Lightly, Takashi traced the scar on Zack’s shoulder, and Zack fidgeted. Knowing the pain that lurked behind the story of the mark, Roger was drawn to him and slid around behind him to kiss the crook of his neck.
“Is that where …?” Takashi glanced up from the pink scar.
“My brother stabbed me? Yeah,” Zack whispered hoarsely.
“To save me,” Roger murmured. He planted another kiss, this one behind Zack’s ear, and wrapped an arm around his waist. “I shouldn’t have been so careless.”
“I never should’ve let him near you in the first place.”
“Let’s not dwell on regrets right now,” Takashi said.
“Agreed,” Roger murmured. He continued pressing light kisses to Zack’s jaw and neck.
Zack reached forward and undid Takashi’s belt and pants. Then he slid his hands inside Takashi’s open shirt, pushing aside fabric to reveal Takashi’s muscular abdomen. Tentatively, he caressed him.
Roger sat on the end of the bed for a better view as Zack explored Takashi while he undressed him. His long centuries had given Roger the opportunity to appreciate so many forms of stunning beauty, and yet, like Zack, Takashi stood out from the seas of men Roger had been with. No one aspect made him exceptional; rather, the combining of them into the whole made him unique. Zack and Takashi were close to the same height, so neither had to bend down into the kiss they shared. They continued at a leisurely pace, the testing and teasing bringing moans out from both of them.
Their kiss soothed a knot of tension that had festered into a ball of worry in Roger’s mind. He could have been monogamous with Zack. He’d been so since they’d met because he didn’t want to ruin the growing bond between them. And though Zack had said that he was willing to try, that didn’t mean he’d be able to follow through.
Roger could sense the rising tempos of desire in both men before him. He opened his mind further, relying on the core of cold power inside him. As subtle as the drift of a caress, he brushed his ability against their lusts to gain a deeper understanding of them.
He could manipulate them, but why would he when they were so clearly enjoying themselves? Zack’s wants were racing. He wanted to be touched, to be held, to fuck and feel wanted. Underneath them all was the desire Roger had always seen in him, even without using his powers. Zack longed to beseen, to belong and feel worthy.
Surprisingly, Takashi’s surface desires shifted and pulsed with a speed that matched Zack’s. Roger couldn’t read minds,and Takashi’s impulses were a blur of longing to chase the physical pleasures. His bloodlust was sated, but there was a yearning to taste Zack in the mix of his wants.
Plunging deeper, Roger delved beyond Takashi’s guard. The sensation was a newer one for him. Rarely had he indulged his ability and pursued more than the lusts easily spotted and felt.
Takashi longed for a future of freedom. When he was mortal, he had soared on the trapeze, and the desire hidden toward the heart of him longed for his life to have some semblance of that. He had no massive terror of risk, only an ice-cold trickle of fear that he would never feel alive.
Takashi shivered and broke off his kiss with Zack to turn a wary glare at Roger. “What are you doing in there?”
The words brought Roger back to himself, back to the hotel room and the bed under him. Takashi’s pants were halfway down his thighs, and Zack had his hand around his cock. During Roger’s excursion into their emotions, the two of them had been getting along extremely well.
Zack was flushed, his cheeks a bright red that crawled down his neck to his chest, and he glanced bewildered between them. Slowly, he took his hand off Takashi’s member and backed away by a step. “What’s going on?”
“He was in my head,” Takashi said.
Zack frowned. He ran a hand through his hair and then scowled more as he touched his tattoo. “Wait, were you inmyhead, too?”
“I’m sorry,” Roger replied quickly. “I was only looking. You are both so beautiful I was drawn in. I was caught up in sharing the emotions with you.”
“My tattoo would have gotten too hot to ignore if he’d tried to mess with me,” Zack murmured to Takashi.
“I would never do such a thing to lovers without permission,” Roger said. “You both know that.”
“That’s not what’s worrying me,” Takashi whispered. His glare eased to a worried frown, and he cupped Roger’s cheeks in both hands.
Takashi was a younger vampire, but Roger thought he would have grasped a better control over his ability to sift through another’s lusts and fears, given his long employment as Nell’s ambassadorial international spy. Such a skill must have proved useful. Did he lack the talent?
No, no, Roger could feel Takashi slipping through his impulses and sinking into his depths. Roger put his hands on Takashi’s wrists, ready to push him away. His fears were ridiculous, not worth noticing.
But as Takashi dove inward, Zack sat beside Roger on the bed. He lightly touched Roger’s shoulder and asked, “What’s going on?”
“I’m fine,” Roger lied because now that they were both watching him, both observing him so closely, the fears he had pushed down were heading for the surface. If he let them reach much higher, Takashi would be able to feel them out. Zack was becoming distracted from pleasure and turning his attention to Roger in a way that threatened to push Roger’s mental balance back toward the teetering edge he longed to put behind him.
Only I haven’t been putting it behind me. I’ve simply been twirling on that edge. Roger softened his grip on Takashi’s wrists. “I am sorry for the violation. I only meant to explore your passions. But please, let me speak instead of seeking my emotions.”
And the wild, impulsive fear that Takashi would say no and continue scrutinizing him spiked so hard in Roger’s mind that he thought his heart might beat again.
