Page 105

Fox didn’t press just yet. He wanted to get Colin home—in their own space—before asking any questions that could set him off.

That didn’t make it any easier to stand by while their human was so upset.

Fox’s devil was practically scratching at the walls, urging him to make it better. Just kiss him, bite him, fuck him better.

But their Colin was more complex than that. Fox needed to let his human brain guide him, not his base vampire instincts.

He was rewarded for his patience. Before the front door had even closed behind them, Colin erupted. “ This is the shitty thing about coming back to your hometown. Running into assholes you shouldn’t ever have to see again.”

He seemed to be talking more to himself than to them, but Fox would still take it as an opening.

“Ex-boyfriend?” Dane asked. His question came out mild enough, but Fox could feel through the bond that Dane was feeling anything but. He was just as murderous as Fox, his anger and his protectiveness forming a heady mix between them.

The fact that some pretty-faced, average-as-fuck human had upset what was theirs? It was intolerable to them both.

“High school boyfriend,” Colin answered, pacing back and forth across their living room. “And a little after. I held off going to art school for that dick.”

Fox and Dane exchanged a look— how do we get him to settle?— and Dane gestured to the couch. “You wanna sit?”

Colin shot him a mutinous look. “I don’t want to sit . I’m all sweaty and disgusting from walking home too fast. This stupid fucking heat. This stupid fucking town .”

He wasn’t disgusting. He smelled as amazing as ever, just…amplified. Like the desert itself had flowered in their living room. But Fox remembered well enough from his human days how gross it could feel, to be overheated and sticky. “Then let’s take a shower,” he suggested.

For how outdated their house was overall, one thing the previous owners had invested in before selling was a nice-ass bathroom renovation, including a huge tiled shower that could easily fit three people.

Colin halted his pacing, cocking his head warily. “Together?”

“Of course together,” Fox insisted, as if he had a right to. Did he? He was hoping he did. “We’re not leaving you alone when you’re upset.”

“I’m not upset ,” Colin bit out, clearly fucking upset. “And I don’t want to be fucked right now.”

“Who said anything about fucking?” Dane asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

There was a tense moment of silence, and then all at once, Colin deflated. He looked so…tired. And sad. It was fucking horrible.

“Fine,” he muttered, turning to head up the stairs. They followed on his heels.

Once in the bathroom, Dane started the shower and they all undressed silently, steam filling the room around them.

Who knew why a hot shower could still feel good after a hot night, but that was the case.

And Colin kept their air-conditioning on full blast at all times, so it wasn’t like the house was even remotely warm.

Colin paused before stepping onto the tile, giving them both unimpressed looks as his eyes trailed over them. “Your dicks are hard,” he accused.

So was Colin’s, but Fox knew better than to point that out. He shrugged, pushing Colin toward the shower with a hand on his lower back. “Yeah, so what? You’re hot, and you’re naked.” And ours . “Just ignore it. Not every boner needs to be dealt with.”

That actually had the smallest of smiles gracing Colin’s lips, and he let himself be led into the shower, letting out a soft moan when the hot water hit him.

They followed in after him. Fox shared a look with Dane— you want the body or the mind?— and Dane grabbed a washcloth, soaping it up. Fox cleared his throat. “So. The shitty ex.”

Colin’s chest heaved with an exaggerated sigh, like Fox had said something incredibly taxing, but he let Dane soap up his chest willingly enough. “Yeah, the shitty ex.”

“What’s his deal? Besides being a cunt.”

For a long moment, he thought Colin wouldn’t answer.

But then he let out another heavy sigh and started speaking.

“He was my first. First love. First…time.” Colin bit down on his lower lip, toying with the plump flesh.

“I thought, at first, that it was just because we were new at it. I thought I’d get used to it all.

I thought I’d…want it more? I guess? But I never did.

I never enjoyed myself the way he did. And when I tried to talk to him about it, tell him I thought maybe sex wasn’t for me, he’d get mean.

Call me frigid. Tell me I had a problem. ”

Fox gritted his teeth to keep a growl from coming out.

Colin ignored the strangled sound, letting his head fall back against Dane’s shoulder as Dane began soaping his back.

“The thing is that’s all…fine, I guess. We were sexually incompatible, I get it.

He was ignorant, and I didn’t know my own mind well enough to stand up for myself.

But in the end, when we couldn’t get the sex to work, he wasted no time in telling me all the other ways I was deficient.

Too boring. Too cold.” His breath caught.

“He said that if I was going to be a prude, I needed to at least have the personality to make up for it. It fucked me up for a while. So much wasted time feeling shitty about myself because I trusted the wrong guy.”

Dane spoke up. “We should go back,” he said evenly, running the washcloth over Colin’s arm. “We should drain him dry.”

“No.” Colin twisted around to glare at him. “I don’t want you feeding off that asshole. You feed off me .”

“Fine,” Fox said agreeably. “We’ll just snap his neck.”

Colin flipped him off.

It wasn’t a no.

“Can’t believe you were into such a douche in the first place.”

Fox blanched as Dane shot a scowl his way. It had been the wrong thing to say—Fox knew that.

But a moment later, Colin actually laughed, the sound only slightly bitter.

