The sight warmed his heart. Even completely unconscious, Jensen was lending any skill he could, however dulled, to keeping Gage safe by being there if his human partner needed him.
Gage moved as slowly and quietly as he could to the opposite side of the spacious bed, clicking on a small lamp. It spread dim light around the room, allowing Gage to see a little bit better. Honestly, he wasn't at all interested in the decorations or the art… only the figure in the chair. It was hard not to stare at Jensen, with his impressive physique and chiseled features. Long eyelashes against alabaster skin. Those lips… Gage had dreamed a lot of very dirty dreams about things done with that mouth. Recalling those dreams now sent a tingle down his spine and made his already hard cock jerk.
Jesus, this vampire blood stuff was making it difficult to think.
Oh, who are you kidding, jackass? You’ve had the exact same hard-on for six months.
It was true. The first time he met his new partner back when he got drop-kicked into the Undertown unit, it was like getting hit by a bolt of napalm. Gage wasn’t much for non-humans as a rule, but hot was hot, and this vampire was blazing freaking hot. When Jensen first set those fathomless eyes on him, Gage was nailed. He’d had the whole enchilada of responses to vampire pheromones: the sudden increase in heart rate, the sweat, the twin urges to run and to drop to his knees and worship, the sensation like he was a fly caught in amber. Like he couldn’t move until Detective Jensen Holm said “Move, slave.” He should have been creeped out. He should have said, “No frickin’ way I am working with a vampire.”
Instead he’d stood there gaping like a stoned teenager until Jen politely offered a big, pale hand for Gage to shake. “Nice to meet you, Detective,” he’d said, a touch of southwestern twang echoing in his deep, molasses-sweet voice.
And Gage was lost. Or found. Or whatever. He wasn’t one of those squishy, poetic guys. He could never be quite sure if what he felt for Jen was entirely standard human attraction, or if there was some element of vampire predatory flypaper Jensen couldn’t help. As more time went on and Gage learned how deeply honorable and trustworthy his new partner truly was, the less it mattered.
His pointy-toothed hero had saved Gage from the edge of disaster at least once a week since, but nothing as close as this. Nothing that required such intimacy, that brought Jensen so close to his own possible end and definite suffering. Just thinking of it filled Gage’s heart in a way that he had never felt before.
He slid back to the right side of the bed, closer to where Jensen was “resting” in the chair. Maybe Gage was acting like a besotted girl, but he just couldn’t seem to pull his gaze away from his partner. Jen’s stillness wasn’t as eerie as it sometimes seemed when they were ending a stakeout too close to dawn, and Jen just slipped off, like he’d dropped dead…er. Now Jensen was more like an awkwardly posed statue of himself cast in marble and shadow. Gage eased his legs over the edge of the bed, ignoring the fancy black silk jockey shorts he was wearing that were definitely not his own, and sat there. He wanted this small moment when nothing was happening, when no one was on guard, to just… be there with him. To not feel stupid about feeling like a horny teen loser half the time.
Or a human in love with a vampire. Not too cliche. Not too ‘tween romance novel.
There was no fooling a predator’s senses or defeating the sunset. A heartbeat, maybe two, and those eyelashes began to flutter, and the emerald eyes flashed at him in concerned surprise. Gage couldn’t track how quickly Jensen shot upright and leaned toward the bed.
“Are you okay? Do you need something?”
Gage shook his head. His emotional state was bobbing on a stormy sea. Or maybe that was the last of the effects of Jensen’s tea. His erection didn’t seem to care one way or another about the changes taking place in the situation, except maybe to get a little bit harder at the awakening of his favorite vampire.
“No you don’t need anything, or no you’re not okay? They require different action on my part.”
Gage’s hand moved without any conscious intention on his part. He reached out and brushed the curve of his partner’s high cheekbone, the broad cut of his jaw, the soft valley in between. A fine layer of dark stubble peppered the perfect skin, bristling against the calluses of Gage’s fingers. Jensen’s eyes closed as he sighed softly and leaned into the touch.
