Half trying to pin Luther down, half trying to get rid of the yards and yards of fabric that seemed determined to keep them apart, he scrabbled at Luther’s body and his clothes in turn.
Claws came out to play.He felt Luther’s nails scratch at his skin in return, as they rolled and tumbled on the rug in front of the fireplace.Flinging out a hand, Blaine managed to halt their progress just in time to stop them from slamming into a bookcase in the corner of the room.
Arslan had pointedly emptied the meeting room of anything particularly breakable not long after they’d joined his pride and started attending the meetings there, but destroying the actual furniture wouldn’t win them any prizes with their leader.Best not to annoy him, especially when they and Marrick would all need his blessing at some point.
Blaine pushed them back toward the centre of the room but stopped short when he spotted a shadow laying across the rug.He looked up.
Marrick!
Blaine scrambled up onto his feet.Luther was upright a moment later, the last shreds of his clothes falling away as he rose.
“I didn’t hear a car.”
“I rode my bike over.I’ll need it for work tomorrow anyway.Quicker if I just ride straight there.”Marrick pulled two bags off his shoulders and dropped them on the floor by the door.“Don’t stop on my account.”
Blaine tilted his head on the side as he tried to make sense of the statement and failed.Luther blinked at him, still panting a little from their tumbling and apparently no more able to follow their human’s line of thought than Blaine was.
Marrick stepped forward.“It looked like you two were having a hell of a lot of fun before I got here.”
“You’re late,” Blaine told him.It was important to mention that.If they were to be Marrick’s masters, they would have to address behaviour like that—just as Arslan would.They couldn’t just think about screwing him.Blaine ran his eyes up and down Marrick’s body, then reminded himself of the last bit again, though still only with limited success.
Marrick shrugged.“An extra delivery came in just as I was about to leave.Overtime’s overtime.”
While most of Blaine’s blood supply had already been diverted to his cock, he was more than ready to accept that as a reasonable explanation.Sucking a deep breath of air into his lungs, he let it out slowly as he fought to switch mental gears between what he could do with Luther and what they might both be permitted to do with Marrick now that their human was finally home.
Their pet hadn’t been lying about enjoying watching them play together.He was as hard as either of them.Blaine slid one hand behind Marrick’s head to gently cradle his scalp as he brought their lips together.
Pets needed a gentle hand; Arslan had drummed that into them both.Even if something inside Marrick called to Blaine just as strongly as Luther did, Marrick wasn’t Luther.He wasn’t a lion.
As Blaine deepened the kiss, Marrick rose up on his tiptoes, leaning against him.Blaine quickly settled his free hand on Marrick’s arse, pulling him closer, letting their bodies rub together through Marrick’s clothes.
Marrick slid his hands up into Blaine’s hair.His grip tightened, as if he was clinging to him for support, and Blaine purred his approval into their kiss.
That kiss led into another, and Marrick released his grip on Blaine’s hair in favour of wrapping his hand around Blaine’s wrist.Instinct took over.For a second, the only idea in Blaine’s head was that Marrick was trying to challenge him for dominance, just as Luther would have.There was no thought of Marrick’s humanity, or his fragility.Blaine pushed him back toward the rug, only to spring forward and pull him back close at the last minute, before he could actually tumble to the floor.
Marrick’s hands landed on Blaine’s shoulders as he steadied himself.
“What the hell—?”Marrick looked up at him, his eyes full of confusion.
“You have to be careful,” Luther said.
Blaine met Luther’s eyes over Marrick’s shoulder and nodded his understanding.Luther wasn’t just speaking to Marrick.They both had to be cautious with him.Arslan would skin them if they weren’t vigilant about that—and he might refuse to allow them to bring Marrick into the pride.Worse even than that, if they made the same mistakes with their first pet as they’d made with their first sacrifice, Blaine knew that Arslan would be right to keep them both away from him.
“Are you okay?”Blaine asked.
Marrick looked at him as if he was crazy.He shook his head, as if dismissing all need for concern.“I’m fine.”He tried to step back, and, wary of holding onto him to tight if he tried to stop him, Blaine let him do that.
As he watched, Luther greeted their pet with a kiss of his own.His hands were unfailingly gentle on him, but Marrick didn’t seem reassured.
“You know, I’m not going to break if you want to invite me into the game.”
It took Blaine a few moments to realise what their pet meant.He frowned when the pieces of the puzzle clicked into place inside his head.“No.Lions can’t play rough with humans.”
Marrick turned away from Luther and looked across the room at him.“Oh?”
“You’re not strong enough.”
It was a simple statement of fact, but it made Marrick frown.“Who says I’m not?”
