Chapter 11
Mason was barely through the door, and Vlash was pulling off his shirt.
He had his hands under Vlash’s. He broke the kiss and tugged the T-shirt over Vlash’s head.
This wasn’t how he’d expected this to go—he thought they might talk over a beer—but the hunger in Vlash’s eyes had taken him off guard, and he couldn’t pull back.
He needed Vlash.
Vlash undid Mason’s fly.
He pushed Vlash against the wall and ground against him, loving the hardness of his body and the way he moved as if there were nothing more he wanted to do than kiss and grind and fuck.
The heat in Vlash’s eyes was consuming.
“When you look at me like that…” He wanted to drown in his crystalline blue eyes.
Vlash groaned and shoved his hand down the front of Mason’s pants. “The rest of that sentence better be that you want to take me to bed.”
“Yeah.” It was then Vlash wrapped his hand around his cock.
They were both naked by the time they reached the bedroom. Stumbling and kissing and stroking. Vlash sat on the edge of the bed and licked along Mason’s length. His tongue caressed the head before it slid past his lips.
He never broke eye contact, holding Mason trapped without using any force. He didn’t even want to rock his hips in case he broke the moment. His fingers curled so he didn’t accidentally grab Vlash’s hair.
Vlash pulled free. “I’d continue, but I want you to fuck me.”
All he could do was nod as Vlash lay back on the bed, offering himself. All that pale skin and long-healed scars. Mason pressed a kiss to one on his thigh, then his ribs. Working his way higher with each kiss.
He was so fucking beautiful, and the scars added to it in a way that should be impossible. For a second, he felt plain, as though he didn’t belong, but then he caught Vlash’s gaze, and there was no room for doubt or uncertainty.
“Got a preference?” He licked one nipple.
“You in me,” Vlash growled as though he didn’t like admitting he had needs.
Mason smiled. “That’s the plan.”
He grabbed the lube and made use of it on his cock and then Vlash’s hole, fucking him with two fingers and watching him writhe as if he’d been waiting another ten years, not ten days.
He stroked Vlash’s prostate, drawing a gasp out of him. Mason enjoyed watching him as much as he liked fucking him. Each movement was restrained as though he was fighting against giving too much away, yet at the same time, he was unable to hide his desperation.
Pre-cum leaked out of Vlash’s cock, and Mason leaned down to lap it up. His tongue danced across the head as he kept rubbing against that spot. Vlash’s hips jerked up, and Mason took the offered dick into his mouth.
Vlash swore and gripped the sheets over his head as Mason sucked.
Was he always this responsive, or was it because it had been such a long time?
He needed to know.
He wanted to ride Vlash’s cock at some point. Just because that was all he’d done for the last four years didn’t mean he didn’t want to try it with someone else. He wanted to find out what it would be like to be fucked by Vlash.
He wanted to learn everything about him, which was a dangerous place to be because that implied they were more than fuck buddies. It certainly wasn’t a one-night stand anymore.
Pre-cum coated Mason's tongue, and he knew Vlash couldn’t hold out much longer. But he wasn’t closing his eyes, or looking away, or telling Mason to stop. He was watching as if he didn’t want to miss a second.
His hips snapped up, and he came with a groan, filling Mason’s mouth. He swallowed everything as he milked him for a little more before releasing him. It was only then Mason pressed the head of his cock against Vlash’s hole and thrust in.
Vlash grunted, and his legs wrapped around Mason’s hips like a steel vice, as if he had no intention of ever letting him go. He grabbed a fistful of Mason’s hair and drew him close for a kiss, his tongue thrusting into Mason’s mouth to match Mason’s pace.
Then Mason was in the air. He landed on his back, on the bed, still inside Vlash.
Vlash grinned as he rode him as if seeking another release.
He leaned over Mason, one hand by his head.
Tips of his long blonde hair tickled Mason’s chest, but the same as the other night, it was the heat and Vlash’s eyes that undid him.
It made him feel as if he was the most important person in the universe.
No one had ever looked at him like that…
he wanted it, even though he shouldn’t get used to it.
He couldn’t keep his eyes open as he came, even though he tried to. He was breathing hard…he needed more cardio in his life to keep up with Vlash.
Vlash flopped onto the bed next to him with a satisfied smirk on his face.
