Page 10 of The Vanishing
“Lies. You can say them in Japanese?”
He pauses, his eyes shifting to the side. “Those words don’t exist in Japanese.”
They both laugh. “Stubborn,” Nino chides. “Alright, I give up for now. I’ll ignore the fact that you know about fifteen other languages, and that those words definitely exist in Japanese.”
Haruka leans into his mouth and Nino drops his jaw, letting their tongues touch and slide, tasting each other like two lovers reacquainting themselves. Haruka’s mouth is always a few degrees cooler than his own and with a hint of fresh roses. The sensation reminds Nino of spring—a rainy day when the air is crisp and sweet. How can a kiss create such vivid imagery in his mind? The feeling like being swathed in a dreamlike haze—an entirely new setting where he’s sheltered and deeply loved. He’s never experienced anything like this until Haruka.
The kiss is fierce. When Nino tilts his head, Haruka pushes back, meeting his intensity. Just before breaking the affection, Haruka grips Nino’s hair in a fist and pulls his head to the side. He leans down, lips brushing along the concave of his neck. Nino tightens his arms around his waist and Haruka bites down into the left side of his neck and pulls.
Nino groans, exhaling from the familiar heat rushing down his belly and settling in his groin. Haruka never feeds from the opposite side, careful to avoid the permanent scars at the curve of Nino’s shoulder. The wounds are old but forever tender from abuse Nino experienced as a child.
Haruka sucks hard at Nino’s flesh, his sharp fangs sinking further into his neck. Nino closes his eyes from the sheer euphoria of the intimacy. Haruka always pours the most elegant thoughts into him whenever he feeds. It feels like poetry: love and passion flowing in profound verse and expression.
He sucks harder and Nino’s eyes flash open. Burning. His nature deep at the base of his core shifts, wanting to release. To submit to Haruka’s will. Nino closes his eyes and exhales a breath, allowing Haruka to take it from him.
The heated rush of Nino’s aura releasing is like an effervescent wind racing and swirling up his spine, then wildly dispersing from every pore of his body. It radiates in a blazing glow of deep orange light. The sensation is incredible, as if Nino’s insides are being set free and entrusted to his mate. Sometimes, Nino physically orgasms when Haruka does this, depending on where he feeds. Now, Nino keeps his body in control, his mind recalibrating from the pleasure and focusing.
The moment Haruka pulls up from feeding, Nino bends to wrap his hands behind his mate’s thighs. He lifts and urges him to sit against the table, their dinner dishes clattering and shifting aside.
His burning gaze is focused while he unfastens Haruka’s pants, but then Nino flickers his eyes up. “This context is appropriate for me to pick you up, yes?”
Haruka laughs in his deep, throaty way. When his pants are undone, he lifts himself. Nino makes quick work of guiding everything around the curve of his firm ass, then down the length of his long legs. He tosses Haruka’s clothing to the floor.
Sitting half naked in the moonlight and framed by flickering black candles, Haruka looks like something out of Nino’s wildest dreams. Maybe Nino isn’t even creative enough to dream of someone so seductive and otherworldly. He’s always thought of his mate as beautiful. Sophisticated. But with this long and heavy hair, he isn’t even like a vampire. He seems like something from a different species altogether.
Nino grabs the hem of Haruka’s sweater and guides it up his body. His mate is obedient in lifting his arms, allowing him to remove it. He unbuttons Haruka’s dress shirt, selfish in wanting to see all of him before indulging in his body.
Haruka’s deep voice cuts through the silence. “Have I become il secondo?”
They both laugh as Nino finishes his task and separates the material of Haruka’s shirt. He smiles. “Cheesy.” Reaching up behind Haruka’s head, he dismantles the tie holding his heavy bun. He drags it forward, letting his hair unfurl thick and wavy like liquid onyx against his creamy almond skin.
“My love, do you prefer my hair this way?” Haruka asks quietly. “If… you like this, I will not cut it.”
Nino pulls a chair up from behind, situating himself in front of Haruka’s gaped thighs. He wraps his fingers around the backs of his knees, urging him forward as he meets Haruka’s gaze. “Tesoro, I don’t care what your hair looks like.Youare what I prefer. I just want you to be free.”
Haruka’s irises morph, gradually shimmering in vivid sunset orange. The heady scent of his rosy aura radiates from his lean body. He’s opening himself. Letting his true nature breathe and expand. He’s not as restrained as he used to be (the way he was in the very early days of their relationship), but it still takes a minute for Haruka to relax. They’re getting there.
Smiling, Nino bends down, softly kissing the tops of his creamy thighs. Haruka squirms as he moves higher, but Nino shifts his head up and leans forward, playful in kissing and licking his tight belly.
Nino grasps the back of his knees again, and Haruka inhales when Nino pulls him even closer, resting one of his bent legs on top of Nino’s shoulder. He kisses and nips the inside of Haruka’s thigh, feeling his mate’s body shiver with need. Nino glances up at him, and Haruka’s glowing eyes are desperate, his exposed chest heaving as he laces his fingers into Nino’s hair. He isn’t always capable of breaking through Haruka’s composed façade, but in these moments when he’s successful, it gives Nino a sublime high and confidence like he’s never known.
He takes Haruka’s hard shaft in his fingertips, then dips to lap his tongue against the tip. Haruka sucks in a shaky breath, eyes clenched shut.
“You taste so good, Haru…” Nino shifts, gripping his mate’s hardness with one hand, then using the other to slip deeper between his legs. He teases and strokes the softness of Haruka’s opening with his fingertips.
Haruka tenses, arching his neck. The wild length of his hair falls back behind his shoulders. “God help me—”
“Tell me what you want, tesoro,” Nino says. He flicks his tongue against the wetness of him again to taste. Incredible. “Should I put your cock in my mouth?”
He looks up at Haruka, waiting as he continues caressing and playing, enticing him with his fingers. Haruka finally looks down, his Adam’s apple bouncing in his throat from swallowing. He takes a visible breath. “Please.”
Nino smiles, then bends and takes the length of him into his mouth, slow and smooth. Haruka groans in a throaty sound as Nino works, running his tongue along his ridges—greedy in consuming him. Within minutes, his mate cries out and shivers in ecstasy, deliciously spilling over from Nino’s seductive actions.
Haruka’s body is trembling when Nino finally lifts his head—dragging his tongue and licking, making sure nothing is wasted. He stands up from the chair, but Haruka surprises him when he grips Nino’s pants at his waist. His long fingers are aggressive, unbuckling and unfastening with urgency. Nino smirks, leaning forward to press their foreheads together. “Was there something else I could help you with?”
“Take off your pants,” Haruka whispers, his breathing ragged.
Compliant, Nino does as requested. Before he can shift his pants and underwear past his knees, Haruka clutches his shirt and tugs Nino back down to sit in the chair. His mate looks wild as he stands from the table, then steps forward and straddles his thighs. As soon as he rests his weight against Nino’s lap, Haruka takes his mouth. The passion behind the kiss makes Nino’s heart beat like a drum in his chest.
