Page 93 of Claim of Blood
His gaze slid back to the couch, unwilling but helpless.
Adam was actively thrusting up into Leo now, each motion making the hunter’s cock bounce. Leo’s hands clung to Adam’s thighs, white-knuckled.
And then, as if none of it were happening, Elisabeth said, “Now darling, should we look for a house nearby, or stay here in the mansion?”
Adam’s hips snapped upward with force. Leo whimpered.
“You’ll stay here,” Adam growled. “Right here. In this parlor.”
“An honor,” Johan said smoothly, pulling Elisabeth into his lap with ease. She went willingly, eyes fixed on Leo with bright fascination.
This was not happening.
Absolutely. Fucking. Not.
The decanter and glass clattered against the side table as Lander abandoned both, fleeing the room as though all the hunters in creation were on his heels.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Leo
Timehadbecomestrangesince becoming Adam’s claim. Leo found himself marking days by Adam’s departures to Nocturne, rather than anything resembling a calendar. Thursday, he realized, shifting on the window seat. Another morning, Adam slipped away to tend to acquisitions, leaving Leo aching in more ways than one.
This week marked Adam’s second back at the office. The Belgian deal demanded his presence—something about CEOs needing to show up in person, though Adam had admitted, with dark amusement, that Leo was “terribly distracting” and his productivity had been slipping. Leo hadn’t seen that as a problem. Especially when “distracting” meant Adam spent hours buried inside him. But the acquisition mattered. Even Maja had insisted Adam return, though Leo suspected that had more to do with preventing him from being claimed on every surface than actual business concerns.
He might have handled the separation better if Lander hadn’t chosen this exact moment to vanish. Three days since the parlorincident, and Leo still flushed thinking about how it had ended—Johan bringing Elisabeth to a climax while Adam fucked Leo deep and slow. Lander had fled before it reached that point, and he hadn’t been back since.
The blood compatibility had been manageable at first, but now each day apart wore him thin. Elisabeth had noticed how he paced, how tension built around his eyes when Adam ran late. With academic calm, she’d suggested more frequent claims to ease the symptoms. “Especially at night and before he leaves in the morning,” she’d said. “It won’t fix the bond, but it will help.” Adam had actually taken notes, treating every suggestion like a holy text.
So now their nights had structure: Adam would take Leo at least twice, drink from him with careful reverence, then sleep with his cock still buried inside. Every morning began with another claiming before Adam left for the office, leaving Leo sore, marked, and filled. It helped—dulling the ache, keeping the craving from becoming unbearable. Like the difference between a pulled muscle and a stab wound.
Leo shifted, the forgotten leather-bound book still in his lap. Sunlight filtered through the windows, catching fresh bite marks on his throat. He’d chosen the parlor deliberately—Lander hadn’t set foot in it since the incident. That made it a quiet place to think.
“My son is being ridiculous,” Elisabeth’s voice materialized behind him, making him jump. She had an unnerving habit of appearing silently, a skill honed over centuries. She perched on the opposite end of the window seat, effortlessly elegant in a flowing silk dress that shimmered in the afternoon light. “He’s always been dramatic, but this is excessive even for him.”
It had been three days of catching only glimpses of the younger vampire—a flash of blond hair vanishing around corners, the whisper of doors closing just as Leo entered aroom. The mansion felt larger, emptier, despite Elisabeth’s and Johan’s continued presence. Or perhaps because of it, considering how expertly Lander managed to avoid them, too.
Leo had been watching Adam’s mounting frustration with a confusing mix of concern and desire. The way Adam’s fingers tightened around his phone until the case cracked, the twitch in his jaw when another call went to voicemail, the restlessness he brought home from acquisition meetings—Leo felt it all in the way Adam claimed him: harder, deeper, more often.
Not that he minded. If anything, Adam’s frustration translated into intensity, a need to mark Leo until there was no doubt who he belonged to. The bite marks were deeper. The claiming more urgent. Leo craved those moments when Adam’s iron control slipped.
He understood Adam’s confusion over Lander—because he felt it too. That inexplicable pull between them neither of them could name.
Elisabeth traced patterns through a sunbeam with her fingertips. “I should apologize. The distance pains might be easier if he were around, though I can’t be certain.” Her smile turned wistful. “Johan and I didn’t meet Andreas until those particular challenges had passed. But something in me tells me a third would help ease the bond.”
Leo touched his throat without thinking, fingers grazing the fresh bite marks. “You mean... that night?”
The glint in her eyes sharpened. “Oh, precious boy. How did it feel, sitting in Adam’s lap while Lander watched from across the room?” Her voice dipped, almost teasing. “The tension between you three was delicious. Poor Lander, trying so hard not to react…”
Leo groaned, burying his face in his hands. “Wait. Can you—can you smell that Lander and I…” He gestured vaguely.
Elisabeth’s laughter rang out, utterly unbothered. “Of course. Vampire senses are very precise. I could tell when it happened, how recently, even how thoroughly he claimed you.” Her tone turned analytical. “Biologically fascinating, really.”
“Oh god,” Leo muttered. “So everyone knows—”
“That you’ve become intimate? That there’s a third in this bond?” Elisabeth shrugged. “Yes, dear. Though I suspect Adam hasn’t quite realized the full implications yet.” She tilted her head. “Tell me, did Lander’s presence help? Even when you weren’t sleeping together?”
Leo blinked. “Yeah. Actually, yeah. When Adam first left me with him—just to babysit, really—the need was... duller. The ache wasn’t as sharp. I didn’t get why.”
