with me.”

Gordon had felt Adler’s desire as they’d made their way back to his place, and once he’d opened the front door of his apartment building, Adler had made a point of being close enough for Gordon to feel the wolf’s hot breath on his skin.

When Gordon closed the apartment door behind them, it was like a starting signal to the other. Adler gently nipped the skin of Gordon’s neck rather than just kissing it, the werewolf’s hand a gentle vise that held Gordon, one hand covering his abdomen in a gesture that was somewhere between protective and possessive. Adler was solid and hot, and Gordon leaned back, wanting to fall into that heat.

“How about that, sweetheart?” Adler asked, his voice a dark rumble.

“Yes.” Gordon reached behind himself to run a hand up Adler’s thigh until he found his crotch. “How about you? Do you like this?”

Adler growled. It was a heady noise, with him being so close, with him holding Gordon like that. The vibration of it was something Gordon felt in every cell. And it’s sexy to no end .

“I liked the way you looked in bed this morning,” Adler said. “I think that’s where I should put you.” He ran his hands up Gordon’s chest, then back down again to his pants, began stroking his cock through the fabric.

“Then do,” Gordon said.

There was no hesitation whatsoever. Adler spun Gordon so they were facing each other, so that kissing was easier, which they did while Adler walked Gordon backwards down his hallway and into his bedroom. They never stopped to turn on the lights, both vampire and werewolf vision capable of dealing with the darkness.

“You know,” Adler said when Gordon could feel the bed against his calves, “I’ve been thinking about doing this with you all day, but the reality of it is so much better. And I should apologize in advance, because I don’t think I can let you sleep in. I don’t think I can let you sleep.”

Gordon groaned. “You realize that’s a huge turn-off, right? I need my dead people sleep, my coffin time. Keeps me young and handsome.”

Adler kissed Gordon before beginning to undress him. “You realize you’re not like your corpses but a vampire, sweetheart? You shouldn’t be needing all that much sleep. You certainly don’t need it to be more beautiful than you are, with that new hair. Fuck, I love your hair, sweetheart.”

Gordon pulled Adler’s shirt free from the werewolf’s pants, and because he’d decided to be opportunistic, he undid the wolf’s pants. “Cliché. We don’t all get by on three hours or less like Maxim does.”

“Rough,” Adler said before he worked the buttons of Gordon’s shirt with surprising dexterity. “Because I don’t plan on letting you get all that much rest for the foreseeable future, Gordon. Heavens, you are magnificent.” Adler pushed the shirt off Gordon’s shoulders before running his fingers along the newly exposed skin, then down his chest, stopping at the nipples to give them additional attention, his thumbs rubbing them to hardness.

“Wait. Wait,” Gordon said.

Adler stopped abruptly, eyes locked on Gordon’s. “Yes? What do you need?”

“This isn’t working. Take your clothes off first. Too much fumbling.”

A slow smile crept over Adler’s face. “As you wish.” He stood, took a few steps away from the bed. “Watch me.”

Adler was deliciously watchable as Gordon discovered when he slid to the edge of the bed, enthralled. He tossed his shirt as he watched Adler kick off his shoes and pull his belt out of its loops with a satisfying whoosh before he dropped it.

Gordon stood to casually get out of his own jeans, but Adler made a show of it, letting his pants collect at his ankles before touching the erection in his boxers, stroking rhythmically.

“I’ll put this inside you.”

Adler’s voice was a hungry thing. He meant business. Gordon didn’t doubt that for a moment. His hole twitched even before he slid out of his own briefs, not an elegant or calculated movement but one that Adler watched as if it were a juicy bunny he wanted to snack on.

Gordon let out a nervous chuckle. “You’re going to eat me, detective?”

The hand with which he stroked himself stopped briefly. “You want me to eat you out before?”

“Wh—no. I mean, not that I’m opposed. It’s been some time since—fuck. I’m present in the moment and nowhere else. You just looked at me as if I were something you wanted to hunt and catch. Like a squirrel or something.”

Adler cocked his head, but he was back to working himself with his hand. Gordon sat back down on the bed slowly. He still couldn’t shake the feeling of being watched by a predator.

“Doctor, do you think that is what we do in Seneca Park? Hunt squirrels? You think I hunt squirrels?”

Gordon cleared his throat. “Can you honestly tell me you never have? Hunted a squirrel that is?”

“Milkmaids, Gordon. We hunt milkmaids who make pretty eyes at us or leave their glass slipper because they expect us to fetch it for them.”

Heat collected in Gordon’s chest and traveled south, and he was powerless to stop it, not that he would have wanted to. He sat on his sheets, unmoving, mesmerized by Adler, who circled himself with a hand. With the other he began working the buttons of his own shirt, just about as dexterous as he’d been with Gordon’s, but when Adler let the material glide off his strong shoulders, the sight was very different from what Gordon expected he would look like.

Under his clothes, Adler was a powerful man. Werewolves often had an easier time building muscle, Gordon knew that, but physiology didn’t automatically make every werewolf look like that .

