Page 84 of By the Pint

“Fuck, no. One million percent no.” I took off my jacket and placed it on the leather seat beside me. “I need you inside me, like now. I—”

Before I could finish that thought, his fingers were in my hair, his lips on mine, and he pulled himself onto my lap, straddling me on the backseat.

Dima’s, or his driver’s, car wasn’t a limo, but it was longer and wider than the average vehicle. The interior was all pristine cream leather and trim, and smelled like oceanic air freshener and new car, despite being at least a decade old. It was spotlessly clean, save for a bunch of quilts and a little sewing box that, no doubt, Wayne had stacked into a neat pile behind the passenger seat.

I stretched my legs out in front of me and let my hands travel up the back of Dima’s pullover, grazing the solid, cool muscles of his back, while my tongue explored every corner of his mouth.

“Casey, I don’t think I can wait until we get back to the hotel,” he said, pulling away and gazing his unfocused red eyes into mine.

“We could go to your apartment? You live in Remy, don’t you?” I was as needy as he was.

“I live on the other side of town. It’ll take longer to get through the city traffic than it would to get back to Constellations.”

“Oh.” I tried not to let the desperation show on my face as I dug the heel of my palm against the end of my cock. I needed the friction.

“Can I take you here? In the car?”

A noise like a whimper escaped my throat.Yes, I said in my head, and started unbuttoning my shirt.

“No.” Dima knocked my hands aside and began working the buttons with his fingers. “Let me.”

“You gonna rip this one too?”

His answering smile was sweet and sly and audacious. How was I still discovering more of Dima’s smiles? “I want to do this slowly. I’m going to take my time. Savour everything. Make it last.”

We both understood the subtext. He was going to take his time, because it would be the last time. I was a selfish asshole. I knew what Dima’s feelings were towards me, what the eventual outcome of our situationship would be. The decent thing to do would be to say no. The decent thing would have been to say no at the very beginning.

But I simply couldn’t.

I couldn’t do it.

I was addicted to Dima Black, I realised.

Just one more time. One more taste. Before I have to give him up for good.

“Gods, Casey,” he said, pushing my shirt open after he’d worked the last button free. “You are unreal. He hooked one hand around my nape and brought his mouth down to mine while his fingers walked over my chest and stomach. “So impossibly beautiful.” He pinned my shoulders to the backrest, buried his face in the crook of my neck, and—

“Are you growling?” I asked.

The noise was like the purring of a massive cat, a puma. If the puma was also on anabolic steroids.

He didn’t remove his face. “I’m never leaving this spot. I could live here. Can I live here?”

“Why not? There’s a ready-made food source.”

Dima laughed and slap-pushed himself away. “Did you bring a condom? And lube?”

“I have lube, but I stuck the condom to the CCTV camera in the elevator, and I accidentally left it there. But … I’m clean. Figuratively and, you know … physically.”

His thumb traced the stubble on my jaw. “I can fuck you bare?”

I’d hardly nodded my agreement before Dima whined his elation and smashed our mouths together again. His careful, meticulous undressing was abandoned. Now he was frantic, feral. He whipped off his jumper and let it fall wherever. Underneath, he wore a typical vampire’s shirt. Black, slightly frilly, neck open to the middle of his chest, pale, cool skin peeking through. And against his chest, the silver locket with its red-coloured, semi-precious stone hung on a delicate silver chain.

“From my human life,” Dima said when he caught me staring. “It’s the only thing I have from my human life.” He ranhis thumb over the jewel in the front. “A bloodstone, apparently. Meant to ward off vampires. I think it was my mum’s. Sadly, it didn’t work.”

“This is where you keep your thoughts. The ones you hide from people. Your secrets.” I couldn’t take my eyes off it. “The mind-you has the same locket, only bigger, and heavier, and … vibratier.”

“Everything is in here. In my mind-locket. Everything.” He laughed and then fingered the locker key pendant hanging around my neck. “How interesting that I have a locket, and you have a key.”

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