STORY EXCERPT

Tomas tensed and grabbed at the chain. Thick steel. God, who were these people?

“Tomas?”

Tomas turned back to the bars.

There were three people on the other side of them, all looking down at him, curiosity and concern in their eyes.

But it was the man with the square jaw and brunet hair tied back in a braid that Tomas focused the most of his attention on.

His heart skipped a beat. It actually skipped a beat, and immediately after that happened, it started pumping faster than a racehorse could run. The other two people in the room faded away into the background, and all Tomas could look at, all he could focus on, was the person in front of him.

He smelled really good.

“Open the door. Alistair, open the door!”

“Kevin, are you sure he’s safe?”

“I got the witch out of him. He’s fine. This is him. I’m pretty sure it’s him.”

“I’m me,” Tomas said, but he didn’t take his eyes away from Bramwell. He couldn’t look away from him, and if he’d been able to help it, he wouldn’t have blinked either.

Tomas ached to get closer. His body hurt when he was too far away from this man. He lifted his hands and put them onto the bars, sighing as his heart did that beat-skipping thing again when Bramwell put his hands over Tomas’s.

His hands were callused and warm, but they were good. Tomas’s fingers tingled from being touched just in that one spot, and the way Bramwell stared into his eyes, as if he was searching for something with those pale green eyes…

Bramwell’s eyes flew wide. He turned back to the other two men in the room. “Hurry up! It’s him! I’m telling you it’s him!”

“You weren’t able to tell the last time,” muttered the man who had to be Alistair, but he still produced a set of keys and unlocked the cage door. It squeaked when it swung open, and Bramwell released Tomas’s hands and flew through the doors.

Tomas opened his arms to the larger man, letting himself be picked up and held.

And oh God, this felt too good. This felt so right. Tomas wanted to cry all over again. His chest hurt. It pulsed with what was almost a physical pain.

He knew this man. He just hadn’t seen him in a long time, and that was something Tomas couldn’t properly explain, not even to himself.

“I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry for failing you. I’m sorry I wasn’t there!”

“It’s okay. It’s okay, I’m fine.”

Tomas didn’t even really know what Bramwell was apologizing for, but he still felt that, whatever it was, it wasn’t his fault. So he said it, again and again. Every time Bramwell apologized, he said it.

Until Bramwell kissed him.

Tomas sucked back a shocked breath. He hadn’t expected this. He honestly hadn’t expected to be kissed, like this or at all. Bramwell had already kissed him, but Tomas supposed he didn’t expect it because Bramwell would be worried about demon germs or whatever.

Bramwell had kissed Tomas back in the bakery, but Tomas had his body possessed, and he’d been unable to feel it then. He’d wanted to feel it. He’d been angry and sad at the same time. Angry that his body was being used in such a way and that he couldn’t feel what this man had been doing to him and sad because he’d wanted to feel that kiss. It had been for him, but it had been stolen from him.

He could feel it now, and the most exquisite pleasure rushed through Tomas’s body. The kind that left him tingling all over, that left his mouth hot and desperate for more as he pushed his body against Bramwell’s.

But the images that flashed in front of his brain just then, the mental pictures of Bramwell in strange clothing, as if he’d been at a medieval fair, were something Tomas didn’t understand.

So many visuals flooded his brain in that moment. But it wasn’t just Tomas’s imagination getting the better of him. This was something else. These were memories.

They were memories, and they were making Tomas lightheaded as Bramwell teased the crease of his lips with that amazing tongue of his. Tomas opened his eyes, unable to hold back the moan that rose up when the next memory to come to him was of himself and Bramwell making love, of Bramwell lacing their fingers together and whispering something into his ear that Tomas couldn’t make out.

In the present, Bramwell slipped his tongue deeper into Tomas’s mouth, and it was embarrassing that Tomas’s cock got hard as his body overheated, but in that moment, it didn’t matter that they had an audience. Tomas didn’t care. He would let Bramwell fuck him right here and right now. He was desperate for it. Oh God, he was going to explode.

“Jesus, Bram, at least let me get his shackle off.”

Tomas felt something messing around down below with his leg. He nearly kicked the person in the face who was touching him, but then realized it was Bramwell’s friend, and the shackle fell away from his ankle.

No sooner did the heavy steel shackles clanged on the cement floor than Tomas’s feet left it. He was pulled into the air, and he lay bridal style in Bramwell’s arms.

Those green eyes were suddenly dark and hungry. Tomas shivered, but he was also eager.

“I’m taking you to my room.”

Tomas put his arms around Bramwell’s neck. He nodded. He knew exactly what going to Bramwell’s room would mean, and there was nothing he wanted more in that moment than to get up there and let Bramwell do whatever he wanted to Tomas’s body.

Better Bramwell than some crazy witch.

“I want to go. Take me up there. Wherever it is. I want to go with you.”

