He was treating this seriously, and that went a long way toward easing Luis’s nerves. It made him feel safe. Safer than hehad any right feeling here in a vampire bar about to get his first bite.
Karim leaned in and Luis could feel his heat. Ronan handed something to Karim, and there was the sharp, brief scent of antiseptic. It passed cool and wet over his pulse point and Luis shut his eyes trying to keep his thoughts away from nauseating territory.
“Sorry,” Karim said, voice low, “Antiseptic is mandatory.”
Luis took a shaky breath. “‘S okay.”
“Okay, done,” Karim said when the wipe was done. “Breathe.”
“I know,” Luis said, sucking in a breath. “I’m fine," he said, despite his nerves crashing into each other like overcharged atoms.
“You doing okay?” Ronan asked.
“Okay,” Luis managed to get out. Then he realized he’d need to explain more or Ronan might blame Karim. “I just–I really hate the smell of antiseptics.”
“Bad memories,” Karim supplied. “Ready?”
“Yeah. Do it.” Luis hoped he sounded more confident than he felt.
Then Karim was closing the distance between them. There was a puff of heat against Luis’s neck, so hot compared to the cool disinfectant wipe. Luis’s eyes were still shut, and he couldn’t open them. He was a mix of excited, afraid, anxious, and guilty.
But he needed toknow.
A chime sounded. “Time start,” Ronan said.
Then teeth touched his skin and pressedin.
Luis gasped at the first sensation of pressure-pain. It wasn’t anything like a needle, somehow less sharp, more natural feeling. The hand on his shoulder tightened, and Luis relaxed into it. A heavy, almost relieved breath pushed out of him.
Instead of panic, a strange warmth washed through him. It felt like all the blood in his body had been coaxed to the surface, flushing him head to toe.
Karim’s lips on his neck were soft, the gentlest of pressure around the wound he’d made. It contrasted to the scratchiness of his facial hair.
Then there was a draw at his throat—a suck.
Luis’s head spun as if he’d stood up too quickly. Awareness shrank to the one point of contact. It blotted out everything else.
The initial pain dissolved. Luis knew it should hurt, he was bleeding, but it didn’t. There was just the pull of Karim drinking from him and the heat running through him.
Karim sucked again, and something new rippled through Luis. Prickling along the back of his neck, making him gasp.
Arousal.
He was plunged, suddenly, headfirst into a sea of it. His teeth clattered together around the sounds that wanted to escape at the sensitized pleasure radiating from his neck and down his spine. He had no idea it would feel like this. He’d done some poking around online, people had said it didn’t hurt, could even feel good but–but no one had mentionedthis.
Luis’s hand came up to grasp at Karim’s shirt.This didn’t feel like something that should be happening at a bar. He was grateful for the booth and table though, because his reaction would be obvious otherwise. His whole body went tight, and it took all his concentration not to respond, not to push forward, not to moan.
Fuck.
Fuck.
There was nothing in his head but the desire, and it was being stoked by the pleasant, subvocal rumblings from Karim as he drank.
He’d never felt anything so good. He wanted more, wanted Karim to—
“Time.”A voice cut through the haze. It was followed by a sharp ping of an alarm going off.
That dizzying pull at Luis’s throat stopped, and the teeth came off of him. A tongue swiped once over the punctures in his neck, and it made the skin tingle.
