Leo
For a moment, no one spoke after Altair left. Then Evie plopped down onto the couch next to me and gave my side a shove.
I looked down at her, and she lifted her brows, then glanced at the door, and back at me. I knew what she wanted. It was what I wanted. For me to follow Altair.
I just didn’t know if everyone else would be okay with that.
No one said a word when I stood, though, not even Viktor. His eyes were focused in the distance, and clearly his thoughts weren’t on the room or us at all. No one else spoke up as I headed for the door, so I took that as a blessing and hurried out into the night after Altair.
I followed him all the way to the river, where he was .
. . well, he wasn’t really doing anything, but his very stance was the most overt display of emotions I’d seen in him.
He was barefoot, and glaring across the river at nothing—or not at nothing.
At my muddy shoes, sitting on the other bank of the river. Like they’d personally wronged him.
His bare feet were muddy too.
I sighed, realizing what at least part of the problem was. “I did the same thing when I was learning how to drive,” I said, coming up beside him rather than behind him, so he wouldn’t be too startled.
He turned to look up at me, silent, but at least interested enough to listen.
“I had no idea what I was doing. Didn’t really have a choice about it, though, because I needed to drive somewhere, so I was going to go, whether I figured it out or not.”
He made a sour face at that, and I could tell he wanted to call me something insulting and tell me it was nothing like that. Because it wasn’t, not really. But also, it was a little, because learning new skills was rough sometimes.
I stepped in close, so I could feel him next to me. He was a tiny bit warm. Not as warm as a wolf, but maybe close to human temperature, and I tried not to think about what it meant.
Not that I was offended he had to drink blood.
I just didn’t especially want to think about him biting someone else, even though obviously it hadn’t been the same, since he’d killed that witch and never even injured me.
“This isn’t some simple thing,” he finally said, and I could almost taste the emotion packed into that tiny sentence. “Ivan isn’t just a witch. He’s not another wolf. He’s older than everyone in this pack combined, and no one gets that old without being cunning.”
“I understand,” I promised. “He’s dangerous.
He scares you. He scares my brother, and almost nothing scares Viktor.
I’m not trying to make light of the threat he poses.
” Then I cringed a little, because . . .
yes, I was. Not because I didn’t think the man was a threat, but because it was the only way to handle him right then.
He wasn’t in front of us, and we couldn’t actually deal with him.
We had to wait, and standing around waiting for a bad guy to show up while worrying about how dangerous he was?
That was just silly.
If anything, it would make it all worse, if we built him up in our heads, spiraling in anxiety over something we couldn’t currently affect.
Altair huffed out a sigh, which shouldn’t have been cute, but it was.
“You are making light. You don’t understand.
You can’t—” He turned to me, and in the moonlight, it almost looked like there were tears in his eyes.
Could vampires cry? “You can’t possibly understand.
You’re . . . dammit! You’re just a puppy.
The lot of you, you’re all like children to a monster like Ivan. I’m going to get you all killed, and—”
I knew I couldn’t stop the toxic mass from circling in his brain, so I did the only thing I could think of to stop what was clearly an anxiety attack waiting to happen: I leaned down and pressed my lips to his.
He softened instantly, not just his lips, but his whole body, melding against mine, going slack under my hands.
My immediate urge was to climb atop him and kiss every inch of his body, but parts of that were bound to raise stress for him.
Like the parts where my mouth was on his neck, which had to have so many terrible memories attached to it for him.
So instead, I took his hand and led him over to one of the enormous cedars nearby, then pressed him against it. But I didn’t hold him there. Instead, I dropped to my knees in front of him, wrapping my hands around the backs of his calves and looking up at him, wordlessly asking permission.
The gasp I got was not only endearing, but telling.
How many times had anyone gone to their knees for my Altair?
Not enough.
But that was okay. I could make up for it now.
And there was the added benefit of not only doing something for someone I cared about, which I enjoyed, but also, not being forced to talk.
Everyone seemed to think I liked yapping their ears off, when the fact was that I was a nervous talker.
When other people were silent, I automatically filled the gap, because silence made me nervous.
But if my mouth was full of Altair? Then no one had to say a word.
So I slowly lowered just the center of the sweatpants, right over his cock, giving him plenty of time and room to deny me. Not that I thought he would, with the avid look in his eyes. The way he was continuing to draw short, quick breaths.
No, Altair wanted me as much as I wanted him. I wasn’t going to make conclusions about why he wanted me, what he wanted me for, or how long . . . but right then, the fact that he wanted me at all was enough.
So I leaned in and took his cock in my mouth.
It was already half-hard by the time I got there, Altair as interested in the situation as I was, his dark eyes riveted to my face as I swallowed him down, even as he grew too long to take in a single mouthful.
I licked along the sides of his cock, then swirled my tongue around it as I went, testing the motions out.
It wasn’t as though I’d had a lot of opportunities to suck cock in my life, so everything was a little new.
With Altair, everything felt new. Perfect, innocent, and pristine, like it was the first time all over, every time with him. The surprise on his face. The way he leaned into me. The sweet sounds he made.
His hands twining restlessly through my hair, like he didn’t want to push me, but also, he did, a little.
His hips started making aborted little thrusts, and I wanted to tell him he didn’t have to hold back on my account, but I was too busy trying to drive him crazy, pressing all the way down onto his cock, till it almost made me gag and pull back, sucking on him.
He started trembling after just a few moments, then I realized the trembling was also tapping on my shoulder. Breathily, he was saying my name, over and over again. And then he arched into me, and it was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.
So beautiful I almost got distracted and did gag myself on his cock a bit.
He didn’t even notice, though, because I seamlessly brought in my hand and continued to stroke him as he came, his whole body a beautiful arc pressing out from the tree trunk as he gasped for breath, muttering “Leo,” again and again.
When he finally went lax against the tree, and his eyes flickered open, he reached down for me, as though he’d climb onto his knees and return the favor.
Instead, I pulled him down next to me, and lay us side by side in the grass, looking at the riverbank.
“I promise you, we’re not as ignorant of violence as you think.
We’ve been through a thing or two, and we might yet surprise you.
We’ll definitely surprise Ivan, even if he’s the most jaded monster in the whole world. ”
And for once, he didn’t argue with me. Didn’t tense and call me a child and start worrying right away. He just leaned against me and sighed. “I hope you’re right.”