Takashi rushed forward, nearly zooming with supernatural speed, and wrapped his arms around Roger as he kissed him. Their mouths tangled together hungrily. Roger held Takashi closer with his free hand and held on to Zack’s tightly with his other.
Seeing them together was like a key sliding into a lock and turning. Something marvelous in Zack was opening. He had a front-row seat to his boyfriend making out with another man, only Takashi wasn’t some random other man. He was clever, and he shared a history with Roger. And he groaned in a soulful, satisfied way as their kiss came to a close. He pulled Roger down so their foreheads touched. “I have longed for that since I heard rumor you were dead. My heart has ached for your smile, and I have spent the last thirty years wishing I had said all I’d felt and held inside myself.”
Zack had never said something so achingly beautiful. He was a stammering fool in comparison, and he had to swallow a knot of jealousy that he didn’t know how to express himself so elegantly.Takashi’s had thirty years to think of what he’d say. Maybe with that much time, you’d think of something, too.
“I’ve missed you, too,” Roger murmured.
Takashi gave Roger another quick kiss. With heat in his eyes and a warm smile, he glanced at Zack. “Roger’s not the only one I want.”
Zack’s mind blanked on the meaning of words for a moment. Then Takashi was stepping nearer. They were closer in height;Zack didn’t have to tip his head up to reach his lips. Thankfully, Takashi was moving slowly, and Zack’s mind had a chance to catch up to what was happening. He could back away from the kiss. He should. Roger was watching and …
And Roger had said that he wouldn’t let anyone make fun of Zack for sexually enjoying himself. Not even himself.
He won’t make fun of me. Takashi’s giving me space just in case I panic. But this isn’t a crowd. It’s my boyfriend. Boyfriend and his boyfriend? My boyfriend and his boyfriend who might be my potential boyfriend?
Zack pressed his lips to Takashi’s, surprised that his touch wasn’t quite as cold as Roger’s. A blush crawled across his cheeks, heating down his neck, and his heart thundered in his chest. He closed his eyes—he couldn’t help it—and that narrowed the world to his sense of touch. Tenderly, Takashi slid his lips against Zack’s and wrapped an arm around him. Zack leaned into him and licked the seam of his lips. When Takashi opened his mouth, Zack slipped in, exploring and mapping.
Slowly, Zack brought the kiss to an end. He managed to force his eyes open. The faintest blush painted Takashi’s cheeks; the blood he’d drunk had given him more of a mortal reaction. And that wasn’t the only part of him reacting. Pressed together like they were, Takashi’s hardening erection nudged against Zack’s thickening cock.
With a grin, Zack said, “Yeah, okay.”
“Okay?” Takashi snorted.
“Well, as much as I think we should totally explore if that’s the best kiss we could ever have, Roger’s the one I want to focus on,” Zack said. “He needs the distraction.”
“I’m plenty distracted,” Roger purred.
“Maybe.” Zack took Takashi’s hand. Holding on to Roger as well, he walked backward and tugged them toward the master bedroom. “I think we can do better.”
CHAPTER 17
Threesomes were nothing new for Roger, but novelty sparked a blaze inside him as Zack dragged him and Takashi into the bedroom. His soul was scrubbed raw from the hours spent at the Chateau, and paranoid thoughts grew like ivy along a cracked wall. The insidious twists of his deeper thoughts were feasting on his fears. Why had Zack never mentioned he was a Gladwell? Was he preparing to stab Roger in the back? Was Takashi? Was Zack going along with a threesome as a subterfuge? He’d never suggested one before.
You’re overthinking it. You know the difference. Did he? He thought he knew Dmitri, and yet the longer Roger spoke with the other vampires tonight, the more he’d realized that Dmitri had been lying to him and lying to others about him. What else had he lied about?
But Zack’s hand was clasped in Roger’s. Even if he could convince himself that Zack’s warm smile was false or that his insistent kiss was a ploy, he had an insight into his emotions. Zack’s wall was down. Liquid desire flowed through him, and the dread that was forever a hurdle was diminished.And I know him. I know I matter to him. I know this isn’t an act.
And Takashi? Hundreds of other threads of ivy bloomed if he allowed them. Takashi had been Nell’s left hand. Her loyal ambassador. Her spy. Had he shifted his allegiance? Was he using Roger as a stepping stone?
The way he kissed said no.
Once they were in the bedroom, Roger pulled Takashi to him and kissed him. Takashi melted against him, wrapping an arm around his shoulders. Roger’s tongue brushed against his fang and stroked the inside of his mouth. Kissing him brought back notes of the past, like elements of a wine, and flavored the present. The first time they had ever kissed had been in the back of a speakeasy, cigarettes, bootlegged gin, and blood on Takashi’s tongue. But the one that had made Roger’s heart soar had been in Nashville, in 1985, in a hotel room at dusk as they were just waking. That kiss had been the slow, waking exploration between two lovers who could have so much more—but Takashi was bound to follow Nell, and Roger had had to return to Chicago in less than a week.
And this kiss renewed that plea, that supplication for a hopeful beginning rather than the indulgence of a singular moment.
Zack approached him from behind and began untucking his shirt while Takashi nimbly undid the buttons of his shirt. With their guidance, Roger slipped out of the purple silk. Zack dropped it onto the dresser before planting small kisses on Roger’s shoulder. The heat of his lips preceded the touch of them, a flash of promise before the act.
A needful groan vibrated out of Roger. Slowly, he spun around, caught Zack around the waist, and drew him into a deep kiss. Zack plunged his tongue past Roger’s lips and ruthlessly took command of the kiss. He put a hand on the back of Roger’s neck and locked him into place. Being pinned was typically aturnoff, but the desperation in the way Zack panted and coaxed him further into the kiss was charming.
Still, Roger broke off the kiss with a rumbling chuckle. “It’s not a competition, sweetheart.”
“Except who can get naked first,” Takashi teased as he undid the buttons of his own shirt.
Zack stepped back with a boyish and beautiful grin. “Oh, well,thatI can win.”
Zack had already changed into his sleepwear. With a few quick movements, he flung off his shirt and dropped his underwear and flannel pants to the floor. Takashi had barely finished unbuttoning his shirt, and Roger had made no move to continue undressing, so Zack did easily win that.
Watching Takashi absorb and appreciate the freshly nude Zack was mesmerizing. Roger leaned back against the dresser and stayed out of the way as Takashi neared Zack. There was a magic in witnessing two partners discover what he liked and already knew about the other. Though Zack had been showing more skin earlier, the fishnet shirt had obscured his scar and tattoo.
