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Alexei considered taking his own shirt off and letting Jay tie whatever intricate knots he wanted into it but ultimately decided the move would break Jay’s clear concentration. “You said he’s a psychopath.”

Jay bit at his lower lip, dropping his fistfuls of cloth and busying himself smoothing the wrinkles he’d made back down.

“He is.” He said it with the same cool acceptance as the first time.

“But he’s not cruel without purpose. He likes things orderly, under his control.

It makes him less erratic than the others, really. Plus, he sort of…saved me.”

“And how did he do that?” Alexei asked, trying to keep his voice as calm and level as Jay’s even though anything Wolfe-related threatened to send his blood pressure through the fucking roof.

“He kept me fed, after Vee was killed. He compelled humans for me. He convinced the den members to stay back while I regained my strength. I think his support is the only thing that kept me from being put down.”

Oh. Oh. Alexei grabbed Jay’s hands with his own, halting their smoothing efforts, needing that extra contact.

He was grateful Wolfe had kept Jay alive—the thought of any other alternative too hideous to bear—but fuck if he didn’t hate feeling indebted to the guy.

He wished he could have been the one to save Jay, to keep him safe, keep him nourished.

He would have offered up every bit of his own blood, down to the last fucking drop, to keep Jay whole.

“I want you to stay.” Alexei hardly recognized his own voice, the rough gravel that came out of him in saying the words.

But there it was. The selfish truth of it. He didn’t care about the money, about Jay’s prior agreement with Wolfe. He didn’t care about the den of cretins Jay had left behind. All Alexei cared about was Jay with him . He wanted Jay by his side, happy and hale. He just…wanted him.

Jay tilted his head from where he’d been studying their joined hands to smile up at Alexei, so soft and sweet but with a sadness in those gray eyes Alexei absolutely hated.

“Please,” Alexei begged. “Please stay.”

“It’s like I told Wolfe: I want to stay.” And because Jay was good and kind and perfect, he added what Alexei had been afraid to. “I want to stay with you.”

Alexei’s sigh of relief was cut off halfway through because then Jay’s mouth was on his, the vampire wrapped back around him in the way he should always be.

Because Jay should just always be there, in Alexei’s arms. There was no other reality that made sense.

Alexei tried, at first. He really did. They’d just both had something of a shock, and emotions were running high. So he did his best to keep the kiss chaste and sweet, to not give in to his inner greed for more, always more .

But soon enough Jay was slipping his tongue into Alexei’s mouth, seemingly hungry as ever for every bit of Alexei’s touch, and Alexei couldn’t resist matching his pace, meeting him hunger for hunger.

So it didn’t take long until Jay was writhing in Alexei’s lap, rubbing his ass—intentionally or not—up against Alexei’s clothed erection.

Alexei groaned his complaint when Jay finally broke the kiss.

“What I said before?” Jay asked, panting and rocking against Alexei’s cock, practically riding it. Jesus fucking Christ.

Alexei tried to focus through the fog of his lust to find Jay’s meaning. When he did, an electric shock of desire ran through him. “You mean penetrative sex, kitten?”

Jay nodded eagerly, latching onto Alexei’s lips again before breaking off, looking ridiculously shy all of a sudden for someone who was humping Alexei’s lap like there was no tomorrow. “Um, if you still want me?”

Alexei’s answering laugh was strangled. “I can’t breathe without wanting you, kitten.” The surprised delight on Jay’s face almost broke Alexei’s heart. Because fucking hell, had Jay really thought Alexei would say no ? “We’re sticking with our after-dinner plans, sweetheart. Most definitely.”

Jay moved as if to scramble off Alexei’s lap, but Alexei tightened his arms and kept him close, rising off the couch and taking Jay with him, his little vampire fitting so easily into his arms. “I’ve got you, kotyonok.”

Jay beamed up at him and wrapped his legs around Alexei’s hips. “So strong for a human.”

“Please, kitten. You’re light as a feather.” Alexei carried Jay in the direction of the bedroom, trying not to lose his mind at the way Jay tucked his head into the crook of Alexei’s neck, sniffing at him like Jay could consume him via scent alone.

Jay’s room was as neat and tidy as one would expect, other than a stack of drawings scattered haphazardly on his bedside table.

Alexei didn’t waste too much time taking in the view, tossing Jay immediately onto the bed, more out of a desire to hear Jay’s answering giggle than any willingness to let him out of his arms.