I am so lucky. How did I get so lucky? He is hot. Blistering.

“Watch me,” Adler said and finally, finally, rid himself of that last little bit of clothing. “Remember what I said?”

Gordon swallowed against a sudden tightness in his throat. “That you’ll put this inside me.”

“That’s right. There’s nothing I want more right now. But if you tell me it’s not going to happen, then that’s it, do you understand? I like talking as if that’s not the case sometimes, but it’s just talk. You say stop or red, and that’s it. That good for you?”

Need and desire both made a heady cocktail of Gordon’s blood. He had expected Adler to be fun, but he hadn’t expected him to be this fun.

“I like that. Would you ever, you know.” Gordon swallowed. He’d never asked this of anyone and wasn’t sure why he was on the cusp of doing so now with Adler. He closed his eyes. “Can you pretend you won’t stop, no matter what?”

Adler stilled. Then he walked back to the bed, sat, close but not too close. He didn’t touch Gordon.

“Yeah, I can do that for you. But not to start off. Not without talking before and knowing you better. Is that something you did with”—emotions rushed over Adler’s face before he controlled himself—“with other people?”

Gordon shook his head. “No. I don’t even know what came over me. We don’t have to at all.”

Adler reached to cover Gordon’s hand with his. “I will. If it’s a fantasy of yours, I’ll do it perfectly. Spice it up, even. Just not tonight.”

Gordon relaxed. He hadn’t even realized he’d tensed up. “That sounds like something to look forward to.”

He tugged on Adler’s shoulder, and that was all it took. Adler was on him in a flash, and Gordon was covered in warm werewolf all of a sudden. Adler nuzzled Gordon’s neck before placing a gentle bite there, and Gordon, not wanting to be an idle pillow queen, reached for Adler’s cock and started stroking. He’s so wet already, and so big.

“I can’t remember the last time anyone called me beautiful by the way,” Gordon said, tilting his head up to open himself to another attack of Adler’s mouth, which came, lips grazing lips, teeth nipping and pulling, and tongue thrusting.

Adler’s hand came up to Gordon’s neck to hold him there, then Adler worked Gordon’s mouth even harder, right up to the point where Gordon was beginning to think he might pass out from lack of oxygen.

Adler stopped then. “You are. Beautiful. So much so that I want to look at you all the time.”

“Oh.”

Gordon reached between himself and Adler, took both of them in one hand, their eager wetness mingling, and their bodies grinding. Adler had resumed what passed for kissing, though kissing seemed much too tame for his ministrations.

Where does anyone even learn to do that with just their tongue and mouth? Gordon wondered, but not for long, because the feeling of Adler’s body on top of him was like the heaviness of a nearing thunderstorm, smothering sound and thought like the noise of thunderclap, and Gordon felt his body fall into the pattern of need and want, felt the hand with which he was jacking them slicken with sweat and precum, felt himself approach release.

Adler pushed down on him, dove his tongue deeper, and that was just as much as Gordon could handle. He came, heat flooding him before his muscles bucked, and Adler pulled back enough to let him scream, which Gordon did. He’d never screamed like that before, not from a simple orgasm.

“Huh,” Adler said. “That was not what I had planned. Sweetheart, I think you have been neglected for too long.”

“Hmm?”

“I’ll fix it.”

Adler’s weight drifted down on him, restricting his breathing slightly. Gordon’s cum made their skin sticky, but Adler didn’t seem to care, and Gordon was beyond caring, had to concentrate on feeling Adler’s gentle kisses running down Gordon’s jaw and throat.

“So beautiful,” Adler said, kissing his way down Gordon’s body, licking up cum as he went.

“Mmm-hmm,” Gordon managed.

“Lube?”

“Right now?”

Adler looked up, a mischievous twinkle in his eyes. “Right fucking now.”

“Drawer.” Gordon managed to lift an arm and point to his nightstand.

“Don’t you move, sweetheart.”

“Couldn’t if I wanted to.”

Adler chuckled, a dark, sonorous noise. “That gives me all kinds of ideas.”

“Hmm, don’t tell me you like to cuff people in bed as well, detective.”

Adler pulled open the drawer in Gordon’s nightstand and fished around for the lube, which was strawberry flavored.

“Depends on the person. But you, I wouldn’t cuff. Look at that porcelain skin of yours; it’s perfect for holding rope marks. Sweetheart, I’d drape you in knots and loops. If you want that. Now tell me, Gordon,” Adler said, holding out the lube, “why does a vampire care about flavored lube?”

Did he say…rope marks? “Nostalgia? Plus, it’s strawberry. It’s lawfully good.”

“Hmm. Typical geek speak, but that’s fair. Now, turn on your belly so I can fuck you until you faint from cumming.”

He needs a license for that bedroom mouth of his, Gordon thought, then wondered about Adler’s mouth and what the wolf could do with it, other than comment on Gordon’s choice of lube.

Only one way to find out, Gordon thought and turned on his belly.