Page 58 of How to Bare Your Neck and Save a Wreck
He took his time sealing the wound after, the knitting of Shane’s skin with each tender kiss and press of tongue seeming to heal something in Andres too.
As he licked the last of the blood off his lips, he realized Shane tasted slightly different. Less sweet than usual. He didn’t put the pieces together, though, until Shane nearly collapsed when he tried to stand up after, and Andres felt his life flash before his eyes. He helped lower him back down.
“Your glucose!” Andres’s voice quavered, and for once, he didn’t care.
Shane seemed far less worried. “I should have eaten something when I first got back,” he grumbled, checking the glucose app on his phone. He scowled at the number it gave him. “Fuck.”
“I’ll get your juice,” Andres said, and bolted for the kitchen.
He sat with Shane while he drank and half-carried him to the bathroom after, collecting his pajamas as Shane peed. Andreshad to argue him into brushing his teeth, but five minutes later, he was laying Shane into his bed with a kiss.
“You’re such a mom,” Shane complained.
“It’s the gender nonsense,” Andres replied.
Shane laughed.
As Andres tried to step back, though, Shane grabbed for his hand, giving it a soft squeeze. “Stay until I fall asleep.”
“I wasn’t going anywhere,” Andres reassured him. He stole a pillow and blanket from the mound beside the twin-sized mattress, and—wishing sulkily for his massive bed back home, not to watch Shane writhe naked but to cuddle him up with his soft pajamas and tired smile—he settled on the ground, fingers still laced through Shane’s.
Shane was his, for real now. If he could help it, now would last a very long time.
21
SHANE
Shane swore he was dreaming again.
He could smell his vampire’s floral perfume and feel the delightful tingle of his kiss, as sure and strong as if it had happened that night. The warmth that pressed against Shane’s side and fitted under his head rose and fell in slow, relaxing motions. Shane drew his fingers over silky clothes and found skin. He snuggled deeper.
As the haze of sleep began to dissipate, warm sunlight peeking through his eyelids, it didn’t take his vampire’s presence with it. The realization settled on him like a sigh, soft and sweet. Exactly how his life was meant to be.
They were together now: he and Andres.
They wanted the same things. Wanted to make space for both their shared kink and an equal and honest relationship. Wanted to turn the weird obsessive thing they’d started with into a lasting, healthy love. That was far more magnificent than anything Shane could have gotten out of a predator taking him from behind in the night… especially since he was pretty sure Andres would oblige that fantasy too, if Shane asked.
He grinned against his vampire’s shoulder, and finally cracked his eyes open. They both lay on the floor, tangled in half of Shane’s sheet and an old blanket. Morning light streamed across the mattress and cascaded over the coffee table thatbutted up against their other side, catching on Andres’s hair and drawing a golden line across his face. He was so beautiful like that, sun-kissed and sleeping. But as Shane watched, he spotted the pinched areas of Andres’s expression.
With a pained groan that sounded a little like a no, Andres rolled away from the sun.A shiver trembled through him, and he settled again, Shane in his arms and his body tense. He felt… warm. Warm like a fever.
Oh god.
The sun.
Fuck.
Shane scrambled out of his vampire’s arms, diving across the bed for the blinds. He slammed them closed with such force that something in their cords snapped. The apartment’s other window was smaller, looking out into the tight alley where the light barely reached, but he closed that one too before hurrying to Andres’s side.
Andres, who still hadn’t woken.
Oh god.
“Andres?” Shane brushed back his vampire’s hair, his heart pounding so hard he could barely hear his own voice. “My love, please.”
Shane shook him, panic fueling the motion.
In a blink, he was shoved against the coffee table, pain roaring through his back for the second time in twelve hours. Andres crouched before him, and while their legs were still tangled, he seemed so far away suddenly, his eyes wide and his chest heaving, fangs out. As his gaze settled properly on Shane, he cursed.