Jay didn’t stay put where he landed, instead scrambling over to the bedside table and opening the drawer there—still giggling wildly—and pulled out a bottle of lube and then, much more hesitantly, a package of foil-wrapped condoms. “Um, so as a vampire, I can’t give you anything bad, even if it weren’t my first time. But if you’d feel better with these…?”

Alexei froze in place, standing there at the foot of the bed, his cock so hard it was becoming painful.

Jay was giving him the option to go bare?

Fucking fuck . “We don’t need them,” he said, his voice coming out gruffer than he’d intended.

But Jay only beamed back at him, clearly pleased at his decision, and shut the condoms back into the drawer before bringing himself and the bottle of lube once more to the middle of the bed.

“So, um, I’ve looked it up. I know I need to…prepare myself. Stretch myself.” Jay looked pointedly at the bulge in Alexei’s jeans. “Your penis is quite large, you know.”

Alexei bit back his smile at that, trying to keep his face as serious as this moment warranted.

He considered the incredible appeal of Jay working himself open, learning to coax his body into accepting Alexei’s cock.

But ultimately the desire to have his hands on Jay as much as possible won out.

“You know what I’d like, kitten?” he asked. “What would make me feel really good?”

“What?” Jay bounced up onto his knees with the question, eager as ever to please.

“If you’d let me do it for you. Just relax back and let me take care of you. I can make it feel so good for you.”

“You’d like that?” Jay asked, cocking his head, the skepticism clear in his voice. “Really?”

Oh boy. Alexei’s little acts-of-service vampire, so thoroughly trained to meet the needs of others.

“You have no idea how much, kotyonok.”

Jay gave him another skeptical head tilt but ultimately nodded shyly before scrambling to get undressed. Alexei followed suit at a slightly more sedate pace. Not because he was any less eager but because his goddamn fingers were trembling , he was embarrassed to note.

It was just…to share this first with Jay, to bond them together in this way. Alexei wanted it so fucking much. Probably too much. More than he’d ever wanted anything.

He felt like his gaze left Jay only for a moment, only for enough time to get his shoes and jeans off, and when Alexei focused back on the bed, his breath left him in a rush.

Jay was sprawled on top of the covers on his back, fully nude, hard cock leaking on his stomach, his face looking flushed and unbelievably happy, with his legs held up and back by his head.

He’d literally folded himself in half for Alexei’s ministrations, not a drop of coyness in his gorgeous body.

“Look at you, kitten,” Alexei groaned, palming his own hard cock. “So good for me. What a fucking gift you are.”

Jay squirmed with pleasure at the praise, but he didn’t release his hold on his legs. Of course he didn’t. Such a good fucking boy for Alexei.

And as much as he wanted to drink in this sight for the rest of eternity, Alexei didn’t waste any more time. He crawled up onto the bed and started immediately pressing openmouthed kisses to the exposed undersides of Jay’s thighs, unable to resist mouthing at the smooth, pale skin there.

Jay sighed happily at the contact, his legs relaxing back even further.

Alexei rewarded him by kissing the tip of his hard, pretty cock, drinking in Jay’s little whimper like it was a fine wine, then kissing along Jay’s stomach, working his way up to swirling his tongue around Jay’s pebbled nipples.

Really, Alexei wanted to map every inch of Jay’s skin with his mouth, to taste every bit of this buffet laid out before him.

But he was also an impatient fuck who wanted nothing more than to take advantage of this particular position, this open eagerness.

So, because Jay made it so easy for him, displayed so fucking beautifully, Alexei lasted barely any time at all before he was swiping his tongue over Jay’s exposed hole.

Jay jerked, his raised ass lifting even higher off the bed. “Oh!” he gasped. “ I—I didn’t—I thought… Fingers?”

Alexei lifted his head to see Jay gazing down at him, gray eyes wide and startled, cheeks still adorably flushed. “We’ll get there, kitten. I promise. You just look so scrumptious.” Alexei bit gently at Jay’s thigh. “I have to devour you, I’m afraid. I simply have to.”

Jay giggled breathlessly at his teasing, but it was cut off by a gasp as Alexei delved once more into the furrow of his cheeks. “Oh my God!”

Alexei worked at his hole, softening it with relentless kissing and probing, letting his saliva pool and then spearing him with his tongue.

He kept at it until Jay’s whimpers were an ongoing, steady stream of noise and his thighs were trembling so much they finally dropped from his careful hold.

“S-Sorry,” Jay gasped. “Oh God. I’m sorry, it just felt so good. ”

Alexei smiled against Jay’s skin. “You never need to apologize for your responses to my touch, kitten. Let’s get you ready for me, hm?”

“Is that—is that not what you were doing?”