“Alright.” I open my eyes and take a moment to take in the sight of him in the candlelight. “When you’re ready, open your eyes and flip your hands over. Rather than trying to channel the magic through you, I’m going to funnel it into your hands. Then you can mould it. Okay?”
Nerves flitter over Nikolo’s face, and he licks his lips before rolling them over his teeth. I give him a moment to process, then he nods.
“Sure.” He sounds anything but sure, but he still pops his eyes open and flips his hands over so they rest palm up on his knees.
Nikolo is right hand dominant so I put both my hands over his right, leaving enough space for the magic to grow. I corral all the energy inside myself, feeling it surge through my arms and fingers until I’ve pooled enough in his hands. I have to stop myself from cheating and forming the ball for him—Nikolo needs to try doing it himself.
Holding perfectly still, I watch him focus, his eyebrows knitting together and his fingers twitching as they roll the tangible energy in his palm.
I don’t dare even breathe, in case I interrupt his focus. Between our palms the energy slowly takes a shape, but all I can see is Nikolo and the hopeful determination on his face. Concentration pulls the lines of his face tight, his lips rolled over his teeth.
Pride swells in my chest, my jaw tight as I try to clamp down my smile when the swirling white light of the magic pulls together into a sphere streaked with colour where the light fractures. The ball pulsates in his hand, and Nikolo stares in undisclosed wonder at the pure potential he holds.
Eventually, the magic begins to fizz, popping and erupting like tiny fireworks. With his inexperience, Nikolo is losing control of the energy and it’s becoming unstable. Panic and disappointment melt the happiness on his face and it kills me to see it.
Slamming my hand down on his, I absorb the erratic power and clamp my hand around his.
“You fucking did it, Nikolo!” I cry out, tugging on his hand, pulling him towards me. “Youdid it!”
Nikolo launches himself at me as I pull and we go tumbling to the floor. He lands sprawled on top of me, his hips straddling mywaist and hands pinning my shoulders. His blonde hair tickles my face as he looms over me, smiling brighter than if he just hung the moon in the sky.
“I can’t believe that just happened!” He crows, pressing down on my shoulders with an excited bounce. Using my hand that isn’t trapped between my thigh and his knee, I give in to the impulse and reach up and tuck his hair behind his ear.
“I can. I told you, we’ve got this.”
Nikolo rolls his eyes again, just to needle me, his hands squeezing my shoulders.
“Please. That was all you. I literally couldn’t have done it without you.”
“I just put it in the palm of your hand. You did the rest.” Egbert would be proud of my modesty. Thinking of Egbert helps because with Nikolo on top of me like this, I’m hard as a rock. All he’d have to do is shimmy back a centimetre or two and he’d feel it.
“Thank you, Willan. Seriously.” Nikolo’s eyes capture mine and I cannot for the life of me look away.
Time stops, and I feel like I’m drowning.
I watch Nikolo’s face slowly get closer and closer until his nose brushes mine and my eyes drift closed.
The first touch of his lips is so gentle it makes my heart clench painfully. The second makes my stomach swoop. The tenderness is too much to bear. I’m wound tighter than an elastic band stretched to its limits and when he licks into my mouth with an impatient grunt and little shove, I snap. With a hungry moan, I tug my hands from where they’re pinned and wrap them around his back, my fingers digging into him there.
Sharp teeth nip at my lip, electrifying the kiss as blood seeps from the scratch. The taste unleashes something wild in Nikolo. He moves restlessly over me, driving his body into mine like he’s trying to make us one being—quite possibly by devouring me. Itry to kiss him back, but he’s completely wild and desperate—forme—and that in itself is driving me to the very edge of coming.
The back of my head grinds on the hard floorboards, breaking through the chaotic lust and making me hiss, distracting Nikolo from his frenzy. He pulls off my lips roughly, and his body locks in place. In the candlelight his lips are smeared with saliva and the barest hint of blood, but I’m more concerned with the panic in his eyes as they dart over my face.
“I’m sorry! Shit, I—” He cuts off when I dig my hands into his lower back, where my fingers have wiggled under the waistband of his pants, letting my nails sink into his skin.
“Stop.” I infuse every ounce of my ‘teacher voice’, as he calls it, into the command. Immediately, I can feel his muscles begin to relax in tiny fractions. “Why are you apologising?”
“Blood.” Still half delirious with lust, he struggles to get the words out. “I got you with my fang and,fuckWillan. You just tasted so good I couldn’t stop. But we haven’t talked about it and?—”
“Enough.” I dig my fingers in again to stop his panic. “Nikolo, I amfullyaware you are a vampire and you have teeth. Accidents happen. And I’m not entirely averse to the blood thing. But we can discuss that later.”
His eyes flare at my mention of the ‘blood thing’ before he frowns at me. “But you sounded like you were hurt?”
“Yeah dude, you were grinding my head against the floor.Thatfucking hurts. Everything else was aces.”
The frown melts away with a full body laugh that has him dropping his entire body onto me, the evidence of how much he was enjoying our kiss pressing against my equally hard dick. Nikolo’s forehead buries into my neck as he loses himself entirely to his body-racking laughter. It rocks his body against me, taunting my aching erection, which hasn’t flaggedin the slightest despite me beinghilariousin my reassurance. Apparently.
“Are you alright there?” I ask when I get fed up.
