STORY EXCERPT

Lightning carried Tim back to his house. The man trembled in his arms, dripping wet.

After being in the water.

After giving Lightning the air he needed to survive.

Breathing for him when he would have drowned.

And Tim had been the one to drown instead. Tim breathed for Lightning until he inhaled the water and ceased to move.

Lightning’s heart trembled almost as badly as Tim’s body did in that moment. He couldn’t stand it. The sight of Tim’s lifeless body, floating in front of him in the water had…

It nearly killed him.

But Tim was alive. That pink-haired man had given him CPR. Tim was alive. Lightning held on to him, warm and breathing.

He never wanted to let him go.

At some point, he had to. He set Tim onto the couch and crouched down to look him in the eyes. Those beautiful brown eyes with the flecks of gold in them.

Lightning had never noticed how lovely they were until now.

“Why did you do that?”

Tim continued to tremble. He held tightly to his arms now that he no longer had his hands looped around Lightning’s neck. “What?”

Lightning shook his head. “You know what I’m asking. Why did you do that? You could have…you didn’t leave me.”

The blue chains of the warlock had been unbreakable, and they’d also prevented Lightning from shifting.

Tim had seen this, and though he was a full head shorter than Lightning, and no match for a warlock, the man had rushed and tackled one of his attackers to the dock.

He’d gotten lucky. The warlock must have hit his head because the man did not get back up. He’d stayed down, unconscious. He would be a prisoner.

The warlock’s asshole friend, however, shot out a blast of magic that damn near destroyed the dock, the wood breaking apart beneath Lightning’s body as he was chained. He would have gone under, but Tim had grabbed him and held his head above the water for as long as possible, screaming for help even as Lightning panicked at the thought of not being able to breathe.

Then he had gone under. Tim had been unable to hold him, but Tim hadn’t abandoned him.

Lightning held his breath as best as he could, eyes tightly shut. The thought of not being able to breathe had never terrified him before, not until he was faced with the reality of it.

But then, Tim’s slim fingers had pinched his nose shut, and Lightning felt the touch of the man’s lips against his own.

He’d opened his mouth, shocked, and air burst inside him.

Tim had pushed himself to the surface, coming back for Lightning again and again, always when Lightning needed him the most. The man pulled at Lightning’s chains, but he could only breathe for him.

Until Tim had inhaled the water and nearly died.

Lightning had screamed under the water, the worst imaginable horror striking him at the possibility of losing his best friend.

If Tim hadn’t been pulled out, he would have died.

Now, here they were, safely inside Lightning’s home, the warlocks defeated, and Tim still didn’t answer him.

The man looked down at his hands, as though he was ashamed of something.

“Tim, why did you do that?”

“I had to.”

Lightning shook his head. “You could have left me. Why didn’t you leave me?”

“I couldn’t.”

These were not answers that made any sense to Lightning. “Anyone else would have left me.”

Tim looked at him, glaring defiantly. “I’m not anyone else.”

Lightning had thought he was.

Tim still trembled. It wasn’t so cold outside, but the near-death experience and the air conditioning likely contributed to the shaking.

“Stay there. I’ll be back.”

Lightning surged to his feet. He went to the hall closet next to his bathroom, yanking out numerous towels and spare blankets. He turned the dial down on the air conditioning, turning it off entirely before he returned to Tim, who still sat stunned and miserable on the couch, his arms around himself.

Maybe he was also wondering why he’d saved Lightning.

Lightning had hardly been good to him since Tim had arrived.

“Here.” Lightning hurriedly put a towel over Tim’s head and another around his shoulders. He rubbed the man’s arms, desperate to dry him, to warm his body before he became sick.

“You don’t have to—”

“Yes, I do.” Lightning would have no arguments about this.

Tim had saved his life. He always thought Tim wanting to be here, to prepare Lightning’s meals, clean his house, and put up with it whenever he became angry and yelled at him was all just part of the ruse.

Part of his need to pretend to make amends for what Tim’s family had done to Lightning when he was still a child.

Tim’s aunt had married Lightning’s father. She hadn’t liked the idea of an albino dragon child in her new home, and she’d convinced his father to throw him outside, never to let him back into the house again.

Albino dragons were considered terrible luck and, for warlocks, priceless potion ingredients.