Jen was not an overly expressive man any more than Gage. While Gage hid behind sarcasm and acerbic humor, the vampire simply ignored social niceties and adopted taciturn silence as his modus operandi. That simple response to Gage’s caress was enormous, intimate on a level that nothing but that feeding the other night had ever been between them.
Gage let his fingertips wander over the dreamy lips, urging them open just the smallest amount so the pouty lower one went slack, exposing a flash of sharp fangs. He knew a lot about that mouth; that Jensen was obsessive about brushing his teeth and fangs to keep his breath from stinking. That he used modified whitening strips he bought on the black market in Undertown. That he had trouble chewing gum around his fangs, so he used mints and mouthwash instead.
But Gage didn’t know the things he really wanted to about it: how it tasted, how it felt. Even when he had those fangs buried in his throat and those lips and tongue were drawing blood and poison out of his carotid, Gage had been so out of it, there was nothing but vague sensation, pain and fear and wonder and lust in a mix he couldn’t fully appreciate or understand.
He wanted kisses. He wanted that mouth on him from desire, on purpose, with no other goal than pleasure. Gage slid to the very edge of the bed, brought his left hand into play to claim both sides of his partner’s face, and began to draw him closer.
Jensen resisted. His voice was soft and tentative. “Gage, you don’t… remember, the venom…”
“Jen? Please. Shut up. Unless you don’t want this. I want it, and not because of any fucking venom. Okay?”
They stared at each other, Jen’s expression unreadable. He was damn good at that vampire poker face thing. “You want… me? I mean, us? Sexually?”
“Let’s not talk, okay? We can chick lit the whole thing after.”
“After?”
“Oh, good God, vampire, shut your yap!” Rather than waiting for Jensen to decide whether or not to obey, Gage just made him. He finally claimed that mouth with his own, took the lips, tongue and teeth. He tangled his hands in thick sable hair and pulled, gently urging Jensen out of the chair and onto the mattress beside Gage before he climbed on top of the sexy mountain of a vampire.
Jensen was wearing soft sleeping clothes, classy and comfortably loose, demonstrating that his mysterious circulation was sending blood rushing to his crotch. Gage gripped Jensen’s hip with one hand, pressing their erections together, grinding to produce delicious friction as the kiss danced on. It took forever for Jensen to break out of his hesitation and fully respond. He wrapped those long arms around Gage with a moan and clutched the human in a bone crushing grasp that pressed them closer, thrusting up to slide their cocks together through the thin layers of their clothes.
Jensen was the first to recall that Gage had to breathe and pulled back, arching his neck to let his mouth wander over Gage’s cheeks, tickling the delicate shell of his ear, tracing the lines of his jaw, laving the long veins and sinews of his neck. Gage tried to keep his mind off the idea of Jensen biting him, but with his partner’s cool breath puffing in his ear and those dangerous fangs so close, he just couldn’t do it.
“I want you to bite me again,” he murmured in Jensen’s ear. “The other night was so…”
Jensen froze beneath him. The arms that had encircled him pulled away and braced between their chests. “Okay, this is what I was talking about, Gage.” He pushed with maybe a hundredth of his full strength, but that was enough to knock Gage off and onto his back as the vampire sat up, rubbing his hands over his face and staring out into the shadows of the room. “You can’t possibly be feeling amorous right now. Not naturally.”
“Excuse me?”
“Ass. You are one. You know, for a creature with such super-honed senses that you can smell dog crap from a mile away and see what airline a plane is from 50,000 feet below, you are one clueless son of a bitch.”
“Gage… could you please…”
“No! I’m not watching my language, goddammit! I’m sick of this shit. I know we’re not supposed to fraternize because we’re partners. I know vampires tend to swing… well, pretty much 360 when it comes to sex, but I have no idea if you prefer women or non-humans or what. I know we’ve been working together and we’re friends, but we always keep each other this close and no closer. This… speech made more sense in my head. The point is, Jen…” He grabbed the vampire’s arm. “I’m bad with all the emotional stuff. But I know that I want you. I wanted you before you ever put a fang in me. The first night we met, I practically came in my jeans. And if you say that’s vampire predatory attraction bullshit, I will find something to chop your fool head off with! I don’t care if you’re a freaking goblin or an alien from the planet Zurk. I want you. Do you understand? Am I penetrating your incredibly thick skull?”
