“What? You didn’t plan on having our epic date night interrupted by the past, and me leaving you behind—I’m really sorry about that by the way. I should have made you come with me—and then you getting into a fight with your brother, dredging up a couple of decades of hurt feelings and anger before accidentally admitting in front of me that you love me and want to turn for me? Yeah, not all of that was on my list either.”
Huffing with exasperation to cover his embarrassment, Willan flails about, trying to sit up.
“Wait, why shouldn’t you have left me? You didn’t know Aleksi was in one of his shit stirring moods—” He finally manages to get upright, sitting with one leg on the couch on top of my thigh, so we’re facing each other.
“I kinda did, Willan. It was pretty obvious. He’s never liked being surprised. I just didn’t think it would escalatethatbadly. It was a dickhead move of me to leave you like that.”
“Well, could you imagine if he saw you, and then we both left, and then he just had Lusce to talk to? He was already ready to jump in and fight Aleksi because he thought he was talking shit about vampires. It could have been a fucking disaster.”
I cock my head to the side. “Can we say that we really avoided disaster tonight?”
Gods, I’m so grateful to hear Willan’s laugh. After all the fraught tensions of the night, it’s like a balm to the spirit.
“Okay, maybe not entirely.” He concedes through his breathless laughs.
“So, are we just avoiding the whole ‘you admitted you love me and would turn for me’ thing? Or are we just saving it for later when we’re not emotionally exhausted?”
Willan’s laughter turns into a choking gasp. “Oh shit. Didn’t think we were going to just go there like that. Not even any lube. Fuck.” He gets out between wheezes, reaching for his water from the coffee table.
“Well, at least if you turned, you wouldn’t have to worry about this.” Smirking, I wave a hand to encompass his mess. “No breathing.”
Over his glass, he glares at me with absolutely no heat.
“Did you mean it?” I ask quietly when he’s no longer choking, picking at a loose thread on the couch.
Willan accepts the change in tone without question. Carefully, he finishes his mouthful and puts the drink on the table. Grabbing both my hands, he pulls them into his lap, scooting closer.
“Nikolo, I’ve been in love with you since we were kids. My single regret in life is that I didn’t follow you the first time. You’re insane if you think there’sanythingI wouldn’t do to never be apart from you again.” Face raw and vulnerable, his eyes search mine, each one of his fingers holding tightly onto my hands. “Would—would you want me to?”
My heart beats hard in my chest. I can feel eachbum-bumlike a thump. I want nothing more than to grab him and screamyes! Let’s do it right now!And then turn the fuck out of him and claim him forever.
But I love him too much to be rash about this.
“I… I really can’t answer that, Willan. I can’taskthat of you. Turning isn’t an easy thing. It’s not simple—there’s no going back. It means leaving everything behind. Your magic means so much to you. It’s such a big part of your life. It’s literally yourjob…”
Willan’s hands loosen on mine and I have to hold on to him to keep him there.
“You’re not asking, Nikolo. I’m offering.”
Swallowing the lump in my throat, I regret not grabbing a blood before we sat down.
“I know. And you don’t know how much it means to me. But I can’t lie and say I’m not scared. If this is what you want to do, ithasto be for you. Not for me. If it is and you regret it? What if you resent me for the choice? That’s one thing I really can’t live with, Willan.” My voice fractures, hot tears stinging my eyes, turning the world pink. “I—I love you too. With everything I have in me.”
“Oh, baby. I could never, ever resent you.” My eyes are tightly shut, but I feel Willan pulling me into his embrace. I go with it, until I’m the one leaning into him, my head against his chest, and he’s petting me. His heart beats a steady rhythm under my ear, and I’m all twisted up and it can’t be any more comfortable for him than it is for me. Neither of us move, though. “I’m not saying there’s not going to be challenges, or there’s not things I’m worried about, too. But I know what I want. And I’m not going to say that you aren’t a part of the reason why, Nikolo. Because you are. But you aren’t thewholereason. Like you said, some things just feel right.”
“It’s a big decision. Huge. And if we do it here, there’s a lot of paperwork. Like,somuch paperwork.”
Willan chuckles, making my head bounce against his chest. I put my palm next to my face just to feel it better. “Yeah. But I don’t have to make any decisions right now. There’s time, and wecan figure out all the details. But I want you to know that that’s what I want.You’rewhat I want.” The hand on my shoulder moves to my chin, tipping my face to meet his. “Besides,” he winks, a sly smile hooking up the corner of his mouth. “I like paperwork. It really gets me going.”
He growls, a real cheesy porn kind of growl and dips down to kiss me. The kiss is anything but cheesy. It’s dominating and caring, sexy as fuck and still devastatingly sweet. It’s perfect.
“Seriously, though. There’s a lot of paperwork if we do it here.” I say when we break apart for Willan to catch his breath. “We’ll have to go meet a doctor and get psych evaluations done. There’s medical tests and you’ll have to decide if you want to freeze your sperm, in case we—you—want kids later.”
Willan, thankfully, skips over that bomb I just dropped. A playful smile teases his lips, in stark—but really fucking hot—contrast to the way his eyes darken, narrowing in on my mouth. Grip on the nape of my neck tightening, he drags me closer. “Don’t stop, keep talking bureaucracy to me.”
It’s a bit hard to do that when he crushes his mouth to mine, all but tackling me back onto the couch to pin me down. But when he finally moves on to my neck, I keep going.
“So much paperwork. Tonnes.” I groan, when he licks along the collar of my T-shirt, his hands bunching up my skirt to grip my ass and rearrange me so I can wrap my legs around his hips. “Registration paperwork. Family history declarations. Vampire employment certifications.” Each item I mention is met with a hard thrust of his hips, grinding me down into the couch.
