Chapter 28
Chapter Twenty-Eight
After the four of them had dinner and pleasant conversation, Sasha decided to sleep over as well instead of returning to the manor she shared with Elaine.
During dinner, Oliver had confessed his dilemma, that he didn’t know what to do about contacting Alexander since neither he nor his manservant was responsive.
“Just go over there,” Thomas had said, waving a hand. “Show up on his doorstep. You were his fiancé and he went to great lengths to help you, for God’s sake. I doubt they’ll refuse you.”
“It wouldn’t be too rude?” Oliver had asked.
Thomas had shrugged. “It’s better than dithering about. And you’ve traveled all the way here to speak with him. Make your move.” And so, Thomas had officially begun his unintended foray into brotherly advice. Oliver had nodded, resolved to go and visit Alexander’s family estate the next day.
Following dinner, Cameron made good on his promise.
Cameron took his time diligently kissing, teasing, oiling and stretching Thomas’s body until his skin practically hummed and tingled with its own electrical current.
His large hands slowly caressing the subtle curves and contours of Thomas’s hips, ass, thighs, calves and spine made Thomas ache and writhe.
All the while Cameron dotted his flesh with plush kisses from his full lips.
Thomas’s body was like clay being happily molded and spun into whatever Cameron desired.
When Thomas reached his limit of being sensually provoked and driven to damn near madness, he pushed himself upright, then urged Cameron to sit back against the headboard.
Thomas set his palms on Cameron’s broad, naked shoulders and straddled his thighs.
Slowly, he eased himself down and onto Cameron’s stiff cock.
His mate held and guided Thomas’s hips until Cameron was fully pressed inside his body.
“Are we alright?” Cameron asked breathily. He slid his hands up to caress and hold Thomas’s lower back. The simple motion made Thomas arch and sigh.
Thomas tipped his forehead into Cameron’s and moved his hands down to cup the swell of Cameron’s chest. His nipples were like hard nodes at the centers of his palms. “Yes,” Thomas said softly, gently working and rocking his hips.
He kissed Cameron’s lips with heavy lids.
“You feel so good like this, Cam. So good and so perfect.”
Thomas groaned from the fullness, heat and scent of his mate. He closed his eyes, kissing and relaxing his muscles around the slick intrusion.
He’d never explicitly said this to Cameron, but this was his preferred way of making love.
For Thomas, this was the epitome of safety.
The utmost expression of his trust with his partner—to give of himself freely and make himself fully vulnerable.
The faith he had in Cameron was profound, real and true.
It was sacred to Thomas. The emotion and love he felt—coupled with Cameron’s care, strength and essence—made the experience liberating like nothing else.
Thomas surrendered to the pull of Cameron’s aura and body, holding him in his arms while lifting and rolling his hips. Chasing and riding him while hungrily taking his mouth.
Cameron blindly reached low and between their bellies to grip and pull Thomas while he kept one hand anchored at his hip.
He lovingly held and urged Thomas in his pursuit until the rhythm of their lovemaking fostered a fierce surge of unalloyed pleasure through Thomas’s groin, down his thighs and up his spine.
Thomas sobbed against Cameron’s mouth as the orgasm ran hot and glittery across his body and took his breath away.
Knowing his mate had come, Cameron quietly surrendered to the tension within his own body.
He had a self-imposed rule about Thomas being satisfied first, as if there were a logical order and responsibility in executing these things.
Things like orgasms. Thomas had tried to talk with him about it, but to no avail.
It was just his very attentive partner’s way, so he’d let it go.
Cameron securely gripped and embraced Thomas’s body, then lifted them both from their seated position. Thomas gasped and hooked his long legs around Cameron’s waist in the transition. Gently, he laid Thomas back until his spine was against the duvet and Cameron was resting heavily on top of him.
“May I?” Cameron asked, smiling.
“Please,” Thomas said, then closed his eyes and lifted his chin. Cameron was deliciously heavy settled between his thighs, pressing him down into the tangled duvet and sheets because he knew Thomas liked it this way. He licked Thomas’s neck, then bit into his flesh.
Cameron was not possessive at all. Thomas didn’t think his partner had a possessive bone in his entire body.
But when Cameron fed like this, Thomas reveled in the idea of truly, unequivocally belonging to him.
Cameron had seen Thomas at the winter solstice party so many years ago, and he’d remembered and sought after him.
