17. Deacon
Chapter seventeen
Deacon
I do as I’m told.
What’s the point in fighting Vasile when I want the exact same thing he does?
I kick off my shoes before I sit back on the bed, and Vasile leans down, putting his hands on my thighs. When he spreads them, I arch my back, presenting myself to him, and he smirks as he steps between my legs, looming over me.
He’s been slighter than me since the moment I met him, but that’s never changed the power he has to make me submit.
Things are a little different now, of course. I want to see Vasile melt, too. If the time we’ve spent apart has taught me anything, it’s that he needs as much care as I do. I don’t know if I was aware of that a century ago.
For now, he trails his fingers up to my face, cups it in his hands and stares down into my eyes. I part my lips, ready for another kiss. He leans in, pausing just before our mouths meet, and a growl rumbles into the space between us, making Vasile smirk again.
“So impatient.”
“I’ve been patient, Vas.” I clutch the sheets, swiping my tongue over my lower lip. “Kiss me.”
“As my wolf commands.”
He kisses me like he owns me, and any thought I have of anything outside this room leaves my head in an instant. I groan when his tongue tangles with mine, when his grip on my face tightens. Fuck, I want him in me. I want him so deep that I’ll never forget his touch, that I’ll never willingly leave him behind again.
“Deacon,” he says, my name falling from his lips over and over as he kisses down my jaw and my bared throat. He unbuttons my shirt deftly, and when I reach to help, he grabs my wrists in an iron grip, lifting his head to shoot me a glare.
I huff a laugh and grab the sheets again. Vasile nips the sensitive skin of my throat and my wolf whines in the back of my head, rolling over to show his belly.
The suddenness of it is enough to jolt me back to myself. I want Vasile’s bite so desperately I can almost feel it.
It would tie us together forever. Are either of us ready for that?
Maybe not. It doesn’t matter. Vasile finishes unfastening my shirt and slides it off my shoulders. His fingers trace my biceps almost reverently. Goosebumps follow in the wake of his touch, and I breathe a sigh into his hair, lifting my hands from the bed so he can remove the piece of clothing in its entirety.
“Vasile, please.”
“Patience, I said.” He kisses my shoulder. My pec. I groan when his tongue circles my nipple, and now he’s kneeling between my legs, all coiled danger and all mine.
“There’s something I want to be certain of,” Vasile says, and I nod. He kisses down to my stomach, nuzzling his face into the trail of hair leading down into my trousers, and I groan. Whatever he wants, he can have it.
“Anything.”
Vasile chuckles. He unfastens my belt, and it slides out easily before he tosses it aside. I suck in a breath when he opens the button on my trousers. My cock is straining in my briefs already, and of course he knows it. He can hardly miss it.
“You’ve not loved another in a century?”
I frown. I just told him— “No. Never.”
Vasile hums. He scrapes his nails down my side, and when I gasp, he surges up to bite one of my nipples. I whine, canting my hips up, and he lifts his head again with a frown.
“Have you been touched by another?”
I swallow hard at the edge in his voice. My cock leaks into my briefs. Oh, it’s no good, what we do to each other, but fuck, I like the jealousy I hear there. The possessiveness.
It echoes in me, through me.
“No.” I catch him when he smiles and moves to touch me, grasping his chin and holding him in place. My wolf surges forward and I allow a little of him to bleed through when I ask, “Have you?”
Vasile’s expression, confused as to why I’d make him stop, clears. And with that, I see the same monster I did earlier, the creature I first met so long ago, who massacred so many but never hurt me.
The corner of his mouth turns up in a smirk and a growl escapes me. “Well, I do have to feed…”
I snarl, ready to drag him up, to claim that smart mouth and remind him that he needs nothing more than my touch, but Vasile is faster than I am. He pulls from my grip and lands on my lap, straddling my hips as he shoves me back onto the bed. One hand is around my throat, the other pinning my wrists above my head.
“There was no one else,” he bites out. He rocks his hips against mine and I feel how hard he is, too. “No one else.”
He lets go of my throat to kiss me again, and we move together, the friction dulled through the clothes we’re both still wearing. It doesn’t stop the moan Vasile lets out against my mouth, and I bite his lower lip hard, making him hiss and pull back.
“Vicious little thing, aren’t you?”
I snort. “Little?” When he turns his head, I kiss his jaw, and his hand tightens briefly on my wrists.
I want him to squeeze hard. Want bruises, even though they won’t last. Vasile reaches between us, rubbing my cock through my trousers, and I arch my back, wanting more, more, more…
“That’s it,” he murmurs, and his fangs scrape along my jaw. “Show me everything, lupul meu. Everything that belongs to me.”
Fuck. Fuck. We’ve not even got all our clothes off, and I’m already so fucking close I can hardly stand it. Vasile knows it, too. He chuckles into my ear, squeezing my wrists again before he sits up, his other hand moving with more intent.
I groan when he grips me through my trousers, touch dulled but still oh-so-insistent. “Give me more, Vas. Please.”
“Not yet.” He rubs me harder. “Come on, Deacon. Don’t hold back now.”
