“And that thing is her security system?”
Caster smiled. “You could say that.”
His joy made Mark uneasy in ways he didn’t want to explore. “Yes. Yes, I am trained.” He didn’t know why he needed him to know. The acknowledgment thrust him to the past, back to a time when everything made sense, when everything was simpler. He fortified his body against the surge of pain threatening to break free.
“What is it?” Before he could snap at him for reading hismind, Caster moved, his unnatural speed reducing the distance between them to mere millimeters in half a moment. He knelt in front of him, within touching distance. “I didn’t read your mind. I heard the subtle change in your heartbeat.”
Mark closed his eyes, shaking his head to deny it all, deny the pain and this moment.
“Will you look at me?” The unique scent he’d come to associate with Caster wafted through the small space between them to awaken his wolf.
He squeezed his eyes shut. “Make me.”
A second passed, followed by a sharp intake of breath. “Open your eyes.”
There was no mistaking the command, and his body responded as expected. Part of him, a tiny part of his human side, rejoiced that he could still hand over control. His wolf sought to please its new master and awoke with a start, prancing around behind the barrier that kept him at bay. With every knock at the barrier, the resurgence of his wolf’s power grew more apparent, and the wounds on his body closed faster.
Startled by the new development, he stared at Caster and then at his healing wounds. This had never happened before. He’d lost the expedited healing that characterized his species as his wolf had retreated further into his mind. How was this possible?
“You’re healing…” There was pride in Caster’s voice, even though he couldn’t understand the effect he had on Mark’s wolf.
Caster raised his hand towards his face, slow enough to give him time to reject him. Mark wanted his touch, even if hisrational mind told him to run and never look back. Caster’s fingers on his brow stole his breath again. It was a hair of a caress, a tease of a touch, and Mark had to grab onto the forest floor to keep from swaying into it and clamp his jaw shut to keep from begging for more.
“Breathe…”
His chest ached with the next intake of breath, only for him to choke on it when Caster’s hand touched the edges of his hair. His fingers were cold against his too-hot skin, and he sighed, his eyes drifting shut.
“If I tell you to breathe again, I will be very disappointed.” His hand went through Mark’s hair with little effort. “What’s wrong, hmm?”
The way he phrased it and the tone of his voice said he didn’t require an answer. Mark tried to find an answer that would satisfy him. It was taking everything he had to focus on his next breath, the desire to keep from disappointing him overriding everything else.
The second pass of his hand in his hair tore a moan from him, and this time he lacked the strength to keep from swaying into Caster’s solid form. He was so far beyond aroused, a single touch, a word, was all it would take to send him hurtling over the edge. It had been so long since he’d crossed that line. Every time he’d approached it in the last decade had felt like a betrayal of the only person who’d guided him past it.
Caster sucked in a breath. “No! That’s not what’s happening here.”
Mark looked at him, begging him for something, anything.
Caster shook his head, but his continued easy touches, his hand now at the base of Mark’s skull, confused him. “Believe me, I want you. I haven’t wanted someone like this in a long time. But no.”
Caster leaned forward so there was almost no space between their faces. His lips were so close, all Mark had to do was take what he wanted. But he couldn’t, not without his permission. It was the only time in his life that Mark ever hated his submissiveness. Most people didn’t understand his need to be controlled, but he wouldn’t trade the freedom it brought him for anything. Except maybe a single taste of Caster’s lips.
The caress at the base of his skull drew another moan from him, and he closed his eyes, begging for strength to pull away from whatever spell he was under.
“You don’t want to tell me?”
Unable to find the words, he shook his head, keeping his eyes closed and thanking the Goddess that Caster hadn’t required an answer. He doubted he would ever find the courage to talk to anyone about what plagued him. Even Dean and Mikey only knew a small part of the worst moment of his life. He wasn’t about to tell a stranger. The pain was his penance until he couldn’t bear it any longer, then he’d let it consume him.
The disappointment in Caster’s sigh caused his wolf to whine, a painful sound that reverberated across their shared mind space and through his body. The discomfort came full circle when Caster dropped his hand and moved to his side.
He missed the contact with a ferocity that scared him, and part of him wanted to tell the vampire everything if he promised to touch him again. But the more rational side reminded him ofthe danger the appealing body beside him concealed. He was a vampire, and because of what his kind had cost him, there was no way Mark would ever trust him enough to let him in. He was unsure he would ever trust anyone enough to share the burden of his pain.
Caster was so close to giving him what he’d almost begged for, but he was responsible enough to know nothing good could come from that. The pain Mark thought he concealed so well was so palpable, he could almost touch it. He didn’t know why he cared. It was clear Mark didn’t want to talk about it.
He’d met and played with more submissives than anyone he knew except for Damien, and maybe his trainer, Marcus, but he’d never seen one so responsive. It was natural for a submissive to crave the control a dominant could exert, but many used the power of their nature as a weapon to get what they wanted. With Mark, he didn’t get a sense of manipulation.He wasn’t even trying to fulfill his desire to be controlled; his surrender was simple. Complete. If he thought him beautiful when they’d first met, seeing him so vulnerable had increased his appeal in ways Caster couldn’t describe.
What had he done? He should have known better than to touch him, but the softness of his hair had called to him, and he was lost in it with the first touch. Now he wanted to do it again, yet he was aware of Mark’s vulnerability and how easy it would be for someone like him to take advantage.
Dawn couldn’t come fast enough. Then, he could put as much distance between them as he could. He almost laughed at that thought when he couldn’t even get his body to move away from him now.
