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It was Alexei who smelled so good, but Jay didn’t feel like arguing the point. Instead, he dealt with his frazzled nerves by petting Alexei’s lovely hair, untangling all the messy bits with his fingers while Alexei nuzzled at him.

Alexei sighed with pleasure at the contact. “I don’t regret it.” He spoke the words into Jay’s neck, and they came out slightly muffled. “Don’t be sorry, kotyonok.”

Jay worked his fingers through the soft strands for a few long moments as he considered what to say. “I would have done it differently is all.”

That wasn’t all, not when Jay wasn’t sure he would have done it in the first place—taken away Alexei’s humanity—but he didn’t think Alexei would appreciate all his doubts and hesitations at the moment.

Alexei lifted his head and straightened to his full seated height, a half smile on his lips as he met Jay’s eyes. “Oh yeah? How would you have done it?”

Jay took a moment to think, playing with the ends of Alexei’s hair now. “Candles” was what he came up with. He’d seen enough romantic movies to know that was the very thing when trying to set a scene. “Lots of candles. Like a million of them. No overhead lighting at all, just soft, flickering candlelight.”

Alexei’s half smile deepened. “Candles.”

“And flowers!” Jay exclaimed, accidentally tugging on Alexei’s hair with his enthusiasm as he got into the idea. “Big bouquets everywhere. With red rose petals on the bed.”

“You do watch a lot of movies, don’t you, kitten?”

Jay flushed at the dig but stuck to his guns anyway. “It should have been romantic,” he argued, afraid he was coming dangerously close to pouting. “It should have beenme. It was—it was—” He struggled to find the right words “—it was sorudeof Wolfgang, to do that without asking.”

Alexei’s smile grew tender, his eyes unbelievably soft as he stroked Jay’s cheek. “He said he thought it would make you a little less…conflicted, if the deed was done.”

“But now I’m angry!” Jay scowled in demonstration, pointing a finger at his furrowed brow. “And I hate being angry. He’s not going to bully us into going.”

“I’ll go with you to the den, Jay. If it’s necessary. I don’t mind, even if we have to pretend…”

“No,” Jay said firmly. “Taking your human life away is one thing. I’m not letting him take it and then drag you into such a terrible place.” He twisted a strand of Alexei’s hair around two fingers. “I want to give you…goodness, Alexei. My friends here aregood. We deserve to stay with them. We deserve good things. We deserve a life of our choosing.” He gave the hair a gentle tug. “No more— No more meanies.”

Alexei hugged him closer. “All right, kitten. No more meanies.”

He nuzzled at Jay’s neck again, his warm breath tickling Jay’s skin enough to have Jay squirming. “Hungry,” Alexei groaned.

“Oh.” Jay moved to get up, to fetch his supplies, but Alexei’s arms tightened into a cage. Jay tapped at Alexei’s shoulder. “Gabe brought us some blood. Let me go and I’ll grab it.”

“Not hungry for blood,” Alexei murmured, nosing along Jay’s jawline. “Hungry foryou.”

“Oh.Oh.”

Danny had told Jay about this once: the heightened craving he’d had for Roman in the beginning (and still had, as far as Jay could tell). Was Alexei feeling that same pull?

Jay’s beastie started purring, immensely pleased with this turn of events.

Alexei lifted his head from Jay’s neck, his pretty eyes looking dazed and heavy-lidded already, like with the serious discussion out of the way, his need for Jay had gone from zero to a hundred. “Where’s your lube, sweetheart? Need to open you up, baby. Need to be inside you.”

Yes, definitely zero to a hundred.

The dirty words sent a rush of heat through Jay’s body, mixing strangely with the lust he could now feel radiating off Alexei through the bond.

“Um.” Jay tried to focus on something besides his own hardening erection. Lube. Lube? He had a bag on the floor, from when he’d bought supplies before, still not put away because he was trying to embrace casual messiness. Jay pointed at it, since Alexei didn’t seem inclined to release his hold, and Alexei folded over with Jay still in his arms, grabbing hold of the lube and settling them both back onto the couch.

“Naked,” Alexei grunted.

Jay rushed to comply, but the act of getting undressed without letting go of each other—because Alexei still seemed completely unwilling to release Jay for even a moment—had Jay giggling. That soon turned to gasping when Alexei’s thick, impatient, talented fingers got to work opening him up.

He didn’t treat Jay like glass this time. Jay wasn’t sure if that was because it wasn’t his first time or because Alexei could sense through the bond how eager he was or just that Alexei wasthathungry for him that he couldn’t go slow.

Either way, it wasn’t long before he was lining that big cock up to Jay’s entrance, and then Jay was sinking down slowly.

Oh God. He was full. So very, very full.Perfectlyfull.

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