Chapter Thirteen #2
“Mmm,” Karim said. He nuzzled Luis in return.
They stayed that way for a while as Luis slowly came back to himself. The arousal receded into honeyed contentment. He was so warm and comfortable in Karim’s arms, and he didn’t want to move.
Eventually, reality started to filter back in. Luis pulled back when it did, his brain reminding him he shouldn’t be nuzzling Karim like a sleepy cat. The arm around him slipped away and he pretended he didn’t miss it.
When he turned to look, Karim was just watching him. Gone was the smirk, the attitude. Karim looked as stripped as Luis felt. As though they’d cut each other down to the quick, and he wasn’t the only one who’d bled in that exchange.
It was strange. Too intimate. This couldn’t be what it was like at the bars for them, right?
The corner of Karim’s mouth had a smear of blood on it, and for a second Luis had the wild thought to reach out and wipe it off. To bring the finger to his own mouth and have a taste.
So maybe the haze was still with him.
Karim moved further away, breaking the spell. His hand wiped at his mouth before he leaned forward to retrieve the juice.
“Here,” he said, offering it to Luis.
Luis took it, and the first cold and sweet sip helped ground him.
“How’re you feeling?” Julien asked.
“Good,” Luis said after another long sip. “Just the haze.”
Julien hummed, but Luis didn’t miss the looks being passed between the two. Luis drank his juice and let clarity come seeping back to him.
“Don’t,” Julien said as Luis finished his juice and Karim’s hand landed on Luis’s knee.
“One bite’s not enough for his condition,” Karim said.
Which was true. It was keeping his levels under the crisis point, but it would be better to lose more blood.
“I can have something at the bar,” Julien said.
What Karim had asked before the bite came back to him.
Will you let Jules have you too tonight?
He’d avoided thinking of the specifics of what his plan was coming here tonight, but two bites seemed like the inevitable conclusion now.
“I don’t mind,” Luis said. “I do need more. I–I mean you saw how much I usually remove.”
Julien’s attention was like the fine point of a laser all of a sudden.
“I’m good,” Luis insisted, trying not to sound overly eager. “We should–we should do a second bite.”
“Can I watch this time?” Karim asked.
Julien didn’t even spare him a glance. He kept his eyes on Luis. “What do you think?”
The idea of Karim watching made something hot and dangerous twist in his belly. He probably shouldn’t. Karim would be Karim, and what if…?
“Okay,” he said.
Julien nodded slowly. There was a pause, like the room was holding its breath. Then Julien stood and Karim was quick to scramble up and out of his seat.
“Same side of your neck or opposite?” Julien asked, sitting. His voice was low, steady. Almost hypnotic.
“Same,” Luis said, lashes fluttering. He wanted to know what it would feel like. Was a bite on top of a bite better or worse?
Julien nodded. Then a hand was sliding around him, taking the spot where Karim’s had been.
“Ready?” Julien asked. His eyes were so blue, he was so beautiful.
“Yeah,” Luis said, breathy.
Luis tilted his head, and upon catching a glimpse of Karim’s hungry gaze, snapped his eyes shut.
“If you need to stop at any point, just let me know.” Julien’s accent had thickened.
There was no way Luis was going to stop this. He wanted it.
Fangs grazed the freshly closed skin, and the nerve feedback was strange. Luis held his breath.
Then Julien was biting down, reopening the wound.
The area was tender and over sensitized, and his nerves split between pleasure and pain, confused. It blew through him like a shock, and he made a needy sound. His hands found Julien’s shirt and gripped tight.
Karim whispered something that sounded like a curse.
Heat pooled at the wound and Luis felt the pull of Julien starting to suck at the bite. Pleasure tipped the scale in its favor.
His body throbbed, his cock rising back to stiffness.
Everything else melted away in the haze.
All he knew was the desire for more. For the way Julien readjusted to get his fangs deeper.
For the slick suck of blood, the messy, hungry sound Julien made as he fed.