An inherent and sincere part of Cameron had wanted Thomas, and now they were here. He was Cameron’s, and Cameron was his.
Their everyday life together was casual, affectionate and sweet. They talked, made macabre jokes and laughed. Played chess, smoked cigars and handled estate business together.
Underneath the surface, though, Thomas felt that their bond was anything but casual.
In these moments, the external matched the internal—Cameron naked, primal and covetously draped over Thomas’s body as he fed and nourished himself with his very life essence.
As the two of them lay damp, sticky and contented from the love they’d made.
Cameron fed, pulled and coaxed until Thomas’s vampiric aura released from his body in a second deeply satisfying rush of emotional pleasure.
It surrounded them with warm light and color before gradually fizzling out like a firework.
Cameron removed his fangs, licked and kissed the curve of Thomas’s neck, then tumbled onto his back beside him.
He inhaled a deep breath and groaned in a satisfied sound that vibrated in his chest.
Thomas shifted onto his side to rest on his elbow. He slid his free hand atop Cameron’s abdomen, and Cameron met him there, threading their fingers together over his navel in the moonlit silence.
“Thank you,” Thomas whispered, then leaned down and touched his lips to Cameron’s shoulder.
Cameron huffed, smiling. “You’re welcome.”
They breathed, quiet and comfortable as their shared energy gently flowed and pulsed between them. Thomas loved these moments as well, where nothing needed to be said but everything was understood.
“I think…” Thomas began, absently staring down at the beautiful, sculpted shape of Cameron’s collarbone, chest and shoulders in the ambient darkness, “that I should visit my family estate.”
Cameron turned his head against the duvet. “What’s brought this on?”
“Sasha said that our elder father is doing poorly—that he’s had a mental breakdown of sorts. It’s hard for me to imagine such a situation… and I’m not sure if my wanting to see it for myself is out of some morbid sense of curiosity or if I’d just like to confirm it with my own eyes.”
And if his elder father truly was in a bad way, would Thomas find joy in that? Would he laugh, point and declare, “You’ve finally gotten what you deserve, you rat bastard!”
“Does it matter?” Cameron asked. “Whether it’s curiosity or confirmation?”
“I suppose not. I’m uncertain as to what I’m expecting from it, if I go. Or how I’ll feel when I walk away—or just being in that awful castle again. But I… I don’t know.”
Thomas sighed heavily. Cameron lifted from his relaxed position to kiss Thomas’s lips, then lay back down. He squeezed their still-entwined fingers. “The decision is yours,” he said quietly. “If you return, I will go with you.”
Thomas started, blinking. “No, you don’t need to subject yourself to that.
While I don’t know what my exact sentiments will be upon visiting, for certain, it will be an unpleasant experience.
” Cameron had offered to accompany him to Oliver’s engagement fête, but Thomas had opted to go alone.
His elder father had sent a sternly worded invitation demanding his presence, and while he might be somewhat beholden to his insane family, Cameron certainly was not.
“Thomas, I’m not letting you go back to your family home alone.”
“Mira will be with me?”
Cameron lifted their clasped hands and kissed Thomas’s fingers. “And so will I. Let me support you in this, please?”
Smiling, Thomas snuggled closer until he was lying into Cameron’s side and halfway atop his chest. He slid one thigh over Cameron’s to tangle their legs. “You always support me.”
Cameron’s fingers drifted up to brush and play within the heft of Thomas’s dark hair.
Staring, he softly traced the shape of Thomas’s eyebrow with his thumb.
Cameron had once confessed to him that he’d developed an unhealthy fixation with Thomas’s eyelashes.
“Then allow me to maintain my winning streak.”
Thomas nodded, then pressed another kiss to his lips. “Thank you, my love.”
“You are always welcome.”
The southwestern realm of Eden was gloomy and overcast the day they arranged to visit Thomas’s family home. It was one of those soggy gray days that offered nothing good nor promising when you ventured out into it, which Thomas felt was on par for the occasion.
Only two vampires greeted Thomas, Cameron and Mira at the main doors to the castle—an older second-gen woman and an even older third-gen man, neither of which Thomas recognized.
This, in and of itself, was beyond strange.
When he’d been living here, the castle had been teeming with vampire servants and roving guests.
Dignitaries or local citizens who had business with the lords of the realm.