Jensen chewed that yummy lower lip—which considering the sharpness of his teeth, must have hurt—but wouldn’t look at his partner. “I hear you.”
“And…”
Those soulful eyes met Gage’s. “Gage, I do want you. More than I should. I have feelings for you that aren’t right between a vampire and a human. We’re fantastic partners on the force. You’re the best cop I’ve ever worked with. But I’m so afraid I’d hurt you. Maybe kill you, I don’t know. I can’t remember the last time I was with a human I cared about. But these kinds of relationships never end well. The passion is… overwhelming.”
“Oh for Chrissake, Jensen! You really do sound like that freaking whiny-ass sparkly guy in those teeny-bopper flicks. Are you serious right now? I’m not a high school girl, I’m a hundred and ninety-five pound man! I may not be freakishly tall and enormous like you, but I’m not delicate, either. Shit, part of what’s hot about men is the roughness, the strength, the familiarity with each other’s bodies. I don’t care what species you are, you’re still male. You’re not some newbie, you know what you’re doing.” He sighed, needing the oxygen. “You know what? I’m not going to push this. I can’t and won’t try to pressure you to do anything you’re not comfortable with. Did you get beer or not?”
Gage got up, looking around for something more substantial to put on.
Jensen grabbed his hand. “Wait.”
Gage stopped. Yes! “What?”
“Don’t pout.”
“I’m not pouting. You’re not into it. Whatever.”
“Don’t do that, Gage. I’m not rejecting you.”
The human gave him a bland look. “Really? Wow, that must be why we’re naked and rolling around the bed right now.”
“Sarcasm is a stupid man’s weapon,” Jensen grumbled.
“You only say that because you don’t get how to use it. Okay, fine. If you’re not rejecting me…” He ripped the expensive shorts down his legs and stood with his still miraculously hard dick pointing at his partner’s face. “Then suck it.”
Jensen looked up Gage’s body until their eyes met. The green was touched with smoldering vampire gold. “Is that an order?”
Gage arched a brow and couldn’t help a smirk. “Do you want it to be?”
The moment hung in tension-choked air as Gage’s cock only hardened further. Rather than give a verbal answer, Jensen reached out and slid his hands around Gage’s hips, clutching his ass cheeks and drawing him in to catch his erection in Jensen’s waiting mouth.
The cool sensation, the slide of fangs just barely brushing the sides of his taught, ultra-sensitive skin, the suction of a mouth that knew precisely what it was doing shot through Gage, lighting every nerve ending on fire. Speaking of teenagers! He was afraid he would shoot in a couple of seconds if he didn’t start thinking about grandmas or dirty dishes. Or this nasty stripper he saw once in a Mexican dive bar.
That was all before Jensen started to suck, to draw Gage’s length in and out of his mouth, one hand following his strokes up and down along the rigid shaft, the other teasing his balls. The vampire rolled his testicles like a set of Ben Wa balls, and damn if they didn’t make his whole body ring. Jensen laved around the weeping slit, traced the ridge under the cap, and then like a fleshy Popsicle, took the time to slowly give the veins of Gage’s dick the same treatment he’d given his tongue—slicing miniscule cuts, lapping the drop of blood, closing them with the saliva from his tongue. Somehow he managed to do this while still sucking, still stroking with his hand. The other fingers left their position on his balls, tickling downward to press and circle over the sensitive skin of his perineum… back and forth, back and forth in time with the blowjob.
“Oh… fuck… Jen…” Gage panted, sliding his fingers into his partner’s thick hair, looking down to revel in the sight of his cock slipping in and out of Jensen’s beautiful face. “I want to fuck you. Let me fuck you.”
He’d experienced vampire speed before, but nothing quite like this. As if Gage’s plea had been a command that required instant obedience, Jen flashed off the bed, stripped off his black cotton tee-shirt and draw string pants, and lay back down again before Gage had even finished a ragged breath.