ADULT EXCERPT

Lightning kissed his way down Tim’s throat, sucking on his collarbone, gently biting one of his nipples. Still, he moved lower and lower.

It felt as though he was making love to Tim. It was certainly the most care he’d ever put into interacting with Tim before.

Tim loved it. He loved the way Lighting kissed his way down his body until he made it to his cock.

Tim throbbed. He’d never been so tightly strung in his entire life.

Lightning sighed, his warm breath puffing out along Tim’s shaft, his pelvis, and when Lightning took Tim’s dick in hand, his wet lips pressing around the head, Tim couldn’t hold back.

He moaned, his spine arching as the pleasure became too much and he came.

Before his body could finish pulsating, Tim was ashamed of himself, groaning in embarrassment instead of pleasure.

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be.” Lightning’s voice was husky, lovely. Something Tim wanted to hear more and more of. “That was great.”

Tim didn’t expect Lightning to slide his tongue across his stomach and chest. The man groaned as he lapped at Tim’s pleasure. It was such an intense, sexual sight that Tim’s erection didn’t deflate. He stayed hard, his cock continuing to throb even when he should have been using this time to calm himself.

Right. He shouldn’t be surprised. This was natural for him, after all.

“You taste good.”

Tim blushed, and when Lightning looked back up at him with those red eyes, his heart stilled for a hard second.

“I want to fuck you.”

Tim nodded dumbly. He wanted that, too.

That small nod seemed to be all Lightning needed. He reached beneath his mattress, pulling out a small, travel-sized bottle of lubricant.

Tim smiled at that. Lightning had shoved his hand so far beneath the mattress that, of all the times Tim had made his bed and straightened his sheets, he’d never known there was lube in there.

Lightning put his knees onto the bed. Tim adjusted himself as Lightning moved his body.

“Keep your knees up.”

Tim did as he was told. He was putty in Lightning’s hands right now, his ass up on the man’s knees, his legs around Lightning’s elbows.

Then Lightning slicked his fingers, pressing them to Tim’s hole.

Tim sucked in a deep breath. Lightning hadn’t even breached him yet. Tim felt only a blunt finger pushing against his hole.

Just that circular motion, the barely-there push back and forward had an intensity to it that made Tim’s testicles tight, his cock throb, and his belly clench.

He clenched his teeth together. He didn’t want to come early again. He wanted to enjoy this for as long as possible if it was going to be the only time he would be able to enjoy this.

“God, you’re tight.”

Tim hoped that was a good thing. He knew some people preferred lovers who had a touch more experience than what he had.

One finger pushed deep inside him, shocking Tim with the suddenness. He grunted but didn’t dare show any signs of pain as the second finger was inserted into him.

It burned. It also hurt a little, but Lightning was taking his time. He didn’t seem to be in any real hurry, and Tim didn’t know what to think of that, considering he could see how the man’s heavy cock throbbed against his belly.

Tim reached for it, stroking it, wanting to give Lightning as much pleasure as he could.

Lighting growled. His lips curled into a predatory smile as Tim touched him, and as he did so, Lightning’s fingers scissored inside him, stretching him wider, the burn increasing, but a soft pleasure also started to build.

Tim wanted to say something, anything. He wanted to tell Lightning how long he’d thought of this, how much he wanted him, but he was scared that anything he said might ruin the mood, might remind Lightning that he despised the person he was about to do this with.

Luckily, it didn’t appear as though Lightning was much of a talker when he was in bed with someone. Tim found himself becoming more and more grateful of that as Lightning suddenly pushed Tim’s hand away from his prick, and then he began to coat the shaft and head with a layer of the slick lube.

Tim shivered, anticipation rushing through his body.

“Are you scared?”

He shook his head. “No.”

“Last chance. You don’t get to complain about me cursing you after this.”

Again, Tim was struck with the guilt that he’d ever blamed Lightning for cursing him at all, even if it had been in anger.

“Please. Lightning,”

He didn’t know what else to say, how else to convey to this man that he was everything Tim had ever wanted in his entire life.

Then he felt the head of Lightning’s cock pressing against his stretched, still burning hole, and when it pushed inside him, his muscles giving way and allowing for Lightning to enter him, Tim realized that burning feeling he’d felt from those fingers had been the least of it.

This was real burning. This was something he had to really adjust to.