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Because not only was Luc the man facing his fears meeting Jamie’s family like this, but Luc’s inner monster was also apparently making a special effort, allowing Luc to consume human food just to please Jamie’s mom.

A gesture from both sides of his lover, the man and the vampire.

Jamie thought of what Luc had said the other night. About not fucking Jamie until they were both ready for permanent attachment. So it was going to be a claiming?

Fine by fucking Jamie.

He was ready. And it wouldn’t be one-sided either. Luc might claim him as his mate, but Jamie was claiming him right back.

This vampire was his.

By the time they returned to Jamie’s place, it was fully dark, the desert air finally a tolerable temperature on the walk home. Once they’d made it inside, Jamie shepherded Luc into the overstuffed armchair, where he remained while Jamie grabbed them both drinks.

No wine tonight. It was Jamie’s seduction this time.

He tossed a beer to Luc—laughing inwardly at the way his snobby vampire wrinkled his nose at the dented blue can even as he caught it easily—then connected his phone to the little portable speaker he kept in the living room.

He stayed standing, cocking a hip against the side of the couch facing Luc, and selected a playlist.

He hummed in delight as the intro of the first song—just piano chords and the singer’s dulcet tones—washed over them, and Luc cocked an eyebrow.

“What are you playing for me, flower?”

Jamie swayed a little to the music. “King Princess. You like it?”

Luc ran a finger over his beer’s condensation. “I expected something…noisier…from you.”

Jamie gave an exaggerated sigh, halting his movements. “Just because I have dyed hair doesn’t mean I’m into screamo. Your sense of culture is outdated, old man.”

Luc just smirked at him before giving his own little sigh and resting his head against the back of his chair. “I like it,” he conceded.

“I like you ,” Jamie declared.

He’d already known he did, but that afternoon had cemented his feelings into something solid, immovable, indefinite. He liked every bit of this vampire. The vicious, the gentle, the seductive, the macabre. It wasn’t just that subconscious pull Jamie had always felt anymore—it was genuine affection.

His declaration had Luc raising his head right back up. “You do?” He asked the question lightly, but there was tension in his seated frame.

Jamie took a casual sip of his beer. “You were awfully nice today. With my family.”

Luc waved a dismissive hand. “They were easy to be nice to. And they’re important to you.”

“They are.” Jamie set his beer down on a side table, stepping closer to the seated vampire. “And you care about what’s important to me. Because you want to make me happy, don’t you?”

Luc set his own drink down, tracking Jamie’s approach with heat in his eyes. “I do.”

Jamie let out a happy sound at the affirmation. “And your monster wants to please me, doesn’t he?”

Luc licked his lips. “It does.”

Jamie moved steadily forward until he was standing between Luc’s spread legs.

This close, he towered over the vampire’s seated form, but Jamie still felt almost…

delicate…in his presence. Luc had the aura of a king, sprawled in his seat, his hands lightly gripping the ends of the chair arms. Such an intense presence for one person to have.

How did he bear it, containing all that power?

Jamie rested his hands right on top of Luc’s forearms, leaning forward until they were nose to nose. “You’re mine, Lucien Volaire. All mine. I claim you.”

And….boom. There it was.

It was amazing, the stillness that came over Luc at Jamie’s words.

That unnatural, inhuman stillness. It reminded Jamie of their first meeting, Luc holding himself so guardedly, as if he was afraid to move.

As if he was afraid to break that careful restraint he was clearly holding on to by the very tips of his fingers.

When Luc spoke, his voice was the softest Jamie had ever heard it. Barely a breath. A purr.

“Yours,” he whispered.

Jamie nodded, his nose rubbing against Luc’s as he did so. “Mine,” he repeated.

Shadows danced in those black eyes, ebbing and flowing like the tides. Jamie was mesmerized by them.

“It’s for forever, pretty flower,” Luc warned. “If you’re thinking of having a little taste of danger only to disappear afterward…I won’t let you go.” He bared his teeth. “I can’t let you go.”

