CHAPTER THIRTY || TOBIAS
“ H oly shit,” Bryan whispered, the moment we had reoriented to being back in our bodies. “She was never haunting me. She was just trying to tell me to stop being a dumbass and go live my life.”
“I know,” I said, smiling a little. “She manifested herself when you were fighting the hunters. She released the binding circle that was stopping me from doing magic. It’s how I was able to prevent Michael from hurting you. I turned his stake into ash in his hands. She saved your life.”
“I saw her before I left the motel room to come for you,” he said, stiffening a little, regret flashing across his face. “She tried to tell me not to go. But I didn’t even care what she was trying to say. I was so angry . That level of anger…” He shuddered. “I don’t want to be that person ever again.”
“You don’t need to be. You can be whoever you need or want to be and that will be okay with me. I’ll help you be whoever you want, and I’ll love any and every version of you. I promise.”
“I’ll love you, too,” Bryan told me solemnly. “Always. I promise.”
He paused for a very long time, then added, “And I don’t think I want to hunt the supernatural. Or hurt anyone at all—including monsters—unless I really, really don’t have any other choice. I think I just want—” He broke off, then nestled his head against my shoulder. He hummed a bit, some of the tension leaving his body when I wrapped my arms around him. “Tobias, I want us to heal people. Together. Like we did with Annie. That’s what I want to spend our eternity doing. Or, at least, some of our eternity.”
“Done,” I told him. “I can use magic to get pretty much whatever we need. We can drive around the country and find people who would never otherwise recover, then we can work together to put them right.”
“You wouldn’t mind that?”
“Mind it?” I laughed, joy welling up inside of me. “You might not have noticed this about me, but I sort of have the burning desire to fix everything, all the time.”
“You know, now that you mention it, I think I might’ve noticed that,” Bryan said, smiling against my shoulder.
“Well, this would be letting me do some good with that, right? We could put some real good into the world. Together.” I paused, grinning. “And this is total superhero-level shit we’re talking about. We can be like the dynamic duo.”
“Holy shit.” He shook his head, smiling. When he pulled back, his eyes were shining again. “You’re such a nerd.”
“The wonder twins?”
“Still no.”
“Costumes?”
“Absolutely not.”
“Capes?”
“I’ll divorce you,” he told me, but his face was full of light and possibility. And it made my heart clench to see him so happy. “Also, we have unfinished business.”
I grinned at him, playing dumb. “Oh? Do we?”
He huffed a bit at that and kissed me. His lips were sweet and warm, and his body fit against mine perfectly. His kiss was gentle at first, but as my lips parted, it grew more urgent, dirty and demanding.
Lust ignited like fire through my body, stirring me to attention.
Fumbling with our clothing like teenagers, we managed to somehow get naked and into bed, with the covers around us. Bryan wound up on top of me. I could feel his hardness between my legs and I realized I wanted to feel him—all of him—the same way that I had made him feel me. I wanted him to make love to me.
“I want you inside of me,” I told him.
He grinned wolfishly at me. “You read my mind again.”
Then he kissed me again, rougher, demanding. My eyes slid closed as I reveled in the feeling of our bodies pressed up against each other. Somehow, he managed to grab the lubricant off the nightstand without my noticing, because I heard the cap pop, then his fingers were massaging my hole, lubing it up.
I let out a startled gasp at the unfamiliar sensation, but I relaxed almost immediately. I trusted Bryan. I knew he wouldn’t hurt me.
Bryan pulled back, coated his fingers with more of the lubricant, then slid one finger into me. “The thing about being more of a bottom,” Bryan told me, as he found my prostate and massaged it back and forth with the pad of his finger with just enough pressure to cause me to gasp against his touch, grinning at me mischievously, “Is that I know what feels good.”
He slid another finger into me, which had me practically panting with need. The few times I had tried bottoming in the past, I had never really enjoyed it. I couldn’t relax properly, and it just hadn’t felt good to let another man enter me. But strangely—or perhaps not strangely at all—my body seemed more than willing to relax for Bryan. I was more than willing to let my mate enter me.
“Is this okay?” Bryan asked, watching me. He slid a third finger into my hole.
I nodded, grinning at him. “I think I’m ready whenever you are.”
Bryan pulled out of me, and I winced at the sensation of going from delicious fullness to sudden emptiness. But then he got between my legs, positioned his head over my hole, and slid into me slowly.
My breath left my lungs in a sharp exhale.
He paused, a few inches in, his green eyes filled with concern. “Still doing okay?”
The sensation was incredible. It was a keening pleasure, with just a hint of pain, and a wonderful feeling of fullness and warmth inside of me. A closeness. A feeling of absolute surrender.
I nodded like a madman, letting out a surprised bark of laughter that probably wasn’t very sexy, but fuck it. “Yeah.”
Bryan watched me, his eyes growing darker with his desire. “You feel amazing. Do you want me to keep going?”
I nodded wildly, and grabbed at his ass, needing him to thrust himself into me.
Even though he couldn’t read my thoughts, he seemed to know exactly what I was after, because he leaned forward, kissed me, and began to thrust deeper, pulling out almost all the way before sliding back in, all the way to the hilt, setting a pace that curled my toes and made me want to come apart at the seams.
It was both tender and savage at the same time. Loving and primal. And I couldn’t worry, or even think properly, with him burying himself deep inside me, claiming me as his. I could only feel. It was only keening pleasure and need.
