Chapter 11 Timothy
TIMOTHY
Iwasn’t going to abandon my self-pity to answer the door for whoever knocked, but they persisted until I was forced to tear myself from the couch and face the intruder.
I winced at the harsh light from the hallway as it cut into my darkened suite with unapologetic violence. The Ink Spots played mournfully from the record player, adding to the absolutely pathetic visage I’m sure I made.
Aaron stood there, back in a regular tee shirt and shorts, his throat freed from that insidious collar. Even as I faced him at my lowest, I couldn’t help but feel the sharp pinch under my ribcage as I met his brilliant blue eyes, the hues of the Caribbean Sea.
Aaron’s gaze traveled from my bare feet up my legs, over my boxers and silk robe, past the deep lines beneath my bloodshot eyes and my distressed hair, before settling on the sweating tumbler in my hand. It still had a few swallows left of my Gin Rickey.
His mouth tightened at the same time the edges of his eyes did. In disapproval? In surprise? In pity?
My senses were swimming in too much gin to tell.
“May I come in?” he asked, carefully. As if I were potentially volatile, as if I might slam the door in his face.
Ha. Like I could ever.
I stepped back, sweeping a hand in defeated invitation. Aaron already permanently lodged himself somewhere in my chest, he might as well enter my apartment.
He closed the door behind him, returning the moody darkness to my environment, to the hole I crawled in and didn’t relish leaving anytime soon.
My mouth turned dry as I remembered the last time Aaron was here. Flashes of his sun-tanned flesh flipped through my mind with startling clarity considering how much I’d had to drink.
An ached developed along my palms as they remembered traversing over the contours of his muscles.
A tingling need began in my lips, having nothing to do with the gin and everything to do with the knowledge of how Aaron expertly used his tongue and teeth between mine.
I brushed my cheek with my knuckles to quiet its craving for the rasp of Aaron’s stubble grazing it.
I tipped back the rest of my ice-cold drink, downing it in one go.
Aaron pushed his hands into the pockets of his shorts before removing them a moment later, as if he didn’t quite know what to do with them.
“I’m sorry,” Aaron said abruptly. “I-I didn’t mean too—I didn’t want—”
I held up a hand, silencing him.
I studied him, torn between greedily taking him in and trying to decipher the puzzle he presented. How he was able to have such complete and utter power over me.
I opened my mouth, shut it with a shake of my head, and returned to the open globe bar for another Gin Rickey. My sixth, or maybe my seventh. I didn’t know and didn’t care.
As I poured a generous amount of gin over ice, I finally said, “You don’t owe me any explanation. You are entitled to do as you wish.” Even as I said the words, the poisonous sting in my heart flared all over again like it did on that stage, seeing Aaron lave his tongue over Seth’s jugular.
The spoon clinked as I stirred with care, afraid the memory of Seth’s eyes closing in sensual satisfaction under Aaron’s touch would shatter the glass.
“That wasn’t me,” Aaron insisted in a firm voice.
Turning around, I waved a hand, making my way back to the couch. “It doesn’t matter.”
“The f-f-fuck it doesn’t,” Aaron said, his stutter resurfacing as something hot burned in his eyes.
I blinked.
“You are bound to Seth,” I tried to speak as coolly as possible. “It’s the natural order of things. And I let your situation get the best of me. The gods’ faith in me has been severely shaken, and it’s my own stupid fault.” I said the last words into my glass as I sipped.
Aaron ripped my glass away and threw it across the room, where it shattered against the wall, leaving my hand hanging empty in the air.
“I didn’t want that. I don’t w-w-want him.” As his stutter worsened, the veins in Aaron’s throat throbbed with obvious aggravation.
“I became a v-v-vampire to be with you.” Aaron’s nostrils flared. “I knew you would never be with me as long as I was f-fragile, human. So I became this.” He opened his arms. “For you.”
Despite his outburst, my voice was quiet and calm. “Are you saying this is my fault?”
He shook his head. “No, but I’m saying we’re better together. Stronger together. And I’m sick and tired of you denying it.”
I was on my feet in front of him so fast a cool breeze swept across my naked chest from my robe billowing around me.
Only the brief flutter of Aaron’s lashes indicated his surprise as I stood there in his face, fists clenched, near shaking, chest heaving as if I’d run halfway around the earth.
I grabbed his face and crashed my lips to his with all the unrestrained fury I felt. I let myself take everything I always wanted.
