Chapter 22
CHAPTER 22
Zack began with slow, light taps of the paddle. The silver was never against Takashi’s skin long enough to really burn him, but each brush of it brought a deep sting that soaked into Takashi’s bones. Not every stroke brought the silver either. Zack varied which side of the paddle he used.
Takashi bit into the comforter hard enough that his fangs sliced through fabric. He deserved this. Wanted this. While Zack had been in the bathroom, doubt had crept into Takashi’s heart. Thinking that he could push Zack into becoming a coven leader when he was freshly turned was a malicious ambition. An old fight with Sergei about overreaching had clouded Takashi’s resolve. Finding the toys in the closet had provided a solution. A little light punishment would take the guilt away. And prove if Zack has an ounce of what it will take to lead hundreds of vampires . He’d adopted a bratty persona in hopes of forgetting what he was: an ambitious bastard with no heart.
If you care about how he feels, then you have a heart, dumbass , his mind had tried to tell him.
Takashi hadn’t been sure Zack would step into the role of a dominant, much less use any of what was laid out on the bed.
But here he was, domming Takashi like he was born to it.
Takashi had his legs stretched wide, the plug in his ass. Only his tiptoes bracing him on the floor, the rest of his weight was held up by the bed. His poor cock was trapped under him, leaking from the slight friction he got with every spank. He lost track of how many smacks went across his ass. With his healing, physical pain was a fleeting thing.
Zack had found a way to make it last. Not in the strength of a hit—not even in using only the silver. His timing, the variance, the little ways he seemed to wait for the right moment. Takashi was losing too much focus to be able to check the strength of his mental walls. Was Zack using his power on him? Not directly. But he could be using it to gauge his actions.
Meaning he was purposefully practicing how to take Takashi apart.
Takashi moaned, the blanket in his mouth getting caught up in his fangs and tongue. He gagged on it.
Zack crawled onto the bed beside Takashi. He remained on his knees, so from Takashi’s angle, all he could see was a hint of his lean, powerful leg. When Takashi tried to tilt his head upward, Zack put a hand on the back of his neck. He rubbed a soothing circle. His voice held a gentle, commanding assurance when he spoke. “Takashi, open your mouth.”
Takashi’s eyes pricked with tears. Zack’s voice was so beautiful.
“I don’t know what happens when we swallow something we shouldn’t,” Zack continued. “Open your mouth.”
Takashi did.
“That’s my good boy.” Zack stroked his cheek while pulling the bits of comforter out of his mouth. “I’ll have to find a ball gag if you keep that up. Which would be a shame. I love hearing you moan.”
Eager for any touch, Takashi licked Zack’s fingers. Nimbly, Zack plucked the last of the comforter pieces from his mouth. Takashi was soaring, and the little bits of contact synced their minds. They weren’t tumbling into a lust feedback loop, not yet, but he could sense Zack’s growing wants. But because Zack probably didn’t know what those specifically were, all Takashi could read from him was the urge to claim and devour in that unique way a dominant could take a submissive’s control and hold it.
“You’re such a gorgeous mess,” Zack whispered. “I’d be worried about those tears, but they’re good ones, aren’t they?” He stroked down from the top of his spine, skipping over where his hands were bound, down over his ass to rest between his thighs. “I can feel you calling for more, more, more. I’m so fucking thrilled you’re trusting me like this, Takashi. This is so fucking cool.”
Cool was such a weird and funny word. It brought a tumble of a laugh out of Takashi, and that morphed into a hiccupping sob.
With a quick tenderness, Zack rolled Takashi over and wiped his tears. He stared at the bloody water on his fingers. A bubble of primal fear expanded in Takashi, but it was cased in a dense layer that made it feel far, far away. Zack must have noticed it, though, because he jumped a little and then rubbed his hand on the comforter to get rid of the tears.
“Maybe we should stop,” Zack muttered.
Takashi whined, and the note was high and demanding and a pitch foreign to his ears. He hadn’t made a sound like that in ages . And in case his whining wasn’t obvious enough, he raised his knees up and parted his legs wide for him. “ Please .”
“You still haven’t told me what I wanted to know,” Zack replied.
Wait? What? Oh, that . Somehow, Zack had held on to that? Takashi was twisted into a thousand knots, ready to burst if he didn’t find release soon , and Zack wasn’t drowning in the same sea of lust? With a groan, Takashi arched back against the bed. His ass was sensitive, throbbing almost as much as his dick was.
“Takashi,” Zack chided.
On his back, Takashi couldn’t even rub against the bed and find some relief. Wriggling around, he managed to twist so he was on his hip, but that brought little friction to his cock. He met Zack’s ruby-red gaze. “Please.”
A stony expression slid across Zack’s features. He pushed Takashi onto his back again, grabbed the bondage tape, and used it to tie Takashi’s ankles to his legs, keeping them bent. Though Takashi had the strength to snap through all of these bonds, there was an electric intensity in staying as he was told.
“I want you to keep being good for me,” Zack said, never raising his voice, though the authority in it compounded. “Because this has been amazing. But I can feel you holding back. There’s that little desire to hide something from me. I’m picking up on that one. And it seems connected to that fear I probed.”
