Page 100

Jamie

J amie stood with his back against the living room wall, arms crossed, watching Luc “set the scene,” as his vampire had called it. Jamie was holding himself as still as he could manage, but he couldn’t help fidgeting with his fresh toothpick, rolling it from one end of his mouth to the other.

He was just so fucking excited . His pulse was racing, and he felt flush with adrenaline. He just wanted this vampire so fucking bad. And he felt like they were actually moving forward. Like some invisible line had been crossed on Luc’s end.

Luc had already straightened Jamie’s living room, and now he was draping blankets artfully over the couch and chairs, throwing a red scarf of Monique’s he’d found over one of the lamps to bathe the room in a dim rosy glow.

He’d asked Jamie if he had any wine, wrinkling his nose like a snobby asshole at the less-than-ten-dollar bottle Jamie had held up but in the end pouring them both a glass anyway.

All that was missing was a record player playing some smooth jazz.

“No music?” Jamie teased when Luc finally seemed to be slowing down in his rearrangements.

“No music. Too distracting.” Luc eyed his changes, nodded once decisively, then set his sights on Jamie.

Fuck. So intense, when all that animal energy was focused in one place. When that one place was Jamie .

He had asked for the seduction as a lark more than anything, a means of closing the distance between them and finally getting those hands on him properly.

But he was beginning to think he wasn’t prepared for what was in store for him.

Jamie’s past sexual experiences had been noncommittal, inexperienced fumblings with other dudes his age, not immortal creatures with over two centuries of seductive encounters behind them.

“Now—” Luc prowled forward, bracketing Jamie up against the wall with two broad arms. He reached down and plucked the toothpick out of Jamie’s mouth. “You do know I’m not fucking you tonight, yes?”

Well, no . Jamie did not know that at all. Major bummer. He slouched back against the wall, disappointed. “And why not?”

“Because, pretty flower,” Luc crooned, brushing the backs of his fingers against Jamie’s cheek, “when I fuck you, it will be a claiming. You’re not ready for that yet.”

“I’m not?” Jamie asked petulantly.

“Perhaps I’m not,” Luc amended, running his thumb over Jamie’s bottom lip.

Ohh. Jamie was actually getting honesty from the vampire now.

What a heady fucking feeling. He did his best to ignore the surge of disappointment he wasn’t getting filled tonight by the stud in front of him.

He was realizing maybe the hesitancy on Luc’s end was less about Luc being unsure about Jamie and more about Luc being unsure of himself.

Jamie could work with that. “No one has ever called me pretty before.”

“Oh, but you are,” Luc purred. “Everyone else must have been distracted by your punk petals. Such a lovely face hiding underneath.”

“I’m not hiding,” Jamie protested. And he wasn’t. The green hair, the punk-leaning clothes. They weren’t a costume, or a way of hiding from the world. They were just what he liked, simple as that. The way he chose to decorate himself.

Luc rubbed a lock of Jamie’s green hair between two fingers. “No, you aren’t, are you? Still, it keeps the unworthy from realizing how beautiful you are, I think.”

Jamie swallowed hard. “Has the seduction started already?”

“No, this is just…truth. Come.” Luc tugged Jamie forward, manhandling him onto the couch, Luc settling in close beside him.

Very close. Jamie’s skin prickled from his nearness.

He tried to be subtle in the way he breathed in Luc’s scent, but judging from the smirk on Luc’s face, he wasn’t wholly successful.

Jamie fidgeted with one of the blankets. “You’ve made a nice little nest here.”

“Atmosphere is important.” Luc placed an arm on the back of the couch, his fingers toying with Jamie’s open collar, sending little sparks of electricity every time they brushed skin.

“Normally I would have finer things to set the scene.” He gave Jamie a wicked grin.

“I’d like to drape you in finery, flower. ”

Jamie shivered. What the fuck? Luxury had never been all that appealing to Jamie before. He didn’t crave “finery.” He didn’t usually see the point. But the idea of Luc…decorating him. Placing Jamie carefully into the things he’d like to see, like to touch. That held some serious appeal.

Luc’s lips quirked, his fingers continuing their dance along Jamie’s collarbone. “Would you like that, my sweet? Diamonds in your ears, perhaps some onyx rings on your fingers to set off that black polish?”

Fuck, was Jamie blushing ? In their brief time together, Luc had held himself so still, so distant. Even with Jamie’s mouth on his cock, he hadn’t let himself loose, not really. But now Jamie was getting a real taste of the man hiding underneath all that predator stillness. The elegant seductor.

Jamie had a flash of his first vision of Luc, adjusting the cuffs of his leather jacket as if it were a dinner one.