He lets go of my wrists to slide his hands up my chest, teasing one nipple, then the other. Pleasure makes my back arch, balls drawing up as the end draws close.
“I’ll fuck you after this, my wolf. Take you nice and slow, the way you like.”
“Want you—Want it hard.” I whine. I’m so close to the edge, leaking in my underwear, and I can smell that Vasile is about as turned on as I am. “You own me, Vas. Take me.”
He growls and kisses me just as I reach the peak. I come hard enough to see stars, cock twitching as I spill into my briefs and trousers. Vasile keeps kissing me, stealing my breath. I don’t care.
Let him have it.
Let him have all of me.
“Deacon,” Vasile growls against my mouth. He bites me hard enough that I taste blood, then jerks back, eyes wide.
I lean in and lick the drop from his lower lip. “I won’t hurt you, Vas,” I say, and he frowns but kisses the corner of my mouth anyway, finally sitting back long enough to let me take a breath.
“What now?” he asks and slides his hands up my torso. “How do you want me?”
I grin, and before he can react, I grab him around the waist, flipping us so he’s the one flat on his back on the bed. Vasile lets out a laugh—I’ve surprised him—and I lean down on my elbows until our noses touch.
“It’s early still,” I say against his mouth. “Why not both ways?”
Vasile’s eyes widen in surprise, but when I nudge his nose with my own, his lips twitch. “You always were quick with a plan.”
“It’s easy when you have such a delicious prize laid out before you.” I reach for the first button on his shirt, unfastening it slowly, and Vasile lies back and lets me, amusement still simmering in his gaze.
I kiss each strip of pale skin my ministrations reveal, tongue darting out for a taste. Vasile hums when my tongue circles one nipple, then the other. He has none of my impatience. He lies back like the king he should be, ready to be worshipped.
I scrape my teeth down his ribs and Vasile lets out a heavy breath, one hand tangling in my hair. “You’re different now,” he says, and from the way he snaps his mouth shut, I know he never meant the words to escape.
I don’t say, of course. It’s been a hundred years. I kiss the spot under his ribs, a place that used to make him twitch away and, when it still does, I smile.
“Should I have stayed the same?”
“No.”
I lean up again, hovering over him. “I’m not some lost puppy happy to only follow you around anymore, Vas.” It’s half true. “You know that, right?”
“That was never what I wanted.” The words are bitten off, laced with righteous anger, and I brush my lips against his. “That was never what you were.”
“We weren’t equal back then.”
“I never thought of you as—”
“We weren’t . It’s okay. But now… Things are different. And not just because of what we did to each other.”
Vasile scowls, and I sit up, letting him shift on the bed. I’m straddling his hips, and I don’t move away. “Deacon. You were…” He reaches up, hands carefully gentle on my face. “You were everything to me. I never thought of you as less than that.”
I turn my head and kiss the centre of his palm. “I’m not saying you did. I’m saying I wasn’t. You were you. Remember when we first met?”
Vasile bares his fangs. “I remember.”
“You were covered in blood, Vas. Like you’d bathed in it. And your eyes…” I swipe my thumb below one, and the tremble that passes through him tells me how still he’s holding himself. “They were still glowing. You were so hungry.”
He growls. “I wasn’t. I was a monster. I—”
“You were mine. From that moment. The first one.”
I’d been told to stay away from that part of town. I really was nothing more than a pup at the time, thirty-five years old and full of the confidence that came with being strong and young, and none of the responsibility that came with running my own pack.
Of course I’d immediately run to investigate. A feral vampire, they’d said. Too old, too powerful to be reasoned with. He’d been killing other vampires, humans, and we—all the wolves—had been keeping our distance.
I don’t know what Vasile was in the middle of when I found him that night. All the men he’d killed were human, and though at first I’d been angry, ready to hurl myself at a vampire I could tell could tear me in two without a thought, my wolf held me back.
“You turned and looked at me, with those eyes, and your fangs out, and I—” I lean down and breathe him in. “I was yours , Vasile. That moment. I mean it.”
He trembles. “You can’t.”
“You know how mating bonds work.”
“Then it wasn’t—”
“And you don’t get to tell me what I feel.” I nip his jaw but only gently. “Not then. Not now.”
“I thought you were sent to kill me,” Vasile says, and when I look at him, he’s staring up at the ceiling. “And I thought I might just let you.”
My breath catches in my throat. We’ve never… I’ve never asked him about that night. We were together for decades before Tamesis returned, but though I watched the progress Vasile made, trying to fit into a life that would make a relationship with me feasible, we never discussed it.
“I never could have.”
“I know.” He kisses me gently, rocking his hips against mine. “Because you could never hurt me. Not like that. Even if you wanted to, right?”
There’s sadness in his voice. Why is he still sad? I kiss the underside of his jaw, his throat, the spot I picked out for a mating mark years and years ago. “I’m sorry,” I say. “I tried to fight him, but he’s too strong—he was too strong, and I—”
Vasile pulls my hair just enough so I lift my head, and the glare he levels at me is impressive in its intensity. “Keep him out of our bed,” he snarls. “But know that you never failed me. I went too far, and for what? I didn’t keep you safe.”