A familiar tension began to rise at the base of my spine, tightening my pelvis, as my orgasm approached. His thrusts became harder, more demanding, more urgent.
“I’m going to cum,” he said, right in my ear.
So fucking hot. I nodded wildly.
He thrust into me twice more, grabbing my hips, plunging himself all the way into me.
I let out a sharp gasp as I felt him pulsing, filling me up completely. I grabbed at my own rock-hard cock and worked myself furiously.
It didn’t take long. I was so worked up that my orgasm rocketed through my body white-hot and blinding, momentarily blotting out the entire world. I shot stream after stream of hot cum onto my chest and stomach.
“Yup,” I told him a moment later, still gasping from the remnants of my orgasm as he slid himself out of me. He settled down into my arms with a soft, happy noise. “We’re definitely going to be a versatile couple. Because I love being inside you, but that was fucking incredible, too.”
“I’m not usually a top, but I could do that every day,” he told me, giving me a tender kiss, before settling back down. Maybe we’ll trade off. Because when you can go again, I want you inside me. As soon as possible.
I momentarily startled at the sudden feel of Bryan’s mind against mine again. He had dropped his walls completely. But then I grinned again, kissing the top of his head. It was hard to stop smiling. I didn’t want to stop. I never wanted to stop.
Had anyone ever been this happy? It didn’t seem like that was possible.
“Yeah, I could do that. In like twenty minutes.”
“In the meantime, there’s something else we could do,” Bryan said, almost shyly. “Um. So, if you were serious about letting me drink from you, I think I’m ready for that now.”
Abruptly, I could sense through the blood bond how serious he was. It wasn’t just his hunger, either. Though, of course, there was that as well. It was that he wanted to know my mind, the way I could know his. He didn’t want the walls between us anymore. He wanted to claim me fully as his mate.
I didn’t even need to think about it.
“Do it,” I told him, turning my head away from him to give him better access to my neck. I cupped the back of his head, guiding him.
I could feel his lips on the skin of my throat. It sent shockwaves through me all over again. But then there was a sharp pain for an instant, which was immediately replaced by a languid calm, which quickly became pleasure, igniting through every single nerve ending I possessed like wildfire.
Though I had thought I was spent, I felt my cock beginning to harden again.
The rest of the world fell away, until it was just him and I, in a warm and endless darkness. It didn’t feel frightening. It felt peaceful. It felt right. And the simple truth of our embrace was the only thing in the whole world that mattered.
I felt it as the blood bond solidified, snapping into place, taut like piano wire, connecting us forever. But even the idea of eternity wasn’t frightening. It was exhilarating. I wanted to love Bryan for as long as I could.
Tobias… Bryan’s thoughts caressed mine, and I could feel him yielding to me, allowing my mind into his. I love you. I’ll love you for an eternity, I swear it.
How could he ever have imagined, even for a moment, that he was dark or evil? His mind exploded around me, warm and kind, filled with light and goodness.
I felt my own love for him swell in my chest, a fierce sort of tenderness that burned within me, hot and bright.
He pulled away from me, and I knew he was concerned about taking too much of my blood. I sensed from his mind, the dizzying relief that he could stop, that he could control himself. That he could trust himself again not to hurt anyone. He hadn’t known for sure that it would be so easy.
I never doubted you, I told him.
But, of course, the only person he’d ever needed to prove that to was himself.
He bit his own wrist and held it out to me. It’ll help you recover from what I just took. Also, a warlock is basically a human with magical powers, right? So, if you drink from me on a regular basis, you’ll stop aging. You’ll live for longer. Like, a really, really, really long time. He paused and I felt the desire flow back through him. It’ll also help you get… going… again.
I didn’t bother telling him that I had been raised to know about the other types of supernatural creatures out there practically since birth. And truthfully, I didn’t need much encouragement in the ‘getting going’ department, either. I was already hard and ready. But I drank from him anyway. His blood was sweet and thick, almost like wine, with only a hint of copper.
Immediately, I felt arousal tear through me. If it was possible, I got even harder. The wound on my neck closed up, but I barely even noticed it. My mind was focused on one thing and one thing only.
I reached for the lube again, poured some into my hand, and coated his hole. Then I slid a finger into him, marveling at the delicious warmth and velvety softness I felt there.
He let out a soft noise of desire as I slid another finger into him. And then another.
“Please,” he said. I need you.
I coated my cock up with lube. I was about to move to get on top of him, but Bryan put a hand on my chest. “Let me.”
I arched an eyebrow at that, but I could sense what he intended from his mind.
Bryan straddled me and, with one hand, he guided me into himself, sliding his ass down, taking me all the way to the hilt.
Both of our eyes widened at the same time.
I can feel your pleasure too, Bryan marveled. Holy shit, this is incredible.
I knew exactly what he meant. Because I could feel his warm, velvety tightness around my cock. But I could also feel the echo of what he was feeling, the delicious pleasure of feeling me filling him up.
I’m not sure how we’re going to be able to stop.
He began to move himself up and down, his hands on my chest, his fangs down and his eyes fixed with mine, as he rode my cock.
My breath caught at the strange—but intoxicating—combined feeling of being both inside of him and feeling his pleasure at yielding to me, at taking me, at the exact same time.
“Let’s not find out,” Bryan told me. “Besides, we’ve got a literal eternity to figure it all out.”
I kissed him, letting everything else go as we made love. He was right. Though, an eternity spent together would never be long enough to love him properly.
It was, however, a start.