“Perhaps we’ll dress you in silks,” Luc murmured, grabbing Jamie’s chin in a firm grasp, tilting his head until their eyes met. “Something soft and fine and…decadent.”

Jamie found himself leaning closer, lost in those black eyes, all the dancing shadows.

Luc was clearly pleased with his reaction.

“Ohh my. If I’d had you in my clutches in those early days, I would have eaten you right up.

And you would have let me, wouldn’t you, my flower?

I wouldn’t even have needed compulsion with you.

Just look at you. Heavy-lidded, hard as rock. Just from a few sweet words.”

Fuck. He wasn’t wrong. Jamie’s cock was hard as steel.

He was lost in Luc’s pretty compliments, his rich sandalwood scent.

And painfully aware that he was basically half-dressed, bare-chested, while Luc was fully clothed in dark jeans and some designer-looking button-down.

It made Jamie feel…soft. Vulnerable. Turned the fuck on.

Past hookups had been flirty, teasing. Never this…sultry seduction. He liked it.

Liked it even more that it was his vicious, vengeful vampire doing it.

He was only this sweet for Jamie.

Jamie exhaled shakily. “I really think you should fuck me.”

Luc laughed—a rough, low sound that tingled down Jamie’s spine. “Oh no, precious. Not tonight. But you’ll give me a kiss, won’t you?”

Don’t have to ask me fucking twice. Jamie was on him in an instant, crushing his lips against Luc’s, using the opportunity to squirm onto the vampire’s lap. It was so strange, how easily Jamie fit there. They were basically the same height, but Luc’s bulk and strength made Jamie feel half his size.

He groaned when he felt Luc’s hardness underneath him, grinding his ass down against that amazing bulge. At least Jamie wasn’t the only one affected by all this…teasing.

Jamie lost himself in the kiss, in the battling tongues and nipping teeth, grinding against Luc all the while. Luc fucked his tongue into Jamie’s mouth like it was his cock.

Jamie fucking loved it.

Eventually he felt Luc’s fingers dig into his hair, pulling Jamie’s head back sharply.

The vampire was panting, he noted with satisfaction.

Luc searched his face, his gaze lingering on Jamie’s lips, which felt swollen and tender from all the attention. “I always thought I would end up with a woman,” Luc murmured—way out of the fucking blue, in Jamie’s humble opinion. “A wife.”

Jamie scowled back at him. What the fuck? Talk about a boner killer. “Maybe your seduction game could use some work after all.”

Luc smirked at him, tugging his hair once in admonition. “Hush. I’m giving you another truth. I had the classic hang-ups of my time. Worries of damnation. A million reasons to suppress any…unnatural attractions I felt.”

Jamie tsked. “You need a catch-up with modern biology if you think gay leanings are unnatural. I can give you a dozen examples in the animal kingdom off the top of my head.”

Luc ignored his interjection. “After I was turned, I figured—in for a penny, in for a pound. I let myself open up to the possibilities. The first man I brought home—to feed on and to fuck.” He let out a harsh breath. “It was…so delicious.”

Luc’s sexy fucking voice was low and gruff, and Jamie hated that he was still hard hearing his confession. That through familiar pangs of jealousy over Luc’s past lovers, he was…aroused…by his words.

“So much possibility,” Luc mused, fixing Jamie in his stare.

He gave a surprisingly gentle tug on Jamie’s hair this time.

“None of them affected me the way you do. Not a one. This mouth alone.” He ran his free thumb along Jamie’s lower lip, and Jamie only barely resisted the urge to tongue at it, to suck it into his mouth.

“This. Fucking. Mouth. I could feast on it endlessly. I will .”

He claimed Jamie’s mouth again before any of his words could sink in fully, sucking at Jamie’s lower lip. Jamie found himself writhing against the vampire again, one hand splayed across his broad chest.

Luc abandoned his mouth to press warm, openmouthed kisses along Jamie’s jaw. “A work of art, this jawline,” he rasped. “What would you like, my sweet? Would you like me to return the favor of the other night? To have my mouth on your aching cock?”

Jamie’s cock was aching, damn it. He tried to clear the lust fog in his brain to formulate some words. “What would be next? In your grand seduction?”

Luc stilled, his lips still pressed against Jamie’s jaw. Jamie broke the contact and leaned back to peer at him.

“A bite,” Luc admitted grudgingly, his eyes on Jamie’s neck. “A bite would be next.”

Heat rushed through Jamie at the thought. This was it. This was what set his destined lover apart from other men. A need for blood. A need for Jamie’s blood, if he’d let himself.

“Then that’s what I want,” Jamie declared firmly.