It was both promise and plea. Don’t leave me. I’ll chase you.

Jamie brushed his nose against Luc’s cheek, against his ear, breathing in his sandalwood scent. He delighted in the shiver that ran through Luc’s tense frame. “I’m not asking you to ever let me go,” he soothed. “What don’t you understand about that? I claim you, Luc. You’re mine.”

The tension snapped.

A growl, one that sent shivers of his own down Jamie’s spine. And then Luc was on him.

Or more accurately, Jamie was on Luc.

In one lightning-quick movement, Luc had Jamie pulled onto his lap, those big hands grasping Jamie’s hips with an iron grip.

Jamie hoped Luc left imprints of his fingers on his skin. He wanted his marks all over him.

He could feel Luc’s hard length pulsing against him. Jamie ground against it and bit back a moan as Luc claimed his mouth with a snarl. His kiss was bruising, fierce, demanding. He left no part of Jamie’s mouth unexplored, sucking on his tongue, grazing his lips with his fangs.

Jamie felt consumed.

He was panting and writhing by the time Luc pulled back, sucking a bruising kiss onto Jamie’s neck, just under his ear, before returning to Jamie’s mouth, like he couldn’t resist it.

“ Mine .” It was more growl than word, but Jamie understood perfectly.

“Yes,” he gasped when Luc released his mouth again. “Fucking yes . All yours.”

He gave a startled laugh as Luc surged up, lifting Jamie into the air, his legs wrapped around Luc’s hips, his arms locked reflexively behind the vampire’s neck.

“Holy shit. You can pick me up.”

Luc scoffed. “Of course I can.”

He took them to Jamie’s room, nibbling at Jamie’s mouth all the while, leaving Jamie’s lips swollen and tender and more sensitive than they’d ever been.

Jamie didn’t mind one bit. He was gagging for it, for anything this vampire would give him.

Luc tossed—actually tossed— Jamie onto the bed after closing the door with a kick. “Strip if you don’t want me to tear those clothes,” he ordered gruffly.

Jamie hurried to do what he was told, ripping off his clothes gracelessly. Fuck yes. This. Was. Happening.

Luc for his part undressed with infuriating slowness in his spot at the foot of the bed. If it weren’t for the ferocious look in his eyes—eyes that he never once took off Jamie, even while undressing—Jamie might have thought him unaffected.

But Jamie knew better. No matter how many other lovers Luc may have had over the years, this right here meant something to the vampire. Something well beyond just sex.

And oh fuck. There it was again. That glorious fucking monster cock. Standing tall and hard and proud, those delicious veins just begging for Jamie to lick them.

But Luc had other ideas. He wrapped a broad hand around his cock, pumping lazily once. Twice. Never taking his eyes off Jamie.

“I’m going to taste every inch of you,” Luc promised, releasing his hold on his cock and climbing onto the bed, hovering over Jamie’s reclined body.

Jamie held his breath as Luc grasped his chin, tilting it up for another kiss, this one just a soft brushing of their lips.

And then he kept his promise.

Luc spent ages exploring every bit of Jamie’s skin he could find. Bruising kisses, endless love bites with blunt teeth. Jamie writhed and whimpered before eventually just…melting. Going limp and letting Luc do whatever he wanted to him.

He moaned weakly as Luc worked his way back up to his neck, sucking fiercely on the skin there.

“Yes, my flower,” Luc crooned. “You like that? Like having my marks all over you? Everyone who so much as looks at you will know you belong to me.” He moved down to Jamie’s chest, biting at Jamie’s nipples, careful to keep his fangs to the side.

“Oh fuck.” The sharp hurt sent a spike of pleasure straight to Jamie’s cock, already hard enough to punch a hole through a fucking wall.

Luc chuckled huskily before traveling further down. Jamie hoped he was heading for his cock. It desperately needed the attention. A hand. A mouth. Jamie wasn’t very fucking picky at this point.

Instead, Luc lifted his legs with strong hands, folding Jamie neatly in half.

