Reluctant Partnerships

by Ariel Tachna

  Adèle crossed the courtyard to the monastery church, stopping in the doorway rather than going inside. As the gardener had warned, the floor was torn up in places, stones displaced in no pattern visible to her, but she had no doubt there was method to Thierry’s madness. She had seen l’Institut before he started overseeing the repairs. He had done amazing work in less than a year. Other than the one wing they had condemned after an explosion collapsed a large section, he had managed to renovate the entire abbey, the Hostellerie, and the abbot’s lodge. The grange and the chapel were all that remained. Looking around, she caught sight of him near the altar, his hands pressed against the stone railing that had separated the clergy from the faithful when the chapel was still in use. She would not have blinked at him doing magic, but the sight of the slender man behind him, face buried against Thierry’s neck, only added to the disconcertion she was feeling. She could not see Sebastien’s fangs in Thierry’s skin, but she could imagine it with uncomfortable ease, the long canines driving deep beneath the surface, seeking blood and increasing Thierry’s magical strength exponentially. Her magic sparked around her, little gouts of flame, as she struggled to control the longing she felt at the sight of them, not only for the magical connection but for the tender strength of Sebastien’s arms supporting Thierry’s body as they worked. Even with Thierry’s affinity to earth and his partner’s help, the work he was doing had to be incredibly draining, but Adèle knew Thierry would not falter. Sebastien was there to make sure of it.

  She cleared her throat, not wanting to speak and shatter the disturbing beauty of the sight. Sebastien lifted his head at the sound, acknowledging her with a nod before leaning back into Thierry. Adèle easily imagined him licking over the marks created by his fangs, staunching the bleeding and bringing Thierry back out of his elemental connection with the stones beneath his hands. She waited mostly patiently for Thierry to finish, to regain his external awareness, and to find his feet again without Sebastien’s support.

  Thierry turned in Sebastien’s arms, his fingers stroking the vampire’s cheek before he pulled away and walked toward Adèle. The unbearable intimacy in that gesture nearly sent her running for the hills. She ached with the conflicting needs warring inside her to maintain her independence and protect herself and to give in to her inexplicable desire to have Pascale look at her the way Sebastien looked at Thierry.

  “I wasn’t expecting you today, Adèle,” Thierry said, kissing her cheeks in greeting. “Has there been another attack? Raymond and Jean are around somewhere.”

  “No, nothing like that,” Adèle said, her voice terse as she struggled with the words that would not come. “I need to talk to you. Alone.”

  “All right. Let me just tell Sebastien where I’m going.”

  She waited while he returned down the nave to where Sebastien still stood. She could not hear the words that passed between them, but she did not need words to see the obvious affection in the way they leaned together, their shoulders nearly touching. A moment later, Thierry rejoined her at the back of the church. “We can go down by the lake if you want,” Thierry suggested. “The sun’s out today, and the wind seems to have stopped for the moment. It won’t be warm, but it could be pleasant.”

  Adèle would have preferred an inside location where they could lock the door and ensure no one disturbed them, but she did not argue, following Thierry down to the edge of the lake that bordered one side of l’Institut’s property.

  “So what can I do for you?” Thierry asked when they had settled on a decorative wooden bench.

  Adèle suddenly had no idea how to verbalize the feelings rushing through her. She rose from the bench, too wound up to sit still. “I found a new partner,” she began, almost defensively.

  “Yes, I’d heard that,” Thierry said. “Raymond was glad to know it was possible. I know your first partnership wasn’t exactly successful.”

  Adèle snorted. “You could say that. A nightmare would be a good way to describe it. I know nobody else understands it, but I certainly didn’t cry when he was killed. I wouldn’t have done it myself, tempting though the thought was at times, but I’m not sorry to be rid of the bastard.”

  “You know most partnerships aren’t that way,” Thierry reminded her. “For most of us, it’s a wonderful thing. Hopefully, Pascale will be a better match for you.”

  Adèle hoped so too, which was part of the problem. “She’d be a better match if she were a he,” Adèle muttered. “Doesn’t it bother you that Sebastien is a man?”

  The words resonated far too deeply with Thierry’s early fears for his comfort. Taking refuge in sarcasm, he grinned. “It would be awfully hard for him to pound me into the mattress if he weren’t.”

  “But you were married. You were straight,” Adèle protested.

  “I was,” Thierry agreed. “Then I met Sebastien. Now I’m not. Not that it’s any of your business.”

  “Doesn’t that bother you?” Adèle asked. “You met a vampire, he bit you a few times, and suddenly everything you think you know about your sexuality has changed.”

  “You’re making this into a bigger deal than it is,” Thierry said, trying to remember what Alain had said to him when he expressed some of the same fears. “Attraction isn’t logical, and it isn’t predictable. Some men appeal to you and some don’t, right?”

  “Of course,” Adèle said. “What does that have to do with anything?”

  “It has everything to do with this,” Thierry insisted. “Being with Sebastien isn’t about being gay or being bi or any other label. It’s about being with Sebastien. I’m not attracted to men. I’m attracted to him. Okay, the first few times we had sex, I had some things to learn and some awkward moments, but I had those the first few times I had sex with a woman too. We fit together on so many levels that his gender isn’t even an issue anymore.”

