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BONUS POV: JAY

Jay

Jay pulled his blankets up higher on his lap, letting out a happy sigh. He was sated and spent and cozy, Alexei at his side (also sated and spent and cozy), and life was good .

There was only one thing that could make this night better, actually.

Jay pulled his phone off the side table. “I’m going to FaceTime Colin.”

“It’s the middle of the night,” Alexei reminded him. He was sprawled with his head on the arm of the couch, one of his feet on the floor and the other leg in Jay’s lap, covered by the blanket. His pretty hair was down, and his broad chest was bare, and he looked beautiful and—and sexy .

No , Jay reminded himself as his lower belly tingled. No sex thoughts. You’re calling your friend.

“We have a deal,” Jay reminded Alexei as he hit Colin’s contact. “Me and Colin. His phone will be on silent if he’s asleep.”

But Colin wasn’t asleep. He picked up after a few rings.

“Colin!” Jay greeted, beaming at his friend. “I’m so glad you’re awake!” Oh shoot, maybe that was a thoughtless thing to say. “Well, I wish you could sleep better,” he amended. “And feel better, but I’m glad you’re awake now because—” Jay dropped off midsentence, staring at his friend.

So much bare skin.

“Colin, you’re not wearing a shirt.” Jay had never even seen Colin without a shirt before. His chest was pale and lean, and Jay felt a little naughty looking at it. Like it was forbidden.

Should he cover his eyes?

“I was sleeping earlier,” Colin told him, but he didn’t pull the blanket up over himself, so Jay supposed he was allowed to keep his eyes open. For now.

“But you sleep in a shirt,” Jay reminded him. This wasn’t his first time calling Colin in the middle of the night.

“It’s hot here.”

“Oh, right.” But now Jay was studying his friend more closely. There was the bare torso (shocking) but also… “Colin, your hair.”

Colin lifted a hand to his blue strands. “I know, it’s all faded.”

But the color wasn’t the issue. “It’s sex hair ,” Jay said, unable to keep the scandal out of his voice. Because it was. It was all messy in the way of someone who’d been sliding around on a bed. Jay should know—his hair looked exactly the same right now.

“Kotyonok,” Alexei murmured. He’d sat up from his sprawl, and his voice was lowered. “Perhaps you shouldn’t comment on—”

“Well, it is ,” Jay whispered, not sure why they were whispering in the first place. “He looks like he’s just had sex.”

“Hi, Alexei,” Colin said.

See? The whispering was silly. Colin didn’t care that Alexei was listening in.

Jay turned the camera so Alexei could say hi back, and then got back to the important matters. “Colin,” he began, not sure how to say what he wanted to say and still be polite. “I thought you didn’t like…”

“Sometimes I like,” Colin told him.

Sex. Sometimes he liked sex.

“Oh.” Jay’s brain stopped. Restarted. “ Oh. And you found a—a sometime that you like?” He had a thought, gasping in delight. “Colin, are you dating someone?”

“What?” Colin looked mildly horrified by the idea. “No. I just found a place to live.”

“And you’re paying with sex ?” Jay whisper-yelled. Oh heavens. His good, kind manager friend was more naive than Jay had ever imagined. Or maybe more devious? Jay wasn’t sure, but either way, it was more scandalous than he could have imagined. “ Colin .”

“Jesus, Jay,” Colin said, laughing the words. “No. God. I just—” Suddenly, he stopped his lovely laughter and glared. “I don’t have to tell you any of this, you know.”

“No, you don’t,” Jay agreed. He knew Colin valued privacy, even if that was very, very, very hard to honor sometimes.

They went back and forth on bestie rights versus privacy for a moment—a familiar discussion between them—and then Colin finally shared the cause of his sex hair.

“I have roommates,” he said slowly. “I like them okay.”

That was Colin-speak, so Jay had to mentally work through what his friend was really telling him. He’d had sex, which was somehow related to him having a place to live. He wasn’t dating, but he had roommates…

Jay made wide eyes at Alexei, making sure he was hearing all this too. “Roommates?” he asked Colin, trying not to squeak. “Plural?”

