STORY EXCERPT

Julian cleared his throat, and for the first time since Hank had met him, he seemed a little unsure of himself. It was almost nice, knowing that the man could be put off a little from that good mood he always seemed to be in.

“I wasn’t aware that you cared about the man so much. Were you…lovers?”

Hank’s entire body felt as hot as though he was standing in the middle of a sauna. “Not that it’s any of your business, but no. He was…just someone…we were friends, all right. We talked from time to time and that was it.”

Looking back, Hank wondered why Vaughn ever really put up with him. Carl would follow Hank around whenever he’d been in the mood for a prank, but the kid was young and always looking for some good trouble to get into. Vaughn was the only man around Hank’s age who didn’t outright avoid him.

Maybe it was because Hank liked dogs, like he did. Josh had also liked the dogs that Vaughn had trained also. Maybe Vaughn had only ever hung out with him, spoken to him, and listened to his worries and troubles, because he felt he owed it to Hank’s dead brother.

“Oh, okay.” Julian immediately perked up. “Well, in that case, you’ll be glad to hear that the vampires are also on our side.”

“I already know that.”

“You think I’m talking about Will, Noir, and Frederik. I don’t mean them, I mean Frederik’s brothers. They’re having some trouble with the other vampire nobles, and they don’t want to be attacked by any more humans. Add all that up with the fact that their youngest brother now lives here, and you can sort of see where I’m going with this.”

He did see. “You’re saying those vampires want to help us?”

“I didn’t get all the details. I was too busy thinking about your pretty blue eyes and when I would get to see them again, but basically, yes. Hawke is off telling his dad about that right now. Tristan, the vampire in charge of the mansion, basically offered the property up to the entire village should we ever need to pick up and go, like right away. He said it could be the base of operations for the West village if we ever needed it, and in exchange, the village will do its best to keep other humans away from there. The place was attacked by a bunch of mercenaries right when we arrived, so someone isn’t doing their job right somewhere.”

“Well, I suppose that is a good thing,” Hank said. He was still somewhat reluctant to offer any gratitude when those vampires could easily turn around and betray the entire village, starting by bleeding Vaughn dry.

“Hawke also mentioned something about making sure that Vaughn stayed in touch. He’s going to send a messenger out. Probably Carl, since I guess he’s the fastest one aside from Hawke and pretty good about keeping hidden. You two can exchange letters and everything. See? You can still be friends.”

“You’re trying much too hard to cheer me up.”

“But it’s working, right?” Julian asked, that big stupid smile back on his face.

It was infectious, and Hank smiled as well. He hated to admit that it sort of was working. “Well, I guess I should thank you for telling me this before I embarrassed myself in front of the entire village,” Hank said.

“Any time, beautiful,” Julian replied, and suddenly he was standing so close that Hank could feel the man’s body heat.

A quick flash of memory came upon Hank without warning. It was of James, standing right in that very same spot when Hank confessed his feelings and kissed him, and the guy had broken his heart by leaving for Julian’s brother.

He cleared his throat and stepped away before Julian could take it a step further. “I don’t know why you keep on trying. I already told you I’m not…looking for anyone right now.”

Julian knew the reason why, so Hank didn’t have to say it. Thankfully, the other man also decided not to repeat it, but he wasn’t giving up either, it seemed.

“Look, I know you don’t really like paranormals, and I can’t say that I blame you. I’m not a pleasure mage or anything, but I would like to give it a try with you. I think I can really help you take your mind off of your problems.”

It took Hank point zero one seconds to realize what Julian was offering him. “So, this isn’t about you following me around because you happen to like me or anything. You just want to fuck me?”

“Don’t say it like that,” Julian said, and his feet actually shifted a little. For the second time since he’d ever met the man, that confident persona that he always seemed to have on him slipped away to reveal something a little more fragile.

Then the confidence was back as Julian turned his dark eyes up and smiled, revealing his perfectly white teeth. “All I know is that I do like you, and I know you’re a red-blooded guy with needs that you currently aren’t getting fulfilled.”

The little bastard.

His anger must have shown on his face, because Julian was quick to raise his hands. “Whoa, relax. I’m not saying anything about you. What I’m saying is that I do like you, and I would like to get to know you better, but until you’re comfortable with the personal aspect of that, I’d be more than happy with the physical.”

Again with the grin on his face. He was perfectly serious. Julian was right about one thing, Hank was a red-blooded male like anyone else in the world, and he had temptation standing right in front of him, offering himself, no strings attached.

He would be lying to the world and to himself if he tried saying he wouldn’t be doing it just to try and forget about James for a little while. It would be nice to have someone else with him other than his right hand when he felt the need come up, and he wasn’t exactly getting any offers from anyone else.

“All right. You want to fuck. Then let’s fuck, but that’s the end of it. It goes no farther than that, and you don’t get to tell anyone we’re doing this, either.”