  “So you’re saying I’m obsessing over nothing?”

  “Look, I know it can be unsettling,” honesty compelled Thierry to admit. “I had a long talk with Alain about it too. He reminded me there’s no such thing as a love potion. A Forçage spell could push you into your partner’s bed, but it can’t make you feel anything while you’re there. If you’re attracted to your partner, you’re attracted to her—you, not some exterior magical force. Maybe you wouldn’t have given her a second look without the possibility of a partnership drawing your attention back to her, but nobody cast a spell on you to make you attracted to her. It doesn’t work that way, and if you’d take a step back and think about it rationally, you’d know that.”

  “So you think I should stop fighting it and sleep with her?” Adèle asked.

  “What are you fighting?” Thierry asked in reply.

  “The sense that this is inevitable,” Adèle admitted.

  “That’s not the right way to look at it,” Thierry insisted. “Yes, feeding creates intimacy. There’s no way around that, and repeated feeding creates even more intimacy, but that momentary intimacy doesn’t have to take over your life. So if you feel like it’s inevitable, maybe what you’re really doing is fighting yourself. If that’s the case, then you have to ask yourself why and if it’s really worth it. You know no one in the magical community would criticize you for having a female partner.”

  “I don’t work in the magical community,” Adèle reminded him, “and no, I’m not sure my colleagues would have a problem with it, but it’s one more thing that makes me different.”

  “If any of them say anything, you can always remind them you’re the one who caught and kept the blonde bombshell, not them,” Thierry said. “That’ll shut them up fast.”

  Adèle laughed despite herself. “Oh, God, they would have no idea how to respond to that.”

  “You don’t have to rush into anything,” Thierry said, still smiling, “but don’t let something good pass you by because you’re too caught up in meaningless labels to grab it—or her—with both hands.”

  “Thank you, Thierry,” Adèle said when she finally stopp
ed laughing. “You’ve given me a lot to think about.”

  “Marcel told you not to bury yourself out here in the country,” Thierry said, “although I don’t think he intended for all of us to come out here and keep you company. You aren’t alone with any of this, no matter how it might feel to you sometimes. I know you haven’t come more often because of Raymond’s meddling, but you don’t have to worry about that anymore. No matter what happens with your partner, we want to see you still.”

  “I’ll still come for dinner,” Adèle promised. “Maybe not on Sundays so I’m not in the way for the matching ceremony, but I’ll still come.”

  “There’s always room for one more. Now I should get back to work, unless there was something else?”

  “No, nothing else,” Adèle said, embracing Thierry on impulse. “Thank you again.”

  “You’re welcome.”

  Thierry left her sitting on the bench and walked back to the chapel to see if Sebastien was still there. The building was empty, though, so Thierry crossed the courtyard to the Hostellerie. He found Sebastien sitting in the rooms they shared, a magazine open on his lap.

  “Is Adèle all right?”

  “She’s fine. A little freaked out over having a female partner,” Thierry replied. “For as strong and attractive a woman as she is, she has an incredible number of insecurities. That’s why I never approached her, even before I got together with Aleth.”

  The reminder of Thierry’s late wife and of his staunch heterosexuality prior to meeting Sebastien brought back insecurities Sebastien thought he had laid to rest two years earlier. “Do you ever wish you had a different partner?”

  “What?” Thierry exclaimed. “Sebastien, I love you. How many times have I told you that?”

  “Too many to count,” Sebastien replied, “but you would have had an easier time with a female partner.”

  “If Aleth was right, no woman would put up with me,” Thierry retorted. “You’ve told me more than once that being turned didn’t change your fundamental nature, so a female vampire wouldn’t have any more patience with me than Aleth had. Believe me, I’m perfectly happy having you as my partner. I told Adèle and I’ll tell you, there’s no such thing as a love potion. If I’m here in your bed, getting off when you touch me, it’s because I want to be here, because I love you, not because some magical resonance says my blood can protect you. You know that. You taste my desire and my love every time you feed from me, even if we’re working rather than making love. I know you do.”

  “I do,” Sebastien agreed, pulling Thierry into his arms. “And most of the time I don’t even think about the fact that you were married before. She was already gone when we met, so it’s not like she was any obstacle to our relationship, but hearing you talk so casually about being attracted to women threw me.”

  “I’m in love with you,” Thierry said, “but that doesn’t make me blind. I can look at Adèle and acknowledge that she’s beautiful without needing to do anything about it. I spent the entire time she and I were talking about relationships wondering how soon I could come back here and make love with you. Believe me, I’m where I want to be.”

  Sebastien looked like he wanted to keep arguing, so Thierry silenced him the best way he knew how. He kissed him.

  And kept kissing him until Sebastien relaxed backward onto the couch. And then kissed him some more, his hands flying over his lover’s body, pushing clothes out of the way until he could find skin. Once he found it, he slowed down the frantic rush, lingering over the body beneath his, especially the attributes that marked Sebastien as male. He stroked the flat planes of Sebastien’s chest, teasing at his nipples until the vampire moaned into their kiss. “No woman has muscles like these,” he said, kissing his way down Sebastien’s neck to his chest.