Was Colin having orgies without him?

Not that Jay wanted to participate in any orgies, not when he had his Alexei, but still…shouldn’t Colin have at least told him? Right to privacy only went so far!

“Yes. Brothers. Vampire brothers. Twins.”

Hold. The. Phone. (As Soren would say.)

“Redheaded twins?” Jay asked suspiciously.

“Yeah…”

Jay knew those twins. He’d met those twins, when he’d visited Tucson.

They’d been brash and rude, and one of them had even propositioned him in a not-very-polite manner.

Why would Colin be living with them? Had their Hyde Park den given him such a good impression of vampires that he thought all vampires were so well-behaved?

Jay took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. He knew Colin didn’t like to be lectured at, so he needed to be…mindful.

“So, Colin,” he said lightly. “I’m a nice vampire.”

“Yes.”

Jay preened, glad his friend agreed with his assessment. “And Alexei here is the nicest vampire,” he added, flashing a grin to his lovely mate. “And since we’re the only vampires you know, you might think all vampires are nice. But some—”

“Are assholes,” Colin interrupted, in a much more blunt fashion than Jay might have continued. “Jay, I know enough about your past to know that. And I know all about Jamie and Luc now. And the creepy child turner we’re on the lookout for.”

“Oh, okay.” Jay relaxed. Maybe he’d just had a bad impression of the twins. Maybe they had a secret sweet side only Colin got to see. Like how Alexei was so stern and closed-lipped with strangers but the nicest and best mate in the world to Jay.

“So the twins are nice?” he asked hopefully.

Colin made a weird, strangled noise. “Not exactly.”

“They’re nice…to you?”

“They’re very…clingy,” Colin eventually said.

“Oh!” Jay waved a hand at Alexei in excitement. “Clingy is good.” Clingy was the best, actually. Jay adored when Alexei was clingy with him, and he equally adored that Alexei didn’t mind when he was clingy in return. “And—”

“Short stack,” Colin interrupted. “Why don’t you tell me what I’ve missed at DBC? Is Alicia still fending off that one douchebag who comes in to flirt with her?”

Jay narrowed his eyes, but he allowed the distraction.

It was hard for Colin to talk about personal topics, and Jay had already pushed him quite a bit this conversation.

He knew it wasn’t the most polite way to act (or at least he’d been told), but he’d wanted to make sure his friend wasn’t being pressured into something he had no interest in.

But it sounded like he was into it. Into them . The twins.

What unusual taste Jay’s dear friend had.

So Jay shared his gossip, and Colin listened dutifully—asking all the right questions, as he always did—and eventually they hung up, promising to talk again soon.

Jay tossed his phone down on his lap, catching Alexei’s eyes again immediately. “Colin is having sex,” he declared.

“Yes, kotyonok.” Alexei nodded placidly. “I heard.”

“With the mean redheads.”

“So it seems.” Alexei looked no less placid.

“Two of them,” Jay clarified.

“Yes.”

“Have you ever had sex with two people at once?”

Alexei’s cheeks went pink. Pink . Jay gasped. “You have!”

He scrambled out of his blankets and crawled onto Alexei’s lap, placing his hands on his mate’s reddened cheeks. “Alexei,” he said, something delightfully hot squirming in his belly. “You have to tell me everything.”

“Because we’re besties?” Alexei teased.

Jay grinned. “We are besties, aren’t we?” He pressed a kiss to Alexei’s lips, then pulled back, cocking his head. “Does it make you sad that you can’t have two people at once ever again?”

He already knew the answer, but sometimes it was nice to hear these things out loud.

And Alexei delivered, his eyes going soft as he swept back a lock of Jay’s hair. “No, sweetheart. I haven’t given it a thought.”

“Because you have me?”

“Because I have you.”

Oh, that was lovely. And as Jay began pressing more kisses to Alexei’s mouth, his lips lingering longer each time, their tongues eventually coming out to play, Jay had to hope that maybe—just maybe—Colin could find something like this for himself too.