Uh, me?Zack’s mind unhelpfully supplied. But he didn’t voice that, not even as a joke. Takashi had such a serene, peaceful patience about him. Zack had to respect that and take him seriously. “You are a filthy, cock-hungry, little fang-humping twink.”
The mental ink swirled and settled into a largeNO.
Zack tilted his head to the side. “We can feel the opposite of desire?”
“Disgust is the desire for something to end,” Takashi said. “We should probably unpack why that was your go-to insult.”
“Not right now.” Zack slid forward. If Takashi disliked that kind of talk that fiercely, maybe praise was what he enjoyed. Zack lowered his voice, trying for a husky quality. “I am so grateful to have such a deliciously hot teacher like you. I only hope you’re this patient when I’m sliding my dick into your amazing ass because I am going to draw this out until you arebeggingme to come.”
A longing rolled upward from Takashi as he leaned his head back. “Feel that?”
“Yeah.”
“Know what that is?”
The shapes had a complexity to them that slid past his grasp like a camera backing out of focus, but Zack saw the gist of its meaning. “You want more.”
“I do.” Takashi grinned at him. “Don’t worry about the specifics. Master ‘stop’ and ‘more’ first.”
“All right,” Zack said. “Promise you’ll vocalize if I’m pushing too far or too hard.”
“Of course.” Takashi put his finger on Zack’s lips. “Promise these are the only parts of your mouth I’ll feel. Losing you to a blood frenzy would ruin the mood.”
“Good point.” Zack nuzzled Takashi but refrained from kissing him. “No mouth would be better. Now, I really want to see how that harness looks on you.”
Takashi picked up the harness and began to slide it on. “That can be arranged.”
But he still had the smear of bloody tears on his chest from where Zack had cried up against him. Zack blurted out, “Wait.”
And Takashi paused.
Having someone listen to him shouldn’t have felt like a novel concept. Zack had asked others to do stuff for him before. When he’d been recovering, his days had been a series of requesting help or having people fetch stuff for him.
This was different. Zack let the weight of Takashi’s trust in him settle the nerves threatening to climb.What have I ever chosen for myself? Him. This. For once in his life, he had both feet on the ground, and his head wasn’t clouded with a thousand worries that were going to drive him insane. Slowly, he brought the warm washcloth to Takashi’s chest and methodically cleaned the dried tears off.
Then he stepped back and threw the washcloth toward the bathroom. It sailed across the room, through the open door, and splatted against the far wall.Uh. Right. Vampire strength. I really got to watch that. He cleared his throat. Immediately, a wave of embarrassment flooded his system, but he drew in a deep breath and quashed it. He was in charge. The tiny slipups weren’t major fuckups. Takashi was still radiating want. That was all that mattered.
“Put it on,” Zack ordered. His voice had an oomph to it that resonated deeper in his chest.
For a fraction of a wild second, he was certain Takashi was going to laugh and call the whole thing off.
Instead, the swirling mental inks that filtered through Zack’s mind scored the journal page he was reading. The force of the word practically opened a canyon, and Zack had to hold to the edge out of respect.BELONG.
That was a desire Zack knew inside and out, both sexually and not. Takashi’s want went deeper than sex, even though at the moment, it was charged with an energy that was far from platonic. And feeling it woke a rumbling predator in Zack’s soul. Craving blood was a necessity—a need that had to be obeyed in order to survive. What crept forward was a yearning that made something beyond mere existence possible. Following this impulse felt likethriving.
Power settled over him, coursed through him. There was nothing magical about it, at least not in the arcane fashion. Zack was shedding an ill-fitted persona. He could feel the bits of the gasping, scared boy who’d let Cal torment him, who’d let his cousins tie him up as part of a game, who’d tried to please his mother over and over and over, who had waited and waited and waited for his boyfriends to make a fucking plan—that scared boy didn’t deserve to be in this new chapter of his life.
Takashi finished putting on the harness. It went around his shoulders and had straps across his back and front. At the center of his chest was a metal ring, and there was another at the center of his back. When he was done, he shot Zack a sly grin, yet his desire to belong pulsed stronger. A lock of his dark hair hung over one of his eyes, lending him a rebellious look.
“I am going to get that answer out of you,” Zack said firmly. “You better make me work for it.”
Zack didn’t need his psychic ability to tell him that Takashi liked his new tone of voice. Takashi was sliding his hand to his dick, preparing to take himself in hand and stroke.
“None of that. In fact—” Zack stepped forward and grabbed Takashi by his wrist and the center of the harness. Using that hold, he pulled Takashi to his feet. Then he spun him around and pushed him down so that his ass hung off the end of the bed. The inky connection streamedmore more moreto him.
Knowing that what he was doing was right was an elixir he hadn’t realized he’d been missing. He roughly pulled Takashi’s arms behind his back and used the leather cuffs to secure his wrists. A stifled moan slipped out from between Takashi’s lips.
“Already vocal for me?” Zack asked. He stroked Takashi’s spine just above where his hands were bound up to the chest harness and back down. With his other hand, he grabbed the butt plug and teased the cleft of Takashi’s ass. “I haven’t done anything yet.”
