Riley #2
“No.” Seth shuffled closer, setting his hands on Riley’s shoulders.
Riley took hold of Seth’s hips, reassuring himself with the familiar shape of him.
“You know,” Seth began. “I came here because I was feeling…stagnant back in Seacliff. On paper, I should have been as happy as ever, but underneath, I was…aching, kind of. Wanting more and not knowing why.”
Riley tugged gently, encouraging Seth to move even closer, straddling his lap. Seth grinned at him after he’d settled, like that was exactly what he’d wanted. His gaze ran over Riley’s face, almost as if he was taking him in for the very first time.
“I’ve always put so much importance on tending to my community, to the people around me, but there’s something special about having a person of my own.” Seth cocked his head, still smiling. “It’s a little selfish, the way I feel about you. The way you’re mine. I like that, I think.”
Riley grinned back at him. He liked that too. Belonging to Seth. Being a part of his private self, a small piece of Seth’s sunshine that didn’t get given away to everyone else. “What about your voice?” Riley asked. “Has it spoken to you?”
Seth cocked his head in the other direction, his gaze going distant as he thought it over.
“Not really. Or maybe it has, and it just sounds like my own thoughts. I feel a…presence, I guess. A part of me that’s a little sharper.
Hungrier.” Seth focused back in on Riley, and Riley could almost see it, that little something darker lurking in the back of Seth’s pretty eyes. “It’s very drawn to you.”
Riley leaned forward and pressed a kiss to Seth’s smiling mouth. What a relief, that their obsession might be mutual from now on. Or maybe it always had been, in a sense. Maybe that was why Seth had never truly turned Riley away.
“I’ve started things moving for our book club,” Seth murmured against Riley’s lips.
Riley stayed silent, waiting for a clue as to why Seth was changing the subject.
“You don’t have to come,” Seth told him, drawing back far enough to make eye contact again.
“I initially thought…I guess I wanted to give you something more than what you’ve had.
To help you feel like you belong here. Not just in the woods but here, with the people that come with it.
But I meant what I said before—you don’t have to be different than you are.
If you want to keep your circle small, that’s fine. I’ll still be coming home to you.”
How funny that Seth claimed his love for Riley was a chance to be selfish, when his love felt like anything but. Riley could feel it inside him, warm and…calming. Like a weighted blanket thrown over the beast inside him, keeping Riley more content than he’d ever been.
“No,” Riley said. “I’ll try it. I like books, and we’ll see how I feel about the people.”
He was mostly interested in a chance to see Seth interact with other humans when he wasn’t in customer service mode. Maybe that wasn’t what Seth had in mind as to Riley’s investment in the whole endeavor, but it was what it was.
Seth would always come first. That wouldn’t change.
Seth beamed at Riley. “You can help me come up with discussion questions each month. I’m not actually much of a reader.”
“We can think of them together,” Riley offered, fingers tightening on Seth’s hips. “At home. Your home. Where I live now.”
They were discussing the future, in their own way, so Riley might as well get this part taken care of. Their bond had been completed, and Riley was no longer content to lurk in the shadows, the lost puppy in the woods.
He was ready to be brought in from the cold.
Seth fingered a lock of Riley’s hair, humming again. “Give you an inch, you take a mile.”
Riley nodded. “Yes.”
“We can pack your stuff tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow?” Riley frowned. Was this going to be some sort of wedding night ritual, forcing him to spend their first night as a bonded couple on his own?
“I thought we could stay here tonight. Give your moms some more time to gloat. And you said these rooms were soundproofed, so…” Seth wiggled in place, the motion rubbing his pert ass against Riley’s very interested dick.
Right. Seth was Seth, but he was also a newly turned vampire with all the horny enthusiasm for consummation that entailed.
Riley grabbed harder at Seth’s hips, momentarily overwhelmed by the enormity of what lay ahead. An eternal lifetime with his obsession. Mutual love and care. A place for him always, right by Seth’s side.
Seth didn’t give him time to linger in the overwhelm.
He shifted and huffed impatiently, and Riley helped Seth discard his pants, tugging his own down to his knees.
He held Seth tightly to his chest as Seth sank down onto him, still lubed and wet from the last time they’d joined together.
Seth was perfect. Tight and hot and perfect and his.
Riley’s mate. His love. The man who’d accepted Riley just as he was, and in the process made him whole.
Riley tugged Seth’s head down to his, slamming their mouths together and drinking in his moans.
Thank you, Riley said, either to fate or the gods or whoever or whatever had sent Seth to him. Thank you for this gift.
Riley would take precious care of him. Of them. He might have been young and lost when all this had started, and he might not have been all that much older now, but Riley knew the worth of what he’d found.
He wouldn’t ever forget.