ADULT EXCERPT

His eyes were wide as he sat on the bed then sighed when he realized what it was. 

“Damn, thought I was falling there for a minute.”

“Sorry for scaring you.” Bram pulled at Tomas’s jeans. “These are dirty. I’ll send to have them washed after we’re done.”

Tomas’s breath hitched. Bram heard it and felt the way Tomas’s heart raced.

“Are you scared?”

Red bloomed across Tomas’s cheeks before he briefly looked away. “Yes and no, I guess. Not of you, though.”

Bram smiled. “Good to know. I don’t want you to be afraid of me. I will always protect you. Understand?”

Tomas nodded, that blush still dark on his cheeks and nose.

Tomas had always hated it when he blushed. He’d never thought it was a manly thing to do, and back in those days, the ideas of what men were and were not supposed to do and how they were supposed to behave were a thousand times more strict than they were today.

Also, he thought it made him look unbecoming. There was nothing that could make Tomas look less handsome than he looked right now.

Especially when Bram got his pants off. That was the best damned part.

Tomas exhaled a hard breath when his cock was free. It sprung up and bounced against his belly, hard and thick. He’d always been well endowed, but Bram still took a juvenile pleasure in the fact that his was bigger.

“I missed you so much.”

Tomas panted for breath. “Wish I could say the same. But if it makes things any better, I feel like I haven’t seen you in months.”

“Years.” Bram looked up at his mate. Tomas frowned at that, but Bram wasn’t about to get into it. Not now. Not when he was so close to getting everything he desperately wanted.

“Take your shirt off. I’m going to make you feel so good you won’t be able to walk straight for a week.”

“Holy fuck.” Tomas scrambled to do as he was told, pulling his shirt up and over his head as Bram leaned in and let his tongue lick along the sweet base of his mate’s prick.

The flesh pulsed under his tongue. It tasted of salt and lust, and Bram wasted no time licking his way to the top, to the center of the crown where a drop of precum waited for him to taste.

Bram moaned and shivered. He had to pull away. 

“What’s wrong? Don’t stop, please.”

Bram looked at him. Tomas had no idea what had just happened. That sweet flush of pleasure was still on his face, but the sudden surge of power and energy Bram got just from licking at the tip of his dick and taking in a drop of his essence had been enough.

Kevin, in his previous life as Kinsey, used to say that some of the earth’s most powerful magick came from the body when it was in pleasure. Kinsey was a sorceress for the Gods, so it made sense that he would know a thing or two about this.

That feeling Bram had gotten was more powerful than anything he’d ever experienced before in his life. It wasn’t just something his wolf was feeling either. This wasn’t just animalistic. This was primal, instinct and nature, the whole earth coming together.

It was a celebration.

“What’s the matter?” Tomas asked, suddenly appearing unsure. “Is…everything okay?”

“Everything is beyond fine. Everything is perfect.”

It was just that Tomas’s body seemed to be calling out to Bram. Every cell, every inch of him, called to Bram in greeting. They were together again, and Tomas might not remember their past together, but now it was clear his body did. Tomas’s body remembered everything. Muscle memory, Bram had heard it called, and the power that thrummed through Bram’s body was enough to make him wild.

“Holy shit, did your eyes just turn gold?”

“They did, and they’ll turn red in a couple of minutes. Just wait and watch. Watch me as I do this. Don’t you dare take your eyes off me. Understand? I want you to see this.”

Tomas nodded again, and everything inside Bram’s body flared to life.

His. Tomas was here, and he was his.

Bram held Tomas’s gaze for as long as he was able to until it got uncomfortable as he wet his lips and slipped his lips around the head of Tomas’s cock.

Tomas’s stomach constricted as he gasped. He always was sensitive here, and Bram took full advantage of it.

Remember this. Remember me.

Bram sucked hard, hollowing his cheeks as he bobbed his head up and down.

Bram fell back into this habit easily. It had been so many years since he’d done this to another man. There had been no one else but Tomas, but now that Bram thought about it, he supposed he was lucky as all hell he hadn’t forgotten.

No. The skill was still there, and when Tomas put his fingers into Bram’s hair, squeezing hard and probably messing up his braid, it was all Bram could do not to moan from the pleasure of it.

What the hell? He did it anyway. Bram moaned around his mouthful, using the vibrations to make his mate go completely and utterly wild. Tomas threw his head back before he collapsed onto the bed.

Bram smiled around what was in his mouth, pulling back just long enough to look at his mate, splayed out for him, panting for breath as his chest rose and fell in heavy succession. Bram let his hand slide up that slim stomach, his fingers playing in the light dusting of hair that traveled from his navel to his pubic region.

“You are going to look at me and pay attention to everything I’m doing.”

Tomas nodded.

“That means you still have to look at me, sweetheart. Don’t even think about taking your eyes away”

They had so much catching up to do.