That didn’t work. Conversation might. “Why me?”
Takashi gently ran his hand up the length of Zack’s arm and settled his touch on the crook of his neck. “You are my boyfriend. Why shouldn’t we fuck?”
Zack narrowed his eyes. “Roger dodges important conversations the same way.”
“What way?” Takashi asked with a fake innocence that was all at once darling and utterly needles-under-skin annoying.
“Sex talk.” Zack nudged Takashi. “Why do you think I should be on the throne and not him?”
Takashi lowered his voice to the barest of whispers. “We both know that Roger doesn’t have the conviction it takes. We wouldn’t be in this position if he did.”
“Why not you?”
“I do better in the shadows,” Takashi replied. “I can move with a freedom there and make deals and alliances that would garner your position better strength. Besides, if I took it, everyone would assume I was doing it for Nell.”
Zack sat up. “You think I can do better in the spotlight? Vampire society is all about sex shit, and Ifreeze.”
“You can overcome that.” When Zack shot him an incredulous look, Takashi sighed and rolled onto his back. He stretched, and Zack was more than a little distracted by watching him. “Your family ruined your confidence. You don’t have to shove yourself down in hopes of pleasing them. You were never going to make them happy. They made that very clear.”
“Amber—”
“I’m not talking about individual members. I’m talking about the Wrights and the Gladwells as a whole,” Takashi said. “Am I wrong about them?”
Zack scowled because he couldn’t immediately say no. While Amber and his father had started coming around,everyonehad agreed with his mother that he had done the wrong thing in Detroit. Everyone had acted like taking research from him should be verified by a second source, not from due diligence but because they weren’t sure he could be entirely trusted. Cousin Denny had called him a “someday blood bitch” during the last time they ever played rescue the damsel, and no one had ever made him apologize.
With a tender slide, Takashi rubbed Zack’s arm and drew his attention back to him. His expression was softer. “You can be great. You just have to stop getting in your own damn way. My current desire to never move again is proof of that.”
Somehow, that was funny. Zack laughed once. “Is it?”
“You need a confidence boost? I have not been spanked and fucked that well in ages.” Takashi grinned up at him. “Dom!Zack suits you very well.”
“Did you just use a fanfic convention on my name?”
Vampires didn’t really blush, but Takashi exhibited all the features of doing so without the color in his cheeks. “Well, I … maybe.”
Having people make fun of him was how Zack had gotten such a shit view of himself. Stepping outside himself, he couldsee how everything Takashi had just done—opening himself up, offering for Zack to be in full control, even this conversation—was support for him. So the last thing Zack wanted to do was make Takashi feel like he couldn’t be trusted with all aspects of him.
He flopped back down on the bed beside Takashi. “Do you have an AO3 profile?”
“I may have heard of the site,” Takashi said.
Zack could feel a flicker of a desire to hide.He’s shared enough. If he’s actually got an account, he’ll show me in time. We have Our Forever, after all. “I have one to make comments on stuff. I think I’ve read like everything in theTwilighttag. Or at least, everything written up until August. Okay, maybe not everyeverything, but I’ve spent a ton of time there.”
“Somehow, that does not surprise me.” Takashi’s smile brightened again. “Honestly, I’ve been reading in theFrom the Gravetag lately.”
“Oh, I’ve been there, too. There’s this one where—” Zack stopped as he realized the ice-cold magnet that was Seamus’s presence was nearing. He sat up. “Fuck. Seamus is on the way.”
CHAPTER 24
A wave of panic was on its way to demolish all the joy and budding determination that Zack had been building. His mortal parents had never caught him fucking, though one time in college, they’d come incredibly close to showing up at his dorm room as he was finished going down on his then-girlfriend. Cal had liked to mock him about overhearing him masturbate since he was thirteen. Sex was just not a subject brought up in the Wright household. His dad had given himthe speechtwice—once to explain the birds and the bees, and again after Zack came out as pansexual to him in order to explain how anal sex wasn’t really anything like the other things he’d explained—and that had been the end of the discussions.
Now, Seamus was marching down the hall, and Zack had no doubt the bastard was coming straight to his suite.
Any remnant of postorgasm glory was gone. Was Seamus going to be upset that Takashi was in his room? Was he going to lose it when he saw the very nice comforter now had a hole in it where Takashi had chomped on it? Was Zack supposed to be dressed?Oh shit, he’s not bringing someone in here, is he?Zack raked his hand through his hair.
The last thing Zack wanted Seamus to see was the sex toys. The next to last things he wanted on display were his and Takashi’s naked bodies. Using a burst of speed, Zack grabbed the toys and lube, threw them into the closet, and zipped through his wardrobe until he found two robes.
“Zack—” Takashi called out.
