17. Pavel
Pavel
T he following silence was an eternity to Pavel. He hadn’t meant to end up in this position. He’d waited on the nearby rooftop to calm his gargoyle instincts, not because he thought there would be actual danger.
But, of course, there had been. And now he was here, with his mates, in his gargoyle form, after having maybe saved their lives and then embarrassingly clutched them to himself.
He couldn’t claim it hadn’t felt good, having his two mates smushed against his chest. It had calmed him in a way few things had recently.
Now that was over, and he was left cornered, with no excuse to run away.
“It will be easier to talk in human form, don’t you think?” Justin said.
The sweet, lithe vampire rested his hand on Pavel’s thigh, and despite Justin’s lower body temperature, the touch was like the burn of a hot iron. He couldn’t think of anything except the cool skin against his leg .
A grumble escaped his lips. What he should do is fly away, right now, before these two trapped him into a conversation, ensnared him with their sweet faces and beautiful eyes.
All of a sudden, Sebastian was there as well, pressed against Pavel’s side, the witch’s hand draped casually over his shoulder. The touch of his fingers on Pavel’s neck sent sparks down his spine.
“Yes,” Sebastian said with a smirk, “let’s talk.”
They were both staring at him. Justin’s face was open and vulnerable, his bottom lip trembling. Sebastian was maybe worse. The challenge in his eyes was so fucking sexy. Pavel’s brain was melting.
And both of them were in their underwear.
The shift happened without any prompting from him.
His gargoyle took control, insisting he absolutely had to be next to these beautiful men, had to feel them against his human skin rather than the thick hide of his stony form.
His muscles shifted, his wings folding in, and his horns receding into his forehead.
The sensation was familiar to him after all these years, but it always felt exposed to change in front of others.
When he was done, he sat on the bed next to his two mates.
Fully naked.
Pavel sighed and grabbed a nearby pillow, covering his crotch.
“Aw,” Sebastian said, pouting.
“If you want to talk, I’m not going to do it with you two staring at my dick.” Pavel’s voice sounded distant and alien to him. After most of a night in his gargoyle form, the transformation back wasn’t instantly comfortable.
Justin didn’t say anything, but the edges of his lips curled as he made no attempt to hide his amusement. Sebastian was already rubbing off on him.
Pavel sighed. “Say what you need to say.”
Both Sebastian and Justin snuggled in closer, finding their place tucked into each side of the man.
Dammit, it wasn’t fair. Pavel couldn’t think straight with the two beautiful men pressed against him. His mind was filled with the filthy things he wanted to do to them, the uncontrolled gasps and sobs he wanted to pull from them.
“This isn’t fair,” he muttered.
Sebastian winked. “We know.”
Justin kissed Pavel’s chest. It sent an unprovoked shudder throughout Pavel’s body. The man was so pretty, with his soft face and curly blond hair, and so sweet.
“But there is nothing wrong with you,” Sebastian continued, and agreement sparked in Justin’s eyes. “It doesn’t matter you are three thousand years old. Except that with several millennia of sexual experience you’re probably great in bed.”
Sebastian’s smirk was back again, and Justin had managed to blush, despite being a vampire. How did these two manage to be so adorable all the time? They were going to kill him.
He needed to get out of there. He needed to leave, to go someplace where he could think straight, where he wouldn’t be tempted by the sight of his mates.
And their smell . Dear God, he was no wolf shifter, but his gargoyle senses were filled with Justin’s clean, almost citrus scent, and Sebastian’s earthier musk. The odor of the two of them together was too much to bear. He shifted as his cock began to fill, hidden beneath the pillow.
With great effort, he dismissed the horny thoughts. Even so, he couldn’t bring himself to push Sebastian and Justin away from his side. They felt too right where they were.
“It’s more than my age.” Pavel stared straight in front of him as he spoke, locking his eyes on a picture of a younger Sebastian, maybe eighteen, decked out in black goth clothing with his arms up at some concert. He was so carefree, so innocent.
They were both still so innocent.
“What is it then?” Justin asked. Pavel couldn’t make eye contact with him. He knew if he did, he would cave instantly, so he kept his sight trained ahead.
“As gargoyles age, we start to deteriorate.” He couldn’t tell them the whole truth. They were his mates, and they would throw away their lives searching for some cure. But no gargoyle he’d known had ever found a way to avoid going fully dormant.
Not that he’d known many gargoyles that had survived long enough for that to happen.
“I won’t put you through that,” Pavel continued. “You are both young and have hundreds, maybe thousands of years ahead of you, and none of them should be spent taking care of me. There are two of you. You can have happiness without me.”
He hadn’t been looking at the two men, and so the cool hand against his face startled him. It was Justin who turned Pavel’s face toward his own. The sweet expression Pavel found there made his heart catch in his throat.
“And when do you get to be happy?”
Pavel shook his head. “I’ve lived for a very long time, I don’t need?—”
Justin put a finger up to the gargoyle’s lips, stopping the words on his tongue. In a single motion, Justin turned and straddled Pavel. It was a good thing there was a pillow between Justin’s ass and Pavel’s cock, because it was rock hard and at attention.
The sight of the man was a treasure. Those thick blonde curls bounced as his lithe body, clad only in tiny white briefs, pressed up against Pavel’s torso. Justin’s arms snaked around his waist as the vampire’s head rested on his sternum.
His words came softly, spoken directly into Pavel’s chest.
“When do you get to be happy?”
“I…” Pavel glanced at Sebastian, whose smirk had widened into a grin.
“I’m sure you thought I would be the pain in the ass, but Justin is going to keep both of us wrapped around his finger.”
Pavel was stuck, and worse, he wanted to be. He reached down, putting his hand underneath Justin’s chin and lifting his head until he could see the man’s eyes.
“You shouldn’t be taking care of me. I’m older. I’m the gargoyle. I should be taking care of you.”
“Shh.” Justin wore an annoyed expression now, and for a moment, Pavel imagined what it would be like if the vampire ever got truly angry. It would be terrifying and, God help him, sexy as hell.
“If we are mates, then we take care of each other .” Justin’s voice contained a hint of steel. “That’s not a burden.”
Justin didn’t know what he was getting into. Neither of them did. They wouldn’t want him anymore, once they found out he would fade away into unliving stone. Pavel was certain of it. He wanted to save them from that .
But in this moment of weakness, he wanted his mates more.
He craned his neck down and kissed Justin tenderly. The blonde man’s eyes widened with surprise, then closed as he kissed back. If Pavel’s kiss had been a first foray, Justin’s was an assault. It was filled with hunger and raw desperation.
Justin’s lips were soft, but his hand on Pavel’s neck was rough, using his vampire strength to pull the gargoyle toward him. For a moment, Pavel thought he would be devoured.
After a few moments, though, Justin pulled away. Sebastian had put a hand on Justin’s shoulder, stilling him. The witch locked eyes with him.
“We are your mates, Pavel. We won’t force you to be with us. If you don’t want to do this, you need to say so.”
It was wrong. It was a bad idea. It was, in fact, the worst idea to saddle these two with the curse of his fate. But at this moment, that knowledge wasn’t enough to stop him. These were his mates. They smelled and tasted like his. He knew he would regret it later, but he couldn’t help himself.
“It’s a mistake. But God help me, yes. I need you both. Right now.”