Mason rolled over to face him, and Vlash mirrored him. There were only a couple of inches between their faces. “I wouldn’t mind you fucking me if you wanted.”
The moment the words left his lips, he realized it was the wrong thing to say.
The heat in Vlash’s eyes shattered. “I don’t think I’m ready for that.”
“How do you mean?”
Vlash was silent for several heartbeats. “If I fuck you, then my wife is no longer the last person…”
“Oh.” It was kind of messed up because they were having sex, but Mason could understand what Vlash meant.
Vlash cupped Mason's jaw. “That’s not to say I haven’t thought about it, though from what you said the other night, I didn’t think you’d want to so soon.”
“I can’t remember most of what I said the other night.” He wished he hadn’t been so drunk, but without the false bravery of the mead, he wouldn’t have even given it a chance. “How much do you remember?”
Vlash pressed his lips together as if thinking. “Not everything, that’s for sure.”
“Should we try to patch the gaps or something?” he wasn’t sure what he was asking, only that he wanted more.
“Is that your way of asking to get to know me?” Vlash frowned.
“Is it too much if that’s what I want?”
“Is it too little if I say I don’t know?”
Mason shook his head. “I ended my engagement three weeks ago. I’m not ready to date, but I am enjoying this—whatever this is.”
And he didn’t want to push and press in part because he wasn’t ready to date an elf, and it wasn’t because he was mytho. It was that Vlash was literally centuries old from another world. Where did he even start with trying to find things they had in common aside from sex?
Vlash gave a single nod. “I am, too.”
“So how old are you?”
“Two hundred and sixty-six.”
“So ten years isn’t very long to you? How long do you live?”
Pain flickered over Vlash’s face. “It’s a lifetime and also a blink.
I blinked, and my little boy is now an adult.
But other times, the loss of my wife and daughter sometimes feels like yesterday.
It’s as if I was a different person and that life and love happened to someone else and I read about it, and that’s the bit that hurts more. ”
“I’m sorry,” Mason said. “I didn’t mean to bring up painful memories.”
“Everything that happened during and after the collapse was painful. And I’m not the same man I was before or even the same man I was five years ago, but I don’t want to remain the man I am today.”
“Why is that?” This felt like a deep conversation. Was this the crying into mead part?
Vlash was silent as he watched Mason. He took several breaths before speaking.
“Because he’s cold, aloof, and alone. It was easy to hide behind my job, and I convinced myself that’s who I needed to be to survive so others could survive.
I need a distance from my men to remain in command.
To other mythos, I procure what they need.
I run the general store. To my son, I am a bastard who won’t let him live his life. ”
Mason laughed. “I think all adult kids feel that way at some point. I know I did.”
“And who are you, Mason, Jordan’s friend?”
Mason drew in a breath. “I’m a dentist. I have my own practice. I look a lot smarter than I am because I didn’t end my relationship with Bud when he first started waving red flags at me. I didn’t want to be thirty and single. Which probably sounds quite stupid to you.”
Vlash smiled. “Elves are not considered adults until they turn thirty.”
“Well, for humans, thirty years is like a third of the way through our lives if we’re lucky. My father died when he was forty-five. In ten years, I’ll be his age, and that’s a little terrifying.”
“How old were you when he died?”
“I was eight, and my sister was six.”
“You were the same age as Lekso when his mother died. I understand the scars that leaves.”
Mason hadn’t thought about the scars left by his death, not when he was approaching the same age.
Vlash moved in closer, hooking his leg over Mason’s hip before kissing him. “So we are both single and dissatisfied with how we’ve been living for the last few years.”
“Agreed.”
“So we should plan to do things differently in the New Year. That is what humans do? They set resolutions to uphold?”
Mason laughed. “Most New Year’s resolutions do not see the end of January.”
“Then we do not make resolutions; we make vows.” His lips were a whisper away from Mason’s.
“I was warned about elves’ words being binding.”
Vlash grinned, and it was all sharp edges. “I could bind you into keeping one of your New Year’s resolutions. But I will not. Binding someone is not something I take lightly.”
Mason released a breath. “Good, because I’d much rather succeed or fail on my own.”
“And what do you want to succeed at?” Vlash asked, his eyes bright and intense.
That was easy. “I want to make better choices.”
Vlash made a noise of approval. “That is something we both aspire to.”