“We’re still going to be angry with ourselves for a while, I guess.”
“And with each other.”
I frown, and Vasile huffs, avoiding my gaze again.
“Deep down, maybe. I don’t like that you left me.”
“I don’t like that you didn’t chase me.”
Vasile’s gaze snaps back to mine, mouth dropping open, and I take the opportunity to kiss him hard, shoving my tongue into his mouth. He groans, pulling my hair until I gasp at the pain, and I dig my fingers into his sides, certain I’m leaving bruises on all that pale skin.
“I want you,” I say between kisses that bruise my mouth. “Fuck, Vas. I want you.”
“I’m yours. Whatever you want. Take it out on me, my wolf.”
Usually, I would never, and even now, I hesitate. Vasile groans and rocks against me again. He’s hard and hot through his trousers, and fuck, but I want my hands on him. All of him.
“We’re not human,” Vasile says, like he knows exactly what’s going through my head. He probably does. “I was, but that was a long, long time ago, and I hardly remember it at all.”
“It’s not—” I cut myself off with a frustrated sound and bite his lower lip just to hear the grunt he makes into my mouth. “Vas.”
“Healthy?” Vasile laughs. He pants as he rubs his hips against mine, and I lick a bead of sweat from the hollow of his throat. “There’s nothing healthy about us. I wouldn’t like it if there was.”
“I forgot what an arrogant prick you can be.”
“I’ll make sure you never forget again.”
I growl and swallow his next smart remark. I don’t really want to hurt him—and my wolf never would—but I want to bite my possession of him into every inch of his skin. I want him to never be able to leave again, even if he changes his mind, even if it turns out we’re the worst possible match for each other.
There are a few buttons still fastened on Vasile’s shirt, but I tear it apart, and Vasile lifts his torso just long enough for me to get it off and toss it aside. He groans when I kiss down his chest, sinking my teeth in over and over again. When I lift my head, his chest is covered in marks, red and purple, stark in their contrast against his skin.
Vasile’s eyes darken when he sees where I’m looking. “You want to leave a mark on me?”
“Yes.” My voice comes out rough, my wolf surging forward as Vasile accepts what I’ve done to him.
“You’ll have to work at it.”
I growl, covering his mouth with mine again as I fumble with the fastenings on his trousers. It’s a few moments of cursing and wriggling before we get them off, and when I wrap a hand around Vasile’s cock, the sound he makes into my mouth has my own jerking again.
“Just like that,” he says, letting out a choked-off groan. “I’m yours, Deacon. You can—Ugh. You can do what you like.”
What I like? I let go of his cock, ignoring the surprised whine he lets out, and reach between his legs. When I circle his hole with one finger, Vasile sighs and spreads his legs wider.
“You want to fuck me?”
“Always,” I say because I might have managed without for so long, but now that I have the opportunity, I don’t ever want to stop. “And then you can fuck me.”
Vasile grins—it’s vicious and perfect—and we lose all need for words after that. I find the lube and open him up, pulling my fingers out when he tugs at my wrist. He’s tighter than I’d like, but he moans when I split him open, sinking into his soft, tight heat.
I lean my forehead against his and fuck him slowly. He bites my lips, squeezes around me, groans against my mouth, but I don’t increase my pace. No. He said I should take it out on him, and so every time Vasile begs for more, digging his fingers in and wrapping his legs around me and arching his back, I slow and kiss him softly.
My precious vampire. My beautiful monster. He’s all but sobbing as he reaches the edge, head thrown back so my eyes can fix on the exposed line of his throat. My mouth waters. It would be so easy to sink my teeth in. Vasile might even let me, the state he’s in. Might beg for it.
He gasps and moans, and I thrust in hard and deep, certain I’ve brushed his prostate when a shiver wracks his body. I do it again, and again, and now all my patience is gone, eager as I am to see him tip over the edge.
I reach between us, curling my fingers around his cock. Vasile cries out, and when he looks at me again, his fangs are bared, eyes so dark they’re almost black.
He comes silently, mouth open on a cry that’s stuck in his throat. I keep moving. I’m so close—again, and even for wolves that’s quick, but it’s like my body is trying to make up for a century of celibacy all in one night.
“Do it, Deacon,” Vasile says in my ear. “Come for me, my wolf.”
I dig my teeth into his shoulder, muffling my groan as I jerk and spill inside of him. Vasile groans and clings to me still. When I look up, he pulls me in for a kiss and doesn’t move to unwrap himself from around me.
“I said we had time to do it both ways,” I say a while later. I’m still inside Vasile, hardening again, and he’s running his hands up and down my back as if to soothe me.
As if I need it. In this room with him, in this bed, it’s so easy to forget about everything else we have to deal with.
“And we still have that time,” Vasile replies. “You’ll stay, after.”
It’s not a question, and I smile, pressing a kiss to his pec, just over his heart.
“Yeah, Vas. I’ll stay.”