“My lips are forever sealed. Unless you want me to open them up again for other reasons, which I’d be more than happy to do.”

ADULT EXCERPT

He’d managed to get the man to lie back down on the clump of sheets and blankets that he clearly used for his bed before peeling down his faded jeans and taking the man’s cock into his mouth.

He didn’t mind that their first time together wouldn’t be on a mattress. Free humans only owned what they could steal from traveling vampires, or the vacation homes they broke into when the vampires themselves were not home.

Not everyone got a mattress to sleep on, and neither did Julian, so his only concern was making sure that there would be enough material beneath their bodies to keep them both comfortable when they got down to the actual sex.

Hank’s voice, however, was pure pornography, and it went straight to Julian’s cock as the man fisted his hair and thrust into his mouth. His hips moved quickly, but it was hardly a frantic pace, so Julian was still able to keep control of the situation just fine.

For someone who had wanted to keep this a secret, he sure was being vocal.

“Oh God, that’s nice. Should’ve done this a long time ago,” he moaned.

Yes, they should have, and if Julian had his way, he was going to make sure that Hank wouldn’t be able to resist him again after this.

He abruptly pulled his mouth away when the sound of Hank’s pleasure became louder, and when he felt the man’s cock swelling even more in his mouth. Julian pulled back even when Hank tried to keep a firm grip on his hair.

“What are you doing?” he asked, his blue eyes wide, as though he was scared that Julian was about to put a stop to what they were doing.

Like that was possible at this point.

“Unless you have the stamina of a Greek god or something and can be ready two seconds after you finish, I’d like you to not come just yet.”

Hank’s face turned red. The blush went all the way into his ears, and Julian couldn’t resist kissing him. Thankfully, the other man didn’t complain or tighten up with their lips touched. The kiss was surprisingly soft, and Julian found himself leaning into it, pressing his tongue gently against Hank’s mouth, if only to see what he would do.

The man opened for him, and Julian wanted to sing his praises to the high heavens. Hank was totally going to deny that he was enjoying this later on, but for the moment, that was all right.

Julian quickly kicked off the slacks he’d stolen from that vampire mansion when he’d spent the night, but not before pulling out a tube of his very own special blend of lube from the pocket.

Hank seemed so content to just have Julian lying on him like this, kissing languidly, that he was almost sad to have to pull away. He had to if they were going to get down to the meat of this issue.

“Top or bottom?”

“What?”

He was so cute, his eyes blinking all owlishly and confused. “Do you want to fuck me or have me inside of you?”

“Oh, uh, I’d rather you top,” Hank said.

That was surprising. Not that Julian really cared how it went, but he kind of pictured Hank to be the sort of man who wanted to take charge in situations like this.

Julian hid his surprise by wiggling the small glass vial in front of Hank’s face. “Then off with your jeans. I’ve got a real treat for you.”

Hank did as he was told, and quickly, shoving his jeans the rest of the way down his legs and kicking them off where they lay forgotten on the floor next to Julian’s clothes.

He didn’t make any move to take off his shirt, and neither did Julian. Getting completely naked was not in the cards for their first time together. That was all right. They could do that later.

Julian pulled off the cork to the vial with his teeth and poured the slippery liquid onto his fingers, and he could already feel the warm tingle as it started to work. The stuff was so slick it felt like dish soap, but it was anything but.

“What is that?” Hank asked, leaning up a little to see what Julian was doing.

“My own special recipe,” he replied, hooking an arm beneath Hank’s knee and lifting it over his shoulder. The tight-lipped frown just got deeper on the man as his embarrassment over this position became apparent.

“I thought mages were only good at the one spell they specialized in?” Hank said.

“It’s not always just one. Sometimes it’s two, and even rarer than that is three, but it’s debatable on whether those guys are actually mages, or just really weak warlocks.”

Julian pressed his fingers against Hank’s asshole, and it took only a little coaxing before he could get one inside, and he waited a moment before trying with the other, stretching the man with only two fingers.

Hank’s spine stiffened, then he sighed and relaxed.

“Wait for it,” Julian said.

Hank opened his mouth, clearly about to ask just what he was waiting for, and then Julian had the pleasure of watching his pupils dilate right before his hands gripped the sheets beneath him, and he moaned and gasped. Hank thrust his ass against Julian’s fingers and moaned out loud. It was one of the most beautiful sights Julian had seen in a long time. Ever, in fact.

“What—what is—holy fuck!” Hank reached for one of his pillows and stuffed it over his head. He made quite the sight doing that, humping against Julian’s fingers while yelling into his pillow.

“This is one of my other cool talents,” Julian said. “It’s something I picked up when out living on my own with my brother. Sometimes we would need medicine, or things like that, but we didn’t always have the money or items to trade for it, so he and I had to learn how to make our own potions.” Julian reached up and took the pillow out of Hank’s hand. “I want to see your face when you moan like that.”