Page 41 of Hunting His Vampire Mate

“I’m covered in dirt.”

“I don’t fucking care.”

Danny… are you sure you want to do this? The first time can hurt sometimes.

“I don’t fucking care,” I repeated. “You let me bite you. You trusted me to do that. How is this any different?” I paused as doubt crept in. “Uh—I mean, unless you don’t want to.”

Michael pulled me back in for another kiss. This one more urgent and demanding. And he caught my wrist and brought my hand to his groin. He was rock hard and throbbing with need. Belatedly, I felt his desire through the bond. The desire to be inside of me. To fill me and make me his. And possibly even for me to do the same to him. It was a hornet’s nest of desires he’d—I now realized—been tamping down for years.

“Do you have lube?” I asked. I’d researched the mechanics of gay sex well enough. And pretty much every night for the last couple of months, I had done all the necessary prep work beforehand too, just in case I could make myself actually bite the bullet and go through with it. Of course, Michael had been hooking up with pretty much any random stranger he could find, so that had mostly been wasted effort. Much to my relief at the time.

“I wasn’t actually off hooking up,” Michael reminded me.

And, for the very first time, I could tell for sure that he wasn’t lying to me. I had no choice but to believe him. Relief crashed through me all over again. And wonder, too, because I could feel the reason why. He hadn’t wanted to hurt me. And something else, too. I could feel the reckless and stubborn way he loved me, a little white-hot around the edges, tinged with defiance.

“Sorry about that,” he whispered, swallowing hard, watching me. Like he knew exactly what I had just seen and was taking in my reaction. “I don’t quite know how to keep you from being completely in my head. And I’m not sure how to make myself want that enough to do it, even if I did know how.”

“I don’t mind,” I replied. A completely inadequate response. But I had never been good at anything emotional, had I?

“You’re doing just fucking fine,” Michael replied, grinning at me just a little. “And yeah, I always carry a travel-sized bottle of lube. Old habits die hard, I guess.” He paused, losing his smile. “You really would have tried to force yourself to do it, even if you didn’t want to?”

That was not a question I wanted to answer. I would have done just about anything to make him happy and if he didn’t realize that at this point, he was almost as much of an idiot as me.

“It’s not currently a problem I have now.” I brought his hand to my own groin, so he could feel the way I was growing hard through my jeans, just from fondling his cock. From thinking about him making love to me. “I want to.”

He met my gaze, and I felt the desire ignite in him like wildfire.

“Danny,” he whispered, saying my name like it was sacred or some shit. And then he kissed me again.

I’m not sure how the clothes came off, but they did, right there in the living room. Both of us had a hand in it, I figure, but I don’t remember who removed what. Only that we were naked before each other in record time.

And then I felt a thrill of fear.

For all of his concern about me, what about him? What if Michael didn’t like what he saw? What if the vampire thing ended up being too much, after all? Michael had spent years—

You’re so fucking beautiful. Perfect. My perfect mate.

The word sounded strange in our shared headspace.

Mate.

But somehow, just hearing him say it, hearing him claim me, caused something deep within my body to relax. So that meant it had to be true, didn’t it? For all of my confusion and trepidation,there had only ever been him. There had only ever been Michael. And that was… well, it was exactly right, wasn’t it?

“You’re goddamn right it is,” he whispered aloud, right into my ear. “But we don’t have to rush this, Danny. I’m not going anywhere.”

I know that,I replied, speaking silently through the bond that—somehow—seemed as natural as breathing.I want to.

Somehow, repeating it, with the full force of my conviction set behind it, some last bit of resistance within Michael finally relaxed. I felt it when it happened. A fierce sort of wonder and a need began to build up between us. I laid down on the floor, atop the heap of our clothing, my eyes never leaving his. I didn’t care what happened to the clothes. Nothing else mattered, except for him.

He climbed on top of me and kissed me again. His weight, pressing down on me, was almost enough to push me over the edge then and there. The heat from his body was delicious. He didn’t feel soft and smooth, the way a woman would have. But somehow, that was even better. It was perfect, because it was him.

I wrapped my legs around his waist, wanting to guide him into me. It might be awful, or it might feel really fucking good, and I couldn’t have in a million years ever imagined I wouldwantto feel him inside of me, that I would be desperate for it. But even if it hurt like hell, I wanted it anyway.

“Not yet,” Michael said.

He pulled back and I instinctively reached out to stop him, but he put a gentle, steadying hand on my chest. “Be patient. There’s a certain amount of preparation we need to do first. We have to get you loosened up, so you can take me.”

“How are we going to—”

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