Aaron tensed for only a moment before he pushed back, opening his mouth, clacking his teeth against mine with desperation. The rake of his scruff across my face fanned the hot flames of need in me to an incendiary level that threatened to melt down the whole hotel.
I hungrily devoured his clean masculine taste. It melted and morphed on my tongue to something deeper and darker.
He grabbed my hair in one hand while gripping my bare hip in the other so tight I knew his vampire strength would leave a bruise.
Good. I wanted it. I wanted him. I wanted him to mark me inside and out, to leave an Aaron-sized imprint on my body and essence so I’d never feel the absence of him ever fucking again.
The very thought tore a snarl out of me as I ripped his shirt over his head and backed him into a wall, attacking his neck, sucking and biting, making him mine.
Aaron’s moans volleyed between pleasure and pain.
Once upon a time I would have held back. But not anymore. Not with the crash of desire overwhelming my senses. Not now that he was a vampire and could handle all I had to give.
It had been too damn long. The control that bent to near breaking around Aaron had finally snapped, and I couldn’t even say it was the gin.
Blood rushed to my cock and the room tilted. My knees buckled beneath me, and I sank to the floor, steadying myself with one hand against the wall as the edges of my vision darkened.
Power and energy pulsed out of me in ribbons of glowing blue hieroglyphs that I sent to the button on Aaron’s shorts. He sucked in a breath, stomach muscles clenching.
The fastenings released and my power tugged them down over Aaron’s perfect ass, revealing his thick, hard, straining dick already glistening with precum. Unable to help myself I took the head of him into my mouth.
“Ahh,” Aaron let out a cry as he gripped my hair and the wall behind him to keep steady.
Gods, the taste of him.
The feel of his thickness, the soft yet strong veins that pulsed against my tongue were beyond any divinity or magic I’d experienced.
Even with his skin cooled from his vampirism, he still somehow tasted like sunshine on a beach. My curiosity about something that had been plaguing me since I saw him again as a vampire finally won out.
Replacing my mouth with my hands, I pulled back to look up at him.
“How are you able to remain so bronzed without access to the sun?”
Aaron looked at me, dazed. I waited for my question to penetrate, and as I did, I could have sworn he was on the verge of blushing.
“Errr, one of the benefits of staying at the Menaggio is there is no short supply of spray tan booths.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me.” I couldn’t help but laugh, as he smiled sheepishly.
Needing more, I took him back into my mouth until I nearly gagged when he reached the back of my throat.
“T-T-Timothy.” His voice cracked and stuttered. I absolutely relished his inability to keep coherent. I wanted him a stuttering, mumbling, groaning mess. It was only fair I splintered him into pieces the way he’d done to me.
My hand joined at the root of him as I sucked like my life depended on it.
If I couldn’t keep to the rules I’d so rigidly kept to for all time, I was going to break them all.
Aaron’s nails dug into my scalp as he tried to push away. I resisted but eventually he asserted his supernatural strength to rip me off.
A string of my saliva ran from the thick tip of his dick to my lips, and I was a transformed god looking up at him from my knees. One who gave into every dark, twisted whim. One who gave zero fucks about others, or keeping order.
I wasn’t the god of wisdom. I wasn’t the scribe who spent his time diligently recording the events of life in service to others from fear, from duty. I was the one making waves, shaking life until it tremored all around us.
Aaron’s eyes widened, pupils dilating until they nearly swallowed his irises. His jaw slackened, and his breath caught audibly in his throat as he stared down at me—at what I had become in that moment.
The way I’d abandoned everything I’d stood for...for him. And freedom surged through me.
Then his gaze darkened and vampire teeth flashed. Aaron yanked me to my feet, ripping off my robe as he pushed me back onto the couch. My boxers tore away under his hands and he dove down, taking the entirety of me into his mouth in one lunge.
I bucked up into the sweet wet sanctuary of his mouth with a shout. Oh gods, I had dreamed of this. I had replayed the memories every night, my entire being always begging to get back to here, and it was finally happening.
Aaron gripped my hips, lifting them off the couch and they instantly pistoned, needing more, unable to stop from seeking the wet pressure pulsating and encompassing me.
When he released me from his mouth, seeking to claim my lips again, our bodies slid against each other, both covered in perspiration.
“I love you,” Aaron said, all fierceness and teeth even as he kissed me, gripping my hair like he’d never let me go.
I didn’t want him to.
Dueling for dominance with his tongue for a moment, I broke long enough to say, “I love you too. I’ve always loved you.”