Chapter Twenty Five #2
Karim’s thumb touched his jaw, then slid up to his bottom lip. Anticipation coiled tight, and Luis felt his lips part. The thumb traced his mouth, almost pushing in before it pulled away.
“Kar–” was as far as Luis got before Karim kissed him.
It was possessive, blistering with desire. Luis pushed into it just to feel Karim’s weight and desire push back. He groaned into the man’s mouth.
Karim kissed until he was gasping for air, dizzy from it. Luis did his best to give it back, tongue and teeth and want. But then Karim was one-upping him, snatching one of his grabbing hands and pinning it to the bed. Luis tugged at it just to see if he could, but Karim was solid. Immovable.
“Fuck,” Luis hissed at the shot of broiling heat that swamped him.
Karim smiled down at him wickedly, all fangs. “You like that?”
He tugged again just to feel the way he couldn’t move. “I think–”
“Karim,” came Julien’s light, accented voice. Luis knew enough of his tone by then to recognize the warning in it.
They both turned to look, finding Julien at the bathroom threshold. He was backlit, his expression hard for Luis to pick out.
“What’re you doing?” Julien asked, faux sweetness coating the question.
Karim replied in a dialect Luis didn’t have a chance at naming, let alone understanding.
“Luis can’t understand Urdu,” Julien chided.
“Should I translate?” Karim asked with a grin, “Okay. I want to fuck him.” He was still laying on Luis, and pointedly pressed his hips into Luis. Luis sucked in a breath. Fuck.
“You always rush things,” Julien said. “Half the fun is in the wanting.”
“Half the torture is in the wanting,” Karim muttered.
Julien stepped closer, “You enjoy the wanting, don’t you, mon c?ur?” He lingered on the last two words, they rolled like a purr off his tongue.
“That’s not fair,” Karim said. Luis swallowed hard, his mouth was dry, heart thundering.
“Don’t you enjoy how I play with you?” Another step, slow and precise like a cat stalking prey. “How patient I am. How I make you beg for it.”
Oh.
Luis wasn’t breathing. Karim on top of him was stiff, riveted.
Another step. Julien was almost to the bed. “How I make you bend for me. Make such sweet sounds for me.”
“Jules,” the word was gravel in Karim’s throat. Luis felt the rumble in his own chest.
“Come here,” Julien said, crooking one finger as he reached the edge of the bed.
Karim was off of him in a moment, scrambling over to meet where Julien was taking a perched seat. Luis had just enough time to roll onto his side and see Julien coax him in for a kiss.
Luis had seen, over their acquaintance, a dozen or so kisses passed back and forth between the two.
This was nothing like any of those.
Julien’s hand slid up the back of Karim’s neck, grabbed a bit of hair, and pulled his head back with a sharp, exacting force.
It bowed Karim’s body, and his lips parted with a gasp of breath.
Julien bent further to kiss him again. He kept hold of Karim’s hair, using it as leverage, taking him apart with a single hand.
He kissed Karim deep and claiming.
Luis was breathless with want. Subtly, he reached and pressed a palm against his cock to try and relieve the pressure.
Neither vampire paid him any mind. Karim’s eyes were closed, given over to what Julien was doing to him. Julien kept him held firm as he licked into his mouth. There was no rush, no escalation, Julien just held him and kissed him at his leisure.
Luis was sweating. He needed to move, needed to do something about the pressure in his own body, but didn’t know if it was allowed.
When Julien finally let up, Karim made a low sound that Luis felt in his bones. Karim’s lips were glossy and swollen. He looked wrecked, just from kissing.
“Not tonight, mon c?ur,” Julien said. He pet over Karim’s hair soothingly when the man’s eyes fluttered open. “We’re taking our time, remember? We agreed.”
Karim grunted.
Julien ignored that, turning those blue-gray eyes on Luis. They flickered down only a moment where Luis’s hand was still pressed against himself.
“Would you like a good-night kiss?” Julien asked.
“Um,” Luis’s voice was a croak.
Julien only smiled sweetly.
“O-okay.”
Julien eased back from Karim, sliding his hand neatly from Karim’s hair and leaving the man adrift in his wake. He offered his hand to Luis.
“Come here,” Julien said.
Luis sat up and moved to sit beside Karim. His whole body was tight, vibrating. A pale hand cupped his head, and Luis felt sparks. Julien’s nails scraped shiveringly across his scalp, and his eyes fell closed. He took a breath, then another.
Then Julien kissed him.
He didn’t use the same force as he had with Karim.
He started slow, lips just barely brushing Luis’s, hinting at sensation instead of delivering.
It washed across his body, ricocheting louder and louder as the seconds ticked by.
It was barely anything, the kiss. A small brush of lips, a hint of tongue, a blink-and-you-miss-it graze of fang.
Luis fell into it.
He knew it would end too quickly. That whatever game Julien was playing, he was serious about it. He was going to make them wait.
But knowing only made him want it more.
When Julien pulled away, Luis was panting. The mint of his toothpaste was on Luis’s tongue, the violet scent surrounding him. His cock ached.
A thumb caressed his cheekbone. Luis opened his eyes and felt drunk or bite hazed.
“There,” Julien said, “and now it’s bedtime.”
The hands lifted off of him, and before Luis could gain his bearings, Karim was there, arm encircling his waist, offering solid support.
“Something you’ll need to get used to,” Karim said into Luis’s ear like a secret. “Jules likes playing with his food.”
Luis’s next breath was staggered.
“I enjoy anticipation,” Julien corrected, standing now as he headed back to the bathroom. “I trust you’ll be good if I leave you momentarily unsupervised,” Julien said. He didn’t wait for a response, the bathroom door closed.
The room was silent in his wake. Karim nudged Luis, and they started moving stiffly to get under the covers. Luis was still painfully hard, and so was Karim.
When they laid down, Karim snuggled closer. A hand found Luis’s under the sheets and gave it a quick squeeze. When Luis looked at him, Karim’s smile was soft, conspiratorial.
“It’s worth it,” Karim said in a whisper. “If you can handle it.”
Luis had no idea exactly what was being played here, but he was in. All in. “I can.”
Karim gave him a soft, fanged smile in the near-dark. “Good.”
When Julien returned from the bathroom, he took his usual spot against the headboard, the lights low as he picked up his book.
Luis closed his eyes and tried to will his body to calm down. He focused on breathing, on the comfort of the mattress and the warmth of Karim tucked up against him. Eventually Julien’s hand found his hair, playing with it idly as he read. Luis fell asleep like that, Karim’s hand still in his.