Vampire’s Mate Valentine Short
VAMPIRE’S MATE VALENTINE SHORT
Soren
Soren flopped onto Jay’s couch, breathing in deep and inhaling the sugary goodness that was the scent of cookies cooling. It was sweet, with a hint of vanilla. He breathed in again. Sweet, but also…
Okay, that wasn’t the scent of cookies.
“It smells like sex in here,” he accused, raising his voice enough to be heard by all offending parties.
Alexei coughed suddenly in the kitchen, but Jay didn’t look up from his thorough organization of different variations of red and pink icing.
He’d made them all himself, and he’d apparently decided that, in this case, more was more.
“That’s because Alexei bent me over the couch right before you came,” he told Soren brightly. “To tide me over.”
Soren wrinkled his nose and briefly considered moving from his spot on said couch, but ultimately decided it wasn’t worth the hassle.
He was pretty sure those two had christened every usable surface in the apartment, anyway.
Plus, their cat, Tux, was snuggled so nicely next to him.
“To tide you over for the hour or so this cookie decorating nonsense is going to take? You can’t wait that long, Jaybird? ”
An almost sly smile crossed Jay’s Cupid’s-bow lips. “Festivities get me excited.”
“Everything gets you excited, you little horndog,” Soren drawled, craning his neck to spy through the door and noting with some amusement that the back of Alexei’s neck was red. Did he really still manage to get embarrassed by Jay’s frankness?
How adorable.
The doorbell rang, and Jay bounded off to answer it, returning promptly with a blue-haired Colin in tow, who was carrying, of all things, a box of assorted bottles of red and pink sprinkles, some of which were definitely heart-shaped.
When Soren cocked a brow at him, he shrugged a thin shoulder. “Jay sent me on an errand. Not like I had these at home.”
Jay grabbed the box from him, clearly delighted. “And you did so well! Look how many!”
The kitchen timer went off then, alerting them to the fact that the cookies were ready for icing, and Jay promptly shoved the box back into Colin’s hands, bouncing away to join Alexei in the kitchen.
Which left Soren alone with Colin. Colin, who knew some, but not all, of their secrets. Who knew Jay and Alexei for what they were but hadn’t been explicitly told about any of the others in Hyde Park.
Although, Soren wasn’t so sure they were fooling anybody. It wasn’t exactly in his nature to play at being human, was it?
But he’d keep up the ruse for now, if that was what the group wanted. He caught Colin’s eye. “Didn’t figure you for the Valentine’s type.”
Colin shrugged again. “Jay begged me.”
And of course Colin had caved in an instant, unable to resist sweet little Jay’s pleading. Soren crossed his legs, grinning wide. “Don’t mind the smell of sex,” he mock-whispered. “That was just the lovebirds preparing for our arrival.”
Colin arched a pierced brow, arranging his sprinkles on the coffee table. “All I smell is cookies.”
Right. Dull human senses. How tedious.
Still, there were other games to play. Soren cocked his head, humming lightly. “So. Are you still in love with our Jaybird?”
Colin’s gaze flew to his, but his eyes were unreadable. “I was never in love with Jay,” he told Soren, cool as a cucumber.
“But you look at them so longingly.”
It wasn’t a lie. And for a minute, Colin only stared at him, expression blank as ever.
He was weirdly fun to tease, considering he never seemed to break.
Maybe that was why it was so fun. So many people were predictably reactive, puffing up at the slightest provocation.
But Colin was always unruffled, always blasé.
Soren could almost respect it.
Eventually Colin went back to his organizing, placing the bottles in order according to color gradient. “I just wonder what it would be like…a bond like that.”
Soren rested his head in his hand, watching the human arrange his offerings so diligently. “You want a mobster of your own, maybe?”
Colin’s brow furrowed just the slightest bit, the only sign of his distaste. “No, that’s— What I want is a v—” He stopped himself, but Soren could have sworn the human was about to say “vampire.”
So Colin had gotten hooked, then, when Jay had been feeding on him. It was known to happen. In some other time or place, maybe Colin would have been found in one of those seedy clubs, letting some desperate vampire feed on him for free drinks.
Or maybe for nothing at all.
Soren grinned. That would be kind of hot, actually. Colin was a good-enough-looking kid, with a surprisingly pretty face hidden under those savage scowls he liked to toss at annoying customers. Soren himself might’ve given him a nibble, once upon a time.
His teasing was cut short as Jay and Alexei came back in, a plate of heart-shaped sugar cookies in Jay’s hand and the tray of red and pink icings in Alexei’s.