Luis whined, high and broken, pushing closer, trying to give Julien more.
His head was fuzzy, heart pounding as it wound him up, higher and higher. He was close to coming, taking a second bite on the back of the first. He wasn’t sure he would even need to touch himself. His whole body was tense, pulsing, so close–
“Jules.”
The bark of the name crashed through the cocoon. For the second time, he was denied just on the edge.
Fangs pulled free, but Luis tugged insistently at the fabric in hand, he was so close, he just needed a little more.
He made an unintelligible sound, tipping his head further back, offering his neck.
A hot breath panted across his fevered skin with clear desire.
He groaned when the fangs grazed his throat, searching for their next spot.
Fuck, he wanted it. Needed it. Luis made a plea, and he heard the sharp inhale, felt Julien’s hunger.
“Julien.”
Luis blinked his eyes open, dizzy and confused. Karim was standing above them, his hand on Julien’s arm, tugging up back.
Julien blinked once, then twice. Cold air rushed in between them, dousing the flames.
Then Julien was stumbling up from the couch clumsily. “Je gère, Je gère—” He was mumbling it, eyes unfocused.
Karim said something in French, hands still on Julien to lead him from the room.
One moment they were there, the next they were gone.
Luis blinked at the empty room, dazed.
What had just happened?
It took way too long for his brain to piece it together. The bite haze was even stronger with two bites. The replay of events came back slowly.
Julien had bitten him, and… had it been twenty seconds? Longer?
Then he’d asked for more and Julien–Julien had almost given it to him. They’d been out of control. They’d almost crossed a line.
Without Karim, would either of them have stopped? Luis didn’t know. That was not good.
It was minutes before Karim returned. He came in and collapsed on the couch beside Luis with a loud breath. He looked significantly more sober than before.
“Is everything okay?” He was afraid to ask, but needed to know.
“Yeah,” Karim said. “It’s just his… he’ll be okay in a minute.” Karim turned to him. “Are you okay?”
Luis could feel the furrow in his brow. “We… I wasn’t going to stop him,” Luis said. “And he–if you hadn’t been here, would we have–?” Luis couldn’t say it, couldn’t speak it into reality.
Karim knocked his knee into Luis’s gently. “Hey, no. That’s not–that’s not what would’ve happened.”
Luis met his eyes, and Karim’s expression was serious.
“You’re safe here. Yeah, that got a little intense, but I swear to you, even if I hadn’t been here, nothing bad would’ve happened. Jules has drunk from plenty of humans that he had this reaction to, and never once has he lost control and harmed them. Not a single time. That’s not in him.”
“Oh,” Luis said. Plenty of humans?
Focus, that wasn’t the point.
“Hey,” Karim said, voice soft. “Julien will never, ever hurt you. I pulled him away because I jumped the gun, but he would’ve stopped. I mean, of the two of us, he’s the one with all the self-control.”
Luis nodded. Julien had still been close, but it was true he hadn’t bitten Luis again. And Julien was always so, so careful with him. Luis let out a breath, allowing what Karim said be true.
“That was intense,” Luis said.
“Yeah,” Karim said, looking away. A hand ran through his messy waves. “You have an effect on him.”
Luis wanted to ask what Karim meant by that, but wasn’t brave enough to.
“Anyway,” Karim said. “Two bites tonight, doing okay?”
Luis did a quick self-assessment. He was still relaxed, but otherwise felt fine. There was more soreness in his neck than with one bite, but when he touched it, he felt the sealed wound.
“I think I’m good.”
“Need a second juice?” Karim said.
“Do you have another of those acaí ones?” Luis asked.
“I do, hold on,” Karim said, getting up. “Want anything else from the kitchen? Another California roll?”
Luis groaned, his stomach was still stuffed. “Karim, I couldn’t eat another thing.”
The man grinned. “Alright just the juice then,” he said and disappeared.
Luis was left alone in the room with his thoughts and the leftover stirrings of unsatisfied arousal.
Cassie was going to love this story.