“Not nervous. Just…” I don’t have a socially acceptable word to use here. Excited? Horny? Conflicted? I don’t finish my sentence. Willan snickers again and moves another cushion around so it’s behind me.
It’s been years since I’ve drawn in a breath, but somehow my chest is still locked tight as he settles down on the cushion. His legs are crossed so his shins brush my back. His cushion is higher than mine, and with his height, it feels like he’s looming over me, in the very best way.
“It’s okay if you’re nervous. I’ve got you.” His hands fall on my shoulders, molten heat flowing to my belly. I sink my fang into my lip to keep my whimper inside.
Completely oblivious, Willan massages my shoulders with three quick squeezes before running his hands down my arms to my elbows and trailing back up to squeeze my shoulders again. My fingers link together in my lap, keeping them locked in place when he continues the slow trail again, his breath flowing in time with his hands.
Up and down, his hands keep going and I’ve never been so tightly wound and yet completely relaxed. My eyes drift shutand I sink into the floating feeling. After several passes, and his fingers feeling like they are teasing the bare skin at the end of my sleeve, the room drops. Not literally, but there is a sudden drop in the room's air pressure with Willan’s power growing. Still, I don’t open my eyes, as I’ve become putty in Willan’s hands.
Waves wash over us, warm and then cool tingles. The magic is like an echo of a song I can’t quite remember the lyrics to anymore, but still, it’s not unpleasant. Especially when Willan’s hands leave my shoulders to massage my scalp.
A whine slips from my lips, and I sink further into his touch, nuzzling my head into his fingers. Sensations flow from the crown of my head to the tips of my toes. Dimly, I’m aware of the aching hardness of my dick, but it’s peripheral to everything else. I’m completely under Willan’s spell.
His soft whispers tickle my ear, and his fingers begin to comb through my curls. When he finds the braid I’ve hidden away in the masses of my hair, he slowly and carefully unknots it, pulling it apart with delicate precision.
Through the thick layer of protection he’s drawn around us, the outside world manages to sneak through. All of my complicated feelings about finding a place for my old life in my new one. The fear of judgement aboutwantingto balance them. Years old hurt from my clan's rejection. The pain of making my own way in the world completely alone. All of them looming figures on the edge of the circle, growing bigger and bigger as the braid unravels.
“I’ll keep it hidden, if you want. No one has to know. You’re safe now.” He whispers knowingly, his fingers never leaving my hair. And Ifeelit. The reality hasn’t changed, the figures are still there, but they no longer feel like giants.
“Thank you.” I try to whisper, too, but my lips are so relaxed I can barely form the words.
WILLAN
Beneath my fingersNikolo is completely open to me. Usually it’s nearly impossible to read a vampire like this. Their nature provides them protection against other beings' magical intrusions. But Nikolo is completely laid bare before me. His hopes and his fears—especially his fears. There are so many layers I wonder if he’s even aware of them all? But then, how many of us truly are.
It’s humbling to have someone so truly raw and open, and I don’t take it for granted. Not for a second. I focus on the crystals on my altar and stroke his curls, running my fingers between the coils, and call to the energy of the crystal. Strength, security, safety.Home.I find the frequency and envision blowing on it, like a flame, feeling it grow and pulsate until it wraps around us and fills the circle.
I section off a portion of hair, using a clip made of cabassas shell to keep the rest of his hair out of the way. Using all of my years of training, I bring my focus back to what I’m doing. On top of the feelings tumbling out of Nikolo like a block tower that’s just been waiting for the moment to fall, having my hands on him is causingmeall kinds of problems. It’s not the first time I’ve worked magic with an erection, but usually the erection’s thepoint and I’m using sex to raise energy for work. Not today. Not with Nikolo.
Seeing his pain and his joy laid out in front of me on the astral plane, I understandeverythingand it only drives my need to wrap him in all the protection I can offer. Still drawing from the crystal, I begin weaving the strands of the braid together relying on muscle memory. It allows me to sink entirely into the magic, to become a conduit for it.