Takashi slid his gaze to the side and then pressed his cheek against the comforter. He couldn’t hide anymore. All of this had been his stupid idea. A part of you hoped he’d take you this far. That he’d lay you bare and see you .
Zack leaned in and grabbed Takashi by the chin. With minimal nudging, he coaxed Takashi to look at him again. “I know that fear. I’m having to strangle my version of it right now.”
Tears were leaking out, and Takashi blinked them away. “I don’t want you to hate me.”
“Just be honest with me,” Zack said.
Zack wasn’t a centuries-old, skilled liar, but Takashi had had mortals rip out his heart before. Zack wasn’t that either, and he wasn’t shielding his longings. He was bare, too. And Takashi found a soothing relief in finding that same fear in him. His surface desires yearned for sex, but almost as loudly, he was crying out for connection.
Takashi knew that shape intimately.
Zack put his forehead to Takashi’s. “Please?”
“Ambition,” Takashi whispered hoarsely.
“You were having fantasies about the future?” Zack murmured. “Figuring out our next move?”
A plastic click happened, but Takashi was caught up in Zack’s proximity. “Figuring out our forever.”
“Our forever.” Zack smiled. He pressed lube-covered fingers against Takashi’s hole and began to work them in. “What happens in our forever?”
Takashi moaned. Suddenly, Zack stopped. Takashi choked on a sob, but dim realization dawned. He’d stopped talking, so Zack had stopped. With a whine, he said, “We take the coven.”
“Mmm, we’ve had that planned for a while.” Zack hummed a few notes. His fingers delved farther into Takashi, ruthlessly working to spread him wider. He still had his underwear on, and his cock pressed up against Takashi’s leg while he leaned back and dripped more lube onto his fingers. “We kill Seamus, and Roger sits on the throne.”
“Roger is no king,” Takashi whispered.
The moment stretched as Zack looked up from what he was doing to meet Takashi’s gaze. The weight of it dragged on the tightrope Takashi had been walking and threatened to buckle every ounce of trust they had placed in each other.
“You?” Zack asked, though the look in his eye said he knew that was the wrong answer.
Takashi shook his head.
“ Me ?”
Takashi nodded once and braced for Zack to wrench away in disgust.
Zack had one hand flat on Takashi’s stomach. The dominant persona he’d inhabited slipped away to reveal a cautious young man. He frowned in gentle confusion. “Roger’s in our forever, right?”
“If he wants to be,” Takashi said.
“Me on the throne with the two of you at my side?”
Takashi nodded once.
Slowly, Zack inched his fingers in farther. “That is one hell of an idea.”
Takashi was glad he didn’t need to breathe. He wasn’t sure he could have held his breath during the long moment Zack was taking to say more. The rejection hadn’t come, but he couldn’t relax just yet. With Sergei … he’d trusted Sergei, and that had ruined him. A hundred and twenty-six years hasn’t been enough to heal that? I’m hopeless .
“Wait,” Zack said, and the rumbly, growly deepness was back in his voice, “were you getting hard because you like the idea of me being a badass vampire?”
“Yes.” Takashi arched when Zack touched just right inside him, but the movement was too quick and too shallow to bring satisfaction.
“But ambition isn’t making your cock leak, is it?” Zack asked.
A tiny, icy fear—the twin of Takashi’s—was crawling through those words. So Takashi laid his mind open, praying Zack wouldn’t delve through him and tear him apart. He embraced honesty. “No.”
Zack stroked that special place inside a few times. Takashi moaned and fought to keep his eyes open. He shuddered, nearing the brink.
“There are drops all over your abs,” Zack continued. A possessive rumble surged upward, wiping away the fear. He stepped off the end of the bed, dropped his underwear off to the side, and then crawled up between Takashi’s legs. Slowly, he spread one of the cum drops across Takashi’s stomach. A deliciously hot and haughty expression filled his red eyes, and Takashi nearly came from that. “What has you ready to come?”
“You,” Takashi said.
“That’s right. Me .” Zack withdrew his fingers from Takashi’s hole and probed him with his tip. “And you have me ready to fuck ’til we’re senseless.”
Zack pushed into him. Takashi tried to relax into the stretch and pull on his body, but without being able to move his legs much, he couldn’t adjust his position. He had to take what Zack offered. The constriction was getting in his way, but he wanted to be good for Zack. Good for his lovers. He needed that.
With a blur of speed, Zack undid the bondage tape on Takashi’s legs. He took Takashi’s left leg and pushed it up while keeping his other hand on Takashi’s right thigh. Pinned open, exposed—Takashi had less movement than before, but this position was better. He wasn’t being used; he was being held. Not fucked but pleasured. Filled and stroked inside and out with every flex of Zack’s hips, every caress of his fingers. Touched. Wanted.
When he came, he clenched and relished the way Zack gasped and bucked into him. Soon, Zack orgasmed, and that toppled him further into wonderful oblivion.
They were a mess, the pair of them, and yet Takashi didn’t want to move a muscle when Zack finished unbinding him afterward. He was a puddle on the bed, and he let Zack scoop him up and spoon around him. He is worth every risk .