  “No, they have breasts instead,” Sebastien joked.

  “I like your muscles,” Thierry declared, nipping at Sebastien’s collarbone. “I don’t have to worry about being gentle enough when I touch you. You always want more even when I forget to be tender.”

  “I want all of you,” Sebastien agreed. “Rough or tender, as long as you’re touching me I’m happy.”

  Thierry nuzzled Sebastien’s chest. “I feel the same way. You have to know that. Tell me you know that.”

  “I know it,” Sebastien promised. “I just get… insecure sometimes.”

  “Then let’s see if I can reassure you,” Thierry purred, pushing back enough to strip Sebastien’s shirt from his shoulders. He tossed it aside, followed quickly by his own sweater and undershirt.

  “I’m sure you can,” Sebastien replied, his hands settling on Thierry’s hips. “I love you.”

  “I love you too,” Thierry said, scooting backward and opening Sebastien’s pants. He lowered his head and nuzzled the vampire’s erection through the cloth, inhaling the musky scent. “No woman smells the way you do either. My mouth waters every time I catch a whiff of you.”

  “God, Thierry, are you trying to kill me?” Sebastien demanded, the husky words adding to his desire.

  “No, just make love to you.”

  “Then get on with it already.”

  Thierry chuckled as he shook his head, peeling Sebastien’s underwear away so he could lick around the tip of Sebastien’s cock. “Still think I’d rather be with a woman?” Thierry teased, sliding his lips over the crown and working his tongue beneath the foreskin.

  Sebastien moaned in reply.

  Thierry accepted that as agreement, settling in to lick and suck at his lover’s erection like a favorite treat, moaning his appreciation each time a fresh spurt of fluid hit his tongue. He could tell Sebastien was trying to hold back, but he only sucked harder, determined to crack his lover’s control. Finally Sebastien’s hips drove up, pushing his cock deep into Thierry’s mouth. Thierry swallowed around the tip once and then pulled off. “As much as I love blowing you, that isn’t how I want us to come tonight,” he rasped. “Retrouvez!”

  The spell that would have been impossible for him without a wand two years ago flowed easily now, the tube of lube from their bedroom appearing in his hand. He set it aside momentarily while he finished undressing his lover and himself. Done with patience and waiting, he prepped himself quickly before coating Sebastien’s cock and settling down onto it. The stretch burned slightly, but he relished the sensation, proof of their connection. “No woman ever filled me the way you do.”

  “Stop talking,” Sebastien ordered, pulling Thierry down into another incendiary kiss.

  Thierry acceded to the kiss and the demand, his hips undulating slowly against Sebastien’s, not really lifting and falling so much as grinding together in a languid, erotic lap dance designed to drive them both wild. Sebastien’s tongue invaded his mouth, kissing him wildly as Thierry kept their movements slow and controlled. He ached to feel Sebastien’s fangs piercing his flesh as well, but without an Aveu de Sang to protect him from overfeeding, he would have to wait at least a day, given how much Sebastien had taken in the church. Then again, maybe it was better this way. His offer of his body was not motivated by anything other than love and desire, not even by the partnership bond that sometimes seemed to dominate every aspect of their lives together.

  The need to move grew harder to ignore, and his crouched position on the couch gave him little leverage. Dropping a foot to the cold stone floor, he lifted his hips, increasing his range of movement. Beneath him Sebastien moaned again, more loudly this time, his body in the same throes of ecstasy as Thierry’s. They strained together, bodies arching and sliding as their hips moved, their lips never parting.

  Thierry could feel his magic coalesce around him as the intensity of his need increased, more proof of the power of his devotion. When Sebastien angled his hips so his cock passed directly over Thierry’s gland, Thierry lost control of his magic, the energy pouring out of him into the stone floor beneath his feet. As his orgasm continued to shake him like a rag doll, the outpouring of magic sent a tremor through the very bones of the b
uilding.

  “What was that?” Sebastien gasped, breaking their kiss.

  “Proof of how much I love you,” Thierry joked. “That’s what you call an earth-shaking climax.”

  Sebastien chuckled as he thrust up into Thierry once more, his own release overtaking him.

  “Merde,” Thierry said on a deep breath as he felt Sebastien come inside him, coating his passage. “No woman—”

  “Enough about women,” Sebastien interrupted. “I get it. You love me regardless of your past history. I’m sorry I let old insecurities get the better of me.”

  “I’m glad you trusted me enough to tell me what was on your mind,” Thierry insisted. “I know how hard it is to admit to things like that.”

  “This isn’t the first time it’s been an issue,” Sebastien explained. “More than once, I thought I’d found someone I could trust after Thibaut died, someone I could be with for a short time at least as comfort against the bleakness. And in every case since Thibaut’s death, the men I thought I could trust have left me for a woman. When you came in tonight talking about Adèle being attractive, my reaction had nothing to do with you and everything to do with having been burned in the past.”