“That is really fucking hot,” Gage commented, staring down at his partner’s truly magnificent body. Again, something he’d seen before in the locker room, but now got to experience in a whole new way, with a whole new appreciation. He stroked his own cock as he climbed onto the mattress to press their bodies together once again. Skin to skin. So good. Cold and hot, hard and hard, the hills and valleys of muscles sliding along one another the way only two fit men could do.
Gage kissed his partner once more, another long killer one, tasting Jen, filling his mind with sensations he wanted to carry with him forever. The way Jen’s habit of unnecessary breath gasped at each touch, the scent of good whiskey and faint sandalwood. The feeling of the preternaturally strong body writhing beneath him, begging with motion for more.
Overload. Gage brought back the less pleasant pictures to his mind to keep himself from coming right there and then and braced himself up on his hands. “Condoms? Lube?”
“Left nightstand.”
Another great thing about sex with men? Few words unless they were necessary, dirty, or both. Man, it was good to be gay. Gage slid over to the closest nightstand, pulling out the two packets he was looking for. The condoms weren’t strictly necessary—vampires couldn’t catch or carry any human STI’s that anyone had ever heard of—but capping that sucker had just been a habit for Gage’s entire sexual existence… with other people, anyway. He tore open the packet, but Jensen stopped him again.
“Please, let me.”
Gage watched with wide, lust-hooded eyes as Jen took his time pinching the tip and slowly rolling the condom down Gage’s dick with slightly more pressure than was strictly necessary, sending an electric frisson of pleasure rocketing up and down his spine. A moan escaped him, echoed through the room, and Jensen gave a low, sexy growl in response. He ripped open the second packet, this one full of lube, and squeezed half out into one hand. He set the packet aside and claimed Gage’s hard-on once more, slicking the firm ring of his fingers up and down until Gage was glossy and shiny… and thinking about dishes again.
Jensen squeezed the rest of the packet in his hand and reached between his own legs, slipping more on his dick, his head falling back as he slid his fingers down, greasing up the shadows between his cheeks, around his puckered hole. Gage bent down and kissed him, stealing a little of the lube from Jensen’s dick to slick his own hand, and helped the vampire stroke his entrance. Their first and middle fingers pressed together, and Gage urged them into Jensen’s ass.
The vampire c
ried out, but it was a sound of bliss, not objection, and he encouraged Gage to move their digits faster and deeper inside him, seeking out his sweet spot. They finger fucked Jensen until the lube started to run dry, and Gage withdrew them both. He swung back to the nightstand, grabbed another pack of lube, and this time wet his hand with the entire contents. He added more to his partner, and then his own cock before he took Jensen’s long legs and braced them over his shoulders, baring the globes of his partner’s hard, round ass to his view as well as the tight target that awaited him at their center.
“Jensen…” he moaned.
“Yes. Gage. Please, yes.”
Gage took hold of his erection with one hand, Jensen’s hip with the other, and pressed the tip of his cock against the beckoning entrance of Jensen’s body. Jensen spread his cheeks wider, looking down to watch what was happening. Their eyes met as Gage pushed that first hard inch inside, and both men moaned at the connection. Gage stroked that inch back and forth, just a miniscule amount, driving both of them to shudder.
“Please… more…” The vampire whimpered, a sound so at odds with his size, species, and the idea of his macho nature Gage had always carried, it shocked him so much that his balance slipped, and his cock drove all the way in to the hilt.
They cried out together, and any thought of slow and easy exploded in a strike of lust that obliterated Gage’s already thin control. He braced himself against Jensen’s legs, his hands over the vampire’s on his thighs, grunting like an animal as he slammed in and out.
God, Jen was so tight, pulsing and clutching at Gage’s cock as he penetrated him with a ferocity that might have hurt a human. As it was, Jensen kept encouraging him with little noises of pleasure and submission.
His vampire was a great big bottom. Son of a bitch!
The realization just made him fuck Jen with more ferocity, pushing his legs toward his chest at what should have been an impossible angle until they could kiss, moaning, and gasping into one another’s mouths as Gage pounded into him again and again. The physical sensations blew his nerves to bits, the emotional wave of realization that he was here, finally, at last, an avalanche shoving orgasm toward him. No way to slow it. No way to stop. No desire to run away from the onrush of bliss except to make it last.
Die For You Page 3