“I know, right? He was just…different from the people I usually hung out with. Really confident and put together. I was quiet and weird and flattered he saw something in me, I guess. I let him isolate me, which was stupid. He was jealous of my friendship with Jamie, made me put distance between us. I stopped agreeing to hang out, gradually stopped answering his calls and his texts.”

Fox stepped closer, pushing a lock of wet blue hair out of Colin’s eyes. “I heard you were kissing buddies, you and Jamie.”

“Oh. Yeah.” Colin’s lips twitched up into a small, fond smile. “It was nice. No expectations.” He cocked a brow. “You jealous?”

“A little,” Fox admitted, as if his stomach weren’t roiling with it. “But I do sort of like the thought of little Colin having someone to play with, without any pressure.”

He reached for the shampoo and began lathering up Colin’s hair, pleased when Colin closed his eyes and sank into the touch.

There was a sort of primal satisfaction in watching the tension leave his frame.

It was like getting the words out had let out some of the poison in that encounter as well.

And Fox and Dane’s touches were doing the rest.

It felt like some kind of miracle.

Still, Fox needed some reassurance that that asshole hadn’t raised any doubts. After rinsing his hair, Fox grabbed Colin’s chin, tilting his head to meet his gaze. “You know it’s bullshit, right? You’re enough, just as you are.”

Colin stared at him for a long moment, and then his eyes closed once more, his frame going so still, Fox feared he had stopped breathing. “And if one day I didn’t want to fuck anymore? Would I still be enough?”

Was that what he was worried about? That the affection Fox and Dane felt for him was purely physical?

Fox exchanged a look with Dane over Colin’s shoulder. He knew at once they were on the same page. “Then we’d become reacquainted with our right hands,” he told Colin. He grabbed the conditioner, coating Colin’s strands. “And maybe porn. Or toys. Or a million other things. We’d figure it out.”

“We would?” Colin’s eyes opened again, the green in them standing out against the bathroom tile, and there was a naked vulnerability there that stabbed at Fox’s chest.

Dane pressed in closer behind Colin, dropping the washcloth to the shower floor. “Of course we fucking would.”

In opposition to his words, Colin’s cock was fully hard now, brushing against Fox’s hip. Fox was happy enough to ignore it, but Colin peered up at Fox from beneath his lashes. “I don’t want to be fucked right now…,” he began, his teeth grazing his lower lip.

Fox hummed. “Yes, you said.”

“But I wouldn’t mind…” Colin trailed off again.

“What wouldn’t you mind, little lamb?”

“A bite?” Colin asked hopefully. He nudged his hips closer to Fox, his cock sliding against Fox’s wet skin. “And maybe I could—like before…”

Fox grinned, delighted. “You want to rub off against me while we bite you?”

Colin looked uncharacteristically doubtful. “That’s selfish, huh?”

“It’s hot as fuck,” Fox told him, sliding a hand around his back to keep him right where he was. “We like giving you what you need.” We fucking love it.

Was there a part of Fox that worried a bite was all Colin was ever going to need from them?

That there had been truth to Luc’s taunting words—that Colin might get what he wanted from them and move on to a different vampire?

Sure. This was too new, with too many unknowns, not to worry.

But he wasn’t going to let his doubts ruin things before they even started.

He was going to trust his instincts. There was something real here; he knew it in his bones.

Besides, he didn’t think it was about just any bite, with Colin. It wasn’t just about the abstract pleasure of being vampire food. It was about Colin’s need for reassurance, in that moment, that he was wanted. That they craved the very essence of him.

And fuck, did they ever.

He pushed Colin under the showerhead, rinsing his hair out, before pulling him closer once again, Dane pressing in from behind. Fox’s hard cock was rubbing up against Colin’s stomach, but this wasn’t about him now. It was about making their human feel good. Making him feel wanted.

They bit in unison, fangs slicing through tender skin. Fox kept it light—knowing Dane would do the same—sucking gently and letting only the smallest amount of blood slip between his lips. They’d fed from him fairly recently, and they didn’t want to take too much from him in too short of time.

They needed to be careful with what was theirs.

Colin’s breath hitched, and then he let out a long moan. He was immediately rutting against Fox in a slippery slide of skin, following his own mindless rhythm.

He tasted like sin.

Fox’s devil purred happily, pleased with their human’s blood coating their mouth, with the feel of him against them, chasing his release. They were doing exactly as they should, tending to their ma—

Fox caught himself. To their human. They were tending to their… human .

It was barely any time at all before Colin came against Fox with a soft grunt, and he and Dane retracted their fangs, licking their bites closed.

Fox let the water rinse him clean, then gently pushed Colin out of the shower.

He grabbed a towel, ignoring his own dripping body and drying off Colin’s long limbs instead, as Dane toweled off beside them.

Colin was practically swaying on his feet, exhausted from either the drama of the day or the orgasm he’d just had. Possibly a combination of both.

“Time to sleep,” Dane said, herding Colin out of the bathroom. Fox followed behind them, toweling himself off as they walked down the hallway.

Colin yawned wide. “What about you two though?”

“What did I say?” Fox smacked his hip lightly. “Not every boner needs to be dealt with.”

He was rewarded with a small, sleepy smile. “You’re ridiculous.”

He was. He’d never been this soft with anyone in his life, except maybe Dane. He caught his brother’s eye. They were both ridiculous, and they knew it.

Ridiculously obsessed.