RILEY
Riley held Seth close as the cool water lapped at their bodies.
“Mm,” Seth hummed. He was sitting on Riley’s lap with his head thrown back on Riley’s shoulder, his face turned up to the sun. “The heat feels so good. It’s been horrible back home.”
Riley scoffed. “It was only a week.”
“A week of gray! In summer!” Seth gave an exaggerated shudder, though Riley could see him biting back a grin. “Horrible.”
“It rained here yesterday,” Riley pointed out.
“Psh. A summer monsoon. Totally different.”
“I didn’t realize you were such a desert baby underneath.”
“Me neither.” Seth let out a happy sigh. “It helps that this vampire body doesn’t get overheated.”
That was Seth, always focusing on the positive of their respective transformations. He’d even declared that his enhanced senses had made him a better baker and that he was now able to playaround with subtle flavors he hadn’t had the palate for in his human form.
Riley didn’t know about that—he’d loved Seth’s pastries before, and he loved them now. But he liked that Seth saw it that way.
They drifted back into a comfortable silence, basking in the shallow lip of the swimming hole they’d found. Or, more accurately, the swimming hole Jamie had given them directions to.
Riley was almost as content as Seth, except he kept having to ignore the niggling, lusty urge to shuck off his swim trunks, lay Seth down in the dirt, and enter him in one smooth glide.
But while the area they’d found was secluded, hikers still came through every now and again, and—as Seth kept reminding Riley on occasions like these—exhibitionism wasn’t their thing.
Still, Riley let his hands wander over Seth’s sun-warmed skin, nuzzling at his mate’s neck. Riley had kissed and licked every bit of skin there a thousand times over these past seven months, but it was still his favorite spot. Although, Seth’s hands came in at a close second. Also, his face. And maybe his butt. And his hair.
Maybe the neck favoritism was due to his voice’s preferences sneaking in, or maybe Riley would have had a thing for that slender throat even if he’d been human, but there was no way of knowing, was there? Riley was who he was, and so was his mate. Riley’s lovely, beautiful mate.
One of Riley’s wandering hands managed to find Seth’s burgeoning erection under the water. Aha. So Riley wasn’t the only one affected. Riley cupped the bulge over Seth’s swim trunks.
Seth’s lips curled into a smirk, his eyes still closed against the sun’s glare. “What are you up to down there?”
“Are yousurewe’re not exhibitionists?” Riley asked, arching up to rub his own erection pointedly against Seth’s pert bottom.
Seth laughed. “I guess it depends on how willing you are to letanother person see me all flushed and naked and moaning on your cock.”
No, Riley’s voice snapped at him.Fuck no. Ours. Only ours.
“You’ve got his hackles up,” Riley scolded, his pout only half-fake.
Seth’s smirk grew even more smug. “I’ll kiss them back down later.”
Riley reluctantly left Seth’s pretty cock alone and went back to holding him tightly on his lap. It was a case of good timing because a few moments later, they heard the telltale heavy tread of a hiker coming in on the path.
“Hand me one of those water bottles?” Seth asked casually.
Riley leaned back and grabbed one, handing it to Seth just as the hiker crested the portion of the trail overlooking their water hole. He was young and sunburned, his face creased in a friendly smile as he gripped his hiking poles. “Hello there! Do you know how much longer to the waterfall?”
“Not much longer!” Seth rose from Riley’s lap and scrambled up the hill to stand next to the hiker, pointing a finger in the opposite direction from where the man had come. “Just follow the path through those saguaros. It’s faint, but it’s there.”
“Perfect! Thank you!”
Seth turned to face the hiker, using a hand to shade eyes Riley already knew would be all black by now. “Don’t be scared,” Seth said, still in his same friendly tone, although his voice had lowered to a slightly deeper, rougher register. “And don’t move.”
He quickly lifted the hiker’s wrist and bit in, drinking in steady, patient gulps as the hiker stared bemusedly at him, his face flushed either with heat or arousal. Seth dropped the hiker’s wrist gently back to his side when he was done. “Forget I did that. We gave you directions and an extra water. You’ll drink it on your way.”