Jay set his tray down and dragged Colin by the elbow until he was seated next to him on the rug, placing cookies on a plate for him to decorate.
Soren watched them carefully, the way Colin came close to smiling as he watched Jay arrange his station. A human being brought into the fold, hm? The last time they’d had a human join them, it had been Alexei.
And he hadn’t stayed human long, had he?
Then again, there was no one to turn Colin, or at least no one to mate with him. All the vampires in Hyde Park were taken. It was almost a pity. Colin was less insufferable than most—Soren wouldn’t have begrudged him eternal life.
But then again, not everyone got what they wanted in this world.
Most days Soren still didn’t know how he himself had managed it. It wasn’t anything he deserved; that was for sure. It had just happened—everything he’d ever wanted falling magically into his lap. Or, more accurately, Soren falling magically into everything he’d ever wanted’s lap.
Speaking of…
All of Jay’s giddiness at this Valentine’s Day nonsense must have been contagious, making him unbearably sentimental, because suddenly he was missing Gabe.
Why hadn’t he brought him along? Just because the idiot had plans to run in the forest like a loon with Monroe?
Gabe shouldn’t have made those plans at all.
It was Valentine’s Day, and Gabe was Soren’s goddamn valentine, wasn’t he?
Soren hopped up from the couch. “I’ll need to take some cookies to-go, Jaybird.”
Jay looked up, pink icing smeared on his cheek and a small frown on his lips. “But you haven’t even decorated any!”
Soren waved a hand at Jay’s plate. “Then I’ll take some of yours.”
Jay looked mildly disgruntled for only a moment before he caved, plating Soren a few garishly decorated cookies to take home with him. Soren kissed him on the cheek for his sweetness, patted Alexei on the shoulder for existing, and pinched Colin’s side just to hear him grumble.
“Ta-ta for now!” he sang as he walked out the door. “Don’t forget! Threesomes are fleeting, but the awkwardness lasts forever!”
He was rewarded with the sound of Colin choking on his own spit as he waltzed out the door.
There, he’d gotten him. Soren grinned brightly as he began the walk home, cookies in tow. No one could ever accuse him of failing to make an impression, now, could they?
Soren threw open the door with a pleasantly dramatic bang, shouting out, “Honey, I’m hoooome!”
He could already tell Gabe was back from his run—Soren could smell him, that clean citrus scent amplified by his exertion in the woods. A much more enticing scent than sugar cookies and flavored lube.
Sure enough, he found Gabe on the sofa, blessedly shirtless, his muscled chest on display, broad arms spread over the back of the couch, watching some horrid sportsball game.
God, he was delicious.
Soren set his pilfered cookies on the coffee table with a flourish. “Happy Valentine’s Day, Highness.”
He didn’t miss the flash of genuine pleasure that crossed Gabe’s face before he cocked a skeptical brow. “You baked?”
“Jay baked,” Soren corrected. “I decorated.”
A pause. “You decorated?”
Soren huffed, placing a hand on his cocked hip. “Fine. Jay decorated. I commandeered them afterwards.” He studied his nails. “And I had to sit through Jay and Alexei making kissy faces at each other while they made them, so really, I’ve done my part.”
Gabe grinned up at him, clearly pleased at having caught Soren out. “Well, then. Happy Valentine’s, baby.”
“And?”
“And?”
Soren waved a hand at his offering. “I brought you cookies, like a good Valentine. Where’s my treat?”
Gabe’s brow furrowed in confusion. “I distinctly remember you telling me that if I brought you—and I quote—‘any tacky Valentine’s bullshit,’ I wouldn’t be getting laid for a week.
” He rubbed a hand over his mouth, mumbling something that sounded dangerously close to “as if you could last that long.”
Soren straightened up to his full, haughty height. “I don’t want things,” he told Gabe pointedly, his eyes roaming over his bare chest lasciviously. Really, could his mate be any more dense? Good thing he was so good-looking; otherwise, what would anyone do with him?
But Gabe seemed to finally get the message. His golden eyes lit up with interest, and he widened those wonderfully thick thighs oh so subtly on the couch. “Oh yeah, baby brat? What do you want, then?”
What Soren more than kind of wanted was his mouth on Gabe’s noticeably growing bulge, to feel the warmth and heft of it on his tongue. He could almost taste the bitter tang of precum already. But he was the one owed a Valentine’s gift, so he demanded the next best thing. “I want you to suck me.”
Gabe licked his lips, his gaze drifting down to Soren’s leather-clad crotch. “Oh yeah?”
Soren gave him his most manic grin. “Yeah.”
Gabe took his arms off the back of the couch, sliding down and patting his lap. “Then get over here.”