I reach the end of the braid, but I’m not done yet. I don’t feel ready. Shifting positions so my legs are splayed on either side of Nikolo, I section off more hair and begin another braid. I have to consciously haul myself back from my own emotions about Nikolo, the years of pent up longing and wanting. The last thing I need to do is bind them to him. Instead, I use that energy to channel blessings into the braid—all my hopes that he finds what he’s searching for on the path he’s exploring.
At the end of the second braid, the work feels complete. I knot it off happily and release the rest of his hair from the clip. I’m not quite ready to let him go, though, my thighs tightening unconsciously around his hips. Nikolo doesn’t seem in a rush to get up either. Once again my fingers delve into his hair, and without my crossed legs blocking him, he melts completely into my gentle petting, sinking back until he’s leaning entirely against my chest.
The air is thick with the energy of my magic. It’s like a fuzzy cocoon, sealing us entirely away from the outside world. I keep petting his hair, only the angle is awkward, so naturally my hands drop, following their own path down to his shoulders, his arms and eventually his chest. I stroke and massage, digging my fingers into Nikolo's firm muscles through his shirt.
Magic—free floating energy—continues to swirl around us, intensifying the feelings. Against my chest I feel Nikolo’s head turn, and then the weight of his gaze on me.
My eyes crack open, Nikolo’s face filling my vision. He looks more beautiful than I’ve ever known. It fractures something inside me, to have him look at me likethat. With all the heat, desire and wanting I’ve ever felt reflecting back at me. My tongue darts out to lick at my lips, and his eyes flicker to watch—so fast I barely catch the reflex. It makes my heart jump and my pulse thunder and I know the second he hears the racing of it.
I can’t be the one to lean down, to close the distance between us. It has to be him. Ineedit to be him. The moment elongates like a droplet gathering, and then it falls—and Nikolo straightens, surging towards me.
My eyes close again and I feel the clasp of his palm on my jaw, keeping me in place as his lips seal themselves against me.
I’m tumbling, falling into the abyss. Or just onto the floor as Nikolo just keeps coming, his mouth sealed to mine. My back against the floor, I wrap my arms around him, hauling him more securely over me so his chest is plastered to mine. His tongue licks at the seam of my lips and I greedily allow him in, letting him taste and plunder to his heart's content.
Usually I prefer to be in control, but not when someone is so thoroughly ravishing me. His tongue strokes mine and I feel it in my cock. His hand on my jaw holds me possessively, like heneedsme to stay right there at his mercy. Whatever Nikolo needs, I’m happy to give. My hands clench his back, bunching his shirt in my fists as my hips roll in a futile search for friction. It would be too easy to drag him completely on top of me, to settle him between my thighs and rut away against him until we cover each other in cum. The wanting coils in my gut, increasing the intoxicating feeling of the kiss.
He kisses me leisurely, thoroughly, until I forget about everything but the taste of him. Even breathing. Nikolo senses it before I do, pulling off away to press quick, frantic kisses alongmy jaw and down my throat while I gulp down lungfuls of air and writhe on the floor.
A fang scrapes my skin, not nearly sharp enough to pierce the skin, only suggesting it. Electricity spikes through my veins at the brief contact, my body jerking sharply upwards. My hands tighten on Nikolo’s flanks but before I can make sense of my own reaction, or beg him to do it again, he’s kissing his way back up my neck to claim my mouth again.
His tongue finds its way back between my teeth and I’m drowning. Need rolls through my body in time with Nikolo’s rhythmic rocking. I slip my hand under his shirt, his cool skin soothing to my fevered body, but apart from my fingers skirting teasingly under the waistband of his pants, neither of us take it any further.
After minutes or hours, I’m not even sure, he pulls away, letting me breathe once again. His forehead drops to mine and I’m surrounded by his golden curls, the end of his braid tickling my chin.
My lips hurt in the most perfect way. Swollen and bruised, I lick at them just to relish in the feeling. Nose to nose, forehead to forehead, Nikolo’s eyes are softly shut, his body unnaturally still above me. He’s so close he’s blurry in the light, already misty from the magical energy stirring in the breeze rolling from me.
