“So let’s not do it at all.” Riley’s lower lip jutted out the tiniest bit, his gaze still on the window. So, no tears, but a predictable pout. “I thought we were gonna focus on being boyfriends for a while and forget the rest.”
Had Seth said that? Probably. But there was going slow and there was straight-up denial. Seth was a fan of the former, not the latter.
“Well, myboyfriendis a vampire. I wanted to slow things down, not stick my head in the sand completely.” Seth pressed a kiss to Riley’s chin, then his cheek. “Riley. Baby. You want me to turn eventually, right? Isn’t that how the mate thing works?” Riley gave a reluctant, stilted nod, and Seth pressed on, “That would mean one day I’d be feeding off people. I want to know what that entails. And it’s for you too. What if—what if one day we’re stuck somewhere without enough wild animals for you? Somewhere without a blood bank we can access. If you can, you need to learn how to feed off people. And that starts with me.”
Seth had been thinking it over all day, in an abstract sort of way. He hadn’t decided on the bite until that moment in the bakery, but he’d been thinking about vampires in general. About what it actually might mean to be one. About how long he could be expected to stay human if Riley and his moms were intent on him becoming otherwise.
Riley’s gaze had drifted away from the window, down to the pulse in Seth’s neck, and he was watching it, his lips parted.
Poor, hungry boy. He wanted this. He was just afraid.
“Baby,” Seth said again. Riley’s gaze leaped up to his. “It’ll be okay,” Seth soothed. “I’ll make sure of it.”
Riley swallowed. Shook his head. Then once again, he gave a short, stilted nod. “If— If he takes too much, yell. Yell for me and I’ll—I’ll hear you. I know I will.”
Before Seth could even agree to his terms, Riley’s face shifted, the black taking over his eyes and those cute fangs peeking out from between his lips.
Seth almost took a step back, he was so surprised by the quick change. Not-Riley smirked, like he realized Seth had wanted to retreat. Like he was amused by that tiny hint of subconscious fear not even Seth’s almost bottomless trust in him could entirely quell.
Seth narrowed his eyes, annoyed to be caught out like that. “You’re going to behave?” he asked.
Riley’s answer was to claim Seth’s lips in a hungry kiss. He wasn’t afraid to involve tongue and teeth, somehow managing to dominate Seth skillfully without drawing blood. He walked Seth backward and pressed him into the couch, growling into Seth’s mouth.
That was a maybe, then.
Seth released Riley’s hands, his arms coming up to wrap around Riley’s neck. He let himself be lowered until he was half-reclined on the couch, let himself go limp and give in to Riley’s desires.
He was about to finally come up for air, to beg Riley to focus—there’d been a point to bringing the vampire out, hadn’t there?—when Riley’s hand came up to Seth’s throat, tilting his neck to the side.
Seth let his head fall where Riley wanted it, their kiss finally ending. His breaths were coming fast, both in response to what had just happened and in anticipation of what was still to come.
Then Riley’s voice was in Seth’s ear, speaking in a low, gravelly croon. “Don’t be afraid, little human.”
Seth wasn’t afraid—not exactly. But maybe Riley was showing him what it would be like if hewas.If he was a regular humanmeeting this beautiful, eerie version of Riley in some back alley. If a random seduction took a strange turn without warning.
Would Riley compel him, if that were the case? Would Seth, if he were in Riley’s shoes?
Before he could come up with an answer, sharp teeth were sinking into Seth’s throat, a hot slice that burned and then tingled.
With the other “slips,” as Riley had called them, the two of them had been in the midst of sex, and the pleasure from the bite had been chasing the tail of other, more familiar threads of desire.
Now it caught Seth off guard. The force of it. The way the teeth in his neck seemed to be connected straight to his dick, and how with each pull Riley took of his blood, that connection strengthened. Seth was hard and aching before he even realized he was turned on.
Jesus. Was he going to come in his pants?
Riley was taking steady, deliberate gulps, focused on his task. Seth’s head had gone a little light and floaty, but not like he was losing enough blood to be concerned. How did a vampire know when to stop? Instinct? Practice?
If the latter were the case, Seth was totally fucked.
He probably should have considered that before suggesting Riley chomp into him like a blood-filled donut. He also probably should have asked how much blood a vampireneededfrom a feed before he’d jumped into this. Was Seth going to need to go to the hospital after?
But then the fangs were coming out of his neck, and Riley was licking at the bite in long, soothing strokes. Seth might have thought it was another seduction attempt from the vampire half of him, but then he remembered the healing aspect of Riley’s saliva. He was making sure Seth didn’t bleed out from the bite.
Riley drew back, and that black gaze settled on Seth. “Forget now,” Riley growled.
Was he using compulsion? But Seth wasn’t forgetting anything,even though his eyes were locked with Riley’s black pair. So maybe Riley was just…telling him what would come next?
“Then you make them forget,” Seth repeated.