At the first touch of Luc’s tongue on his hole, Jamie keened. “Oh fuuuck.”

Had Jamie thought this was his seduction? He let out a strangled laugh at the thought.

Luc lifted his head, peering up at Jamie with a predatory look. “Still capable of laughter, flower? I must be losing my touch.” He nipped the inside of Jamie’s thigh playfully. “I’ll need to work a little harder.”

He was true to his word, absolutely devouring Jamie’s hole, licking and sucking and tonguing it like a fucking pro. What the fuck had happened to Jamie’s refined gentleman lover?

Luc felt more animal than man in this moment, taking Jamie apart with single-minded intensity.

Mates , Jamie thought, almost deliriously. That was what they were called. And Jamie felt like it.

He was being mated.

He reached desperately for his cock, aching for any sort of friction—he felt like if he didn’t come sometime soon, he was going to fucking die —but Luc knocked his hand away with a growl.

“Please, Luc,” Jamie begged. “ Please .”

Luc growled again, the vibrations against Jamie’s tender, overstimulated hole sending shudders through Jamie. The vampire lifted his head from between Jamie’s legs. “Please what , flower?” he rasped.

“Suck me,” Jamie pleaded. “Please, Luc. Suck my cock and let me fucking come.”

Jamie knew in the back of his mind there was something else he had wanted to happen tonight. Some end goal he’d been working toward. Some reason to maybe not shoot down Luc’s throat in the next thirty seconds.

But he couldn’t fucking think of it. He was hot all over, burning up from this monster’s relentless attention. He was too goddamn hard, and he needed to come right. This. Fucking. Second.

Luc released his legs and surged over him, meeting Jamie’s eyes. “Do you know the pact you’ve made, young Jamie? The beast you’ve given yourself to?”

Then he finally—fucking finally —grabbed Jamie’s cock, his fingers forming a viselike grip around the base of it.

With his free hand, he stuck two fingers into Jamie’s mouth.

Jamie took them in eagerly, laving them with his tongue, sucking them in deep, making embarrassing little mewling sounds around them.

“No one else will touch this,” Luc ordered, squeezing Jamie’s cock to just this side of pain. “No one else will have you. Mine. All mine.”

He said it like Jamie would have some kind of fucking problem with it, when in reality those possessive words made even more blood rush to Jamie’s already straining cock.

Jamie whimpered around Luc’s fingers. His reply was garbled, sloppy. “All yours.”

Luc grunted approvingly, removing both hands and sliding back down Jamie’s body like a fucking serpent. Jamie cried out as Luc engulfed his cock into his hot, wet mouth, inserting a spit-slicked finger into Jamie at the same time.

He was coming in an instant, grabbing at Luc’s thick dark hair as his vision whited out and uncontrollable shudders ran through him, half-aware of the greedy sounds of Luc swallowing down every drop of his cum.

Reality took a minute to solidify.

“Oh fuck,” Jamie groaned, limp and exhausted. “Oh man. I wanted…”

He was supposed to get fucked tonight, goddamn it.

Luc placed a surprisingly gentle kiss on Jamie’s softening cock. “You wanted what, my sweet? My big cock inside you?”

“Yesss,” Jamie whined, feeling unbelievably put out by the teasing. He’d never considered penetration the be-all and end-all of sex before, but with Luc…Jamie wanted to be filled up with him. He wanted to take his vampire into his body and never let him go.

And now he’d gone and come down his throat instead.

Luc grinned wickedly up at him. “My poor flower.” He tutted. “Did you think plans had changed? You thought I’d be satisfied with just one from you tonight?”

He pressed another soft kiss to Jamie’s hip, and Jamie shuddered in his oversensitive, postorgasmic state.

“You’ll come again,” Luc promised darkly, licking along Jamie’s pelvic bone. “This time, with my cock inside you.” He then shot spryly up to his knees like he hadn’t just spent the better part of an hour taking Jamie apart piece by piece. “Your lube?”