Without a care about his own nakedness, Peter wrapped the blanket around Theo, and once more carried him up the stairs, keeping to a human-friendly travel speed.
“Is this becoming a thing?”Theo asked, his voice thick with spent pleasure.
“Sex in the basement?I very much hope so.”
“The carrying thing,” Theo clarified while he attempted to poke Peter’s shoulder.The movement turned into a caress, because Theo was one well-fucked human and happy to be so.
“Well, once I put in some heating down there, you can nap on the couch, then we can do this again, and after that, I can poll you about walking up three flights of stairs.”
“Could’ve just said yes.”Theo’s head sagged sideways against Peter’s shoulder, and his eyes fell shut.
“Could’ve just not called me a Viking, but here we both are.”
The smile that bloomed on Theo’s face was the kind of thing that, if caught on canvas, made the artist immortal and the model a legend.Here, with darkness falling, only Peter saw it.I shall keep the memory of this forevermore, beloved Theodore.
20
Theo
Theoknewhewasdreaming, and as he dreamed, he realized with unnatural clarity that the last few days had taken their toll on him.This is weird,he thought as the dream progressed.
Things had started out innocently enough, with Peter in some sexy, tight-fitting armor and with a waterfall of moonbeam-colored hair.He was the sexy version of a plundering Viking, and there was even a nice big sword strapped to his belt.
Since the dream was set in some grassy field, and since Viking Peter was just standing there, too hot for his armor, beckoning Theo over, Theo complied.
Dream logic made it so that the next thing he knew, Peter was lying on his back, definitely bare-chested and presumably completely naked, because Theo was licking down that chest with purpose.From there, the dream shifted.All the colors Theo had dreamed just leaked away, and the world went gray.
Peter screamed.His ice-blue eyes had gone gray as well, and now they were wide with pain and confusion.Theo wanted to say something, to wrap his arms around Peter and hold him tight, but he was frozen in place.Peter, still underneath him, was sucked into the ground as if the earth herself had decided to bury him, and cruel laughter filled all the spaces that had been full of greens and reds and blues, full of Peter, full of lust.
Your fine ass belongs to me, said a baritone dream voice that sounded familiar.I made you what you are, and I get to use you however I want to.
Theo knew that voice.Bernard.This was a nightmare, and Bernard’s disembodied voice was starring as the fucking boogeyman.A part of him knew all this; knew that, logically, this was not real.And yet… Theo’s mind filled with panic.
Just come crawling back to me, and I won’t tear your pretty sugar daddy a new one.
The voice came closer.Theo felt the air stir right next to his ear, and he couldsmellBernard—the stale smell of old clothing and cigarette smoke.The way Theo had smelled when he woke up from compulsion, or from Bernard having taken too much of his blood.The smell didn’t always wash off either, not with one shower, not with two.
Thunder and lightning shook the scene, and a loud rumble echoed from the ground.An earthquake.
Theo knew with uncanny certainty that the earth would swallow him, just like it had swallowed Peter.He’d suffocate.He’d die.
Don’t make me wait any longer, Theo, or you won’t like what I’ll do.
“I said, wake up!”
The words came with a stinging pain to Theo’s left cheek, and he jerked upright, finally able to move again.The world was still black, but at least the earthquake had stopped.
Hands holding him.There were hands holding him.They wouldn’t let him go.
“There you are.”Theo couldn’t make out whose voice it was.
Bernard.Was I buried?Did he bury me?
Arms wrapped around him, too tight.He couldn’t get away.Fear rose.He needed to get away.He screamed.
With a hissed curse, the hold on Theo vanished, and a second later, brightness flooded the room.
“Theodore.”Peter’s voice, and Peter’s face right in front of him.
