Page 36 of How to Bite Your Neighbor and Win a Wager
“Oh.” A little tremble went through Vincent, strong enough for Wes to feel it in the grip he somehow still had on the vampire’s coat, the grip he couldn’t seem to let go of as though letting go might mean Vincent would poof into a bat and fly away. The tremble turned to a soft laugh, then Vincent was cackling, leaning forward and gasping through it.
Wesley finally did let go of him then, pulling back a little horrified. “Fuck, sorry, that was—”
“Oh, Wes,” Vincent finally muttered, and the affection in his voice froze Wesley in place.
He wanted to bail right out the side of the boat, and he wanted to grab Vincent by the face and kiss him like he was the one feeding, and he fuckingwantedVincent, wanted to fuck him and be fucked by him, wanted him so much he could feel it in his bones.
Vincent was still just sitting there, saying Wes’s name with affection, yes, but no more or less than he might have a good friend who’d done something a bit stupid.
“Don’t pretend you didn’t know,” Wes grumbled.
“Well, yeah, it’s pretty obvious that’s the sort of thing you’re into,” Vincent laughed again, this time harsher. “I just thought, I don’t know, that you wouldn’t want it from me? I’m kind of pathetic, as vampires go. I don’t make for a dramatic, mysterious predator. I’m like the grimy sewer variety of a vampire that you shoo off your lawn with a broom.”
“I think you’re underselling yourself there. You make a pretty dramatic and mysterious silhouette in the window.” Wes swallowed. “You’re not weirded out that this is almost like a… a fetish?”
“No.” Vincent’s voice was a hollow squeak and it gave Wes the suspicion that maybe he was lying.
But Wes was still just a little too tipsy and a little too happy that Vincent had actually agreed to it. He had agreed to it, hadn’t he? In a friendly way, a non-reciprocal fetishisticthis isn’t about youway, just two queer men agreeing to let the other person have his own sort of fun without it being a thing, right?
But the longer Vincent stayed silent, the more Wesley wondered if he’d misread everything, up to and including Vincent’s desire to feed off him in the first place.
“If youareweirded out—”
This time it was Wes’s turn to be interrupted, and it came not with a laugh, but a growl. “Be quiet, prey.”
Wesley swallowed, accidently making a noise in the process, something tight and small andwanting.
“Was that alright?” Vincent asked, but he still sounded just a little rough, a little like he would enjoy pinning Wesley down and making him shut up.
Wesley whispered back, “Yes.”
And Vincent leapt at him.
It turned out the distance Vincent had pulled back was good for that, good for throwing Wesley onto the cushioned bench with such a perfect mixture of force and tenderness that despite the sheer rush of adrenaline that shot through him there was no fear, only excitement and need. Wesley wiggled slightly, not sure how much to push back. Enough, apparently, because Vincent made a deep almost bestial sound and grabbed Wesley’s wrists deftly in one hand, pressing them over his head as he shoved Wes back down. He loomed over Wes, a shadow against the sky. For a moment, he didn’t move, like he was sizing Wesley up, taking him in maybe, making his heart stammer and his desire strain. With his free hand, Vincent brushed a fingertip along Wesley’s temple, tracing his hairline with a nail the way Wes was pretty sure one of the vampires in the dating sim had done. But he was also pretty sure Vincent hadn’t been present for that chapter. Wesley shuddered, and it was all thrill that coursed through him as Vincent slid his fingers into Wes’s hair, pulling his head back and pressing his chin to the side.
It should have been terrifying; it should have felt too vulnerable, Wes’s entire life pounding through veins, so exposed that a vampire could drain it away without a second thought. But this wasn’t just any vampire: it was Vincent. And being vulnerable for Vincent wasn’t frightening. It was freeing.
Wes relaxed beneath his hold, loosening his shoulder from his neck and sighing in a small, soft sound. He expected teeth—a pinch, then a moment of bliss—but what he got was Vincent’s nose brushing his cheekbone, and his ear lobe, his breath intoxicatingly hot along Wesley’s jaw and down the side of his neck. Lips followed, a little too light to be a kiss, working their way to his pulse. Vincent hovered there so long that Wes whimpered, and that scared him more than anything else they’d done in this boat. He was pretty sure if Vincent held him in suspense for too long he was going to start begging, and he really, really didn’t want to jump there yet.
“Vincent,” he whispered, breathless and aching.
“Shush,” Vincent whispered back, mouth brushing against Wes’s skin.
Wes missed the moment his fangs sank in, it felt like a tiny, affectionate nip and then his body was pulsing and a moan slipped from his lips.
Just a kind of venom, he tried to remind himself, just hormones hitting his nervous system and lighting fireworks in his brain. But where Vincent’s halfway bites had left him with a wanting, like the first touch of a high that slipped away too fast, this built with a fiery bliss. It was almost sexual, almost orgasmic. By the way his dick ached for contact and his mouth for Vincent’s fingers to slide like an innuendo against his tongue,almost sexualwas a blatant lie. This, now, with Vincent, knowing how much he wanted Vincent in all the traditional erotic ways on top of his bizarre, vampiric prey desire—this was more sexual for him than anything erotic he’d done with partners in the past.
If only Vincent had actually wanted him that way.
14
VINCENT
Vincent wanted Wesley.
Just being near Wesley, having the man whisper into his ear and laugh at his jokes and tease him with the fondest, fullest smile all night had turned his yearning into a force that could rival the momentum of the earth around the sun. And like the earth, he felt as though he’d been orbiting Wesley, basking in his light but always just a hair out of reach. Until Wesley, ridiculous and wonderful Wesley, had said,“I want you to bite me like that.”
And Vincent had caught fire.
